Dad Is Fat
Dad Is Fat book cover

Dad Is Fat

Paperback – April 22, 2014

Price
$13.25
Format
Paperback
Pages
288
Publisher
Crown
Publication Date
ISBN-13
978-0385349079
Dimensions
5.2 x 0.6 x 8 inches
Weight
7.8 ounces

Description

About the Author JIM GAFFIGAN is a stand-up comedian and actor with numerous film, television, and stage credits. He lives in Manhattan with his wife, Jeannie, and their five children in a two-bedroom apartment. Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved. Letter to My ChildrenDear Children,I am your dad. The father of all five of you pale creatures. Given how attractive and fertile your mother is, there may be more of you by the time you read this book. If you are reading this, I am probably dead. I would assume this because I can honestly foresee no other situation where you’d be interested in anything I’ve done. Right now, you are actually more interested in preventing me from doing things like working, sleeping, and smiling. I’m kidding, of course. Kind of. I love you with all of my heart, but you are probably the reason I’m dead.All right, you didn’t kill me. Your mother did. She kept getting pregnant! I don’t know how. Don’t think about it. It will give you the willies. At one point, I was afraid she got pregnant while she was pregnant. She was so fertile I didn’t even let her hold avocados. Anyway, this is a book all about what I observed being your dad when you were very young and I had some hair back in good old 2013.So why a book? Well, since you’ve come into my life, you’ve been a constant source of entertainment while simultaneously driving me insane. I felt I had to write down my observations about you in a book. And also for money, so you could eat and continue to break things. By the way, I’m sorry I yelled so much and did that loud clapping thing with my hands. I hated when my dad would do the loud clapping thing with his hands, so every time I do the loud clapping thing, it pains me in many ways. Most of the pain is because that loud clapping thing actually hurts my hands.You may be wondering how I wrote this book. From a very early age, you all instinctively knew I wasn’t that bright of a guy. Probably from all the times you had to correct me when I couldn’t read all the words in The Cat in the Hat. Hell, I find writing e‑mails a chore. (Thank you, spell-check!) I wrote this book with the help of many people, but mostly your mother. Your mother is not only the only woman I’ve ever loved, but also the funniest person I know. When your mom was not in labor yelling at me, she made me laugh so hard.Love,DadP.S. How did you get that hula hoop into that restaurant Easter 2011?

Features & Highlights

  • Jim Gaffigan never imagined he would have his own kids.
  • Though he grew up in a large Irish-Catholic family, Jim was satisfied with the nomadic, nocturnal life of a standup comedian, and was content to be "that weird uncle who lives in an apartment by himself in New York that everyone in the family speculates about." But all that changed when he married and found out his wife, Jeannie "is someone who gets pregnant looking at babies." Five kids later, the comedian whose riffs on everything from Hot Pockets to Jesus have scored millions of hits on YouTube, started to tweet about the mistakes and victories of his life as a dad. Those tweets struck such a chord that he soon passed the million followers mark. But it turns out 140 characters are not enough to express all the joys and horrors of life with five kids, so he's now sharing it all in
  • Dad Is Fat.
  • From new parents to empty nesters to Jim's twenty-something fans, everyone will recognize their own families in these hilarious takes on everything from cousins ("celebrities for little kids") to growing up in a big family ("I always assumed my father had six children so he could have a sufficient lawn crew") to changing diapers in the middle of the night ("like The Hurt Locker but much more dangerous") to bedtime (aka "Negotiating with Terrorists").
  • Dad is Fat
  • is sharply observed, explosively funny, and a cry for help from a man who has realized he and his wife are outnumbered in their own home.

Customer Reviews

Rating Breakdown

★★★★★
30%
(1.8K)
★★★★
25%
(1.5K)
★★★
15%
(895)
★★
7%
(418)
23%
(1.4K)

Most Helpful Reviews

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Five Stars

love love LOVE Jim Gaffigan! He is hysterical and makes us laugh :)
2 people found this helpful
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Dad is Fat, and Cannot Write

I loved jim's standup, so I was given a copy of this book. Very disappointing. The humor covers very familiar territory and themes, but only occasionally rises to smirk level at best. The sections are very repetitive. Most of the time I could not even force a grin. There is absolutely nothing new or insightful here. Please do yourself a favor and borrow this book before purchasing it. Don't say you were not warned.
2 people found this helpful
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Thoughtful and Hilarious

I have read books before that I felt I couldn't put down because the story was riveting and I wanted to take one more step, just one more page. Then I realize the book is ending and I am shocked at how smooth and fast it read. Well, Jim Gaffigan does that with laughter, with short stories about the joys and adventures of parenting. You just want to laugh one more time before setting it down, or hear one more quick tidbit on raising five kids in a two bedroom apartment in New York City. Then, the book is done, and so you rush to the computer to watch a clip from his stand up shows on Youtube, because Mr. Gaffigan has you hooked. A book that is hilarious, smoothly written, and is about the day to day of real life. Beautiful. This isn't written with the vibe of a wealthy famous person prattling on about the nuisance of having kids, but an honest adventure about raising five kids in a small apartment, which is relatable to all. Oh, and clean humor! It's easy and cheap to crudely talk about hook ups, sex in marriage, and just cussing for cussing sake, and Mr. Gaffigan avoids it all. Because he understands that life is funny, that parenting is a whirlwind with endless jokes and hilarious sound bites. Beyond the funny is insight and heart as well, and it is clear that Mr. Gaffigan loves his kids and adores his wife. He seems to always be looking for a way to praise her, highlight her strength, and make you want to find the Gaffigan family for an afternoon play date with your kids. This is the kind of book that should be a best seller, and I applaud Mr. Gaffigan for his craft and his life. Keep telling stories, Mr. Gaffigan, and keep writing books because the world needs to laugh and find life insightful and heart warming.
2 people found this helpful
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Non Dad Here

This book is absolutely a gem. Must read.
1 people found this helpful
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Absolutely hilarious

Hilarious book from one of the best "clean" comics of our generation.
1 people found this helpful
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Book is Funny

If there's ever a week I needed to read the memoir of a comedian, this was it! In the midst of one of the hardest weeks I've endured in quite a while (including nearly electrocuting myself... long story), laughter was truly the best medicine.

Jim Gaffigan has been a favorite of mine and my wife's for several years now. His clean, self-deprecating humor is always appreciated, particularly when he talks about his family. And I love that, while he does include his wife and children in his jokes, he never speaks ill of them. Quite the contrary: it's rare (and refreshing!) to find a man so obviously in love with his wife and children as Gaffigan is.

In Dad Is Fat, his first book, Gaffigan's entire focus is on the travails of parenting 5 young children in New York City. For those who've seen his hour-long comedy specials on Netflix and elsewhere, it's predictably hilarious. And while his storytelling is often outrageous, it never seems contrived. In fact, he's quite relatable, as I think any Dad will find.

And that's what makes him so good at what he does. While his circumstances and mine bear very few similarities, his writing expresses perfectly what it means to be a loving and devoted husband and father in a culture that doesn't often honor those things, in such a way that I found myself often identifying myself with even his most ridiculous tales.

Like all the greatest comedians, Gaffigan is funny without being merely goofy. His wit is disarming but sharp, and often cuts to the heart of our personal and societal failures and blind spots in a way that forces us to acknowledge just how ridiculous we truly are. We need that. I need that.

Personally, I listened to the audiobook, read by the author, and highly recommend you do the same!
1 people found this helpful
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Big Jim fan, but evidently not so much of his writing

As a big fan of Jim, I was disappointed with this book. You know the 'voice' he puts on? I realized how much that is part of his humor - at least my appreciation of it - while reading this book.

Don't get me wrong, it was funny. But I never found myself laughing out loud while reading. And when I hear his bits, I always laugh out
1 people found this helpful
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you feel happy, and feeling happy is worth five stars

Yes, Dad Is Fat by Jim Gaffigan gets five stars. Because when you laugh from start to finish, you feel happy, and feeling happy is worth five stars.

It's a little unnerving how much Jim Gaffigan seems to get the dad part of me.

It's been a few weeks (okay, a few months. I finished in May) since I read this (okay, I "listened" to it because Jim reads it, and that's a no brainer. It's like listening to his stand-up, but less live...), but with Jim's new show on TV Land, I thought I'd throw up my two-bits about the book.

For a guy who lives in urban New York, Jim's experience is surprisingly not unlike mine in suburban Utah, from how it is to play second fiddle parent to a stellar mom (what dad doesn't know how that feels?) to how different the world becomes the moment kids become a part of it. Being a dad is a sometimes strangely fun, but difficult experience, and Jim both honors and makes fun of it, in almost the same breath. He loves his kids, as do I, and yet he acknowledges that being a parent is no piece of cake.

It's a fun read/listen, and Jim Gaffigan is full of fun stories, lines, and perspective. Go check it out, buy a copy, and put some money in Jim's jar. After all, he's got five kids (six?) and a wife all living in an apartment on the fifth (sixth?) floor of a New York apartment building, sans elevator. The laughs are worth it.

PS: NO, your dog does not equal a child. Stop responding to people talking about their kids by mentioning your dog.
1 people found this helpful
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Suck pocket

Recycled stand up material mixed with homeopathy. He is funny because of his delivery and self-deprecating humor, both are lost in this medium. Truly dreadful.
1 people found this helpful
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Suck pocket

Recycled stand up material mixed with homeopathy. He is funny because of his delivery and self-deprecating humor, both are lost in this medium. Truly dreadful.
1 people found this helpful