Welcome to July, 2024
Welcome to July, 2024
Schwarzenegger Is Still Alive + The Top Jokes of Last Month & more!
— This is a longer post than usual, so if you’re reading this via email, you might want to hop on over the the web version here to read the full thing! —
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Table of Contents:
July Letter From African America:
Schwarzenegger Is Still Alive
The Top Jokes of Last Month!
You Are The Genre Episodes + Text Interview + Yub Nub & more!
TV, film, audio, and text recs!
Maurice on Mars
Them Changes by Buddy Miles
Letter From African America (July, 2024)
Dear readers,
If there’s one silver lining to the current state of, well, everything, it’s that the lines are finally clearly drawn and… oh no… dear God… I hope it’s not with blood!
Yeah… yeah… that’s definitely blood, alright. Well…
You get what I’m saying though, right? There’s no more maybe, what if, or perhaps. It’s all crisp, like one of those detailed television screens that show Steve Harvey’s pores waving back at you.
But the thing about boundaries is that they give you something to chip away at. And I believe activists, artists, and other “ists” now have starkest reasons to do so, and better art will emerge because of it.
I was talking to my dad a few weeks ago about the state of the entertainment industry, which evolved into a wider conversation about A.I. and convenience. It feels like we’re quickly entering a world in which we no longer fully communicate with others (something anyone will tell you I’m already pretty bad at outside of jokes and posts like this), and instead merely have to suggest the type of communication we’d like to have — and let computers fill in the blanks. Mid-way through this chat with my father, I realized that the two of us, decades and lifestyles apart, suddenly have the same fears about rapid technological change. “It’s turning into The Terminator so quick,” my dad quipped, “And Schwarzenegger is still alive!”
My main struggle with the contraction of work in television is that I had just entered the space as a writer, you know? And in a lucky series of events, managed to have three television writing jobs in a row. Finally, I thought. I’m no longer a struggling new-media millennial. Of course, no entertainment career is stable, and we all saw the merging “old” and “new” media coming a mile away.
And while those two consummate their marriage, I’ve been doing smaller things here and there for creative entrepreneurs.
Working part time at my friendly neighborhood indie bookstore, for instance, has been both fun and fulfilling. So many characters walk in, and you can see them take a deep sigh of relief when they do. It might be the only space they’ll enter that day, week, or month that doesn’t have the dark cloud of sanitized commercialism looming over it. They feel free (sometimes too free) to share thoughts and experiences that don’t fit into a square box.
In walked legendary cartoonist Stan Mack during one of my shifts a few weeks ago to sign copies of his newly released compilation of Village Voice comic strips from 1994 - 1995.
It had been in the store for a few days. And, sure, I flipped through it, but was ultimately unable to really soak it in. That’s the trouble I find with working in a bookstore. You deal with so many of them that at some point they morph from exciting portals into other universes to absurd objects that require unpacking, stacking, and re-stacking. I’m learning how to separate the latter sentiment and get back to the magic of them all.
So, yes. I found the strips intriguing. They reminded me of one of my favorite comics, American Splendor — only with a sharper interest in others. But I knew nothing beyond that cursory glance of the pages, and had no idea of what to expect from the flesh-and-blood man who drew the things printed onto them.
I set up the table, placed his books on them, and small talked with him and his wife Susan Champlin as the nervousness set in as to whether anyone would show up. “I knew Harvey Pekar,” he expressed after I mentioned the American Splendor comparison. And then, suddenly people came in. Not many. But enough to make an impact on Stan. And an impact on me.
From those conversations I learned that Stan Mack's Real Life Funnies, which were published in the Village Voice, were how many New Yorkers felt seen. Often because they were drawn in them.
From Stan’s website:
From the mid 1970s to the early '90s, I wandered the city listening to and interviewing New Yorkers for my Real Life Funnies comic strips. in the process, i created a personal history of that era. Signed prints of the comics below are available for purchase. Comics are printed on 11"x17" quality stock and shipped in sturdy cardboard tubes. Pay through PayPal. If you remember a strip that you don't see here, email me a description and date if you have one, and i'll write back with info on its availability. Some originals are also for sale.
The conversations with the people who trickled in were filled with nostalgia and love for a man who drew with pen and paper when that was the only way, and has lived to see the iPad 16.
Media and mediums change, but but it’s all for the same flesh-and-blood people who just want to feel seen.
I cannot fathom what I’ll live to see. But I hope I make something in the present that’ll have a few people lining up for an autograph down the line. And I hope to line up for one from you as well.
Note: I didn’t ask to be in this picture, but they were nice enough to insist I join.
Best,
-Tim
last month right now! (best jokes)
Each weekday, I email five jokes and subscribers vote on the ones that make them laugh the most! Here are your favorite jokes from June, 2024!
WEDNESDAY: 6-5-2024
The New York Times reports that while visiting Europe, Biden will find both solidarity and isolation. In other words, The New York Times has composed the most accurate description of having small talk with a British person.
[read the other jokes from that week here]
FRIDAY : 6-14-2024
Donald Trump says he’s already used artificial intelligence to redraft one of his speeches, praising the technology’s ability to produce “beautiful writing”—while also acknowledging it might lead to armageddon. Letters From African America has an exclusive on what the speech entailed:
[read other jokes from that week here]
MONDAY: 6-17-2024
McDonalds is removing its A.I. drive-thru voice ordering system from over 100 restaurants after its mishaps went viral. Turns out A.I. has a hard time understanding the human nuances of ordering a “Number 2.”
[read the other jokes from that week here]
TUESDAY: 6-25-2024
A group of Louisiana parents filed a federal lawsuit to block a new state law that requires public schools to display the Ten Commandments in every classroom. They hope to settle on three condensed commandments instead of ten — requiring posters of the Julia Roberts movie, Eat, Pray, Love in every classroom.
[read the other jokes from that day here]
stuff you might’ve missed
Listen to the latest four episodes of You Are The Genre!
Subscribe on Apple, Spotify, or wherever else you get podcasts!
[Anna Suzuki] Is The Genre: How the unlikely pairing Studio Ghibli animation and '7th Heaven' paved the way for Anna Suzuki's comedy.
[Mychal Denzel Smith] Is The Genre: How an early passion for mystery solving influenced the writing of Mychal Denzel Smith.
[Andrew Nadeau] Is The Genre: How Andrew Nadeau learned to embrace social media as a tool for his comedy.
[Israel Isaac] Is The Genre: How musician and 'Vanderpump Rules' member Israel Isaac enhanced his faith by coming out of the closet.
There was also my conversation with comedy writer Evan Waite, who is co-executive producer of Family Guy and released a hilarious debut book Life Wants You Dead!
PODCAST: Yub Nub
Yub Nub — the podcast that I co-host with Jim Fagan about Star Wars is continuing it’s SUMMER OF GEORGE! Focusing on the media that inspired George Lucas to create the Star Wars franchise as well as the media he made leading up to the 1977 release of the original film. Check out our recent episode with The George Lucas Talk Show producer Patrick Cotnoir and Part 1 of our George Lucas student film deep dive with Anne Rieman and Ryan Perez of the Mama Needs A Movie Podcast!
And subscribe to its newsletter for more!
current obsessions
SIGHTS:
TV: Diarra from Detroit
Who knows how long the above link to the full first episode of Diarra from Detroit will last — but I’m glad I got a chance to watch it. There are a lot of great stylistic choices in this series and it balances comedy and mystery seamlessly.
DOCUMENTARY FILM: MoviePass, MovieCrash
I started this truly knowing nothing about the origins of Movie Pass. I didn’t even expect much of the film. But once it got past the typical “documentary about a recent pop cultural phenomenon” fare — it really kicked into gear as a fascinating true story about race and economics.
TV: Smiling Friends (Season 2)
This show never fails to make me laugh. Each episode blends multiple forms of animation in exciting new ways. Its been a delight waking up each morning knowing a new episode has been released!
TV: Arrested Development
Believe it or not, I’ve never really watched the show but I finally am now. Which means that at long last, I’m putting some of the most famous internet memes in context! It’s an interesting series to watch now because, despite first airing a couple of years before the great recession and ending right before the official crash, it feels like a true product the era that economic catastrophe defined.
TV: Star Wars: The Acolyte
We’ve been covering The Acolyte weekly at and its been a difficult ride due to the alt-right-ish backlash that has taken over the discourse online. I think history will look fondly on this show — which is taking a lot of risks and paving an important new path for the Star Wars franchise as a whole.
READS:
BOOK: Voice Lessons by Rob Paulsen
Boy, did I enjoy this book. Rob Paulsen has voiced some of your favorite characters from The Animaniacs, The Ninja Turtles, and more — and when suddenly faced with throat cancer he riffled through every conceivable emotion, which he then poured into these pages. More than his trials in the entertainment machine and in successfully beating cancer, the elements of this autobiography that hit home for me the most had to do with family, both biological and found. Another point of pride — THIS IS THE FIRST BOOK I’VE FINISHED THIS YEAR!
somethin’ else
Well, well, well… it’s the two year anniversary of the cartoon I created, Maurice on Mars!
song of the month
Hey, I want to be honest with you all here at this newsletter. Last month was one of those where I wasn’t listening to much music. I mean, I was. But not much to write home about. As mentioned before I’ve been working my way through Wes Montgomery’s discography and finally finished it. So, lately I’ve been moving back to old trusty Duke Ellington. A current favorite Duke composition is the song “Big Fat Alice’s Blues” from his Concert In The Virgin Islands —
But for the sake of choosing a song that fits into the theme of this letter, how about “Them Changes” by Buddy Miles? You know, the weird thing about this song is that the lyrics don’t actually say all of that much. It leaves a lot of room for wondering just what the hell is going on.
🎶Well, my mind is going through them changes / I feel just like committing a crime / Every time you see me goin' somewhere / I know I'm goin' outta my mind, yeah🎶
Until next time, remember YOU ARE THE GENRE!
PAST LETTERS:
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