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The Dartmouth
July 15, 2025 | Latest Issue
The Dartmouth

Booked Solid: This is a Book

Demetri Martin's
Demetri Martin's

Martin is a comedian who is best-known for his stand-up performances and for his work as a correspondent on "The Daily Show." During his performances, Martin tends to tell unrelated jokes in a monotonous tone, often incorporating drawings, graphs and music into his act. Martin deftly translates this unique style into the printed word in his literary debut.

"This Is a Book" is a compilation of random short stories, thoughts, one-liners and drawings (unfortunately, no music). The book mimics the style of a Martin stand-up show, and each new section could be considered its own comedic sketch. Martin even treats the introduction section of the book like the introduction to a live performance, reminding the reader to refrain from taking flash photography, choking and tossing dwarves. While each section is completely unrelated in content, they are all united by the same style of humor that has made Martin so successful.

Unlike many contemporary comedians, Martin does not rely on juvenile, slapstick humor in order to get a laugh. Instead, his comedic style is an interesting blend of wit and silliness. Martin's jokes in "This Is a Book" are extremely clever and well thought out I found the lack of dumb fart jokes quite refreshing. Take, for example, Martin's three-page poem about a lonely man in a strip club. This may not sound like the sort of intelligent subject matter I was just describing, but the entire poem is a palindrome. Martin takes a subject matter that could have produced a number of crass jokes that are only funny to teenage boys, and creates something that is both clever and humorous (and pretty impressive).

My favorite section in "This Is a Book" was the part about statistics, which contains a compilation of silly, made-up facts, such as, "You are ten times more likely to get hit by a car when the driver is aiming at you." Once again, Martin exhibits higher-level thinking by making a joke with something as sophisticated as statistics, and he sheds light on just how useless some statistical figures are.

I was already a fan of Martin before reading "This is a Book," and my respect for him has only grown while reading. Every page contains something worthy of a hearty chuckle, and it's nearly impossible to remain in a bad mood after flipping through it just avoid sitting next to open windows or in heavily populated areas while you're reading.