I think I'm a little bit in love with Simon Rich

[Small Man Big Horse]

Before last week I only knew of Simon Rich's existence due to Miracle Workers, a show which had a good first season but then a massively improved second one. I enjoyed the latter so much that I bought his collection of short stories Spoilt Brats and read them over the course of two days, and have fallen for the book rather hard, it's a great selection of surreal, absurd tales one including one from the perspective of a school pet that's gloriously funny but also surprisingly affecting, while I really liked another which sees Rich's great-great-grandfather enter his life aged 27 after being brought back to life due to a bizarre pickling accident, and which has been made in to a film that's due to be released in August and unfortunately stars Seth Rogen.

After finishing the book I then sought out the episode of The Simpsons he wrote (Season 28, Episode 18), "A Father's Watch" and fuck me, it was the best I'd seen in ages. I'm admittedly a later seasons Simpsons apologist (ie 80% are still shit, but 20% are good) but this really worked for me, and I'd even go as far as to suggest is that it could have been a season 9 episode as the jokes and storyline are so good. Finally I watched the first episode of his sitcom Man Seeking Woman last night and liked that too. Liked it a lot, especially the bit where Hitler dates his ex-girlfriend.

There you have it then, I feel he's yet to put a foot wrong (well, bar that first season of Miracle Workers I guess which is a bit patchy) and he's a writer I'm now extremely enamoured by, and plan to check out his other work. But what about you? Do you like him? Or hate him? Or not have a fucking clue who he is?

[McChesney Duntz]

Big fan. His most recent collection of short stories, Hits and Misses, is well worth checking out. And apparently he had a Radio 4 series of some of his stories a couple years ago!

[Small Man Big Horse]

Big fan. His most recent collection of short stories, Hits and Misses, is well worth checking out. And apparently he had a Radio 4 series of some of his stories a couple years ago!

I'm glad to hear it's not just me, and I'll definitely pick up Hits and Misses sooner rather than later, I've ordered his first novel Elliot Allagash and am looking forward to reading that when it arrives.

[C_Larence]

Man Seeking Woman is great fun! I never got around to finishing it as other stuff came up, but it felt to me like if How I Met Your Mother was made by people with souls

[notjosh]

I've had his Radio 4 series in a TO LISTEN folder for about 4 years. Can drop you a link if you would like TO LISTEN to it for me and tell me if it's any good.

[rue the polywhirl]

I just watched the Simpsons episode you mentioned and I can't believe what kind of voodoo this is, a good quality Simpson episode post-season 15 that I'd happily watch again.

[Small Man Big Horse]

I've had his Radio 4 series in a TO LISTEN folder for about 4 years. Can drop you a link if you would like TO LISTEN to it for me and tell me if it's any good.

I'd be up for that, thank you, especially as Joseph Morpurgo is one of the cast members.

I just watched the Simpsons episode you mentioned and I can't believe what kind of voodoo this is, a good quality Simpson episode post-season 15 that I'd happily watch again.

I'm glad I'm not the only one who enjoyed it, and that my lust for Rich didn't blind me to the episode.

[one_sharper]

Chalk me up as someone who's listened to and really enjoyed the radio series. Really good cast, too.

I still haven't seen Miracle Workers (S1 or S2) so need to get on that.

[phantom_power]

What is the name of his radio show?

[McChesney Duntz]

"The World of Simon Rich."

[Small Man Big Horse]

Chalk me up as someone who's listened to and really enjoyed the radio series. Really good cast, too.

I still haven't seen Miracle Workers (S1 or S2) so need to get on that.

It's an anthology series and so each season is completely different, which is why I'd suggest starting with season 2 and then if you enjoy that head back for the not quite as good first.

[phantom_power]

I preferred the first series to the second. The characters were stronger and there was more purpose. Funnier as well, though that is more subjective

[Small Man Big Horse]

I've listened to the first episode of The World Of Simon Rich radio series and liked it a fair amount, but I think I'll stick with the books from now on in. Some of the performances are a little broad, the polite laughter of the radio 4 audience annoyed me a little, and the choices of stories weren't always Rich at his best. Admittedly I tend to struggle with audio comedy a fair bit anyhow as my mind tends to wonder, and some of it is really great, just not quite for me.

[olliebean]

I'm pretty sure all the sketches in the radio series are fairly straightforward adaptations of stories from his books. I thought it was a shame that he hadn't written anything new for the medium of radio, as the material felt more literary in form to me.

[Small Man Big Horse]

I'm pretty sure all the sketches in the radio series are fairly straightforward adaptations of stories from his books. I thought it was a shame that he hadn't written anything new for the medium of radio, as the material felt more literary in form to me.

Mostly, yeah, I checked and a couple were truncated (the dog's personals, for instance, was missing one of the entries), but otherwise it was very faithful. And I agree, it's a shame there weren't at least a couple of original sketches or stories, just to make it worth checking out for those who had already read the books.

I'm three episodes in to Man Seeking Woman and still really enjoying it, and am relieved it's not a case of a show having a great pilot but then disappointing as happens way too often, the second was particularly fun and it was great to see Colonel Tigh from Battlestar Galactica in something else.

[olliebean]

I love Man Seeking Woman, and you'll be happy to know it just keeps getting better.

[Small Man Big Horse]

I've read his first novel now, Elliot Allagash, which is a fun school set romp where the rich, bored and all but certainly sociopathic pupil Elliot Allagash decides to play with the life of one of the one of the most disliked students, Seymour,

Spoiler alert

and over time turns him in to the most popular kid in the school

[close]

. All of which involves some quite frankly impressively devious schemes as Allagash screws with the lives of everyone he meets while his bemused father watches on, some very funny tales from said father about life as an insanely rich man, while Rich's observations about high school life are sharp and often laugh out loud funny. On the downside it's a slightly flimsy and lacking in substance affair, far too predictable, and it's a short book as well, I'm by no means the world's fastest reader but it only took a few hours to get through. All of which is a bit of a shame as I was enjoying it a great deal and with a bit more depth it could have been rather special, instead of something I'm fond of but not in love with.

[one_sharper]

There's a new film starring Seth Rogen which is written by Simon Rich, based on his story 'Sell Out'. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OmkxQbMtB_M

[dead-ced-dead]

He's one of my favourite writers working right now. Miracle Workers and Man Seeking Woman are all I've seen. I'm going to check out that Simpsons episode tonight.

[Small Man Big Horse]

Ant Farm and Other Desperate Situations - Supposedly a book of short stories, the majority are in script form and it's a very, very slight book which will take you a couple of hours to read at best. I'm a big fan of Rich's but probably should have read this years ago as his most recent collections show just how he's developed as a writer and are far, far funnier. It's by no means bad and a good few of the stories made me laugh out loud, but it's definitely nowhere near his best work. 3.25/5

[Small Man Big Horse]

I finally got around to reading his latest collection of short stories in the last couple of weeks:

New Teeth by Simon Rich - While this is pretty great most of the time, it quickly becomes clear that he's sticking to a fairly specific formula in this one where various characters are trying to make sense of the world or a new situation that has been forced upon them, from pirates who suddenly have to become parents, to an outdated laserdisc player who realises his no longer of use to anyone and a young child who acts as a Private Eye and tries to find his sister's favourite toy. There's also a Prince who's never known of poverty until he's sent to live with villagers, a robot who becomes obsolete as he cannot socialise, and a sort of superhero who has seemingly defeated all of the alien villains decades ago and is given a fake job in the hope it'll keep him happy, and while they're often very funny, there's a strange almost sentimental or heart-warming element introduced in to many of the endings, and sometimes it works and sometimes it didn't sit well with me at all. Towards the end of the book there's a fairly long story about the baseball player Babe Ruth, and how because he was essentially really stupid he didn't realise he was repeatedly humiliating his closest friend, and though partially based on fact the majority of it is fiction, and it felt a little cruel at times. This review might seem harsh given how many times Rich made me laugh out loud while writing it, but in some ways I hope it's the last collection for a while and Rich gets his teeth in to a novel, and one where he challenges himself to create something with more depth, rather than the surface level attempts found here. 3.75/5