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A Cut Above Dad Humor
Sketch and improv comic Doug Moe raises the level of wit about
parenting in new book
“Man vs. Child: One Dad’s Guide to the Weirdness of Parenting,” a book about the
frustrations of parenting, by New York-based improv and sketch
comedy performer Doug Moe, published in May by Abrams Image, takes a
few chapters to ramp up and become entertaining and funny. Once it
does, however, Moe’s book delivers parenting humor that cuts deeply
and avoids cliché.
There’s a couple different elements going
on in this book, beyond just the written text itself. Most of the
publisher’s titles are visual art books, and Moe takes advantage of
that by including graphic elements and well-designed sidebar pieces
throughout. The other big element is that Moe’s prose lends itself
to reading aloud. A reader can imagine different intonations that
make the text even more fun. Moe writes with comedy sketch line
readings in mind.
Take, for example, one of several
statements a new modern dad might be prone to say, according to Moe,
such as, “My dad never told me he loved me, so now I tell my baby
every day.” One can imagine that delivered in a sing-song rhythm to
play up the clichéd sentiment. Or, in another anecdote, Moe
writes about how prior generations might only have one baby doll
that “would be treasured until the day the crick done come and took
it.” One could imagine this delivered in a hillbilly accent
in a sketch show.
A third element is the use of
magazine-style lists, as at a point when Moe lists how to fold up
different models of strollers, with step-by-step instructions. The
last step in folding up an Uppababy, Moe writes, is to “give uppa.”
That’s the first really explosive laugh in the book, and it is a bit
far into the proceedings. Later, Moe presents a facetious
school calendar that exaggerates the holidays that seem to appear at
every turn, a cutting joke that a parent will get a big laugh from.
But all the thought about presentation
would be nothing without the meat of the comedy writing that fuels
“Man Vs. Child.” Moe draws a lot from the frustrations of being a
parent for the material in this book – and that’s the key for making
the book resonate. This is true for pieces such as “Grandparents:
Weird Babysitters,” “Screen Time Is A Wonderful Time” and a bit
about curtailing a kid’s need to participate in everything a parent
does by giving them the heaviest and most awkward tool possible for
a task. Overall “Man Vs. Child” has some dry
stretches but Moe comes through with enough clever takes to make it
an enjoyable read, appealing of course to a ready-made target
market.
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