I have always loved the Airplane movies, so I was excited to read this book. The book is structured like an interview, which was fun. Numerous photos and quotes are included. The authors did a great job, and the book makes me want to check out the movie series again!

This book was so fun! I’ve seen Airplane! countless times, and it never gets old or less funny. Reading about the making of it was a pleasure. And naturally, I want to watch the movie again.
Thanks to #netgalley and #stmartinspress for this #arc of #surelyyoucantbeserious in exchange for an honest review.

More like 3.5. Airplane is one of the best movies ever made. The book should have been a little more than it was.

This isn’t really an oral history of the movie, it’s more of a history of ZAZ (Zucker, Abrahams, Zucker), and an analysis of the movie itself. It takes awhile to get going, and it’s not a linear timeline, but when they talk about Airplane, it’s always worth the wait. I enjoyed learning about the creators and how they got to make the movie. I also enjoyed learning from other people, where it fits in both movies and comedy, but I would have loved more about the movie. How about a sequel guys?

If you like the movie and want all the dirty details, this isn’t your book. If you love the movie and want to know how it got here and why, this is for you. I’d recommend it.


Thanks NetGalley for the ARC. All opinions are my own.

(Posted on Goodreads. Will post to Amazon and B&N when allowed by them closer to publication date)

This is an interesting journey with three talented comic about the creation of the classic comedy from 1980. The title is slightly misleading as the actual making of the film takes up about 20 - 50% of the book. The rest is a narrative of how the three came together in Milwaukee to found a theatre troupe devoted to sketch comedy that later moved to L.A. This background explains how their form of comedy came together and led to the eventual creation of Airplane!

The structure of the book is also odd. Rather than a straight narrative the story is told in a flashback style and interspersed with quotes and reminiscences from people involved in their various projects. It also includes quotes throughout from entertainers - largely comedians and comedy writers like the creators of South Park, Jimmy Kimmel, David Letterman and so on - about how the movie shaped their future in comedy. To some this structure may be off-putting.

Still, the journey this book takes you on will carry you back to a time when you discovered a very funny film that was unlike anything we’ve seen before or even since. And they do answer (sort of) the question within it that I think everyone might have: Could a movie like Airplane! be made - and received - in the same way today?

Oh, what fun this was! The book is written in an interview style, which I loved. There are photos, quotes, and most importantly, the history of the Kentucky Fried Theater and the creation of that beloved movie, Airplane! There is no real plot here, just facts about how it happened, what happened, and lots of fun. If you haven't seen the movie, you need to do so and then read this book so you know how it came to be. I learned something very important about a film called Zero Hour! when reading this book. I just had no idea!

Airplane! is a movie that will never get old, and I believe after you read this book, you will be searching the internet for where you can stream the film again.

Did you always know there was a great background from the movie Airplane? This is it, and it will keep you in stitches, just like the movie did.

"Surely this cant be a fun read!" "It is a fun read..and dont call me Shirley!" More of a transcript of a dialogue between Zucker Abrahams and Zucker than a linear telling of the making of Airplane! this book is a fun read for any fan of one of the funniest movies of all time. I did feel the back and forth between the making of the movie and their experience with the Kentucky Fried Theatre could be a little long, overall it was an enjoyable journey through the movie making process of a movie that no one wanted to make. The side comments from some of the cast and also execs added color to the narrative and it was a fun dive into the process of comedy writing

In July of 1980 the world changed. And we laughed at it, hard.

We all knew Airplane! was different, and funny. It was the kind of movie you go to multiple times, and it was always funny. It still is.

This is the story of how the movie was made, told in a conversational style, which won’t be for everyone, but I found it enlightening and more insightful than a pure narrative style. Fun read.

Thanks to David Zucker, Jim Abrahams, and Jerry Zucker for bringing joy and laughter into our lives and to St. Martin’s press and NetGalley for making the ARC of this book available for review.

Surely You Can’t Be Serious, about the making of the movie, Airplane!, by David Zucker, Jim Abrahams, and Jerry Zucker, the three young college friends who had a vision for comedy and the will to pursue it should not be missed by anyone who has ever watched the film multiple times, which you have to do to catch all the jokes. The book consists of commentary from the three writers as well as the actors, studio execs, other writers and reviewers plus wonderful pictures from Airplane! as well as Zero Hour! the serious disaster B film that was the inspiration for this parody. This reader loves the movie and has a child who majored in radio, tv and film in college, so I might have been predisposed to request an ARC, but the book is educational, humorous and contains so many interesting stories…like how the scene with the horse was filmed. Thanks to NetGalley for the opportunity to voluntarily review. And as an aside, several slots on my Christmas list have been filled. Most highly recommend.