Five Jokes: 1-20-2025

CIA Chatbots, Inaugural Rappers, A.I. In 'The Brutalist,' Bob Dylan Draft Lyrics, and Costco Workers' Authorized Strike

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Hey! It’s Monday, Martin Luther King Jr. Day, AND inauguration day in America — best summarized by this sign from the People's March in Washington, D.C. over the weekend:

If you like serious documentaries, I highly recommend King In The Wilderness — available to view for free below:

And one healthy distraction from the inauguration: This classic You Are The Genre interview with Severance co-star Zach Cherry (a new episode of the podcast comes out Wednesday featuring my interview with

mamoudou n’diaye

):

Anyway, here are FIVE JOKES!

Donate to the Palestine Children’s Relief Fund, The Carter Center, and/or Alliance for Middle East Peace.

Y’all hear about this?..

• The C.I.A. has developed a chatbot that lets analysts talk with virtual versions of foreign leaders — and you’d be surprised by how often Netanyahu uses the phrase “chillin’ like a villain…”

• Snoop Dogg, Rick Ross and Soulja Boy are just some of the rappers in D.C. for the president-elect’s inauguration events. And after a full day of hearing republicans say his name, I’m willing to bet Soulja Boy will regret it the most. Just a pinch too slavery-ish.

• The Adrien Brody drama “The Brutalist” is coming under fire for its use of artificial intelligence to fill in language gaps left by Brody and co-star Felicity Jones. The CIA is now using similar tech to bridge the massive language gaps between Donald Trump and any dictionary ever printed.

• Draft lyrics to ‘Mr. Tambourine Man’ sell for $508K at US auction. The document is most notable for containing crossed out lyrics to what somehow ended up being Cardi B. and Megan Thee Stallion’s “W.A.P.”

Finally…

• Costco's unionized workers voted to authorize a strike. The company has ordered an emergency bulk shipment of jumbo scab clusters.

Those were five jokes! Which was your favorite? Use this poll, or drop a comment!

If you enjoyed those, check out the top jokes from last week! OR:

OR subscribe to my YOU ARE THE GENRE podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or right here in the matrix of my newsletter!

🎨: Madhuri Shukla

And you can always share screenshots or forward this to a friend!

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A JOKE FROM SOMEONE ELSE

mamoudou n’diaye

has a history lesson for the app era…

If we’re gonna have white history books, why not give Demi Adejuyigbe a chapter?..

And, finally, a joke from Martin Luther King Jr., himself…

STRAY THOUGHT

FOOD FOR THOUGHT

• Bronwyn
  on how getting your palm read by a storefront psychic provides more questions than answers…

I got my palm read by a storefront psychic and now I have more questions.

• Sophie
  on the tenderness of David Lynch…

david lynch made his own furniture

• Eric Kohn
  on how David Lynch predicted the future of entertainment…

  David Lynch Predicted the Future of Entertainment

SOMETHIN’ MORE!

Here’s a taste of the stories you can expect from me at

Alternate Timeline

!

About Morgan Stern

And, now, me adding to the pile by writing something brief about David Lynch:

A small slice of the strange and enduring impact of David Lynch

“Why are is this guy emailing five jokes a day?” — I explain it all here:

Why I Email Five Jokes A Day

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Like that cartoon face in the logo? It was illustrated by DeAngelo — the talented character/prop designer/YouTuber known as “Hats Off Media!” DeAngelo is working hard an awesome new cartoon called a ScreenTime (teaser). Consider supporting it here!