Book Club Guide: Stop Me If You've Heard This One by Kristen Arnett
Check out our Book Club Discussion Guide for Stop Me If You've Heard This One by Kristen Arnett, including an exclusive author interview!
Stop Me If You’ve Heard This One, is a book that asks, if there’s no joy, then what’s the point? It follows Cherry Hendricks, a professional clown who creates raucous, zany fun at gigs all over Orlando. Between her clowning and her shifts at an aquarium store for extra cash, she’s always hustling. Add in her judgmental mother, a messy love life, and a chaotic community of fellow performers, and you’ve got a wild ride. It’s is a story about using humor to process grief, and about the importance of creating spaces where we can find support and safety with one another."
“As much heart, humor, and gritty realness as can fit between two covers.” – People
Stop Me If You’ve Heard This One is a masterpiece of comedic fiction that asks big questions about art and performance, friendship and community, and the importance of timing in jokes and in life. Kristen writes that grief and joy are just opposite sides of the same coin, and her book truly gives readers the space to step into both.
Book Club Discussion Guide
“Sweet, sexy, sad, articulate, and funny.” – Vogue
Discussion Questions
“Clowning is an excuse to make everyday life wildly, luxuriously absurd.
1. This book is all about clowning! What parts did you find the funniest? Did the book ever make you laugh out loud? Where?
2. What type of humor do you typically enjoy? Slapstick, dark humor, dry humor, puns?
3. Have you ever seen a clown perform? Did you ever have a fear of clowns as a child? As an adult?
4. On the topic of humor, where do you think the line is in using humor to process grief vs using humor to deflect? Is there a line? What’s the role of humor in your own life?
We DIY our own places here because if we don’t, we wouldn’t have any.
5. Cherry talks a lot about loving and living in a place that is determined not to love her back. Can you ever belong somewhere that feels actively hostile towards you? How do we build our own safe havens?
6. Cherry often seems to be talking directly to the reader. Do you enjoy this type of second-person POV? Is cherry performing all the time, even for us as readers?
Reflect on this line “If there’s no joy, then what’s the point?”
Exclusive Author Interview with Kristen Arnett
Where did your research on clowning take you? Were you ever scared of clowns as a kid?
Kristen: Truly, it took me all over the place! I’m a librarian and if there’s one thing I really love, it’s research. Every novel project I’ve ever undertaken has meant that I spent a good chunk of my time deep-diving into whatever topic I’m currently obsessing over. In the case of STOP ME IF YOU’VE HEARD THIS ONE, it meant that I spent a huge amount of time immersed in the world of clowning. I watched a ton of YouTube videos – greasepaint application, clothing hacks, miming, balloon animal craft – and I looked up a lot about the history of clowning. I wanted to know so much about it that it felt completely natural to write from the perspective of a person who’s been performing for literally years. It also was completely fortuitous that while I was in the process of writing this novel, the world clown association had their annual meet up in Orlando, which is where I live! I can tell you that I’m not somebody who has ever been afraid of clowns, although I understand that many people are – for very good reason! There’s a lot of spooky clown stuff out there. Growing up, I actually had clown paintings in my bedroom. My first toy as a child was a little stuffed clown that I named “Mustard” because he had bright yellow hair.
Do you ever laugh at your own jokes while writing?
Kristen: Oh my God, of course I do! Whenever I’m writing, I am thinking about my audience – and my audience, for at least the first draft, is exclusively myself. It’s just me and the page, figuring stuff out. I delight in making jokes that tickle my own funny bone. That’s the thing about comedy: if it’s not funny for you, then why even do it in the first place? Making jokes feels like a brain exercise to me; an especially good one where I truly give my mind a hardcore workout. It’s fun to see how many ways you can tell a joke and still glean some fun from it. I make myself laugh every single day!
We’re all feeling a lot of dread and anxiety these days. What’s a piece of funny media you’ve watched recently or return to whenever you need a laugh—book, movie, or show?
Kristen: Oh boy! I really love a lot of things! There are a ton of funny movies that just consistently make me laugh. One is DROP DEAD GORGEOUS, which is a movie about a beauty pageant in Minnesota that’s filmed like a faux documentary. Everyone in it is hilarious. If I want to watch some classic funny TV, I’ll throw on something like 30 Rock, or Arrested Development, or Party Down, or even The Office. I feel like I can sense the writer’s room in those shows, and I’m always thinking about how fun it must have been for them all to get together and just crack each other up. Abbott Elementary is a recent really feel-good pick, I think. I always enjoy that show; there’s always a bit in there that makes me laugh. Principal Ava is hysterical, I think she gets all the best bits.
It feels very timely to be discussing the concept of building safe havens and ‘DIY spaces,’ though for many communities, this is nothing new. Do you have any advice for people, like Cherry, who find themselves in places that seem increasingly not to love them back? How do we build our own safe havens?
Kristen: I think it’s important to get involved in whatever way you can in your community – and a good way to dip your toe into the water, so to speak – is to consider what you genuinely love and treasure. Do you love reading and books? You can join library boards or volunteer with friends of the library, you can join book clubs, you can attend locally held readings or poke around at your independent bookstore and see what all is going on. If anyone will know, it’s a bookseller! There are a million and one ways to get involved. Volunteer opportunities abound. I think sometimes we can let ourselves believe totally in what we see in the media: “I live in a red state, so there’s nothing there for me,” we might tell ourselves, but the reality is that there are probably already a lot of groups out there already doing something! It simply requires seeking those people and places out. Just join in, don’t be shy. You don’t have to invent the wheel. Simply hop on board the buggy that’s already running.
Do you always have a clown nose with you now?
Kristen: Honestly? Yes, I do! Isn’t that hilarious??
Extension Activities
So much of this book revolves around performance. Try a game of bookish charades as an icebreaker. Or try this fishbowl version.
Kristen hosts a column on Lit Hub, “Am I the Literary Asshole?” where she drinks a bottle of wine and answers reader’s awkward questions about bad bookish behavior. Crack open a bottle (or two) of wine and let the conversation flow! Sometimes the best discussions are about books you HATED. You could even talk about some of the questions she answers in her column. What do you think? Is reading a competition? How many literary nemeses is too many literary nemeses?
Drawing on the theme of humor & laughter, host a white elephant book swap. Have each member bring a funny or gag book for the swap.
Of course, you can always invite the author to visit your book club and answer any burning questions you may have! If you invite Kristen, make sure to have your red clown noses ready!