The Bedwetter: Stories of Courage, Redemption, and Pee

by Sarah Silverman

Overview

Warning from publisher to reader:

At HarperCollins, we are committed to customer satisfaction. Before proceeding with your purchase, please take the following questionnaire to determine your likelihood of enjoying this book:

1. Which of the following do you appreciate?

(a) Women with somewhat horse-ish facial features.
(b) Women who, while not super Jew-y, are more identifiably Jewish than, say, Natalie Portman.
(c) Frequent discussion of unwanted body hair.

2. Are you offended by the following behavior?

(a) Instructing one's grandmother to place baked goods in her rectal cavity.
(b) Stripping naked in public—eleven times in a row.
(c) Stabbing one's boss in the head with a writing implement.

3. The best way to treat an emotionally fragile young girl is:

(a) Murder the main course of her Thanksgiving dinner before her very eyes.
(b) Tell her that her older sister is prettier than she, and then immediately die.
(c) Prevent her suicide by recommending she stay away from open windows.

If you read the above questions without getting nauseous or forming a hate Web site, you are ready to buy this book! Please proceed to the cashier.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780061856457
Publisher:	HarperCollins Publishers
Publication date:	03/22/2011
Pages:	256
Sales rank:	53,511
Product dimensions:	5.90(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.70(d)

About the Author

Sarah Silverman is the co-creator and star of The Sarah Silverman Program. She won an Emmy in 2009 for her video I'm F***ing Matt Damon, and was nominated for a Primetime Emmy for her role on The Sarah Silverman Program. Silverman lives in Los Angeles with her dog, Duck, presuming he does not die prior to publication, which is moderately to extremely likely.

Table of Contents

Foreword Sarah Silverman xi

Cursed from the Start 1

The Bedwetter 17

My Nana Was Great but Now She's Dead 45

Hymen, Goodbyemen 51

Some of My More Moving Violations 63

Sarah Silverman: The College Year 73

Make It a Treat 93

Live from New York, You're Fired 101

Fear and Clothing 115

Midword 125

Explosive Diary 135

Me Play Joke 143

Calls from Schleppy 165

The Most Important Thing in Life: Being on TV 173

The Second-Most-Important Thing in Life: Love 213

Jew 217

Afterword by God 233

Thanks-Yous 239

Editorial Reviews

As a child, comedian Sarah Silverman was a bed-wetter, but she got over it. Well, mostly: She did wet her bed, she confides, after she was fired from Saturday Night Live in 1994. In this refreshingly candid autobiography, she talks about her surprisingly long and varied career; her battle with depression; and her reputation as the "world's hottest, most controversial comedian." A fun, soulful read from a quick wit. A Barnes & Noble Bestseller now in paperback and NOOKbook.

Odd, shambling, and funny... as close to an explanation of Silverman and her comedy as we’re likely to get. It seems to be saying, Obviously I’m joking, but it’s also me up there.

New York magazine

Without curtailing her trademark potty-mouth humor and shock tactics, comedian Sarah Silverman has written a memoir that’s sweet, funny, real and, dare I say it, occasionally even touching… Silverman’s book suggests that, behind the cute face and dirty mouth, there’s a clever woman with a warm heart.

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

In this book, as onstage, she has the power to shock—not so easy in these times. Lenny Bruce and Richard Pryor crossed lines; now that the controversy has faded, we remember their genius. And so we will with Sarah Silverman.

People

Often hilarious and occasionally revelatory.… More than just a collection of gags and stand-up leftovers, ‘The Bedwetter’ is a mostly cohesive narrative of how a rebellious comic perspective evolved and became inseparable from the person who employs it, and how anyone who could find offense in that is really the butt of the joke.

New York Times

Readers...get a fully realized portrait of Silverman: tales from a youth spent moistening mattresses and fighting depression in New Hampshire; her salad days as a struggling comedienne in New York; and the various trials that have come with being the filthiest, funniest woman on television.

Elle

It’s irreverent, funny and sometimes winningly serious…. Though Silverman’s book provides her customary shock-and-awe humor ... it is Silverman’s honesty and vulnerability that are most surprising.

Los Angeles Times

Deftly mixes the spit-take funny stuff with an unsentimental but enlightened look back at her not-so-charmed life and career.

Vanity Fair

An engrossing (and grossing) journey from childhood to childish adulthood.... Silverman’s standup, normally marked by a detached persona and thick outer layer of snark and irony, is off-putting for some, but here she hits previously unseen levels of honesty and sincerity while still retaining her expected level of filth.

Heeb Magazine

"In this book, as onstage, she has the power to shock—not so easy in these times. Lenny Bruce and Richard Pryor crossed lines; now that the controversy has faded, we remember their genius. And so we will with Sarah Silverman."

People Magazine

"Odd, shambling, and funny... as close to an explanation of Silverman and her comedy as we’re likely to get. It seems to be saying, Obviously I’m joking, but it’s also me up there."

New York Magazine

…if there is a lesson to Ms. Silverman's often hilarious and occasionally revelatory memoir…it is more profound than that its author is funny when she uses words she's not supposed to…More than just a collection of gags and stand-up leftovers, The Bedwetter is a mostly cohesive narrative of how a rebellious comic perspective evolved and became inseparable from the person who employs it, and how anyone who could find offense in that is really the butt of the joke.
—The New York Times

Dave Itzkoff

Demonstrating that her penchant for swearing began at an early age, comedian Silverman begins her hilarious memoir by describing how, at age three, she gleefully responded to her grandmother's offer of brownies with “shove 'em up your ass.” Growing up in New Hampshire (“where cows are well done and Jews are rare”), Silverman naturally gravitated toward performing and moved to New York, where she attended and eventually dropped out of New York University to pursue a standup comedy career. Mixing show business moments (she wrote for Saturday Night Live for one season, but none of her sketches made it past dress rehearsal) with stories of her childhood and adolescence (punctuated by a persistent bedwetting problem), Silverman never shies away from poking fun at her own expense. Though she's best known for sexually explicit jokes, Silverman is able to address more serious subjects in the book without losing her edge, particularly her teenage struggle with depression and that her often abrasive public persona allowed her to “say what I didn't mean, even preach the opposite of what I believed.... It was a funny way of being sincere.” 8-page color insert. (May)

Publishers Weekly

Silverman is great on-screen, and even her film Sarah Silverman: Jesus Is Magic, less than an hour-and-a-half long, is not enough! Luckily, she's in print now and just as funny. This look back at the childhood and beginning career of Silverman, bed wetter extraordinaire, isn't a stab at a complete autobiography, though. It's more of a sketch that highlights particularly influential parts of growing up, like being a bed wetter, which lead to a career of delighting in potty humor. From her humble New England beginnings to her forays into crossing Asian American watchdog groups, fashion police, and various network censors, Silverman's loose collection of stories makes for great reading. Silverman is not known for self-censoring, and her book is filled with off-color language; what's more, at least one photograph makes the title inappropriate for school libraries. VERDICT For any reader who enjoys Silverman's stand-up and television work, her freshman literary effort is highly entertaining, provides a fascinating introduction to the person behind the persona, and should fly off the shelves—order a few. [See Prepub Alert, LJ 12/09; 300,000-copy first printing; four-city tour; ebook ISBN 978-0-06-198707-6.]—Audrey Snowden, Cleveland P.L.

Library Journal