You’ll also discover things about Jost that will surprise and confuse you, like how Jimmy Buffett saved his life, how Czech teenagers attacked him with potato salad, how an insect laid eggs inside his legs, and how he competed in a twenty-five-man match at WrestleMania (and almost won).

If there’s one trait that makes someone well suited to comedy, it’s being able to take a punch-metaphorically and, occasionally, physically.įrom growing up in a family of firefighters on Staten Island to commuting three hours a day to high school and “seeing the sights” (like watching a Russian woman throw a stroller off the back of a ferry), to attending Harvard while Facebook was created, Jost shares how he has navigated the world like a slightly smarter Forrest Gump. NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY Cosmopolitan Now I just want to kick him in the balls.”-Larry David “I always wanted to punch his face before I read this book.

In these hilarious essays, the Saturday Night Live head writer and Weekend Update co-anchor learns how to take a beating.All in all, I really enjoyed A Very Punchable Face and recommend it to SNL fans. There are many pictures, many unflattering but humorous. There’s a section about which iconic sketches he wrote, and if you’ve never seen the show, it might not connect with you. My teen and I watch it together religiously, so the parts of the book that deal with behind the scenes, SNL culture, etc., were especially interesting to me. It’s a smart book, too, and is very much like his Weekend Update newscast. Some of his SNL stories are hilarious and he’s got oddball footnotes on most pages that are also funny. It is! He’s got great observations about himself which reminded me of people I know and myself. He’s extremely self-deprecating and geeky, which makes him endearing and kind of adorable.

It’s full of cool revelations, like his mother’s role as chief medical officer of the NYC Fire Department. Very little! The book is about his childhood in Staten Island, time at Harvard, as a student in Russia, his early experiences at SNL, and the last few years as head writer and on-air talent on the show. How much of the book is about Scarlett Johansson? Why would I read this book, isn’t he young for a memoir? An ode to Colin Jost’s A Very Punchable Face:

A very punchable face book