A Review: Yearbook
Title of Work: Yearbook
Author: Seth Rogen
Format:
Published: 2021
Started:
Finished: 2023-04-25\
Posted: Goodreads
Rating: 4/5
Alright, this was pretty fun. Would recommend for funny, light memoir. You have to listen to the audio book read by Rogen and the cast, of course. You’re in for:
Coming of age, pot-smokin’ shenanigans. “This one time me and my friends tried to get high and…” sort of stuff. Lotsa Jewish and Jewish adjacent jokes (can I say Jew? I don’t think I can say Jew.) but he makes sure to bring you in on it assuming you didn’t grow up in that community. Body jokes, potty humor. Yep, it’s still funny. Perpetually turning awkwardness into hilarity. You never run out of material when your life is a series of bits and you’re the punch line (Larry David really was Costanza; Seth Rogen plays himself in every movie. Except maybe Woz in that Steve Jobs flick… That was a bit of a stretch but he does have goofy nerd origins so I think it works). Okay, a lot more slap-stick or otherwise funny-awkward stories about one time when he was high with a famous person in a place he wasn’t supposed to be high. A biiiiit of political soap-boxing but not gratuitous. Decent helping of I-love-my-wife stories but it’s cute. Some pretty cool Hollywood-behind-the-scenes content. Outrageous shit famous people said or did, the hurdles and strange luck involved in getting a script picked up, getting a movie produced, or courting diva actor talent.
He lays it on pretty thick sometimes with the noble-idiot self-deprecation (I’m just a big, fumbling dummy! O’ how ever did I manage to fall ass first through all of these connection vouched opportunities and hit movies???) which can come across as a little disingenuous when he’s really piling it on.
Seth Rogen is a talented artist in several domains and the heroic quantities of weed he consumes don’t seem to slow his productivity. I think the pot is actually the active ingredient in his creative secret sauce, the PED that pushes his jewfro crested noggin’ a shmeckel above the rest (I really don’t think I can say “jewfro”, especially in such close proximity to “shmeckel”, but I would like to note that the PC term for his distinctive hairstyle is “curly quiff”… You can decide for yourself which is worse and substitute accordingly). Unfortunately weed in any substantial amount mostly just makes me want to meld with the sectional and watch Seth Rogen movies from inside the cushions.