So I figure I only need another thirty-four kids to be a pretty decent guy. I believe each of my five children has made me a better man. What exactly am I missing out on? Money? A few more hours of sleep? A more peaceful meal? More hair? These are nothing compared to what I get from these five monsters who rule my life. I guess the reasons against having more children always seem uninspiring and superficial.

I was born with a heart that was two sizes too small, but when I saw my baby, it was like the Grinch discovering the true meaning of Christmas. While the book is unabashedly funny, you can sense the conviction and determination that Jim brings to his role as a dad.įailing and laughing at your own shortcomings are the hallmarks of a sane parent.

As a guy who is working on a big family myself I enjoyed his perspective. Specifically, a comedian’s insight into parenting five children. As the title suggests, this is a funny book about parenting. While I often study great stand up routines I was eager to read comedian Jim Gaffigan’s book Dad is Fat. Engaging a crowd’s attention with one person speaking on stage for forty plus minutes is no easy task. But it turns out 140 characters are not enough to express all the joys and horrors of life with five kids, so he’s now sharing it all in Dad Is Fat.įrom new parents to empty nesters to Jim’s twenty-something fans, everyone will recognise their own families in these hilarious takes on everything from cousins (“celebrities for little kids”) to growing up in a big family (“I always assumed my father had six children so he could have a sufficient lawn crew”) to changing diapers in the middle of the night (“like The Hurt Locker but much more dangerous”) to bedtime (aka “Negotiating with Terrorists”).I’ve always loved studying stand up comedians since they are the closest profession to share the challenges of preaching. Those tweets struck such a chord that he soon passed the million followers mark. Though he grew up in a large Irish-Catholic family, Jim was satisfied with the nomadic, nocturnal life of a standup comedian, and was content to be “that weird uncle who lives in an apartment by himself in New York that everyone in the family speculates about.” But all that changed when he married and found out his wife, Jeannie “is someone who gets pregnant looking at babies.”įive kids later, the comedian whose riffs on everything from Hot Pockets to Jesus have scored millions of hits on YouTube, started to tweet about the mistakes and victories of his life as a dad. Jim Gaffigan never imagined he would have his own kids. Dad is Fat is sharply observed, explosively funny, and a cry for help from a man who has realised he and his wife are outnumbered in their own home.

My dad is fat book