Photo illustration: Vulture
Mainstream comedy, to be honest, is in a bit of a lull right now. Sitcoms and stage comedies are disappearing, few comic novels are being published, and comedy podcasts are just comedians interviewing other comedians. So it's no surprise that the best nonfiction comedy books released in 2025 focused on the past—comedy's history, themes, and shining examples of greatness and insight.
All these books were about making judgments. There is a little nostalgia too. How could this not be true? Comedy shapes us in our youth, and our youth shapes our taste in comedy. But the purpose of these books was mainly to appreciate or re-evaluate often overlooked cultural artifacts that, over time, acquired their legendary status. There are a few personal stories, but what they all have in common is a desire to reckon with history, to dig deeper and understand why some comedy is so important. At best, they helped us understand this art form and perhaps where it was going, and a little more by showing us where it has been. So here are ten of the best comedy books that defined this year.
According to Larry Charles, his role in creating some of the most important comedies of the last few decades was accidental and hidden. But even though the final product is consistently smooth and confident, all of Charles' projects… Seinfeld, Curb your enthusiasm, Borate — bear the unmistakable voice and imprint of their creator. In his professional memoirs Comedy Samurai, Charles seems to be himself. He acts freely, constantly trying to catch up with his own thoughts and bold impulses, and this sensitivity defines his boundless and often experimental work. Comedy Samurai quickly rushes by; it's confessional and rambling, as if an old-timer was dictating his life story between puffs of his cigarette.
Released back in 2007, Superbad It may be the last great teen movie, or at least the millennial generation's entry into the canon of beloved Hughes-style films that capture the restless giddiness on the cusp of adulthood. Andrew Bass looks at it adoringly but critically. Superbad. He's curious to learn all he can about this modern classic while he's on his own quest, not unlike that of the film's characters, except he's chasing interviews and contemporary perspectives rather than basic teenage desires. His story is an almost magical scene where the comedy was organic and honest, symbolizing Apatow's era of sensitive bro comedy.
Much ink has been devoted to the rise, fall and impact of the stand-up comedy club boom of the 1980s. But what happened next? Well, the '90s is obviously an era where only the creative and scrappy clubs could survive and help create the next generation of comic book stars. Minnesota comedy historian Patrick Strait presents the fascinating story of the Acme Comedy Company, Minneapolis's second-largest club during its heyday. Home Club takes a look at the comedy business without the glitz and glamor of the big city and explores how such places open, operate and somehow stay open for decades. There are plenty of stories here about how Acme was an incubator for amazing mainstream and alternative comics like Nick Swardson and Maria Bamford, but Home Club is most important when it is also the story of Louis Lee, a Hong Kong expat who achieves Acme's success through tenacity and will while surviving booking wars, creating scenes and economic disaster. Doing comedy is challenging on every level, not just on the creative side.
From Felipe Torres Medina, Staff Writer The Late Show with Stephen Colberttakes this educational and eye-opening look at the quagmire of the immigration system. Medina, himself a survivor of what he describes as a harrowing, arbitrary and unfair game, secretly tells his immigration story and lays out the hard facts in the only way that makes sense: as an interactive choose-your-own-adventure-style puzzle. America, let me in highlights the near impossibility of moving to the United States legally, illustrating tragically hilarious flaws and exposing nonsense. If it were not for the very funny digressions and anecdotes of the fictional characters of the book, the reader would be furious and trembling. America, let me in This is comedy of the highest order: the stakes are serious.
Judd Apatow has been one of the biggest names in comedy of the last 30 years. He put his hand Larry Sanders Show And Freaks and Geeks before he made films like 40 year old virgin And knockdown. So Judd Apatow's Hollywood memoir will certainly be vindicated. Instead, the writer-director takes his signature blend of manic silliness and touching emotion, applies it to himself, and gives us comedy nerda chronological autobiography and coffee table book about consumption, history and appreciation from one of the genre's most insightful minds. True fans know that this guy was a comedy nerd long before the term was widely used, and now serves as the patron saint of that subculture. If you're reading this, you're probably a comedy buff. And like Apatow, who shared everything he had, internal and external, boastful and embarrassing, for the sake of joyful comedy nerdyou have your scars, relics and memories from your comedy life. This book is related And examination.
Many Saturday Night Live The books treat Lorne Michaels with sensitivity, following the example of show alumni who harbor a mixture of fear, intimidation and paternal love for the comedy kingmaker. Lorne This is probably the first time his name has not been spoken in a whisper, because he is not such a mysterious figure. SNL botanists were led to believe. Susan Morrison gained heretofore unfathomable access to Michaels over an extended period of time; perhaps the eternally Gotham-obsessed heroine trusted the author and editor and was impressed by her work at institutions such as New Yorker And Spy. She deconstructs the fabricated myths and lore about Lorne to show us who he really is: a guy who, even in his post-war childhood in Canada, always loved old-fashioned show business. According to Lornehe's not so much a comedy genius as he is a man with great drive, great taste and an uncanny sense of what will resonate with audiences. LorneAs such, this is an observant and patient tale of the rise of a ruler who adapts to and thrives in chaos. Richard III meets The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes meets Animal House.
Author Christina Wentz wrote for the monumental and beloved satirical newspaper. Onion at the beginning of his honest journalism career and treats this topic with the seriousness it deserves. Part memoir, part comprehensive profile, It's funny because it's true represents Onion like laser-focused satire and a mirror to the American newspaper in its death throes. In addition to a simple story about the great Onion moments, Christine Wentz notes as the newspaper told us about the dangers of news as entertainment and the damage caused by toothless media such as USA today. There are many historical events woven into the narrative, and Wentz makes the case for Onionstanding in a long line of progressive newspapers, alternative weeklies, chaotic magazines and mythological tricksters based in Wisconsin. Onion, The book argues and shows that college-style pranks can lead to real change, as well as make comedians some money; after all, the newspaper began as a way to sell advertising.
This is subtly hinted throughout. I love Johnny Carson that the king of late night is in danger of being forgotten. It was turned off Evening show he's over 30 years old and dead for 20 years, so he's definitely slipping into the past, threatening to turn into a straight guy in a plaid jacket who happily watches a collection of greatest hits videos. Mark Malkoff won't let that happen. A lifelong Carson fan (and podcaster on the subject) has put together an insightful and exhaustively detailed biography that delves into the details of a comedy character considered inscrutable during his lifetime by examining his work. I love Johnny Carson chronicles the comedic influence of a late-night legend, and while it's adoring, it's not hagiographic; he insists that this man was completely focused on Job. Malkoff debunks myths rather than adding to them, discussing little-known stories about Carson's unpopular run for president. Evening show and how NBC almost dropped him early on. The book also talks about everything familiar and unfamiliar. Today's show highlight, giving readers context for why they actually mattered at the time and how they demonstrated an agile and experimental comedic mind.
Criticism of the memoir seems tasteless. You evaluate not the artist’s work, but his lifeand often childhood, when their ability to make decisions was not yet at the proper level. But childhood and bad decision-making is where organic comedy grows and festers, and when truly accomplished writers with a capacity for reflection allow strangers a fearless glimpse into their misguided years, it's a rewarding and enlightening gift. Tamara Yadzhia is a famous screenwriter of comedy films – see. This fool Funny or Die, the very book that began life as a TV pilot, whose prose ranks among the best of humorous memoirs. With a tongue-in-cheek appreciation for her overbearing family and a caustic wit towards her younger self, Yajiya makes a fervent thesis that children are extremely strange, scary and sort of dumb creatures who don't really know any better. In the late 1980s and early 90s, Yajia experienced a lot of personal upheaval and survived it by moving from Argentina to California a couple of times. She taps into what may be a universal feeling of how childhood feels big. and action-packed when you're in it and don't yet have a belief system. But Yajia's youth really was many. She's lived all over the Western Hemisphere, flirted with minor fame and dealt with dissociative behavior and OCD. Her story is a must read simply because she tells it so well.
Paul Myers writes about his subjects with passion, compassion and precision – see Todd Rundgren And Children in the hall – and he was the right choice, creating a loving and deeply respectful biography of a surprisingly under-documented comedy legend. Myers really seems to understand Candy; perhaps it is their mutual Canadian pride, or perhaps because both subject and chronicler understand the comedy of empathy. In Candy's work, comedy portrayed humanity at its rawest and most vulnerable, and his relatively short but classic-laden career said more about human nature than that of any other funny actor. Myers portrays Candy as many of his characters: sweet, vulnerable, serious, unsure of herself, but boldly confident. Writing a biography of a deceased person is hard work, but Myers is able to paint a clear portrait of Candy's life through his rich body of work, as well as interviews with his many collaborators, who still can't believe their luck. John Candy: a life in comedy also becomes part biography of Toronto's explosive '70s scene, exploring the torrents of deep loss and the role of fathers that were major comedic themes in the Candy era.
