I’m a big fan of Jerry Seinfeld, who is really the best stand-up comedian of my generation. Several gifted comedians are coming up right behind him, like Chris Rock, John Mulvaney, and Jim Gaffigan, to name a few. But Seinfeld represents the bridge between old-time humorists, like Dangerfield and Joan Rivers, and the newer generation. I was lucky to be able to see his act in the early nineties, and I devotedly watched every episode of Seinfeld when it first aired. I’ve watched all of his Netflix show, Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee, which I highly recommend, as Seinfeld generously puts the spotlight on fellow comics. You can well imagine that I was very excited to read Is This Anything?, Seinfeld’s compilation of his best bits from his years of stand-up.

The book is organized by decade, allowing the reader to see the evolution in Seinfeld’s humor. His observational style remains the same: basically clean language, a combination of riffs about our linguistic habits and social behaviors, and what they betray about people’s attitudes, inconsistencies, and underlying values. He mocks his own reactions to that of his fellows, and thereby upends underlying assumptions. He admits that stand-up is an adult version of being the kid in the back of the classroom, making whispered observations about the teacher and other students, pointing out the absurdities, and all to one end, the giggles and snorty laughter of another person. The goal hasn’t changed, but now Seinfeld can explain in adult terms what the goals is: human connection through humor. It’s that simple.

““Stand-up is about a brief, fleeting moment of human connection…The place I like to work is in my head. To try and reach someone else’s. The special, special thing about stand-up is the sound that tells you for sure that you did it. You reached them.””

Of course that sound is people laughing. They get it. They understand, acknowledge our shared absurdity, cannot deny it, almost involuntarily. They have to laugh, and want to share that secret knowledge with others. Isn’t your first impulse to laugh, and your second impulse, to repeat it to someone else? That’s the mystery of humor— it is a shared connection, sharing the absurdity of humanity. And what a relief, with all that is screwed up in the world, to be able to agree on something, how really silly we are.

I highly recommend Seinfeld’s book. Whether hardcore fan or new to him, you’ll find his gentle humor refreshing, and like good comedy, sneakily subversive. He strips away our artifice, and shares our ridiculous humanity, and you’ll be eager to annoy your loved ones by reading bits aloud to them. Too bad Jerry won’t hear your chuckles and snorting. Highly recommend.