In Gad We Trust
In Gad We Trust: A Tell-Some
By: Josh Gad
[Fulfills prompt: ‘A book with a title you would NOT want on your grave stone’ for the Shelf Reflection 2026 Reading Challenge]
“I was hardly an accident, but barely a victory.”
“‘He’s a unique character, and you’re in a world that only Josh could create, where self-deprecation meets self-celebration in a way that’s both endearing and absolutely ridiculous.’” — Ron Howard
Josh Gad, the voice of our beloved Olaf, has written a tell-some memoir.
And a tell-some is an apt description. It seemed like all the parts that I wanted to hear more about were the shortest ones and the information that bored me were the drawn out sections.
It started out interesting, quickly got boring and hard to pick up, becoming an overdue library book that I wasn’t overly excited about finishing, then when I finally did attempt to finish, there were a few chapters at the end that grabbed my interest again.
I’m not sure why I keep reading celebrity memoirs. I’m not sure what I’m looking for each time I pick one up… perhaps its a glimpse into the life of fame, perhaps it’s to discover how they got to where they are now, or maybe it’s to find out how they are just normal people who ask the same questions about life that we do.
Whatever it is, I’ve decided that it’s NOT to find out all the details about plays and musicals they did in their high school, college, and career beginning years. And it’s NOT to get all the inconsequential name-dropping— most of which mean nothing to me.
Somehow every celebrity memoir does both of those things.
What I did find interesting about Gad’s life was hearing about the pain his father caused him and how he developed and used comedy to help break his mom’s depression and cope with his own pain.
“As the old adage goes, ‘Comedy equals tragedy plus time.’”
His mom put him in a children’s theater as an outlet to counter the effects of his dad’s chaos. What started as almost a therapy turned into a career, and as he declares, a legacy.
But the personal reflection soon diverges into the details of his forensic NFL career and being “the most decorated speech competitor in the country.” Then he pops in with a passing comment about how his stepdad came into his life and completely changed his life and then immediately goes back to all the nitty gritty details about whatever speech tournament he was talking about.
I was like- no, I would rather know about that stepdad thing! How did he change your life? What about your personal character development? Those are the things I think I appreciate about memoirs the most.
I was content to completely skip over Chapter 6 about the Book or Mormon. I’m not Mormon. I’ve never seen the Book of Mormon. I have no desire to ever see it, especially after the parts of this chapter I skimmed. There were so many f-words in the first two pages of the chapter that completely turned me off to anything else the chapter would contain. I don’t believe I missed out on anything beneficial.
Then there was the chapter on parental advice. And as I was reading it, I realized— I really don’t care what parenting advice Josh Gad could give me.
It was interesting to hear about how his grandpa and grandma both survived the Holocaust. Again, I would have loved more about that story, but I guess that’s not really Josh Gad’s story.
Then we got some more compelling chapters that talked about his role as LeFou in Beauty and the Beast and as Olaf in Frozen.
I vaguely remember the controversy about LeFou and I appreciated Gad sharing that the original intent behind the character was just platonic devotion to Gaston and that they just wanted the audience to interpret what they wanted to from the character rather than trying to portray any overt sort of LGBTQ representation. It only turned into something controversial when one of the writers (or producers?) had an interview with an LGBTQ magazine and said something about representation that the magazine then took that and blew it all up to capitalize on the small moment.
I relate to Gad’s lamenting that that few seconds of the movie overshadowed the rest of the film and became the only thing people wanted to talk about as if that was the most important part of the film— which it was not. It’s sad when sexuality has to become the defining feature of a person or a movie.
I loved his mention of the Samantha line in the When I’m Older song. That was not scripted! And it’s one of our family’s favorite lines in the movie, so well done Josh!
I also appreciated the parts where he talked about the Pandemic. We don’t have the same perspective about a lot of world events, but I respect his work during the quarantine to help bring levity and entertainment to a dark time for the whole globe. I remember showing my daughter a few of his videos reading a story. I didn’t realize he did the Reunited Apart web series, but that sounded cool too. He used his platform, connections, humor, and skills to do something constructive and beneficial for others and I think that’s really cool.
“Entertaining millions of people when they also needed it the most was one of the great honors of my life.”
Recommendation
It had potential and the last few chapters saved it a little, but overall, not a book I was excited to continue reading. Just too much content that I wasn’t interested in or didn’t appreciate, and not of the stuff I wanted to hear more about.
I love his work as Olaf and it was cool to see the different roles he took on throughout his career, not letting himself be pigeonholed in the industry, but I don’t think this book was really for me.
To be fair— there are few celebrity memoirs that I end up giving more than 3 stars. But I still keep picking them up. I guess mostly out of curiosity.
This is one of those books that I say— wasn’t for me, but I’m sure there is an audience for it. Especially die-hard fans of Josh Gad, those who know what forensic NFL is, and/or those who think the Book of Mormon is hilarious.
Also I didn’t think there was any satisfactory reason given for the title- In Gad We Trust. I was expecting some sort of funny anecdote or joke behind that, but I didn’t see it. So that was also disappointing.
I suppose I will give it some bonus points because with his history in writing we can at least be fairly confident that he wrote his own book instead of using a ghostwriter so props for that!
[Content Advisory: lots and lots of swearing; some sexual innuendo]
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