B. J. Novak — hilarious actor, scribe and co-executive producer behind The Office — has unleashed his first children’s book onto the world. And, if this recording of him absolutely killing it in front of a crowd of elementary schoolers is any indication, it’s destined to be a classic.
In an interview with Vanity Far, Novak explains that he wrote The Book With No Pictures because he wanted to get a laugh from kids. And he wanted to do it by forcing parents (or babysitters, or siblings, or friends, or teachers) to say ridiculous nonsense words that made them sound silly. Kids love it when adults sound silly.
And it worked. It worked so well, in fact, that his words nearly inspired a child riot at the reading you see excerpted above.
At the school that the reading was at [in the trailer]—it’s a very orderly school. They had to calm the kids down after I read the line “Boo Boo Butt.” We had to cut like 60 seconds out of the tape, because they’re going crazy. They’re practically running around. They had to do a whole ritual of “1, 2, 3, shhh” to quiet them back down. After it was all done, they had a very orderly way to get the kids out, in line, and back to their classrooms. But one tiny little five-year-old African American girl just bursts out and ran out of the line, hugged me and pointed at me and said “You are hilarious.” And that’s been the highlight so far.
Almost makes a lady want to borrow a child for a day.
