The Bedwetter: Stories of Courage, Redemption and Pee

by Sarah Silverman

Paperback, 2011

Status

Available

Call number

920

Publication

Faber & Faber (2011), 288 pages

Description

Comedian Silverman's memoir that mixes showbiz moments with the more serious subject of her teenage bout with depression as well as stories of her childhood and adolescence.

Media reviews

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.

User reviews

LibraryThing member Ganeshaka
I finished reading this autobiography - true story! - while waiting my turn at the urologist's office. I always bring reading material. You never know how much time it will take for the doctor to put his finger on exactly what is wrong with the prostate of the fellow in front of you. Anyhow, I
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thought it was a witty choice for the waiting room. But many of my fellow patients - elderly East Ohioans with walkers - likely had never heard of Sarah Silverman. No doubt I was telling them more than they wanted to know...deeply engrossed, as I was, in The Bedwetter.

I was pretty much in love with Ms. Silverman before reading her bio. Now? I plan to stalker her! (just kidding) She's a physical doppelganger for a Jewish girlfriend I loved madly back in the 1970's. Uncannily, their names are similar, alliterative and share the same root.. Even their humor... for example, I cite the time my friend's dog, Rufus, mistook her used tampon for a milkbone - a fact we discovered only days later when Ruuufus appeared to be turning into a white furry firecracker with a string fuse just below his tail.

If you're a fan of Sarah Silverman, may God help you and have mercy on your soul...no seriously, I'm joking...you will enjoy this book. She's precious. She's cute. She's absolutely disgusting. And it's not her fault, she was molested by Andrew Dice Clay...no seriously, I'm joking..SHE molested him. No really...you will enjoy her humiliating tale upon tale of bedwetting. The time she almost killed a future US Senator with a pencil. Her epic Struggles with Editors, Censors, Publishers, and legions of decencies. The Eternal Question of poetic judgement "To Pee or To Pee-pee which sounds better?". The Diary that talks back. And, last but not least, a long loving glimpse of her Dad's many messages on her answering machine. Those messages- they're not Steven Baldwin...but they're not fuckin' boring either, bubby.

Run out. Buy this book. Program your soul. Eternity is all about choices and will come down to picking one of two long bunny hop lines. One behind Sarah Palin and one behind Sarah Silverman. Don't get it wrong.
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LibraryThing member hereandthere
What's not to like here if you already love Sarah Silverman? On the other hand, I doubt that this will rock your world if you weren't already crushing on the Silverman brand of painful cringy humor. As an old fan I'd already heard her do lots of the material in this book via YouTube, but I still
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lost it completely while reading to my wife the story of her assault on Al Franken's head. Her father emerges as the source of her humor. Just by giving us a close-up of that relationship we learn something pretty interesting about what makes the modern comédienne tick. It isn't an easy thing to achieve this much weightlessness - you have to go deep. It's a pleasure to watch the artist at work.
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LibraryThing member icedream
I'm not the Sarah Silverman fan in the family, my son is. My thought process in buying the book was that although I'm not a fan of her television show I do appreciate a humorous memoir, so I hoped that as a comedian she would write a funny book. My thoughts were incorrect. I don't find her funny,
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even on paper. My son might appreciate the book but I just don't get her and nothing in this book even made me crack a smile.
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LibraryThing member SallyBrice
The Bedwetter begs comparison with Russell Brand’s My Booky Wook. Both are outrageous semi-mock memoirs, a bit like the literary equivalents of It’s Spinal Tap. My Booky Wook is the more satisfying because Brand has suffered more and learned more in a hard-won victory over drug and alcohol
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abuse and sexual addiction. Silverman’s greatest obstacle growing up was the bedwetting that stayed with her long into adolescence. There was clearly a link between that condition and the anxiety that had Silverman on huge amounts of Xanax as a teenager. I would have liked more self analysis of the ferocious intelligence that is her gift and curse. On the other hand, we are able to see much of this in Silverman’s TV show and movies of her stand-up routines. Brand, on the contrary, remains hidden on celluloid behind his Aldous Snow persona. I look forward to future Seekul Wequels.
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LibraryThing member reenum
I found Silverman's tone to be cloying and forced. I can't see why people find her funny.
LibraryThing member wlgordon
I always enjoy Sarah Silverman's work and this book is no exception. Lots of laughs but beware, her humor tends to be a little on the raw side.
LibraryThing member Gittel
Not sure how she gets away with everything she writes about, but Sarah is hilarious. Possibly the funniest female comic working today
LibraryThing member mahallett
some parts really good, some silly like sarah's comedy
LibraryThing member yeremenko
The first half of the book tells a great story, a surprising story with great humor. In that respect the book was much better than expected. She includes a "midword" where she discusses how much time she wasted writing the book then proves it with random pieces, that are at time lousy. After the
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sixth reference to the, "funniest guy ever!" that she works with it gets boring.

She does talk about her insecurities in the well written bio portion of the book and that trait shines through. Some of her explanations for controversial jokes ring hollow and unbelievable. It is very hard to believe she didn't know Paris Hilton was going to be in the audience when one of the jokes was made. But it impossible to believe she was having goodhearted fun with Britney Spears only a few months later. The jokes were mean, brutal, and hilarious. But, Sarah Silverman wants to be the mean C-word on stage and avoid the fallout. Grow a pair Sarah.
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LibraryThing member Boutabook
I could personally identify with the Jewess parts. I loved the pictures, and enjoyed her usual "off the wall" humor. There were a couple of meaningfull "lessons" in the book, like makings special, rather than just over indulging. I was a little disappointed to find that she had different views of
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"sex" than I have. I usually don't like autobiographies because they tend to dispel my fabricated image of the subject.
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LibraryThing member valerieowens
I'm not a huge fan of Sarah Silverman but this book was funny!
LibraryThing member saramllr
This book is kind of like Sarah's standup. Not for the easily offended, it is often gross and offensive with a lot of penis and fart references. But, occasionally she comes out with a gem that is freakin' hilarious. My favorite quote from the book: "What the hell do I need a man for anyway?
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Everything that I enjoy, I seem to be able to do with two hands, a fork, and an iPhone."
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LibraryThing member bribre01
funny and interesting.
LibraryThing member spuriouscarrie
This started off great -- funny, well-written, touching... which lasted for about maybe a third of the book. Then it started jumping around in time and turned into an odd assortment of jarring anecdotes.

As a former bedwetter and a fan of fart jokes, I can relate to Silverman on a lot of different
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levels, and I'd recommend this to any former bedwetter. Or current bedwetter: sometimes, it does get better.
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LibraryThing member JEldredge
Sarah never takes anything seriously, including her own memoirs, and that is what made this book so enjoyable.
LibraryThing member amobogio
Surprisingly decent autobiography with minimal doses of typical Sarah gross-out humor. Best line: "Summer camp - a Jew's second least favorite kind of camp..."
LibraryThing member bookwormteri
Candid, honest, sweet, hilarious, and real. This shows that Sarah Silverman is not just poop jokes (which if you watch her show, you already know that). She is an amazingly smart woman who is just laugh out loud funny. A great look behind the scenes of her career and inside her head. Don't read
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without a sense of humor or if you are easily offended.
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LibraryThing member redjanet
Although this isn't the profound work of depth that the excerpt about Sarah Silverman's childhood bedwetting problem that I previously read in The Guardian led me to believe it could be, this was still a fairly enjoyable summary of her life so far and some of the author's beliefs and ideals.

This
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book jumps around from different points in Silverman's life, which can be a little confusing and annoying and there were many times when it felt like it was written by two different people; 1) an author who did want to give an insightful account of significant moments in her life and 2) a comedian who wanted to prove just how wacky and wild she and her peers are and have been in their endeavours to be funny and clever and famous. I preferred the more insightful author, though I accept that Sarah's often crude sense of humour was obviously going to affect the style of this book.

That said, I do feel that I got to know the person behind the jokes a bit more and what I found, I actually did like. When she's not telling fart jokes, Sarah Silverman does come across as someone who does care about other people's feelings, of all races and genders and sexual persuasions, and is trying to use her humour in an ironic way to open up the minds of others. For that I do give her credit and after reading this book I am a bit more willing to try watching some of her material that I previously dismissed.
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LibraryThing member EmScape
Sarah Silverman's book is as raunchy, crass, adorable, and hilarious as she is. From the very beginning, when she writes her own forward, you know this is not going to be your average memoir. As a comedian, Sarah has been known to push boundaries, sometimes offending people with her satire; this
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book gives her an opportunity to answer back and explain herself. She also reveals interesting tidbits about her childhood, giving the reader a more clear picture of how her sense of humor was formed and why she seems to have no fear. A bit of warning, though, this book is for fans. If you don't like Sarah and/or her humor, you will not have a more positive view of her after reading this book. I find it admirable when a writer is able to display herself as she is, instead of trying to present herself in a more favorable light, but she sometimes comes across as arrogant and bad-natured.
Overall, very satisfying to those who appreciate and respect Ms Silverman's work.
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LibraryThing member E.J
Dick jokes abound and anyone who knows me knows I love it. Really though, Silverman came off much more intelligent and sensitive and thoughtful than I ever would have guessed. Also she is hilarious when she's not making dick jokes.
LibraryThing member pivic
Despite loving "Jesus Is Magic" and thinking "The Sarah Silverman Program" really wasn't worth the time, I somehow really wanted to read this book. If you're a young bedwetter who thinks the title is a joke (like everything else in this book, so I thought), the first third of this book is probably
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a really good thing. Otherwise, it's a straight-forward this-is-what-happened run-down of events in Silverman's life.

She writes of being a female comic trying to make it at SNL where she wrote and continually got rejected. Especially poignant is the bit where she gets signed, has her first lunch with the all-male cast of her writer peers who ask "What do you do then? Typing?"

She also writes of her family, especially where her father's voicemail is transcribed verbatim - including his New England dialect - and how overcoming her biggest obstacles in life has turned out.

There are some really big laughs throughout this book. I do love how Silverman turns prejudice and being ignorant on its head by acting the complete ignoramus, often by joking about "the unutterables", e.g. The Holocaust.

Sadly, some bits that are in the book aren't really interesting (to me), e.g. the chapter about her Emmys dress being a blue block. Sounds funny, perhaps, but really wasn't. I think.

All in all: interesting and funny, but some bits should have been left out and it should have been edited - at all points.
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LibraryThing member TooBusyReading
Apparently, I should have watched a little more of Sarah Silverman on TV before I undertook reading her memoir. I knew she could be very funny, but I didn't know a lot about her.

And she is very funny – if you have the sense of humor more common in 12-year old boys. To me, she never outgrew that
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stage in babies where they become enamored with their own bodily functions and emissions. What do you expect of someone whose father taught her to swear, and quite graphically, at age 3. In the foreword (which she claims to be groundbreaking in itself), she states, “Tragically, my life has been only moderately [expletive, one of many] up. Actually, she did have some life-changing incidents, and adding being a habitual bedwetter only added to that. At a sleepover, “What kind of person reacts to a child's wet pajamas with rage and no compassion?”

And when she wore a jean jacket to a upscale friend's house, the friend's mother made the friend repeat to Sarah the comment, “only scumbags wear jean jackets.” Or perhaps, only scumbags denigrate a child's clothing.

So yes, people were mean. And yes, Sarah is funny. But I got really tired of the memoir when it became little other than tasteless jokes and pranks. And while I'm not easily offended at some bad language, this one was beyond the pale for me.

I read this ebook through a Kindle Unlimited subscription.
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LibraryThing member ChrisWeir
Sara tells of her life growing up and then getting into stand up and her own show. I found the largest part of the book fairly entertaining and sometimes was even laughing out loud. Near the end of the book it started to drag for me when she started talking about her show and politics etc. But all
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in all a fun easy read.
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LibraryThing member villemezbrown
Road trip! 2,500-mile round trip taking my daughter to college and driving back alone calls for a whole lot of audiobooks. (2 of 7)

Hilarious! I loved watching The Sarah Silverman Program and her various stand-up specials, and this audiobook is just as great. Her chapter titles alone set off giant
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rolls of laughter.

Silverman's style of humor is not for everyone as she pushes boundaries way past the realm of good taste. Her chapter on defense of a joke involving ethnic slurs was discomfiting even as it raised some legitimate if debatable points about humor and free speech.
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LibraryThing member ASKelmore
From my Cannonball Read 5 review ...

This is the second audiobook I’ve ‘read’ for the Cannonball Read. Sticking with my idea of listening to female comic memoirs read by the authors, I picked The Bedwetter. I chose it with a bit of trepidation, as while I’ve found myself laughing at some of
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Sarah Silverman’s work, I recalled that she’s said some things that left a bad taste in my mouth. In general I think people are pretty torn on Sarah Silverman. They either find her funny or find her annoying / inappropriate. After listening to this memoir I’m definitely more of a fan of her work.

The book has a very sincere tone to it without being annoying. She sounds like herself, but not like a character version of herself, if that makes sense. Whether it was an act or not, I imagined that this is what she’d sound like talking to her friends. She shares some stories that would clearly be mortifying for a child or teenager, making her quite relatable, and sheds some light onto both the world of making a sitcom-style show and working at Saturday Night Live as a writer.

I think my favorite parts were where she discussed jokes she’s told that were not well received. Probably the best-known instance of this was when she was on Conan O’Brien and made a joke that used a racial slur for Asian people. Many people I know would probably stop listening there, but I was in the middle of a run and so didn’t really have a choice. And by that point I’d also felt like I’d invested enough in the book to want to hear her discussion of it. You know what? It was a very interesting, well-thought out discussion. Yes, she is a comic who make jokes about poo, but she’s also a thoughtful person interested in social commentary.

The audio book is about six hours in length, so just long enough for me to listen to it over about a week’s worth of runs. I’m glad I purchased it instead of borrowing it from the library because it’s the kind of book I could see myself listening to again in the future.
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Language

Original language

English

Physical description

288 p.; 4.96 inches

ISBN

0571251277 / 9780571251278

Barcode

595
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