Naked in the Rideshare: Stories of Gross Miscalculations

by Rebecca Shaw, Ben Kronengold

Overview

From Rebecca Shaw and Ben Kronengold, the youngest comedy writers ever for The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon and masterminds behind the viral 2018 Yale graduation speech, comes a hilarious collection of short stories taking on coming-of-age, memes, sex, politics, relationships, and Goop, with satire, self-deprecation, and utter irreverence.

Showing off their trademark humor and writing chops that have made them a viral sensation, Rebecca Shaw and Ben Kronengold provide a collection of startlingly funny short stories that will keep readers laughing.

Naked in the Rideshare is a riotous collection of comedic short stories, bursting with the safe spaces, shrooms dealers, and Notes app apologies that define growing up right now. The essays take a drunken cannonball into this generation’s hopes and anxieties. A camp color war ends in ritual sacrifice. A twenty-something enters a sexual relationship with his childhood fairy god milf. A summit outside of space and time brings together a teen's selves from ages 1 to 81.

Irreverent, disturbing, and surprisingly rife with hope, Naked in the Rideshare aims to shine a light on the generation we can’t stop talking about—and all the ways we get them so wrong.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780063215795
Publisher:	HarperCollins
Publication date:	11/14/2023
Sold by:	HARPERCOLLINS
Format:	eBook
Pages:	288
Sales rank:	113,867
File size:	1 MB

About the Author

Rebecca Shaw is a comedy writer and director based in New York City. She graduated from Yale in 2018 and together with Ben Kronengold, she's writing for The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, a book for HarperCollins, and that funny thing your parents need you to explain to them.

Rebecca Shaw is a comedy writer and director based in New York City. She graduated from Yale in 2018 and together with Ben Kronengold, she's writing for The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, a book for HarperCollins, and that funny thing your parents need you to explain to them.

Ben Kronengold is a writer based in New York. He has written for The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon as well as the New Yorker and McSweeney's. He writes with his writing partner Rebecca Shaw, with whom he co-parents several elderly plants.

Ben Kronengold is a writer based in New York. He has written for The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon as well as the New Yorker and McSweeney's. He writes with his writing partner Rebecca Shaw, with whom he co-parents several elderly plants.

Pete Cross is an Earphones Award-winning narrator. He holds a BA in theater from the University of Toledo and an MFA in acting from the California Institute of the Arts. His experience on stage includes Carnegie Hall, and he has also acted in film. He has served on the faculty at Cal Arts and with Aquila Morong Studio in Hollywood. He has coached for film and theatrical productions and continues to work with private clients all over the world.

Mark Sanderlin is a talented voiceover artist who has worked on numerous audiobook projects.

Lisa Flanagan is a classically trained soprano, comedian, voice-over artist, and Earphones Award-winning narrator.

Oliver Wyman is an actor and award-winning audiobook narrator. He has won five Audie Awards from the Audio Publisher's Association, fourteen Earphone Awards, and two Listen Up Awards from Publisher's Weekly. He was named a 2008 Best Voice in Nonfiction & Culture by AudioFile magazine. He has appeared on stage as well as in film and television, and he is a veteran voice actor who can be heard in numerous cartoons and video games. He is one of the founders of New York City's Collective Unconscious theater, and his performances include the award-winning "reality play" Charlie Victor Romeo and A. R. McElhinney's cult classic film A Chronicle of Corpses.

Editorial Reviews

“Ben and Rebecca’s collection of shorts is incredibly original, bizarre, and funny. Each one is distinct and yet reflects their collective genius as writers who are daring and ahead of the curve.”  — Will Ferrell

“Voices of their generation. Except for Greta Thunberg. And Malala. Amanda Gorman . . . you know what, I take it back.” — Jimmy Fallon

"I love this brilliant debut collection from two hilarious, and let’s face it, strange minds. It was such a joy to read!" — Mindy Kaling

“Ben and Rebecca give brilliant voice to their generation. It’s a generation that needs to be loved, and made fun of, and these two do both in the equal measure. They have no right to be this funny and wise at their age, but isn’t that the problem with their generation? So I guess what I’m saying is that they are the problem. And perhaps the problem is the solution? Bottom line is there are very funny writers and I wish they had punched up this blurb.” — Nick Kroll

"Comedy gold. An entertainingly zany collection of sketches poking fun at the foibles of contemporary life at every age." — Kirkus Reviews

From the Publisher

Ben and Rebecca’s collection of shorts is incredibly original, bizarre, and funny.”

actor Will Ferrell

2023-10-13
Two comic writers join forces in this collection of satirical scenarios and verses.

Dynamic duo Shaw and Kronengold met at Yale in 2014. Since then, they’ve become a sensation as the youngest-ever writers for the Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon. Their debut volume assembles an array of pieces separated into the stages of human life, from childhood through college and adulthood. An immediate standout is the opening story, “We Have Your Son,” in which a youth kidnapping-and-ransom operation is hilariously hijacked by indifferent parents (“Keep him!”). Throughout, it’s clear that the authors consistently let their imaginations run wild. Some pieces are effervescently silly (“Dr. Seuss Teaches Safe Sex”); some are freeform and whimsical; others are more creatively inspired glimpses into unwieldy fantasies and modern dilemmas of postgraduate life. The authors are particularly successful in their portrayal of adolescence, from melodramatic dispatches from summer camp and a horror satire featuring a courageous girl who finds herself in Hell, which she recognized “because it was very hot and ‘Moves Like Jagger’ was playing on a loop.” Some of the collection’s more personal pieces are also the most engaging and memorable, including “College Stories Fact Check,” in which the authors share amusing memories from their time together as Yale students; others include a transcript of text conversations with their drug dealer and an assessment of their shared experience in Hollywood as “skilled practitioners of asskissery.” The text contains more than 30 stories, perhaps best read over numerous sittings. In any such book, a few pieces fall flat, but each one contains at least some flashes of comic brilliance, making it clear this is a hyper-creative pair with immense potential. Saturated with creative energy and a healthy funny bone, these stories are comedy gold.

An entertainingly zany collection of sketches poking fun at the foibles of contemporary life at every age.

Kirkus Reviews