I'm a little bit stunned by the number of Slate readers who take the ludicrous stance, "Who cares if he exaggerates? He's funny!"

This response, which doesn't even rise to the level of coherent argument, evinces the intellectual rigor of a 3 year old, combined with a junior high school "funny = popular = good" sensibility.

The world is confusing and uncertain enough even when we do our utmost to get at the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth. And even when people (including autobiographers) try to tell the truth, they are often deluded or blinded by self-interest. But jeez, once you start allowing willful exaggeration, there's no "there" there anymore.

As to the "who cares?" question, the answer is every real person who is the butt of such "exaggerated non-fiction", particularly if the embellishments are not flattering.

That person, if he or she is actually named or is obvious enough that the exaggeration actually affects them, can sue. This doesn't happen though does it?

I think you are reading the responses in a manner you accuse others of using. No one is suggesting an indestructible shield of immunity for humor. It is just so obvious that humor of the Sedaris sort is a blend of fact and fiction right from the start.

Well, as Shafer points out, if it's really obvious and there's absolutely nothing wrong with it, let's see if it continues now that he writes for The New Yorker.

Proof's in the pudding.

I was under the impression that only journalistic endeavors are fact-checked, because only journalists are expected to adhere to the guidelines of journalistic integrity. David Sedaris is not a journalist, a fact I highly doubt he would dispute.

Additionally, the New Yorker has been publishing Sedaris' stories for years and years and years; he is hardly a new addition to that magazine. And I would be willing to bet what little money I have that the New Yorker has taken fact-checking Sedaris' nuggets of entertaining prose about as seriously as it takes fact-checking the fiction, poems, and cartoons that appear in every issue.

Actually, there was an interview last week or so with David Sedaris on NPR, and he said they have always intensively fact checked his writing. And, not suprisingly, he was very funny when he told the story of one particular fact-checking venture. He may even have exaggerated how far the fact checker went...