You can do it! Speak your mind, America

Former SNL star Schneider aims for George Carlin--esque in his first book, an excruciating foray into truth to power comedy that gets bogged down by buzzwords and lands firmly in the realm of abrasive memes. As Schneider runs through a litany of grievances and conspiracies that have rippled across America since the Covid-19 pandemic, there are occasional bright spots, such as his anecdotes about other comedians--Jim Downey, Adam Sandler, Lenny Bruce--and about his time spent on various shoots and sets, all of which are enjoyable, if brief. The remainder of the book is spent punching down and dwelling on culture war minutiae that has long felt dated. Cognitive dissonance abounds as Schneider portrays Democrats as closed-minded moralists, unlike himself: bodily autonomy is sacred and should be celebrated for the vaccine skeptical, but not for transgender Americans; the science is settled on gender, but more research is still necessary on climate change. Elsewhere, Schneider rails against late night talk-show hosts, hammering them for partisan clannishness in their show-opening monologues, yet he sees no problem resorting to the same kind of trite in-group terminology ("SCAMdemic" and "DEI"). In parroting right-wing talking points--especially those about freedom of speech and freedom of thought--Schneider merely demonstrates a lack of originality. This bombs. (Sept.)

A conservative-leaning comedian andSaturday Night Live alum thunders about the loss of free speech in "woke" America. "I am a traditional Liberal, which, apparently, makes me a right-wing fascist now!" Schneider writes. When, for example, he spoke out against the Covid-19 vaccine mandates in 2021, he says, liberal media outlets made him out to be "dangerous," but "no one in media dared call those Democrat vaccine skeptics antivaxxers like soon-to-be vice president and antivaxxer-while-Trump-is-president, Kamala Harris." (Harris in fact said while campaigning that she wouldn't necessarily trust Trump's assurances about the rapidly developed vaccine but would trust a "credible" source that vouched it was safe.) Schneider also found himself targeted for holding controversial opinions on transgender surgeries for children, which he likens to a radical form of gay conversion therapy except "at least ten thousand times worse." He praises conservative Blacks such as SCOTUS member Clarence Thomas and economist Thomas Sowell, shaking his head because asking "inconvenient questions of the 2020s government" gets them branded as "race traitors." The comedian suggests that for these and similar views on the "scamdemic" and the unnecessary alarmism about global warming, he has become much like his stand-up idol, Lenny Bruce: a performer blackballed by mainstream late-night shows because "they don't want an opposing point of view." Schneider buttresses his views by citing historical events as examples of the government's "sociopathic behavior," such as the "Tuskegee Experiment," in which the U.S. Public Health Service infected unsuspecting black men with syphilis for 40 years, and a CIA program that administered LSD "to unwitting subjects in social situations"--though it's not clear what these cases have to do with the current federal government urging people to get vaccinated. "Dissentis democracy.Not allowing dissent is tyranny," Schneider concludes. Readers need not care for his confrontational style to agree with that statement. Provocative reading that will no doubt appeal to Schneider's fans. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.