How I Escaped My Certain Fate – Stewart Lee

Lee is the best stand-up working today by some distance. His shtick is to begin a riff and then take a step back and pontificate on the meaning of the routine and a dissection of its mechanisms. It sounds academic and dry, but I find it hysterical.

This strange book takes things to yet another level of meta. Most of the book is taken up by a transcript of three separate routines annotated by absurdly extended footnotes, so we get an analysis of already self-conscious art that is simultaneously hilariously funny. Terrific.

If you don’t know Lee’s work, this might give you some idea what he’s about: