‘Comedy Nerd’ hits bookshelves on Oct. 28
Judd Apatow closes his new book, Comedy Nerd: A Lifelong Obsession in Stories and Pictures (Random House), with a photo of Chris Farley and Jim Carrey at the Kid’s Choice Awards in 1997.
“It’s always been one of my favorite photos,” says Apatow, who’s in the image too, but is easy to miss at first glance. Tucked away in the right corner, he looks on as the comedy legends pose for the camera. “They’re those people that you can’t believe that they knew each other or met because they’re both so incredible. Farley was such a nice person and maybe the funniest person I ever met to [just] be around. He just was so riotously funny in every situation. So, he’s one of those people that we all miss a lot. It was a real tragedy when he died. And I think everyone who knew him feels like we want to always remind people about his greatness.”
Apatow lives up to his end of this bargain through Comedy Nerd. In addition to Farley, the book documents the comedic genius of industry icons who were Apatow’s own heroes —like George Carlin and Garry Shandling — to his frequent collaborators, ranging from Steve Carrell and Seth Rogen to wife Leslie Mann and daughters Maude and Iris Apatow.
Life imitates art: Apatow traverses life, comedy and career in “Comedy Nerd’s” 576 pages.Credit: Irvin Rivera
Photos, letters, scripts, memorabilia, articles and emails pair with insights and never-before-told stories from Apatow about Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy, Knocked Up, This Is 40, Funny People, The Ben Stiller Show and The King of Staten Island, among others. Plenty of the scrapbook memoir came from his own collection, but the Hollywood power player also convinced a number of studios and publications to donate archival material, with part of the book’s proceeds benefiting youth writing charity 826 and Los Angeles wildfire relief organization Fire Aid.
With a foreword written by Lena Dunham (whose show Girls he executive-produced), Comedy Nerd anthologizes Apatow’s own life and career. Early on, the reader sees why he has so much material for the book: The self-professed hoarder explains his collecting began in sixth grade. Not much later came the foundational catalyst for his life in comedy. He was pulled to the stand-up stage while working as a dishwasher, then busboy at a comedy club in his Long Island hometown.
“In the late ‘70s, it felt like there weren’t that many people in comedy. It seemed like there was only a couple of hundred people in the whole world doing it,” he remembers. “It felt like a dream that could come true. Also, none of my friends were interested in it, so I didn’t feel this competition with other kids that would make me feel like there are obstacles to getting in. I just thought the obstacle is being good at it. So if I start really young, obsessing on this and researching and then ultimately working up the courage to try it, that, I think, there’s probably a way to get my foot in the door.”
Michael Davis and a teenage ApatowCredit: Courtesy Random House
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Apatow during his college years.Credit: Courtesy Random House
Behind the scenes of “Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy.”Credit: Courtesy Random House
Steve Carell, Paul Rudd, Romany Malco and Seth Rogen in “The 40-Year-Old Virgin.”Credit: Courtesy Random House
Inspired by The Marx Brothers Scrapbook of his youth and, more recently, a book by Alan Cumming, Apatow set off on making his own two years ago. Year one, he laid out the book with no text; year two, he added in captions and mini essays.
“I had 400,000 photos on my computer. I have seven storage spaces filled with just all the files and ephemera from my career,” he says. “It made me feel like I wasn’t wrong for hoarding my whole life.”
A note from Paul Reubens.Credit: Courtesy Random House
Reubens and ApatowCredit: Courtesy Random House
The process gave Apatow the legs for archival curation, which will come in handy as he puts together a comedy film exhibition for the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures that is set to open in 2027. “It’s the history of comedy based on what I find amusing,” he shares. “I just think it’s funny to put something in a museum that’s really stupid and treat it like it’s really important. I hope that we [can] find the the blow-up pilot from Airplane!”
Credit: Irvin Rivera
This non-comprehensive approach speaks to his understanding that the definition of good comedy varies for everybody. But for Apatow (as his fans might already guess from the vulnerable nature of his work, like the heartfelt undertones of The 40-Year-Old Virgin and sensitivity to the perils of teenagehood in Freaks & Geeks), it’s about more than just being funny.
“Some people like it really rough. Some people want it clean. Some people want it filthy. Some people want it witty, so it’s all subjective,” he says. “For me, I like when people open up emotionally. I like to get to know people. I like to understand people’s struggles, their evolution… if I could laugh and cry, then I know I’ve seen something really special.”