Spoiled Rotten America: Outrages of Everyday Life

by Larry Miller

Book Overview

Like Kofi Annan, Larry Miller is one of the most irresistible comic personalities working today. Known for years as an actor, writer, comedian, and sexual pioneer, he's gained a new following as a cultural commentator and frequent guest on political shows. Now, in Spoiled Rotten America, he fixes his gaze on what's funny about our daily lives--which includes, roughly speaking, everything. From middle-aged drinking ("When you're in your twenties,...

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0060819081
• ISBN13: 9780060819088
• Release Date: October 2006
• Publisher: HarperEntertainment
• Length: 288 Pages
• Weight: 1.05 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 6.0" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

Laugh your way through three CD's

I've been a fan of Larry Miller's hilarious work in movies such as Best in Show, and Waiting for Guffman. I didn't realize he also wrote comedic essays, and his book Spoiled Rotten in America is fun and funny. This audiobook would make a great gift for men. Miller brings a sardonic and critical eye to everyday life. You will die laughing as he talks about going to hell in a handbasket, asking what is a handbasket any ways? He paints funny portraits about the absurdity found in daily life, and I'm sure you will relate to his struggles. Like most successful comedians, you will realize that Miller is quite intelligent, making his book more than just funny, but also poignant. That being said, he never takes himself seriously and you will laugh your way through all three CD's in this audiobook. -Jennifer Kline

Funny and entertaining

You will probably recognize Larry Miller as a popular character actor and comedian, but he is also a well published writer. In Spoiled Rotten in American he presents a collection of humorous essays centered around family life and middle-age topics, such as how to bathe his children appropriately, redecorating the house, wanting to strangle incompetent plumbers. He also tackles topics such as the decline in America cinema, and the lack of caring for ones job, as he rants about the general decline of humans in America. Larry Miller is a superb narrator - since it is, after all, his own writing. The book reads like a comedy routine, and Miller's sarcastic style is relaxed and natural. His voice gives you the sense that you might be sitting in his living room, enjoying his company and laughing at his viewpoints on the world. This book is surely best experienced in audio format, and is an entertaining way to bring some laughter into your life. Some of his subject matter might resonate better with men than with women (such as his essay on adultery), but overall it will bring a smile to anyone's face.

Great Audio Book

I'm not much of a reader but I love to listen to audio books and "Spoiled Rotten America" is great! I just wish it was a little longer, 3 CD's was not enough.

Absolute Joy

I have always enjoyed Larry Miller's stand up, and now I am delighted to find his point of view in book form. I love his take on marriage and family (his wife is a hoot!) to the everyday nonsense that we all do. I feel this book is very relatable and smart -- even though there where times I didn't understand one of his many historical refrences, I still understood what he was saying. Mr. Miller is a terrific writer, who is not afraid to reveal all sides of his personality. If you want a good laugh, then get this book! You will not be dissapointed.

This is not only delightful writing and fun reading, it is wonderfully funny!

I love Larry Miller. Ever since I heard his "Five Levels of Drinking" years ago, and his comment that woman is the most powerful magnet in the universe and all men are cheap metal, well, I knew we had found a mind that could tell the funny truth. This is not a simple thing. Most of what is passed off as comedy is just awful and obscene twaddle that gets laughs by punching the audience in the gut. The laughs are more explosive exhalations than expressions of delight and joy. Miller brings delight and joy. And he can write. This is another talent that is not pulled off easily. Most books by comics are not funny. It is one thing to get a microphone, stand on a stage, and curse at people for an hour. Writing it down is similar to being drunk, coming up with profound insights and writing them down for humanity. The next day, if you can even read the writing, you are embarrassed at what you wrote. How can it be that this wonderful insight is inane and too stupid for a twelve year old to take seriously? Well, the power of booze to addle the brain. The point is, that saying funny things on stage is a much different talent than writing funny. Miller can do both. Although his stage act is more literary than most. I don't know how much Miller drinks in real life, and maybe he milks that cow a bit much, but he uses language beautifully well and provides us things to enjoy on a few levels. Let's start with the stories he tells. They are funny. Well, a few are poignant, but even there he gets some funny observations in along the way. He even gets a few lines in that are quite memorable. In discussing a friend of his who had been sober for quite awhile through the alcoholics anonymous program and then fell off the wagon and then got back on, he notes that his friend told him, "There is nothing worse than a bellyful of liquor and a head full of AA." I am sure that is not original with Miller or his friend, but it is still a great line. At another point Miller notes that, "money can't make stupid people smart, but it often makes smart people stupid". I mean, AMEN. You've seen this, right? Even lived through it? This book had me laughing out loud almost every page. Another of its delights is Miller's making little references to old movies, political figures, Greek, Roman, and Hebrew writings, and literature (Dickens more than once). You will just read over them if you don't know what he is referring to, but it is quite nice the way he works in "with the same glee as Madame De Farge waiting for the next blade to fall" when discussing his delight at watching little league foul balls land on the cars in the parking lot (including his own). This makes for fun reading because you can keep your brain on and this makes laughing even more joyful. When your brain is awake and can still find that things are funny, well, it doesn't get much better. The book covers many delightful topics including the aforementioned drinking (with the officia