Review: I Funny, by James Patterson and Chris Grabenstein

This book probably isn't for me: I didn't find it all that funny. This is crucial because I Funny is stuffed to the brim with jokes. The main character, Jamie Grimm, tells jokes all the time, his narration is filled with jokes, and the drawings also contain jokes. I didn't think they were good jokes - most of them. In fact, Jamie jokes so much that at one point a girl sets a five-minute timer during which he can't joke. Yet I didn't have a terrible time with this. A few jokes do land (when you're quoting the likes of George Carlin, there will be some laughs), and the story, while predictable, is nice enough.

When we first meet Jamie he is just beginning to perform his stand-up comedy in front of an audience - and he chokes. Well, at least at first. From the stand-up comedy end, Patterson and Grabenstein write convincingly - I wonder if Grabenstein was a stand-up comic himself. But Jamie isn't just a stand-up comic: he is also wheelchair-bound. This is supposed to be a major twist, but you learn it by chapter two, so it's not a spoiler. These two things are what most define Jamie, but the authors handle this pretty well. Jamie is made to be a real person, somebody not to be pitied (and he's annoyed when people feel pity for him, just as most of us are). One of the story's messages is that disabled or not, everybody wants to feel normal. So it's great when his adoptive brother, Stevie Kosgrove, punches him out - just like Stevie would any other kid he bullied.

The early chapters lay out the general background information for Jamie - his home situation, school and after school, his time spent at his Uncle Frankie's diner, and his two best friends, Gaynor and Pierce. Pretty much all of the characters are one-dimensional, largely for comedic purposes. Jamie's Uncle Frankie, for example, is so nostalgic for his days as a yo-yo champion, that he does tricks on his yo-yo while cooking food for his customers. Even Jamie is a bit one-dimensional, as he just constantly cracks jokes.


The novel is littered with pop culture references - not just names of comedians, some not as well-known as others, but other references like Halo and Forrest Gump (pre-President Donald Trump even has a brief mention). There are also abundant references to zombies. Jamie seems to view his world as peopled with zombies, and while he's trying to be funny, the book doesn't make it quite clear if this is meant as satire, a la Shaun of the Dead (and if that's the case it's not very original). I had the feeling that the authors were suggesting that those who pursued a more normal life were zombies, as opposed to the likes of Jamie, who is much more ambitious. There's also a strange moment when a girl asks Jamie how he urinates. How the authors allowed this sexually-loaded question to remain in a book about middle schoolers is beyond me.


It's unfortunate that the novel stays the predictable route, as there are a couple of moments where it very briefly heads somewhere more interesting. Each moment revolves around Jamie finding success with stand-up comedy and the consequences of that success. One consequence is that people start to question your success - did the judges just feel sorry for Jamie because he's in a wheelchair? Another is that if success gets to your head you might hurt those close to you. But this is too nice a novel to tread too deeply in those directions, and Patterson's co-writer Grabenstein likes to play it safe. As I said, this book just wasn't meant for me - the high rating on Goodreads shows that Patterson and Grabenstein have pleased their intended audience. I think the success of this novel hinges on whether you find the jokes funny or not. I didn't.