Reader’s Digest USA – July-August 2021
English | 134 pages | pdf | 27.73 MB
A chat with Reader’s Digest USA Magazine humor editor Andy Simmons about the art of the one-liner, including the 100 tweets starting on page 96:
Me: There is a lot of humor online. Searching for comedic gold must be like looking for a strand of hay in a stack of needles—at times painful. How do you do it?
Andy: The humor team—Emily Goodman, Caroline Fanning, and I— has a list of go-to comics and sites. But you need to pack a lunch because before you know it, you’re tumbling down rabbit holes chasing gags. Don’t tell my boss, but I’ve spent many a pleasant after noon doing just that.
Me: OK, take this one, on page 100: “I bet when the first guy wore glasses everybody was like ‘Oh la-di-da, excuse me Mr. I Need TWO Monocles.’ ” That’s brilliant. What do you know about @robfree?
Andy: Nothing!
Me: So, these are just average folks thumbing away?
Andy: Watch yourself, bub—“average folks” send Reader’s Digest a million gags each year. But yes, Twitter is the Bruce Kelley, editor-in-chief Harpo Speaks great democratic experiment of the day. Every genius or idiot can have his or her say. Some are stand-up comedians, some are someone’s mom. Their rotten jobs and mis behaving kids are humor gold on Twitter.
Me: How do you pick them?
Andy: First, they have to crack me up. Second, they have to crack you up. Third, if our managing editor says, “Can we get away with saying that word?” we don’t run it.
Me: Well, one hint about me is that I especially loved this one-liner on page 99: “My parrot died today. Its last words were ‘Darn, I think my parrot is about to die.’ ” Hah! Absurdity must be a 21st-century thing.
Andy: Hah! I have two words for you: Harpo and Marx. Was there anyone more absurd? And he was cracking us up 90 years ago.
Me: Any last one-liner for the audience?
Andy: Yes, one stolen from him:
“… !”
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