Pure Innocent Fun by Ira Madison III

Thank you to NetGalley for the eARC!

I’ve been a fan and listener of Ira Madison III’s podcast Keep It! for a long time, so when I heard he was putting out a book of essays I knew that I had to jump on it. While I’m a Millenial/Gen Z cusper, I’m also Canadian, so our pop culture is skewed a bit behind the Americans so a lot of the ‘90s pop culture references that he makes resonate with me. That and I’m known to have made a bit of a study of pop culture from the ‘60s to now.

Through this series of essays, Ira tells us about different media properties that have meant a lot to him through his life – from TV shows, movies, to music, we’re brought on a nostalgic ride through the ‘90s and early ‘00s. Having not been alive enough to catch a lot of these things live, I was entertained by his insights and commentary on the pop culture landscape of the day and how it connected to his adolescence as the fat, gay Black kid at his very white high school.

That said, I felt that there was very little insight into Ira himself through the essays. I really didn’t learn anything that I didn’t know from the podcast, and what he did share of himself was very surface level to explain why he connected to a piece of media. While the insights into the piece of media were very thoughtful and interesting, it lacked a deeper level for me that kept me from giving this five stars.

“The second thing ABBA and Survivor have in common is that both value the art of war.”