David & Amy Sedaris interview w/Anderson Cooper

David's revealed himself over the years to be a bit of a cunt.

I wouldn't worry to much about this OP. You've got bigger things to be concerned about today.

David Sedaris threads always have a bunch of lies and character assassination. It's only a matter of time before someone accuses him of killing his sister and laughing about it.

OP, you and I share the same outlook on the Sedaris clan. I've read of few of his stories and conclude he was aware of her issues and he didn't seem to pressed. He did share that if he knew that if called her "Tiff" that she would do anything asked if her, so needy was she, and he capitalized on her insecurities.

Yeah, for all the obvious hero worshipping David Sedaris , does about her, his mother still emerges in his writing as a cold-blooded, high(ish)-functioning drunk who stayed married to a dreadful little prick because it allowed her the space to drink, smoke and nap in the afternoons.

He's mean-spirited. Period.

David Sedaris is very thin-skinned. Never meet your heroes. And my Chicago theater friends totally think he dropped "Big Boy" in that toilet...

Interesting article. Note the references to Datalounge!!!

[quote] WTF? I would let my parent have the master bedroom, even if I bought the damn house.

It's weird you seem to believe everyone has to feel the same about this matter as you do. I think you'd get a lot of variation here from others if asked what they would do.

I'm sort of obsessed - in a way - with this family. They have shades of Augustin Burrough's fake made up family.

[quote]David said that the master bedroom was for himself. WTF? I would let my parent have the master bedroom, even if I bought the damn house.

Had his mom still been alive, she would've probably gotten the bedroom. His dad was an asshole about money and politics (including gay rights), so David was less deferential to him.

The way Tiffany was written about often made me uncomfortable, even though she cut a sad and familiar figure to anyone whose family has dealt with a similarly troubled child/sibling.

Freak Show including Cooper.

WHO THE FUCK are these people? Should I know them being a gay man?

I'm a Bad Gay man!!

[quote] WHO THE FUCK are these people?

David Sedaris is a famous radio monologist and comic writer. In fact, he is probably the most comic writer alive right now. He is the author of books like "Barrel Fever," "Naked" and "Let's Explore Diabetes with owls." He is gay, and give comedy talks all over the world, often on college campuses.

His sister Amy Sedaris is a comedienne, and she was the star of "Strangers with Candy," and has also appeared on "The Unbreakable Kimmy Schmid" and "The Mandalorian." She is a much beloved gay icon.

Anderson Cooper is the lead anchorman on CNN. He is also the son of Gloria Vanderbilt. He is also gay.

[quote]Should I know them being a gay man?

It is frankly bizarre you do not. They are all big American gay icons in one way or another.

[quote]I'm a Bad Gay man!!

Or at least just an extremely out-of-touch one.

[quote] It's weird you seem to believe everyone has to feel the same about this matter as you do.

That's why I said it's what I would do. I didn't say that everyone should feel the same as I do. I am open to people expressing different OPINIONS.

I didn't realize there were issues with the father.

[quote] He's mean-spirited. Period.

If that’s a problem for you, why are on you Datalounge?

Above referencing Augusten Burroughs... I live in western MA (where he and the family were "raised"). Augusten had left the area, but he's back! He's now running retail in Northampton.

If you think Sedaris is insufferable, stay far away from Burroughs.

More interesting than Augusten, is his brother J.B. Robison.

I used to think David Sedaris was brilliant. Eventually it was hard to escape the conclusion that his writing showed him to be creepy and mean. I stopped reading it. The scenario portrayed by OP's post is troubling. It seems like David and Amy are missing some pieces.

I enjoyed Burroughs' first book, Running with Scissors. The next book, not so much.

[quote] Because unlike David and perhaps you, Datalounge and I can modulate as needed.

I enjoy Sedaris’s writing, and think he can be very funny and insightful, but there is an unsettling coldness to his writing. There’s not much compassion in his analysis of other people, with the exception of his mother and sisters. Everyone else is a minor character with very little inner life.

And it is a small incident, but I really hated his story of how wonderful Amy is. It ends (spoiler alert!) with her tearing a dress off and throwing it onto the floor when a salesman tell her that it is already sold. I bet the salesman just chuckled as he picked up after a couple of spoiled rich people.

David suffers from the same problem as Kathy Griffin. Like Kathy, people found him weirdly charming when he was writing about his life as a poor oddball just as people found Kathy hilariously charming when she talked about far more famous celebrities.

Now that David is a rich oddball he the writing seems weirdly tedious. Now that Kathy is friends with the same famous celebrities she seems like an unfunny name-dropper.

Quirky is only relatable when the person is poor. When money is involved quirky becomes weird.

I’m have to also say that like every writer, even memoirists, David has taken broad liberties with the truth in service of a good story. I know his brother and knew his father and while they roughly fit his description, it is an exaggerated one.

I seem to remember David describing Amy as one of the more favored of the children, because she was pretty. Didn’t know about the Tiffany dynamic. This thread makes me want to revisit my Sedaris collections. Maybe they’re damaged (who isn’t?) but they both have given me some of my most memorable laughs.

Reading about Tiffany made me lose some of my regard for both David and Amy, but in a way I found it very enlightening. I was the Tiffany in my large family, and it was helpful to see her from David's perspective. I can't quote the passage or tell you where it's from, but he wrote about an outsider suggesting that they could be a little kinder to Tiffany, and how perplexed he was at the concept because being the recipient of their scorn was her purpose for existing. My siblings feel the same way about me, so being offended on Tiffany's behalf sort of helped me have a little more compassion for that part of me that still believed they were right.

There was a suggestion in the Tiffany essay that she may have been molested by the father. Actually think it was one of his best essays—at least one of the deepest. I respected his reflection on dealing with a mentally ill sibking. It was honest and raw.

What was Tiffany's diagnosis?

Barrel Fever was such a great book because it was a combo of fiction stories and non. Once he just started only doing the memoir stuff, it got fakey and forced. Him going out and finding quirky things to do for material.

It's odd he's avoided fiction since the first book (although he does seem to fictionalize a lot in the non fiction.)

Amy's Strangers with Candy might be the most brilliant thing of all but her craft show was quite stupid and rather boring.

The whole family seems exhausting.

I enjoy both David and Amy but I wouldn't want to hang around them. I'd be worried they'd Tiffany me.

I don't feel like watching the video, can someone please tell me the Cliffs Notes version of what they did to Tiffany?

R29: My take: Tiffany (the sister) was basically the family pariah (made so by their mother) and David and Amy don't seem to care.

Tiffany died by suicide, holed up in a one-room unit. Mentally ill, off her meds.

David and Amy seem like a little clique.

I think every family member tried to help their sister. She didn't want any. That doesn't make them bad siblings.

There are always a lot of dynamics going on in a family - Amy was the golden child.

Most families are not one giant big happy ball where everyone feels equally loved and appreciated. And sometimes parent's personalities really conflict with their children's and they just can't seem to get along no matter what.

I've seen it in my family. My brother was a pain in the ass - unnecessarily - and would fly off the handle to get his way. Hell, he still pulls it every once and awhile.

I'm not going to judge them - we know nothing.

R31, they're siblings, that's fine.

I feel like some of you haven’t seen the interview. It’s very lovely and compassionate.

I suspect the Sedaris siblings are a bit overexposed. They both are a bit "one note". Her earlier stuff was his best. Once he got money, he got annoying.

-Suspicious Mind

The interview is well done, R34. Somebody in this thread has an axe to grind.

None of those kids are pretty. Quite strange looking in fact.

[quote]I was the Tiffany in my large family

#MeToo

Who are they?

I can’t stand EITHER of these two morons. They’ve always come across as absolutely dreadful people. Mean girls. Cunts.

R26 which essay was that?

R40 - they are both known for their humor, quick wit and being down to earth. Guess it's not your cup of tea.

I forget in which book I read this but when Amy and David were both living in Chicago, she got off the El first and as the doors closed yelled, “hope you beat the rape charges!” at David.

I think it was an example of the family humor?

R13

Amy also had a small part in Elf.

R43 - that totally sounds like Amy and the stuff that they pulled.

Amy is GOLD on late night talk show interviews - she was to go-to filler for Letterman whenever there was a scheduling conflict and they needed someone.

IIRC, Tiffany was shoved into Elan as a teenager and it scarred her for the rest of her life.

[quote]What was Tiffany's diagnosis?

Death.

[quote]R22 there is an unsettling coldness to his writing. There’s not much compassion in his analysis of other people

I gave up on him when I read about him telling his partner/ husband that he would leave him if he ever required physical care… Mr. Sedaris just wasn’t going to be bothered!

That’s such a strange thing to actually TELL a loved one. I’m sure people can feel that way, but you don’t tell your partner that! You just admit your overwhelmed and make your excuses when the time comes.

More on Elan...not sure if it's true, but it's sad to consider:

[quote]R46 IIRC, Tiffany was shoved into Elan as a teenager and it scarred her for the rest of her life.

[italic] “Elan is a dedicated ski manufacturer located in the Slovenian Alps, with almost 80 years of experience building the best skis in the world for friends and families who live the skiing lifestyle and are all about good times in the mountains.”

R50, can you show me how to do the little accent mark on the E? Then I can be clear that I'm taking about Elan the joovy hall place, and not Elan the ski manufacturer.

Michael Skakel (Kennedy cousin) was also in the Elan school. IIRC, that's where he blabbed about having killed neighbor girl Martha Moxley. (That had been an unprosecuted murder for many years.) Anyway, Skakel got convicted of the murder and was sentenced to 20 years. He was a juvenile when he killed Martha Moxley, but was tried as an adult.

I worked with Tiffany when I was in high school. I worked part time at a pastry shop in Cambridge and she was working there as a baker. She was always very sweet and kind to us part timers. She would make us hot chocolate and other small things. She never talked about her family much and she didn't last long at the job. I didn't even know she was related to Amy Sedaris until she came into the bakery one day and the new girl was like "Do you know you sound like the actress from Strangers With Candy?" and she smiled and said it was her sister. I was sad when I found out she took her life.

The heading of this thread is such a turn off. I don’t want to know what’s inside. A freak interviewing two freaks.

[quote]R51 can you show me how to do the little accent mark on the E?

I don’t know what the manual command is - but I’ll often look for a word that has that accent mark online, then DL seems to accept it when I copy and paste it in a post here.

Let me double check:

fiancée (copy and paste whole word)

Èlan (copy and paste single letter)

Just press down on the e (instead of tapping it). You'll see a range of choices with numbers assigned. Press the number of your choice. For my situation, choice # 2 gives you é.

R55 and R56, hey that's the ticket! Thank you! 😘

I’m trying that:

Estèe Lauder

Oh! It workèd!

Thank you, r57! (I had to experiment and learn to slide my finger from the pressed e up to my selection, tho, without letting up.)

I really love Amy’s comedy and I’ve been a big fan for many years…but she is not a celebrity I’d like to meet. I have a feeling she wouldn’t be nice to “regular” folks, and considering her BFFs are Andy Cohen, SJP, and Justin Theroux, I think I’m right.

Someone I know lived by her many years ago...he said she was a great neighbor. Brought over a plate full of all sorts of "welcome drugs".

David & Amy Sedaris have ALWAYS been incredible impressed with themselves and for years referred to themselves as "The Talent Family", or something like that.

Both were funny, but stayed way too long at the fair and are kind of scary now.

R5 And a place to lay out (lie out) in the summer! Mama Sedaris was very much about her tan.I love David's early books and the things about his family are hilarious. My favorite of his siblings is the youngest kid, Paul. He's what used to be called a "wigger" and he's got a flooring company I think, and is tight with the dad and I think just him. He's called the rooster by them and is constantly dropping f bombs and saying shit like, "you can't kill the motherfucking rooster!" and also refers to their dad as "motherfucker" which the dad doesn't mind at all and it drives David crazy that Paul can say whatever he wants. Maybe that's how Tiffany felt about him?

He autographed something for my sister and mentioned a colostomy bag in it, he's got an odd sense of humor, I love him though. I don't care so much about his French life with Hugh as I do about his life growing up. Their dad seems hilarious to me, I remember one story where their dad wanted David to become a teen idol like Keith Partridge and Leif Garrett. The way he wrote about his dad made me love him. I don't remember him saying anything bad about Tiffany. He was pretty reverential about her. He mentioned somberly that she took her own life, etc. I remember reading something her friends wrote, maybe a facebook or twitter page, and they were really going off about he and Amy and how they killed Tiffany. It was some edgelord bullshit, her problems were much greater than her siblings. She was clearly mentally ill and I doubt that Amy and David gleefully rub their hands together about having killed her.

Oh and Burroughs is a pretentious hack. Making his name "Augusten" and going on and on about how his dad would yell at him and repeat his name...oh shut up, that's not even your fucking name.

And here's a great doc about the Elan school.

there are times when I read through thread - like this one - and begin to think, "man, so many people hate 'X'" or "everyone believes 'Y'"... and then see that there are less than 100 posts and am reminded how infintesimally tiny the DL cadre of posters is.

[quote] which essay was that?

R41, I think r26 may be referring to “Now we are 5” (see link), but he/she may be referring to a story in Sedaris’s latest book, in which he discusses his father’s treatment of the kids, which was at least sleazy and deeply inappropriate and which would nowadays probably see him added onto a watchlist.

I find it slightly fascinating how these people put all their family baggage out there for public consumption.

Can't stand his bitchy little monologues on CBS Sunday Morning.

Amy looks like she’s already working on her Patty Hogg character in that photo at r67.

The universal NYer fantasy is to obtain the adjacent apartment. "I don't even have to move, I just knock down a wall a double my space"

When Amy got the apt. upstairs she didn't put in staircase she kept it in tact and just uses it as a closet. I love that about her.

Thank R67! I thought I had missed something obvious in Now We Are Five. I haven’t read the latest book.

I don't get what's so bad about the interview. My life seems similar to theirs (without the money, of course) - so I get the weird dynamics between siblings, and how one parent is very different to one child versus another. They didn't seem cold, they seemed fairly realistic about the weird shit and the normal stuff.

r58 That's the wrong accent mark. You need an acute accent or 'accent aigu' (é), not a grave accent (è). The code for the lower case acute e is ALT+0233 (Windows.)

David & Amy Sedaris have always seemed both snotty and snarky, when also amusing.

R18 When I’m being Hilltowns trash, I’ll have to stop through and check the store out. As a distant relation of the Faulkner family, I understand tedious pretention and self involved novelization.

[quote] I don't remember him saying anything bad about Tiffany. He was pretty reverential about her.

No, he wasn't, R63. He wrote embarrassing things about Tiffany (referring to her as dirty, etc.) when she was alive even when she asked him not to include her in anyhting more that he was writing. When she killed herself, he commented that now he wouldn't be getting back any of the money he loaned her.

The parents dumped the troubled sister in an abusive school, which added to her feelings of being unloved. There was an essay written about her from a friend who despised David Sedaris for his own callousness toward her. Another essay pointed out all the various lies Sedaris has told in his writing.

I was amused by some of his essays, but his self-satisfaction over his success is boring and obnoxious. All you have to do is wait to see how long it takes in any given essay before he mentions how many houses he owns, how many places he travels to, how much money he has. He's a smug cunt and not nearly as amusing as he used to be or thinks he is.

[quote]My favorite of his siblings is the youngest kid, Paul.

From what I've heard (from his flooring customers), Paul gets fed up with any mention of his famous older siblings and doesn't seem too fond of them.

I’m sorry about their sister.

Amy has never risen above the D-list and David peaked 20 years ago.

Either you love them or you don’t care for them. I fall into the latter camp. Tiresome, dull, pick me types.

Amy's book on entertaining is a classic, I was shushed at the library for laughing out loud at her snack recipe: Take a chewed Ritz cracker from the roof of your mouth and place it on a fresh Ritz cracker.

Uggh.

Just adding my post from the duplicate thread I started, then I am going to read how you all feel!!!

I found this interesting. I generally have liked David's writing and have always felt that Amy was very talented. But these always seemed cold AF in other respects... (And anyone who is friends with Sarah Jessica Parker immediately turns me off.. (I hate that entire Andy Cohen "group".) But this interview put things in perspective... They both seem like moderate elitists, which I already knew about David. The whole rarified air thing with success..Some of the comments about Tiffany are cold as shit, pure snobbery.. But I think that we have all known someone like Tiffany or have those aspects in ourselves. So after hearing them speak, I kind of get it more. People set for self destruction can be a black hole. Its basically an interview about grief, and these two REALLY loved their mother. And Amy truly does love bunnies, which I like.

The essay they are talking about in the interview is one he wrote for The Guardian.

Rooster/Paul’s hardwood business is now called Sedaris Floors, but it used to be called “Silly P’s” and had this weird cartoon possum (I think) as the mascot. My friend and I ordered tshirts and wore them to a David talk and signing. This was like 20 years ago. I think he liked the shirts. I don’t really remember..I drank a lot of wine that night.

I think some people also have a hard time understanding sarcasm, satire, hyperbole, snark, self deprecation, and humor in general.

Those people should just stick to watching shit things like Real Housewives, the Kardashians, and Honey Boo Boo as their main form of entertainment.

Anybody who uses the term ‘snark’ unironically is in no position to be lecturing the rest of us about comic writing.

Also, Honey Boo Boo? What is this 2013?

Shut up, David.

I don't want to watch the video, but I'm curious about Anderson's reaction to their comments about Tiffany's suicide, considering his brother also took his own life in a messy way.

[quote]Amy's book on entertaining is a classic

A friend is a devoted fan and he went to a book signing when this came out. You had to write out the name to whom you wanted Amy to inscribe and as she wrote her inscription she looked at him and smirked. When he got out of line he read what she wrote: "Your handwriting looks liker a serial killer's. Much luck in that and love, Amy." He was in heaven.

[quote] I don't want to watch the video, but I'm curious about Anderson's reaction to their comments about Tiffany's suicide, considering his brother also took his own life in a messy way.

There were times, during the interview, when Anderson looked at the two as if he couldn't understand them. That is my observation.

OTOH, when Anderson interviewed Ashley Judd (whose mother Naomi Judd died by suicide), it was a more simpatico reaction.

r90 Anderson is great buddies with Amy

r86 is quite limited

r91, fag + hag

R89 I hate to burst your friend's bubble but she wrote that in my sister's book too!

If I buy a house the Primary Bedroom is mine. (We stopped saying Master a long time ago dear, Slavery and all that).

We also can't say walk in closets for some reason.

It's ablist, R96.

I too have softened on my appreciation of David's writing, and his personality in general. But nothing made me laugh harder Barrel Fever and his play (staring Amy) One Woman Shoe.

R77 If he mentioned her being dirty, it was to paint a picture and to get to a funny point. If he was talking about her quirkiness and her odd behaviors, I don't think him saying that her house was dirty is a jab at her. Wasn't she an artist who worked in things she found in dumpsters? So she probably would agree with the dirty assessment. He puts himself down all the time, why would anyone escape that? For all anyone knows, she pushed them away long before they became weary of her. It's exhausting dealing with someone with mental illness and addiction issues.

As far as her friend writing an essay about her and how much he loathes David...well...who fucking cares? Her friend isn't a writer. David is. I lost a sibling myself and my sister and I joke about him a lot. He would think it was funny and I hope he would joke about me too. None of these fucking people knew their relationship and anyone who writes about Tiffany and brings up David, is some kind of starfucker themself. He was a fucking kid when she got sent to her boarding school, and she was sent at a time when that tough love shit was a big thing. It sounded like she ran away a lot and did a lot of drugs, that was never going to be a recipe for a long and successful life. When people commit suicide, it's very hurtful to those they leave behind, so tell her fucking friend that. How fucking obnoxious that some of her NA friends of a few years seem to think they have any right to judge these people they don't even know.

Now, to some funny, self deprecating David; I forget which book it was, but he was going to the dentist and the hygienist told him how many people think gap teeth are sexy and he said something about how he is able to floss with the sash of his robe and it's never gotten him laid, something like that. He is a consistently funny and intelligent writer and I imagine he's probably got a lot of personal demons, and the death of his sister is something that probably haunts him everyday.

Stand-up comics (and both David and Amy basically are) are almost never nice people. They're angry and narcissistic, which is why they become comics.

[quote] I hate to burst your friend's bubble but she wrote that in my sister's book too!

Actually, us friends already knew that!

Maybe it's because my dead sibling died from a fatal, congenital disease, but I really have no fucking patience for people who commit suicide, outside of a euthanasia scenario. My brother would have loved to have lived for 50 years, even if he had to do so with a mean sibling who wrote hurtful stories that said he was dirty or whatever.

R99- He is an elitist and brand whore- there is something very off putting about him... He would shop at Barneys in Boston when in town. I was told that he was nice. Look at him in his Marnie sweater in the interview about his dead mother and sister- There is something more than eccentricity with these two, but I am sure it is why they are successful.

[quote]Maybe it's because my dead sibling died

How long had your sibling been dead when he died?

Your sibling's particular situation has nothing to do with other people's choices to take their lives.

Not everything revolves around you.

r102 No one needs your patience. It's not your life.

Exactly R105. And not everything revolves around Tiffany. David was a gay kid in a time where it wasn't cool and quirky to be "queer" and it certainly wasn't a way to get social credit. He had his own shit going on, as everyone does. He didn't send her to the abusive boarding school, why is he expected to apologize for it, and how her life turned out?

R67 that book and essay was so dark. The father was really disturbing. I think Tiffany had Borderline personality disorder and the boarding school, father's super super creepiness and neglect by her mother clearly contributed to it. I didn't remember reading that she was the least favorite but I did sense a lot of neglect because by the time she was born her mother was definitely a full on alcoholic. I admit I love both of the Sedarises but Barrel Fever is not one I will read again.

R80 my favorite was when she suggested before company comes over to put marbles in the medicine cabinet so when guests predictably open it they will get a little surprise.

r99, I wish I could give you 1k wws. I've made several superficial posts here totally avoiding the subject of sibling loss, the least discussed grief, IMO.

To me this is an interview with 3 grieving siblings who have a common understanding of the profundity of losing both parents AND a sibling.

To OP and other shallow critics, how many of you have lost both parents and at least 1 sibling? Have you ever been to the morgue to identify a loved one? Have you ever changed you mother's diaper? STFU unless you've lived at least a part of these 3 HUMANS.

^And as far as the alleged "snobbery" . How the fuck can someone who was cleaning apartment in 1990, was a Sant elf, and picks up garbage as a hobby be considered a snob?He's picked up so much garbage that they named a garbage truck after him

r111 but is it daily?

I've never believed he writes a word of any of it. Amy just found a way to get him out of house cleaning. He just tours reading her stuff.

R113 And, your fanciful theory is based on....?

It’s written all over their faces, r114… plain as day.

[bold]#LockEmUp!

I have two signed books from Amy. The first was signed to my husband and me as “you silly faggots.” We died laughing.

I enjoy listening to David reading his stuff on audiobooks. His deadpan voice makes it funnier than just reading it. I never cared for Amy though. She is kind of obnoxious, even more so than David.

And no, I wouldn’t be eager to hang out with either of them.

I'm been a fan of Amy Sedaris for a long time, but like the above poster said I would never want to know her. I think she's one of those people where the old saying "never meet your idols" applies.

R28 You're INSANE. "At Home with Amy Sedaris" is hysterical.

R119 Did you watch Strangers with Candy? Do you think that it's hysterical? MORE hysterical? Not as hysterical?

Because Strangers with Candy is a brilliant comedy classic.

The home show thing was...meandering.

I find Amy funny for her outlandishness and quirkiness. I find David is funny for boring WASPY east coast NPR-listening types who need to get out more.

[quote] If he mentioned her being dirty, it was to paint a picture and to get to a funny point. If he was talking about her quirkiness and her odd behaviors, I don't think him saying that her house was dirty is a jab at her. Wasn't she an artist who worked in things she found in dumpsters? So she probably would agree with the dirty assessment.

R99, do younot understand that she told him specificallyically not to write about her and he did it, anyway? It certainly was a "jab" at her to say she was dirty. And no, sher didn't agree with his "assessment." Why are you making excuses for him at the expense of his dead sister?

And her friend is a writer.

*specifically

Laypeople fail to understand that many celebs are celebs because they're willing to "go there" in ways most people aren't.

[quote] I have two signed books from Amy. The first was signed to my husband and me as “you silly faggots.” We died laughing.

Really?

It strikes me on some level that they both think their mother dying was a bewilderingly “unnatural” tragic event but that their sister killing herself was one of life’s sad inevitabilities, which while respecting that grieving and the specificities of family life can only be understood and adjudicated up to a certain point by outsiders, does seem like a reversed set of beliefs. .

Perhaps these North Carolinians want to ensure they're seen as part of Southern Gothic canon by being so flawed and eccentric at the same time.

[quote] It strikes me on some level that they both think their mother dying was a bewilderingly “unnatural” tragic event

That was weird. Both of my parents died relatively young (but I was over 18 when each died). That's still the natural order of things. It was a head-scratcher the way that they considered the mother's death as something they could never get move past.

R126’s sentence ran so long she kicked off her commas. And the two periods at the end make me wonder if she’s still going on in some alternate universe, breathlessly bloviating.

She does voiceovers, too.

I've never found Amy funny (including Strangers with Candy) and the examples of her humor that people are giving here ("Take a chewed Ritz cracker from the roof of your mouth and place it on a fresh Ritz cracker," "you silly faggots," etc.) aren't changing my mind.

David was funny for a moment but he should have retired from the game a long time ago.

R127, they are North Carolinians only in that they lived for part of their adolescence in Raleigh. The Sedarises, with the exception of the youngest brother who still lives in Raleigh, are Northern transplants whose identities are wrapped up in being outsider transplants more than children of the South. Amy is a little more Southern because she’s younger but all of David’s writing is centered around how unlike is family was from all the other natives they lived among.

R131 I guess you wouldn't find jerry Blank being berated by her stepmom for using the guest towels to wipe her ass funny. That scene alone made the entire series historical for me.

Yeah, that Ritz cracker joke ... sad.

[quote]I guess you wouldn't find jerry Blank being berated by her stepmom for using the guest towels to wipe her ass funny.

Uh, no, and anyway she stole that from David.

R135 Uh, or maybe the "wiping ass on the towels" thing was something that actually happened in their family thus ok for both of them to use.

Since no one can relate to the whole boring, dead sibling stuff lets make a list of all the things that were supposed to be funny but were not, I'll start:

He drowned a mouse and wrote a story about it. How cruel!

He was horrible to the house guest who spoke better French than him, that was rude.

Smoking literally kills people, it's no joking matter.

What's with all the shopping, enough already. I'm tired of reading about it.

^And don't even get me started on the Ritz cracker story. Disgusting! The next thing you know you'll tell me she had special recipes for alcoholic guests as well as tips on how to remove urine stains from the couch.

Here's a hint for all of you trolls bitching about the Sedaris family: stop reading/watching them!

Problem solved!!!

Only on DL, a mostly bitchy gay website will you have threads devoted to bitching about people who are gay icons. You'd think we'd have dozens of threads gushing over the Sedaris family and Patti LuPone but instead we have endless threads about the wonders of very minor actor Ben Barnes.

I hate mice, so Team David for that incident.

[quote] Only on DL, a mostly bitchy gay website will you have threads devoted to bitching about people who are gay icons.

Gay icons? MARY, R140!

Prescious fans like r140 who refuse to see the whole of these people are [italic] exactly [/italic] why we're pissing on them. The fawning for David in particular is excessive.

r137 "I'm tired of reading about it. "

Who's forcing you to read anything? You bumped this thread, dumbass.

This thread sent me on a Tiffany sedaris deep dive and I found a few examples of her art, and it wasn’t the cringey nursing home arts and crafts level crazy person art I was expecting from David’s characterization. She was a genuinely gifted craftswoman with highly developed drawing skills.

She wasn’t as successful as her siblings but one the spectrum of human creative talents she was a gifted person. And he really can’t or won’t acknowledge that and yeah, it’s wierd.

^^ I guess I failed at obvious sarcasm. I thought the comment about being bored with the grief of sibling death would have been sufficient to indicate it.

Her obituary in the Somerville NJ paper. Weird Passive-Aggressive slam at the end that makes me think David wrote ir.

They're rather glib about the parental favoritism in the interview, especially given Tiffany was so mentally scarred by it.

R147, what's the passive-aggressive comment you're referring to? I couldn't see anything in that obit that seemed underhanded, etc.

r149

"Try stepping out on your back porch calling “Little Pants, Little Pants” and listen to the sound of your neighbors throwing the deadbolt."

[italic]“That life could at times be a whirlwind, the safe place was just off to the side where you could feel the breeze and enjoy the show, step into the eye and you could emerge a bit battered and dazed, yet a better person for having been there.”[/italic]

Thank you… I think.

So I guess this means that Tiffany was definitely the one wiping her ads with the towels?

Overrated. Both of them.. Sorry but Strangers with Candy was 25 years ago. And it wasn't great. Amy strikes me as another childless "bachelorette" who just hasn't "found the right man".

She's 63. She's a spinster, not a bachelorette.

They’re essentially a pair of low class cunts.

There’s always something in their stories that just makes me withdraw, and think, “Tacky!”

How wonderful they could turn their sisters suicide into a double Attention Whore moment!!. Too bad their houses didn't burn down in Pacific Palisades. They could have taken selfies of themselves strolling thru the rubble and discussing their how grateful they are their hideous mother didn't live to witness it.

Between these two and Andrew Sullivan, this griefy Anderson Cooper podcast series is a bit bizarre.

r153 "Sorry but"

You're sorry? Sorry for what?

[quote]this griefy Anderson Cooper podcast

Poor Anderson, it must be devastating to become an orphan at 52.

Someone should let Amy Sedaris be Mrs. Kravitz again

I don’t know much about David Sedaris but Strangers with Candy is one of the funniest things that’s ever been on TV

I stopped reading him when his stories turned into ugly animal stories. Stopped buying his books. I read the Tiffany story on a link here. He’s disgusting. I used to really like him a lot. Don’t miss him though. He can fuck off .

Two of my friends have been to dinner parties with David in NYC, and they both said that David was kind of a jerk, but they loved his partner, Hugh. They said that people tolerate David's bitterness because of his fame and because they love Hugh so much.

The sister who is in showbiz is a complete asshole. They act like they are some legendary family. They aren’t.

I think the rough aspect of these 2 is that in many ways they come off down to earth, but ultimately they are elitists- and snobs. They give themselves away with every 3rd sentence..

How about Tiffany never "found success" (meaning- money and fame--

And again, I hate that fucking B+ list NYC crew of Cohen/Cooper/SJP/Ripa, ect-- Just yuck.

Amy is on the fringes of that and I know that she was good friends with Todd Oldham (who truly seems like one of then kindest humans who ever lived- just a lovely man, by all accounts) So she cannot be 100% bad.

And I also loved her A&E ? show At Home WIth Amy Sedaris- it had some great moments-

I wonder if Amy and Todd are still close? He is a total sweetheart, and I feel like he would NOT like hanging out with Andi Coen.

R166 Most people have different groups of friends. Only in TV land do people only have ONE circle of friends.

R161 Comedy is VERY subjective; one person's 'funny' is another person's 'unfunny' but "Strangers with Candy" is a deal breaker for me. If you don't like it, there is something wrong with you and you need to stay the fuck away from me. (And, the opposite as well....if you like that awful "At Home w/Amy" show, which wasn't funny, then also stay away from me...)

In acting school we always learned comedy is much harder than drama. It’s super easy to make someone cry or scare them. Most people jump or cry over the same things, the same emotions. But a sense of humor is so particular, and changes depending on the culture, it’s much harder to get people to laugh.

B+ … Andy Cohen. I don’t think so.

I don't see David hanging with Andy Cohen.

I like David and Amy as far as their work goes, but I probably would not want to know them personally.

Let's put them in a gladiator fight with those horrible Dunnes AND release the lions to be rid of them.

I listened to this interview. They don’t sound the least bit cruel.

Tiffany has serious mental health issues and they recognized they were helpless.

They are monsters, pure and simple. You know it and I know it.

PS: from the stories I remember, their mom sounded like a brusque bitch. Don’t know why they idolize her.

The mom does sound like a nightmare, but I still laugh at David’s story about having to ask her for money to have his cat cremated. In the “FOR” line of the check, she wrote “CAT BURNING”..

R174 You sound crazy.

Like "you need to be locked up" crazy.

I think they both seem nicer in the interview than they do in David’s writing. It’s a painful and sad thing to know that someone you love cannot be saved.

It’s clear that the whole family is fucked up by the parents, who both seem to have been emotionally distant in different ways. And the kids reacted mostly by competing for mum’s approval and despising (the narcissistic, cruel and possibly abusive) dad. It’s interesting that David seems to have been hated by his father and regarded as a competitor, and Tiffany was unloved by her mother. I wonder if David and Tiffany could ever have had a healthy sibling relationship, given how differently they reacted to the withdrawal of parental affection. Tiffany reacted by removing herself from the family almost entirely, whereas David joined forces with his other siblings against his father and got his revenge by turning his father into a highly lucrative figure of ridicule in his writing.

The crucial factor was the fact that the other siblings adored their mother, so Tiffany was left without allies, whereas the other siblings were willing to be David’s allies against their dad.

I think Amy enjoys playing characters in real life and not just for television. I saw her dressed up in a bright yellow vintage raincoat and a 50s style dress strolling with a checkered umbrella up Madison Avenue window shopping. She had gloves on. She looked very nice, but definitely “in character”.