Unwanted Thoughts Syndrome

Who: Maria Bamford
Label: Comedy Central Records
Released: April 21, 2009

This album contains less gems than Bamford's previous work. It's probably the weakest of her three albusms, but is still a good listen if you like her. If you have never listened to her, you might want to listen to her previous album, How To Win!

There are less personal stories from Maria in this one, less talking about the horrible temp jobs she's had or stories about the behavior of her parents, but there is still plenty of good stuff in it.

Highlights include her calling her Mom as the baby Jesus, doing a bit in which she plays a shallow stereotype of a mainstream female comic, and an act-out of a seminar on pug safety she attended in which horrible deaths of pugs are described.

It is recommended you purchase the physical copy of this album as it comes not only with a CD of the stand-up material, but a DVD containing all the episodes of the Maria Bamford Show as broadcast on Superchunk.com. If you haven't seen it, it is a simple low-budget show in which Maria plays all the characters except her pug, which is played by her pug.


Overall, it's a good album, funnier than most of the stuff out there, and comes with a DVD which is a good deal for the money.