An intimate, rollicking highly-visual memoir of a comedic genius that offers a rare glimpse into the creative life and inner workings of legendary director producer Judd Apatow through never-before-seen photos, letters and behind-the-scenes stories “Judd Apatow has put together an amazing scrapbook of his life and career. The best part? There’s a lot of pictures. And the stuff that isn’t pictures? You don’t even have to look at!”—Adam Sandler In the mid-eighties, a young, self-professed comedy nerd from Syosset, Long Island, named Judd Apatow took to the stage to perform his first standup routine—and survived. Over the coming decades, Apatow would translate his obsession for comedy into one of the most successful careers in Hollywood, through genre-defining films such as The 40-Year-Old Virgin, Knocked Up, Bridesmaids, and This Is 40 and iconic series such as Girls and Freaks & Geeks. Through his solo work as well as his collaborations with fellow comedians Steve Carrell, Adam Sandler, Amy Schumer, and countless others, Apatow reshaped the landscape of American comedy. In this revelatory scrapbook memoir, Apatow has pulled hundreds of personal photographs, letters, scripts, drafts, and paired them with never-before-told stories to create a unique-in-format, deeply-personal-in-tone account of a storied career. Spanning decades, Comedy Nerd takes us on Apatow’s lifelong journey of fandom, creativity, and obsession: from the exacting, relentless work that goes into cracking people up; surprising stories about our favorite comedians; and insights into how Apatow has managed to push the limits of his craft in an ever-evolving cultural landscape. It is a candid, joyful, and fascinating portrait of an artist and storyteller who has spent decades making us laugh.

ジャド・アパトーという男の人生は、純粋な「推し」の精神が創造性と結実した奇跡の記録です。本書は単なる成功者の回顧録ではなく、少年時代の熱狂からハリウッドの寵児となるまでの過程を、未公開写真や生々しい脚本を通じて追体験させる、極めてパーソナルな「情熱の考古学」といえます。 特筆すべきは、彼のコメディに対する求道者的な姿勢です。笑いという儚い現象を構築するために、どれほどの緻密な計算と執念が注がれているのか。ファンとしての純粋な愛がいかにして時代を規定する表現へと昇華されるのか、その本質を突く本書は、全ての表現者に勇気を与える聖典となるでしょう。