In this nostalgic and raucous collection of sixteen original essays, Ira Madison IIIcritic, television writer, and host of the beloved Keep It podcastcombines memoir and criticism to offer a brand-new pop-culture manifesto. This is the most fun Ive had reading all year. Like Chuck Klosterman before him, Ira Madison III takes seriously and analyzes the pop culture detritus that took up hours of our lives.Lin-Manuel Miranda You can recall the first TV show, movie, book, or song that made you feel understoodthat shaped how you live, what you love, and whom you would become. It gave you an entire worldview. For Ira Madison, that book was Chuck Klostermans Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs, which cemented the idea that pop culture could be a rigorous subjectand that, for better or worse, it shapes all of us. In Pure Innocent Fun , Madison explores the key cultural moments that inspired his career as a critic and guided his coming of age as a Black gay man in Milwaukee. In this hilarious, full-throttle trip through the 90s and 2000s, he recounts learning about sex from Buffy the Vampire Slayer; facing the most heartbreaking election of his youth (not George W. Bushs win, but Jennifer Hudson losing American Idol); and how never getting his drivers license in high school made him just like Cher Horowitz in Clueless : a virgin who cant drive. Brimming with a profound love for a bygone culture and alternating between irreverence and heartfelt insight, Pure Innocent Fun , like all the best products of pop culture, will leave you entertained and surprisingly enlightened.
