I Blame Television: Essays on the Pop Culture that Raised, Ruined, and Enraptured Me

In her debut essay collection, I Blame Television, writer and comedian Elizabeth Teets has started to notice everything around her seems a little off. She has always used the fluorescent glow of the television to guide her, but there's a suspicion that everyone else is reading from a completely different script. Born into a body that's set on permanent "frolic mode" and unable to understand her peers' ongoing cynicism, Teets wonders if she may be the punchline. With wit, vulnerability, and a feminist eye for the ridiculous, this essay collection explores what happens when you refuse to play the role society assigns you.

From her mother's Oregon living room, to underground comedy stages, and eventually the glamorous and brutal Los Angeles, Teets writes about growing up feminine, queer, and unapologetically earnest in a world built on irony. I Blame Television: Essays on the Pop Culture that Raised, Ruined, and Enraptured Me fuses a pop culture lens with Elizabeth Teets's signature wit and charm to showcase her quiet rebellion against cultural cynicism. From making questionable financial decisions reinforced by Sex and the City to the thrill of finding discount designer garb with Marge Simpson, each essay balances warmth with moments of laugh-out-loud humor.

Because even in a world where the joke seems to be on you, you can put on some platforms, brush out your hair, and decide to flip the script.