Adam Conover's Personal Brand

Two Fun Men on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon.

Two Fun Men was one of the funniest shows I’ve ever seen at UCB. Arthur Meyer, John Haskell, and Dan Klein, their director have a ridiculous comedic aesthetic that’s totally unique, and it’s awesome and absurd to see it showcased on network television. 

Remember the good old days when everyone read really good books, like, maybe in the post-war years when everyone appreciated a good use of the semi-colon? Everyone’s favorite book was by Faulkner or Woolf or Roth. We were a civilized civilization. This was before the Internet and cable television, and so people had these, like, wholly different desires and attention spans. They just craved, craved, craved the erudition and cultivation of our literary kings and queens. 

Well, that time never existed. Check out these stats from Gallup surveys. In 1957, not even a quarter of Americans were reading a book or novel. By 2005, that number had shot up to 47 percent. I couldn’t find a more recent number, but I think it’s fair to say that reading probably hasn’t declined to the horrific levels of the 1950s.

All this to say: our collective memory of past is astoundingly inaccurate. Not only has the number of people reading not declined precipitously, it’s actually gone up since the perceived golden age of American letters. 

(More at the Atlantic Wire.)

Let’s hear it for statistics! Especially when they contradict knee-jerk blanket statements that primarily serve to flatter the speaker’s own self-image of being the only beacon left shining in a fallen world. (via natedern)

(via natedern)

Buskers on the L Train platform playing Foggy Mountain Breakdown in honor of Earl Scruggs.

Earl Scruggs and the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band - Foggy Mountain Breakdown

Earl Scruggs died on Wednesday, but I only found out about it yesterday. Sad. Earl Scruggs was the greatest banjo player in history, and he single-handedly invented the three-finger style of banjo playing we associate with the instrument today. (Pretty much every good banjo player you’ve ever heard is playing “Scruggs style.”) He joined Bill Monroe’s Blue Grass Boys (the band that literally coined the term “bluegrass”) in 1945 — sixty years later, he was still touring well into his late eighties. Quite a musician.

Above is my favorite recording of his most famous tune, Foggy Mountain Breakdown, from the album Will The Circle Be Unbroken, an epic jam session which I think has to take the prize for the greatest country music album ever recorded. The precision and musicality that Scruggs maintains while playing at such a high speed is amazing.

Here’s a good piece that Steve Martin wrote about Scruggs in the New Yorker a few months ago if you’re interested in more information about the man. He also recorded a wonderful concert film called The Three Pickers with Ricky Skaggs and Doc Watson, another titan of American folk / country music who’s still performing well into his 80s.

So long and thanks, Earl.

I’m excited to say that on Monday I’ll be joining CollegeHumor as a staff writer. I’ve admired their work forever — over the years, they’ve built a machine that pumps out sketches that are consistently funnier, faster, and better-looking than pretty much anything else out there, Internet or otherwise, and becoming a cog in that crazy juggernaut is a total dream job. Onward!

getbacktowork:

Drew this while in a mopey kind of mood.
Feel much better now.

HASHTAG: COMEDYJOKES

Jake Young nails it.

On Fresh Out tonight we have some of my favorite comics in New York: Eli Sairs, Jake Young, Michelle Wolf, JF Harris and Dave Rosinsky. The show starts at midnight — it’s five bucks at the door, cheap beer and wine all night long! Come out!

I just played a short experimental game called Way, in which you and a stranger have to learn to communicate without speaking. It’s a unique, emotional experience, one that’s only realizable through the medium of gameplay. Great stuff. I won’t spoil it by saying more, but if you’d like to feel a connection to an anonymous stranger on the other side of the world, go play it. The way the ending plays with that connection will catch your breath.

My former best friend Raphael wrote an original song for my birthday and performed it live for my voicemail. It’s two minutes long. It’s really worth listening to the whole thing.

Katy Perry - “Sexy Mistake”

This parody of “Last Friday Night” was the first sketch I pitched to Stevie TV, and it’s still my favorite of everything I worked on that made it air. Thanks to my incredibly funny co-writer Hanna LoPatin, our composer Craig Stuart Garfinkle, director Tom Stern, and of course Stevie herself for making this as great as it is. I do so love it when a sketch comes together!