David Sedaris would like you to know that nudists are ugly and weird and should probably know better. At least, that’s the impression he gives, if his book, Naked, is any indication. It’s crass, low-brow comedy—and a sneaky way for him to make fun of fat people just for being fat because, hey, they’re naked, so they deserve it. How dare you love your body when “your boobs hang down to your belly like grapefruits in a pair of socks!” Seriously, this is more or less a direct quote from the book, one of many colorful descriptions meant to elicit a laugh. “Her clit was like a leathery coin purse” also sticks to my mind.
In Naked, Sedaris finds the one group of people it’s socially acceptable to ridicule. After all, we’re just a bunch of retired, out-of-touch hippies without the good sense to hide our disgusting selves like normal people. Only problem? His portrait is misleading at best. While the eccentric folks he describes most certainly exist (I’ve met them), they no more represent the clothes-free movement than leather-clad “bondage slaves”—made popular in 80s flicks and on Southpark—represent the LGBTQ community.
I can’t help but wonder what David would think of Nick and Lins (above), the charismatic couple traveling the world in search of naturist destinations, or the affable Stéphane Deschênes, podcaster and owner of Bare Oaks Naturist Park. I think if I were to ask him, he would admit he doesn’t really care at all about nudism. It’s all meant in good fun, he’d tell me, but when the subject of the joke is so off the mark it’s unrecognizable to the people living it, the humor gets lost amid the stereotypes.
Also in this podcast: comedians A.J. Jacobs, Dave Chapelle, Dick VanDyke, and another edition of Mail Grab!
The Art of Storytelling 
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