![]() I am actually writing some new Deep Thoughts. He even got an offer from Michael Nesmith to finance it, but still declined. I have tried to get him to revive Army Man, with no luck. But he tired of being an editor, having to reject or accept his friends’ writings. When he left Saturday Night Live, he wound up in Boulder, Colorado, for a while, and put out Army Man - three issues. George Meyer is one of the most brilliant comedy minds around. Almost every writer went on to become well-known in the comedy world. In the ‘80s, you wrote for a magazine created by George Meyer called Army Man, which has become legendary. You need time to sift through them, sort them out, let them sit. A lot of times what you think are great ideas aren’t so great. I’m not sure it’s a good thing not to have an editor between you and your audience. Is that a good thing? Do you think that will change comedy or is it similar to the instant output of SNL? You can tweet a joke immediately, instead of going through editors and rewrites. In a weird way, Deep Thoughts seems ahead of its time, with Twitter now putting a focus on more bite-sized comedy. ![]() I was just trying to get a little paperback book published. Is it strange to you that they’ve had such an impact on comedy? Dennis Kao did a great job of directing me.ĭeep Thoughts still has such a cult following and their influence can be seen everywhere. Is there any chance you would read an audiobook version of The Stench of Honolulu? Even while reading, I can’t help but hear your voice in my head. One of my favorite parts in Dumb and Dumber was when Jim Carrey thinks that lighting a fart would be the height of wit. I love it when insane idiots try to be funny or tell a joke. Don is reasonable and polite and thoughtful, all irritants to an insane idiot. Why does he dislike his “so-called friend” Don so much? Is he based on anyone you know?ĭon is not based on anyone in particular. The Jack Handey character, or what I call the Deep Thoughts character, is an insane idiot. How would you describe the character of “Jack Handey”? How similar is it to your real life? Another trouble with a novel is you have to spend time plotting that you would rather spend just being funny-not that The Stench of Honolulu is meticulously plotted. Plus, you can keep rewriting it forever, until sometimes you are “running past the joke into the dead zone,” as the comedian Alexei Sayle once said. “If he knew that then, then he wouldn’t have asked that,” etc. But a treasure hunt seemed to require changing the whole nature of Hawaii, making it a more dangerous, ominous place.īesides the obvious length, what’s different about writing a novel than a short story or sketch? At first I thought they could go there on vacation, but a treasure hunt seemed to have more impetus to it. Hawaii is “paradise,” so I thought it would be interesting to unleash the Deep Thoughts character there, and see what damage he could do. I had been thinking for quite a while that it might be fun to have the Deep Thoughts character and Don go to Hawaii. What made you want to write a longer form novel at this point in your career? Handey over email about the book, the legacy of Deep Thoughts, and the possibility of more Deep Thoughts to come. (“She was like a deer, only a two-legged deer with a really nice ass.”) On every page, Handey delivers rapid-fire jokes that will please any longtime fan. In the book, the character “Jack Handey” (aka “Wrong Way Slurps”) travels to Hawaii to hunt down the fabled Golden Monkey, along with his longtime “friend” Don. He’s back with his first ever novel The Stench of Honolulu: A Tropical Adventure and it is classic Jack Handey. In addition to his bestselling Deep Thoughts collections, he also published the thoroughly genius What I’d Say To The Martians and Other Veiled Threats in 2008, a collection of insane essays. (“If you ever fall off the Sears Tower, just go real limp, because maybe you’ll look like a dummy and people will try to catch you because, hey, free dummy.”) It’s no wonder their influence can still be seen everywhere in the world of comedy.ĭuring his tenure at SNL, he created legendary sketches like Unfrozen Caveman Lawyer, Happy Fun Ball, and Toonces, The Cat Who Could Drive A Car. It’s almost sad to read one of his signature Deep Thoughts, because you know you will never write anything even half as good as that and it’s only a sentence long. I’ve read Hemingway, Faulkner, and McCarthy, but I say without facetiousness that Jack Handey has made a bigger impact on my writing than any of them.
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