Jordan, Jesse, GO CHANGE YOUR SYNTAX

Sometime in early 2009, I became a full-blown Twitter user. While this is not something that any sane person would ever be proud of, these are the facts and I lay them at your mercy.*

Despite what you might believe, Twitter CAN be useful. It can help you track news event in real time, you get a liiiittle too close to the inner workings of politicians mind and, most importantly, it's a comedy one-liner's dream come true. Most of my favorite semi-famous comedy folks are on Twitter and are excellent aggregates of the work of other people in comedy.

One of my favorite living semi-lebrity/comedy mastermind is Mr. John Hodgman, who sadly most of you only know as "PC" from the Mac ads or possibly from the occasional Daily Show appearance. (There is more, and it would behoove you to check it out.) Being a big Hodgman fan, I always follow his recommendations and have been greatly reward.

One such reward has been the discovery has been the works of Jesse Thorn at www.maximumfun.org. Jesse is the host of the interview program The Sound of Young America, which is taped in his home and then syndicated to various NPR stations around the country. His interview style is relate-able, thoughtful and focused on the things that interest him: hip-hop, rap, comedy and design.

My favorite MaxFun program, however, is Jordan, Jesse, GO! a "freewheeling comedy podcast" co-hosted with Jesse's longtime friend Jordan Morris. It's hard to describe other than to say it's full of anecdotes and general nonsense. It's been so fun to listen through the show's archives (available for free on iTunes) and to look forward to a new installment every week or so.

One of the things that is difficult about being a fan of comedy while not actually being a creative person is that you can remember and repeat jokes without actually being funny. So many of the laughs that I get come from repeating jokes from a TV show, wherein the reference itself is funny but the line isn't. The same goes for my listening of JJGo. It has totally changed the way I speak in an attempt to get laughs out of people, espeically in a "networking"-ish social setting.

Being silly isn't en vouge anymore, which is probably why I love JJGo so much. A recurring joke between Jordan and Jesse is to discuss a topic, then totally derail the conversation by saying words that are related or even just sound like the topic at hand.

A good example of how much this has influced my day-to-day sentence structure is this conversation I had with my pal and fellow JJGo convert Erin via g-chat during lunch today. To wit:

(Context: we were talking about writing a screenplay around the character Bionic Brother, because my brother had a pin put in his pinky finger today)

Erin: I see a blockbuster in your future

me: well, there you go

Erin: you could make tens of dollars!!

me: pennies and pennies!
Erin: tuppence?

me: ha'penny? a guinea?

Erin: chocolate coin

me: oh, that's right. that's what I was thinking.

Pretty ridiculous, right? And yet, it's almost verbatim what you would hear in a typical conversation between Jordan and Jesse during a podcast.

This leaves me conflicted, because on one hand I like to expand my comedy horizons and keep changin' it up. On the other hand, it points out how none of my humor is original and is a mediocre copy of another man's genius (remember that line from the 1994 Little Women?!). All it all, it leads me to being the "funny guy at the office" rather than "that amazingly funny person who we all know and love."

*I've been watching Showtime's The Tudors lately, and it has also affected the general style and rhythm of my speech.

Oh, heeeey...

It's been a huge long time. I have been contributing to another "project" (which makes me sound like a pretentious a-hole. totally intentional) and just haven't made the time.

That being said, I recieved an amazing haiku from a friend about Rick Bayless that just needed to be shared with the three of you:

Rick Bayless, a haiku:
petite nerdy man
likes to wear pink and purple
i can support that
I can also support that he's a fellow anthropology nerd. Even the fact that he wears chokers doesn't phase me!

Play 'em off, Keyboard Cat

I can't pretend that I'm hip to all of the internet memes. I have no earthly idea why LOL Cats exist or why they're thought to be so funny. That being said, I do love this new soon-to-be-really-old internet fad: Play 'em off, Keyboard Cat!




Looking at this objectively, I have an incredibly immature sense of humor. A man passing out does make me giggle in its own right. The fact that it's on Glenn Beck's show makes it even more hilarious to me. But we've all been situations where we'd love this little fella to show up and play you out of a crazy situation.

And also: I'm five years old.

I <3 Chicago Public Radio

And i <3 this video. Warning: these are radio people, so they don't understand the concept of "focusing" a "video camera".

An Evening with John Hodgman: No Hobo Matters?

For my lame friends who didn't care to join me for a free evening with John Hodgman and David Rees... I'm actually glad you didn't go! That's right. Last evening's performance/ reading/ Q&A via walkie talkie was not for you. You would have gone for the novelty of seeing the PC guy out of his tweed or to perhaps shake the hand of someone who has met Jon Stewart.

You would not understood the facts about Chicago being an imaginary city and would not have been informed of complete world knowledge by one so brilliant that he was able to write a sequel containing EVEN MORE KNOWLEDGE than his first tome. If that sentence does not make sense to you, you can rest assured that you would not have enjoyed yourself and would have been shunned most fervently by the crowd that is 'in the know'.

Actually, you would have loved it. But it's too late now! The best you can do is by the page-a-day calendar cum book and then purchase a dozen copies of The Areas of My Expertise to atone yourself.

White Devils Be Crazy!

Because I don't know a single undecided voter...

I'm just going to post what I want! That's right! I said it!




I'm done trying to educate you all. Let the laughter commence!



The doody clock!

No Witty Headline

How. Adorable. Are. These. Children?

I die. (Thank you, Ms. Zoe)

When my grandmother takes a break from forwarding me bone chilling, racist and unfunny political e-mails, she will once in a while pass along a good one.

From Grandma:

Woolworth was a dime store in Decatur, IL where we grew up. They had a food counter, we sat on stools and enjoyed a good lunch with a coke and I mean a real coke!!! Those were the good old days!

Teen Voter Abstinence

Also, this video. Can we talk about it?


This video made me laugh. "The only thing I did on drugs is play Halo 2". It's just that... I mean, I happen to agree with these people politically. But, I think this definitely has a lean to one political view point, thus negating the true message. Am I crazy?

I agree that celebrities should shut up about politics to some extent, but, then again, when they're asked - why shouldn't they say what they think?

Award shows? No, shut up.
Interview? Fine by me.
Someone want to tell me what I'm missing?