Yeah, I Said It

August 16, 2004
Humor books by popular comedians are a tricky proposition—reading the routines can rarely compete with watching the performance—and Sykes's gathering of jokes and rants suffers from its medium. Her introduction, in which she claims that she's only writing the book for the money, could be either clever sarcasm or amusing defiance ("let's face it, right now, I'm on fire; did you see Pooty Tang
?"), for example—but it's funnier as the former. The rest of the material—short takes on Clinton's affair, vanity license plates, Martha Stewart, love, and professional sports—is mixed. Good lines can get lost on stale topics: there are jokes about last year's California recall election and complaints (recently rendered moot) that no one had seen the 9/11 Commission's findings. Time-tested race relations jokes include suggestions that a black man could never steal as much money as a white executive, because "here are just not that many liquor stores in the country," while observational humor includes the likes of "n ugly man with a six-figure salary becomes 'kinda cute' to most women," and "o some women, marriage is really the wedding." Sykes's irreverence can be refreshing, but some of her jokes need that same energy. Agent, Mel Berger at William Morris.
(Sept.)

Forecast:
Sykes's starring role in a Comedy Central show this fall could give this title a boost.

September 15, 2004
Sykes, Emmy Award-winning standup comic, brings her irreverent humor to a variety of issues and topics, including sex, politics, war, homeland security, the death penalty, and family. She begins by poking fun at celebrities' writing books and having little of substance to say, parodying her own creative process in producing this book. She goes on to take jabs at celebrities from Michael Jackson to Kobe Bryant to Tiger Woods. Like her stand-up routine, much of her material centers on sexual politics: women being judged primarily on their looks, attractive actresses even getting the roles to play unattractive women, cheap dates being good for a few laughs. Crime, guns, and race are also among the topics she considers in these brief essays. Fans will find the book amusing, but the occasional profanity will limit its appeal.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2004, American Library Association.)