Chelsea Handler, known for her fearless and often outrageous antics, takes readers on a wild ride through her travels in her book, "Uganda Be Kidding Me." This uproarious collection of travel essays showcases Handler's signature wit and humor as she navigates various misadventures around the globe.
In "Uganda Be Kidding Me," the bestselling author of "Life Will be the Death of Me" sneaks her sharp wit through airport security and delivers absurdly hilarious stories. Wherever Chelsea Handler travels, one thing is certain: She always ends up in the land of the ridiculous. On safari in Africa, it's anyone's guess as to what's more dangerous: the wildlife or Chelsea. But whether she's fumbling the seduction of a guide by not knowing where tigers live (Asia, duh) or wearing a bathrobe into the bush because her clothes stopped fitting seven margaritas ago, she's always game for the next misadventure.
The situation gets down and dirty as she defiles a kayak in the Bahamas, and outright sweaty as she escapes from a German hospital on crutches. When things get truly scary, she knows she can rely on her family to make matters even worse. Thank goodness she has the devoted Chunk by her side-except for the time she loses him in Telluride.
A Fan's Perspective
As a reader who generally enjoys celebrity memoirs and humorous books, I approached "Uganda Be Kidding Me" with high expectations. I absolutely loved Tina Fey’s Bossypants and had a blast reading Mindy Kaling’s Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? and am still working on Grace Helbig’s Grace’s Guide: The Art of Pretending to be a Grown-Up. While I'm not the biggest fan of Chelsea Handler, I have enjoyed some of her previous work, including her standup performance of "Uganda Be Kidding Me: Live" on Netflix. In this uproarious collection of travel essays, the bestselling author of Life Will be the Death of Me sneaks her sharp wit through airport security and delivers absurdly hilarious stories.
Highlights and Lowlights
I did really enjoy the book - it was well-written and funny and I would definitely recommend it to someone if they were looking for something silly to read on vacation. My favorite part of this book was the beginning, when Chelsea was on safari in South Africa and Botswana - I loved reliving the memories of being on safari myself last spring.
Read also: Voice of Culture and Entertainment
Putting aside the stories of elephants and giraffes, however, I’m not really sure how I feel about the book. It may just be me, but I find Chelsea Handler’s humor just a tiny bit too crude. Chelsea Handler makes it very clear that she’s a party girl - she writes about smoking copious amounts of weed, being a “functioning” alcoholic, and sleeping around - but the way she composes herself just isn’t very classy. One of her sisters, at some point in the book, says something along the lines of “You have to understand. Honestly, my biggest problem with Chelsea Handler is not her partying or her un-classiness, she just genuinely doesn’t seem like a good person to me. She is pretty mean to her friends, she is unrelentingly selfish, and she is happy to act as if the world revolves around her.
Almost half the book is dedicated to a trip Chelsea takes in the wake of a serious breakup, where she treks to Africa with a group of girlfriends to go on safaris, meet handsome South African tour guides, and drink their way across the continent. It sounded fun, but reading about it wasn’t. Chelsea’s books have all consisted of short stories, so this extended look at a long trip was a bit dull; I wasn’t used to her writing commanding my attention for so long, and I felt like every other page was just her describing what she was drinking (and smoking). The rest of the book consisted of short stories of Chelsea’s travels, which I found much more entertaining, though she did seem to stretch the ‘travel’ theme a bit far, by delving into stories about the misbehaved dog she tried to adopt and the time her friend stole her car in Bel Air and then left her stranded in her mansion when all she wanted was a margarita. The stories were funny, but I felt like she could have made the book even more entertaining had she not tried doing the travel theme to begin with.
Handler's Humor and Persona
Handler talks about her run-ins with alcohol, drugs and wild animals. She does all of this while showing pictures on a big screen that go alone with what she’s saying. She talks about how her agent thinks that she can’t be trusted to do anything by herself and how embarrassing it was to open her bag next to a cute guy on a plane and having a bunch of meds fall out. Meds that are in questionable bottles and labeled very carefully. As if she would mix them up if they were actually in their original bottles. After talking about this Handler then proceeded to show the audience a picture of her naked with a few pills surrounding her.
My absolute favorite part involved some explosive diarrhea and a poor old man who had to witness the wonderful power of Chelsea Handler’s bowels. Basically Handler was on a beach in Hawaii in her bikini really early in the morning and her body decided that she was having way too much fun. Her bowels let the muddy waters flow and it got everywhere, it was probably just as bad as you think it was, and the story was amazing.
She comes off as self-centered, vulgar and massively immature in this book which I suspect was her intention. I enjoyed the first part of the book which is cringe-worthy but funny and the story of the repercussions of the African trip experienced during a morning swim in the Bahamas were probably the most vulgarly awful yet funny thing I've ever read. However, after that things kind of begin to wander. The trip to Switzerland had some pretty funny elements but didn't feel particularly well put together, the trip to Montenegro wasn't really even a story and the rest of the book felt like she had to write 75 more pages so she spent the time telling the reader how much money she had and that she liked to drink.
Read also: Used Vehicles in Uganda
Final Thoughts
Chelsea Handler is a narcissist, an alcoholic, and a totally dependent human being who writes books inviting people to laugh at her, and I do. I enjoy her books, but I certainly don’t pick one up expecting something fantastic or PG-rated: I’m just looking for something that will make me laugh.
Altogether, this book wasn’t horrible, but Chelsea has done a lot better, and I would recommend her first three books over this poor display. Handler graces the audience with nudity (a naked old man), profanity and everything else that you’d expect from her. She’s sarcastic, rude and mildly offensive. Which makes everything a whole lot funnier. Every time I watch her I pray that this woman is kidding, that she doesn’t actually do the things she says she does. But, judging by her Instagram pictures, she probably does.
Handler even mentioned that she’s probably too old to be doing the things she does. Which I kind of agree, but honestly, if she stopped, who else’s bad choices would I laugh at? Chelsea Handler should’ve probably taken a break from (or stopped) her antics a very long time ago. Does she remember that mess that was the VMAs when she hosted it? Her show was just her drinking and hanging out with people who were more famous than she was. She needs just take a small chill pill. But by all needs, Chelsea, if you feel the need to continue posting all of those pictures online, then please do so.
Everyone needs a good laugh in their lives and Handler seems more than willing to possibly ruin hers so that others can laugh for a few minutes. This is essentially Chelsea Handler's version of a travel book.
In general Handler's humor is centered less on the destination and more toward the nature of travel. She reminisces about the time she mistook shampoo for sunblock, and the problem of vacation weight gain. Along the way, Handler gets injured skiing, lost on a rendezvous with a boyfriend, thrown out of a famous restaurant, and does a riff on training a demon puppy. She's never dull.
Read also: Understanding Ugandan Politics
Would I Recommend this Book?: If you're a huge Chelsea Handler fan than read it.
Popular articles:
tags: #Uganda
