It’s fair to say that Seth Rogen’s memoir radiates off shelves. It’s hard to look away from its bright blue package with red-aqua text that vibrates from its surface. Take off the dust jacket and there’s another layer — a bubblegum pink cover with a grid of illustrations. They’re the characters of an exciting life that you’ve yet to be introduced to. This is Seth Rogen’s Yearbook.
Yearbook does have everything you’d expect from an actor and writer who recently launched his own weed-focused lifestyle brand. This book is nothing short of a buddy telling you the funniest stories. Which is why — A+ aesthetics aside — the best way to consume Yearbook is in audiobook form. It’s best to hear these tales from the man himself. And his parents. And famous friends like Nick Kroll, Simon Helberg, Jason Segel, and more. An audible description boasts to feature over eighty voices, which sounds like a perfectly chaotic format for the ride Rogen brings his audience on.
Each tale, shroom trip, and debacle is made hilarious by the cast of characters teased on the book’s cover. Friends from growing up in Vancouver, counselors from Jewish summer camp, Nicholas Cage, and the Mohel who asked fourteen-year-old Rogen to ghost write jokes for him. Wait, that last one wasn’t on your Seth Rogen memoir bingo card? Mine either.
Of course, there are lots of anecdotes from Rogen’s famous comedies like Superbad and This is the End. Fans will also be delighted to finally get the story behind that infamous movie, The Interview, or rather, that time Seth and his creative partner Evan made a movie that caused North Korea to threaten the United States. Obama even got involved. It was a whole thing.
If you came to this book looking for stories that are familiar, weed-laced, and have a healthy dose of raunchiness, that’s definitely what you get. Yearbook is the chance of a lifetime to get a front row seat to the shenanigans of Seth Rogen in all his forms.
Emily Marinoff is a culture writer and audio producer. Her writing has appeared in Roads & Kingdoms and Buzzfeed, and she currently makes podcasts at iHeartMedia. She is especially enthusiastic about bread making.