Humorism

Letterdrop

Humorism

A newsletter about labor, inequality, and extremism in comedy.

Let's do a mailbag

Ask me anything.

It's gonna be a light week this week, as I am a) in the thick of a move (!) and b) mired in two stories where rabbit holes keeps giving way to other rabbit holes, neither of which seems liable to wrap up soon. So let's try a mailbag-type thing. If you have any questions you'd like me to answer, about comedy or stuff I've written or life or art or really anything, send 'em along and I'll bang out some responses later this week. Thanks!

Seth Simons

Jun 14 2021

1 min read

Keep Your Eye On This

Sometimes the internet is real life.

Here’s something a bit outside our normal wheelhouse, but not that far outside, and maybe actually squarely within it. For the last couple months, the Libertarian Party of New Hampshire has been on something of a Twitter bender, posting provocatively right-wing (read: fascist) takes that seem designed to stir controversy and keep the account in a prolonged state of main characterdom. A few examples: A few days ago a LPNH member named Jeremy Kauffman claimed authorship of these posts. Kauffman is affiliated with the party’s Mises Caucus, a far-right movement founded in the image of its namesake, the Austrian economist Ludwig von Mises. There are many things one could say about Mises, but for now let us just say that he, like other Austrian economists, believed fascism to be a gre

Seth Simons

Jun 13 2021

6 min read

Joe Rogan Is Already Clashing with the Austin Comedy Scene

A slur-laden set at The Creek and The Cave led to a drag show’s departure.

CW: transphobic, homophobic, and racist language. You may recall that Joe Rogan moved to Austin last summer, where he has since purchased a comedy club and declared his intention to create a comedy utopia in the city. You may also recall that The Creek and The Cave recently reopened in Austin after shutting down its New York City location early in the pandemic. Here's how all that’s going. On May 24th, during one of Rogan's now-regular shows at The Creek, the podcaster delivered a set laden with homophobic and transphobic slurs while the cast of the next show, a popular Austin drag show called Sad Girls Only, was backstage. “They were in the green room getting ready while able to hear his set, where he was actively using slurs like f—-t and tr––y," said Ky Krebs, an Austin comic who was

Seth Simons

Jun 11 2021

6 min read

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