I like Jim Gaffigan, and I’m not apologizing for it. I find his humour comforting and low-key, and I also eat like a toddler and enjoy it/hate myself for it, so there’s that.
When Gaffigan had his Twitter outburst a few months ago, some people were surprised at his politics, and some were pissed that he didn’t speak up sooner, but he’s never really hidden his more progressive leanings. He just didn’t highlight them (like I just did on my kindle har har) or make them part of his stand-up.
But this is a book review, so let’s review the book.
I read his second book, Food: A Love Story, first because I went through a phase a few years ago where I’d buy pretty much anything that was on sale for Kindle at less than $4.99 (I’ve since gotten this mostly under control, and my wallet and cloud storage are both very thankful), and Food went on sale long before Dad Is Fat. So while Food, shockingly, mostly borrowed from his food-related stand-up jokes, Dad borrows from his parenting jokes. Jim and his wife Jeannie have five young children who they are raising in New York City, which you probably know because he mentions it in every stand up special, interview, book, and tweet he releases. I found both books perfectly amusing and breezy to read, but rated them both around 3 stars because of the recycled material (also, frankly, it’s really hard to get 5 stars out of humour books from me – they tend to be very short, loosely organized, and light-weight). Dad Is Fat I actually enjoyed quite a bit more than Food (3.5 stars!) because more of it was new to me, and there was more actual material to read.
2020 was a brutal year for a lot of reasons, and all I wanted was something pleasant to lull me to sleep at night when I picked this up (read: downloaded to Kindle). This book fit the bill perfectly. Don’t be too put-off by the three star review – it does exactly what it sets out to do, so if you’re looking for a short, amusing, relatable read (even for non-parents like myself – actually, maybe even especially for non-parents because it will make you feel very good about your life choices), and it’s on sale for $2.99, you could do worse than Dad Is Fat (book title chosen by former child of Gaffigan).
