SantaLand Diaries by David Sedaris: Book Review
🇺🇸U.S. humor vs. 🇬🇧UK humor
Part 1: My take on this book
Look, I fucking love David Sedaris. I really do. He is so much fun to listen to if you’ve ever heard his standup material.
David, if you’re reading this, let’s hang out. I’m up for a cuppa anytime.
His work tends to stay in the American style, but actually he has lived for a long time in the UK, which makes him a very interesting subject for this US vs. UK humor book study (more on that in part 2).
Also, as Pride Month is coming up in a few days, let me just say that I appreciate all of you lovely readers for voting for a gay author to study at this time of the year. 😊 I absolutely love how cute David and his partner are together:
Now this book kicks off with David’s insider scoop on what it’s like to be hired as one of Santa’s elves at the main New York City Macy’s department store, which is the kind of job that no one really wants since you’re basically just one of Santa’s little bitches…and you have to love all these screaming kids…but hey, sometimes you just need the money.
My biggest disappointment is that there was no photo of David dressed up in his old Elf costume in this book.
However, I consoled myself with these images:
On the left is David in “normal/nice” attire vs. the actor who played him in this role when they adapted this book into a play.
My favorite bits were:
From page 13:
My costume is green. I wear green velvet knickers, a yellow turtleneck, a forest-green velvet smock, and a perky stocking cap decorated with spangles. This is my work uniform.
My elf name is Crumpet. We were allowed to choose our own names and given permission to change them according to our outlook on the snowy world.
Today was the official opening day of SantaLand and I worked as a Magic Window Elf, a Santa Elf, and an Usher Elf. The Magic Window is located in the adult Quick Peep' line. My job was to say, 'Step on the Magic Star and look through the window, and you can see Santa!'
I was at the Magic Window for fifteen minutes before a man approached me and said, "You look so fucking stupid.'
I have to admit that he had a point. But still, I wanted to say that at least I get paid to look stupid, that he gives it away for free. But I can't say things like that because I'm supposed to be merry.
So instead I said, 'Thank you!'
"Thank you!' as if I had misunderstood and thought he had said, 'You look terrific.'
The whole thing is an honest take of the absurdities that come with ushering children and others up to see the man who can supposedly “give you anything you ever wanted” …and also happens to promote the Macy’s store he works in at the same time.
The creme de la creme for me was on page 21:
I spent a few hours in the Maze with Puff, a young elf from Brooklyn. We were standing near the Lollipop Forest when we realized that Santa is an anagram of Satan. Father Christmas or the Devil — so close but yet so far. We imagined a SatanLand where visitors would wade through steaming pools of human blood and feces before arriving at the Gates of Hell, where a hideous imp in a singed velvet costume would take them by the hand and lead them toward Satan.
This book had a collection of 6 stories, the longest one being the SantaLand Diaries, which was probably my favorite. Go read it; you’ll love it.
Part 2: How U.S. comedy differs from U.K. comedy
With examples from Hitchhiker’s Guide & The SantaLand Diaries
To see the original inspiration for this list of comparisons, you can go to my last post on “The Restaurant at the End of the Universe” by Douglas Adams here.
🏆 Main characters in U.S. comedies are meant to succeed.
American comedies typically end on the note of a happily ever after.
This is exactly the opposite of U.K. comedies in which the main character is meant to fail, according to Stephen Fry’s summaries I discussed in the last post.
Looking at forum discussions about this, it’s funny to me that different cultures have very different definitions of the word failure though.
The common American view is that if you didn’t reach your goal, no matter wild that goal was, you have failed…even if you still have food, shelter, and supportive people around you…oh no, none of that matters because you have failed to reach your goal and be the best.
🤦♀️After living outside of the U.S. for a decade, I can honestly tell you that other countries consider that viewpoint as insane.
Even though bad things do happen to main characters in U.S. comedies, these characters never lose everything. There is a reassurance that they will always find a way to through it somehow.
In all of David’s stories, it all ends up alright in the end (mostly). At the very least, you can say that most of the main characters got their goals.
**David has moved to England, so some of his tastes do veer off of the traditional American spins into UK humor territory.**
Breakdown of outcomes for each of Sedaris’ 6 stories in this book:
In “SantaLand Diaries,” he’s an elf – which feels shitty – BUT at least he has a job, gets paid, and isn’t fired. (overall = good ✅)
In “Season’s Greetings!!!” the main character’s family faces murder charges, but the irony is that they pretend they are strongly keeping up their spirits while expecting people to come testify for them in their upcoming trial. (overall = good✅, as long as they get a good lawyer – after, all that’s the good American way. 😉)
In “Dinah, the Christmas Whore” the main character, young David, discovers that what brings him joy is being the only family in the neighborhood to have a whore in their kitchen on Christmas 😂…and purely to be kind to her with no sexual favors involved. (has family around, safe environment, food, money … overall = good✅)
In “Thaddeus Bristol,” it’s a running commentary of a children’s Christmas pageant, with no big change in the main character’s circumstances. (overall = good✅)
In “Based Upon A True Story” the protagonist is loaded with cash and surely going to get someone to give him a juicy story for his Christmas special (overall = good✅)
In “Christmas Means Giving,” the protagonists are winning at being the most generous couple ever while giving away everything they have. Here’s where David subverts the trope because they win by fucking themselves over…but still, they get what they want, so it’s overall positive vibes for satirical comedy. Here he manages to satisfy both the criteria for UK & US comedies, so bonus points to David 🇬🇧🇺🇸👏.
Verdict: American protagonists tend to get their goals in comedies.
❌By comparison:
Look at Arthur Dent in Hitchhiker’s again. He lost his entire planet and everyone he knew except for 2 people, one of which isn’t human. He has no job, no extraordinary skills, no savings or anything of real value in his possession, no clever comebacks or genius ideas, no big hopes, nor plans for the future…
In fact, Douglas Adams admitted in an interview that he named him “Arthur Dent” because he is a literal DENT.
He exists for everything else to crash into.
💯 Main characters in US comedies tend to have at least 1 strongly positive trait: Wealth, confidence, power, adaptability, or likeability.
Looking back on Sedaris’ stories, 3 of them feature wealthy characters and families. The other have people we can root for because they’re simply very hilarious to listen to.
Also, you don’t see David Sedaris wondering about whether or not he can “pull off” being an elf. He has at least a baseline level of confidence to do his job fairly well.
A completely self-deprecating elf who thinks he is surely the worst elf Macy’s has ever hired, and then goes on to accidentally burn down the whole store…now THAT would be more like UK humor.😂
🥇My addition: American comedy has main characters with big goals
British characters like Arthur Dent just want to be comfortable.
In Hitchhiker’s, no one achieves their goals, nor do they have big goals other than to survive, generally. Even though Arthur does get back to the previous version of Earth millions of years ago, it only depresses him because there is nothing there he recognizes, nor any amenities or intelligent civilization to make him feel happy. There are no pubs, no football, no people asking why about anything! 😂
In David Sedaris’ stories like “Dinah the Christmas Whore,” their goal is to save Dinah and give her a nice, safe Christmas. Each of the other characters tend to have if not very big goals, at least clear goals. You could say that goal-driven characters are very much at the heart of all American mainstream fiction.
This also plays into the final difference…
😂😬Americans resist laughing AT themselves.
Whereas UK characters have no trouble laughing at themselves, Americans would rather laugh at others and tend to take offense if others laugh at them, rather than embracing it.
Clearest example of this:
In the movie “Funny People” with Adam Sandler & Seth Rogan, Adam plays a successful comedian coaching the new guy, and one of the first pieces of advice he gives him is:
Stop saying jokes about having a small dick. How do you expect to get laid like that?
Ironically, this coincides well with Stephen Fry’s point that:
The American hero can wise-crack their way out of any situation; they win the girl; they’re smarter; they’ve got the biggest “knob” in the room…
Here in David Sedaris’ book, the main characters are not the butt of most of the jokes…EXCEPT for the elf, so once again, David twisted the tropes to cover both US & UK styles here. 👏
You could sum it up by saying:
Coming back to this video with Stephen Fry, there were more points on this I have to share: (click to watch it if you didn’t see it in the last post)
Traditionally publishing satire in the US is harder than in the UK.
I wrote a satire and an agent kindly replied to me that she didn’t know of anyone who published satire. There’s just not as much of it in America as there is in the UK. And what satire there is in America is so incredibly slapstick that sometimes when watching Saturday Night Live or something like it, it’s as if they’re acting for toddlers who’ve had so much sugar to eat that they can’t look at anything for more than 30 seconds.
This is also why UK people think Eleanor Oliphant was brilliantly funny but a lot of Americans were too disturbed at Eleanor’s behavior and mental-health-related issues to laugh at the situations she was in.
Commenters to that video said it well like this:
British Humour is about self-deprication
American Humour is about self-agrandisement
Other commenters on this video pointed out very well these differences when they said:
You know why we (Americans) don’t like to make ourselves the butt of a joke, its because of the “protagonist” culture we have in America. Everybody here wants to be the leader, the boss of things, we’re a proud people, where as the British are more low key, kinda fly under the radar type of people. They’re not as flamboyant as Americans, we’re also dumb and ignorant most of the time, and we can do ourselves some good to admit that. And the Brits say that all the time, and with all that is happening in America right now I agree, and I’m American, Puerto Rican American.
‼️ BUT – Seinfeld was the biggest exception to most American comedies.
It was a show about nothing.
Everyone else always writes a show about something. But we’re doing a show about nothing!
Nothing happens…(in other words, even though people are going places and doing things and arguing and fighting, etc., there is no big obvious end point where everyone lives happily ever after or dies or gets everything they want or learns any lesson.)
In fact, Seinfeld goes rather out of its way to ensure that none of the main characters change or learn any significant lesson at all.
There’s not even a comic hero’s journey because there are no heroes. Only villains, in a way. No one is saved. If anything, their lives tend to get worse.
It’s a series of coincidences that makes a circle (where it all lines up in totally bizarre ways). The show tends to start using a very common scenario that many people can relate to and THEN takes it WAY out of context.
Basically Seinfeld is a cast of static characters (all with negative arcs) who are always fighting with the world around them...only to get rejected by their world in the end for being too selfish.
In fact, you could even say that they were the laziest villains in history, with no overarching plan to take over the world or anything, but just people bumbling about who accidentally (& sometimes intentionally) destroy the lives of everyone around them.basically a cast of static characters (all with negative arcs) who are always fighting with the world around them...only to get rejected by their world in the end for being too selfish.
“No hugs, no learning” policy = no one is ever really redeemed or wins love or learns how to be a better person (nor apologizes).
For more on Seinfeld analysis, go here:
Seinfeld himself: (from Seinfeld how to write a joke)
Pick something that’s funny to you
Explain in context why it’s funny to you (here start to argue with it, debate it)
Make outrageous comparison (“isn’t that like saying…?”)
Build it out into a story that pulls people in
Make wild connections
Put the best moment at the end (the wronger it seems, the better it is) (highlight inappropriate & undeserving subjects)
Bonus: I’ve seen BOTH UK & US comedies do these things:
When confronted with problems, rather than trying to solve them or reflect on how to change themselves & become better people…
The character will:
Blame it on someone else
Run away from it
Ignore it
Give up finding an answer eventually when it’s too difficult
Update: Psst…I have news. Long after I wrote this post, I finally launched a Cozy Sci-Fi Comedy series on another section of my Substack, and it has a strong U.K.-humour slant! If you loved Dirk Gently, HHGTTG, or characters who tend to only save themselves by accident at best, then check this out:
