The Funny Thing Is...

By: Ellen DeGeneres

Narrated by: Ellen DeGeneres

Length: 3 hrs and 10 mins

Publisher's summary

Ellen DeGeneres published her first book of comic essays, the #1 best selling My Point...and I Do Have One, way back in 1996. Not one to rest on her laurels, the witty star of stage and screen has since dedicated her life to writing a hilarious new book. That book is this audiobook.

After years of painstaking, round-the-clock research, surviving on a mere twenty minutes of sleep a night, and collaborating with lexicographers, plumbers, and mathematicians, DeGeneres has crafted a work that is both easy on the ears and very funny. Along with her trademark ramblings, The Funny Thing Is...contains hundreds of succinct insights into her psyche, and offers innovative features including: more than 50,000 simple, short words arranged in sentences that form paragraphs; thousands of observations on everyday life, from terrible fashion trends to how to handle seating arrangements for a Sunday brunch with Paula Abdul, Diane Sawyer and Eminem; all twenty-six letters of the alphabet read aloud.

Sure to make you laugh, The Funny Thing Is... is Ellen in top form.

©2003 Crazy Monkey, Inc. (P)2003 Simon & Schuster Inc. All Rights Reserved. Audioworks Is An Imprint Of Simon & Schuster, Audio Division, Simon & Schuster Inc.

Critic reviews

"Her off-kilter observations are guaranteed to have listeners in stitches." (AudioFile)
"The laid-back, observational comedienne's stream-of-conscience musings gain additional zest from her wry and adroit delivery....Degeneres is a delight." (Publishers Weekly)

starts out hilarious

...but sadly, peters out towards the end. I have always been a fan of Ellen's stand-up, and in the first part of the book I was laughing out loud. (good thing I was at home listening to this, or I'm sure I would have gotten some funny looks for my unexplained bursts of spontaneous laughter..) It loses 'funny' when she tries to slip in some 'political agenda' material, ie: advocating for gay rights, same-sex marriage, blah-blah-blah. I could give two-hoots about these issues, truly, and they have no place in a work of comedy, unless you are making fun of them. That's the place of comedy. Good comedy advocates nothing and can make you laugh about anything. Also her depiction of God as a black woman is so clich?. It's been done. That whole God-as-a-woman thing lost it's 'funny' a long time ago.
I'm not sure this was worth the money I paid for it, but I at least really enjoyed the first part, and will probably listen to it again.

Ellen's latest book- The Funny Thing Is...

The funny thing is... that I was very disappointed. Being an Ellen fan it was disappointing to find so little new comic material in this book. If you have seen her two HBO specials and heard her album (circa 1995), there's no need to buy this book. If it was marketed as merely a collection of her material rather than a "new" book, my expectations would have been more in check.

Excellent

I'm not an Ellen fan at all, but I got a sample of it on my MP3 player, and I listened to it, it was the most hysterical thing i've heard in a long time, I bought the audiobook and it is so much fun to listen to when I need a kick. This book is a great buy, if you have a sense of humor.

Ya got ta love her.

There can't be anyone who dislikes Ellen. She is just so lovable and it comes out in this book. Some parts are laugh out loud funny. I was a little disappointed in the times the book moved into fantasy and made up stuff just to fill time. I think she needed a little help putting this together and coming up with material.

Great book by Great Comedienne

I found this book very pleasurable to both read and listen to. I read several negative reviews of this book. I found her observations clever and very funny. Many people don't really notice a lot of the things she points out. But the main thing I remember about this book is that I had only a few moments when I did not laugh.

Pure Ellen

This book was funny. If you want some VERY light listening about nothing that will make you laugh, this is for you. If you are looking for insights into the working of the world and politics and religion, look else where. Ellen is her typical rambling self in this book, which is narrated by herself. She does however provide some real "Hmmmm..." moments. But she just talks a lot of funny nothing. Very amising book for the train after a hard day at work.

Hilarious!

I loved this from start to finish, the only problem being my tendency to laugh out loud often while listening. I attracted stares in the library and had to stop listening in the office, people were beginning to guess my attention was not completely on work. If you like Ellen Degeneres's humor, this book is a delight!

Ellen D

This was better than I expected. Ellen performs her own material and I have a much higher opinion of the entertainer now. I recommend this material to anyone who enjoys live comedy.

I LOVE Ellen but avoid this reading

Whatever the reason, I could not get even an honest smile out of this book that she reads herself. The delivery is flat, the timing is off, or something. Even the bit she used on the Ellen show (VERY funny) where she is trying to find silence ("Back to the loving place") is not funny at all--no laugh out loud jokes here at all.

So it must be her delivery in front of audiences which makes her great, because although I love her style and all, this is not present in this book. Tune into her show to see her instead--for free.

Could only listen to a few chapters

Some friends and I tried to listen to this on the way back from a ski trip. We could barely get through 2 chapters and gave it up. Later, on my own, I fast forwarded to other chapters to see if the delivery/content would improve, but it was the same - boring.
She is much better doing standup.