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Next up is comedy teamJeremy LevickandRajat Suresh.
But I think a moment where I felt very validated was when I got a contributor position at ClickHole.
But somehow, they ended up liking the stuff I sent!
I ended up becoming a writing fellow for ClickHole later, which was another very big moment for me.
[Note for ed: Include link to slide-whistle sound effect here.]
A place where adults are, like, squatting down to ask 4-year-olds what colleges theyre eyeing.
(My family wasnt of that world, but I felt competitive with the kids whose families were.)
My junior year of college is when I lost steam and just aspired toward comedy writer.
I spent those last two years of school desperately trying to be an Onion contributor.
I wrote Onion headlines, like, every fucking day.
It was a huge relief valve the first creative thing that I really loved.
Im a political comedian, fuck society, fuck the Establishment.
One last thought I have is about money/power (prospective employers, kindly stop reading).
The prerequisite for making a legitimate go at comedy is not only being funny, but also money.
We dont talk about it, but there are start-up costs.
Years of working for free or at a financial loss.
That weeds people out.
Headshots cost money, late-night internships cost money.
Spec scripts, open mics, Onion packets this very Q&A!
all take time, which the working class has less of.
It helps to go to NYU.
It helps to go to Yale.
It helps to live in New York or L.A. Ill leave it at the system is rigged.
Its a structural issue.
I dont think the individual people are evil or anything, but its something we should be aware of!
Doo-doo, pee pee (callback to beginning of answer).
Describe your comedy in five words.Jeremy:Imitating conceited people, (and also) political satire.
Rajat:Comedy that Rajat made … ok?
If you werent a comedian, what would you be doing?Rajat:This is a tough question.
I think the honest answer to this is that Id be working some dumb job at a start-up.
Jeremy:Probably copywriting, which I did a little bit of before my current job.
Once I wrote a Mack Weldon ad for Howard Stern where he called his listeners slobs.
There were also points in college where I wanted to teach.
I tutored a sixth-grade math class through a work-study program and briefly worked at a kids-oriented math museum.
Kids are funny and awesome and say insane shit.
It was at their apartment, and she and her husband, James Bond, were really nice.
I fantasize about doing something more materially helpful for others instead of comedy sometimes.
you’re able to act on that (by having more panic-induced thoughts that debilitate you).
That all is extremely cool to me!
I want to do more of these videos because theyre fun and I get to act insane.
That one we put a lot of effort into.
We treated it like a real, legitimate production.
Thats an Onion thing I learned, I think.
Getting the details right and researching how your subject talks makes the satire better.
The jokes also just sound funnier against a realistic backdrop.
We watched a thousand Ben Shapiro YouTube videos, and Im glad it wasnt for naught because he sucks.
Rajat:Im really proud of everything I make with my comedy partner, Jeremy Levick.
I was pretty online before quarantine, so I honestly dont think a ton changed for me comedy-wise.
Its definitely not changing the world or anything, but its at least a little cathartic for me.
I still love to make the silly nothing joke from time to time though.
So I dont even remember who my audience is.
I think one of them is named Adam.
His avatar was a weird-looking cartoon with a hat.
That guy was awesome.
Actually, I dont remember if he was awesome.
), and I feel more of a responsibility to hold power to account, as they say.
I go more HAM.
Its the same with any political writer right now, I imagine.
My jokes are angrier right now, because its what the moment calls for.
But also, like, who cares, comedy is not where the fight is.
People also want a break from all this stuff!
But fatigue sets in, and sometimes you want nonsense.
What I refer to as Rajats nasty jokes make me laugh harder than anything right now, for example.
Thats currently the funniest thing in my life.
Everyone needs a chance to laugh at stupid bullshit sometimes.
Rajat and I like fuck-around jokes that are just stupid.
You always need that stuff.
their president got covid, and conservative anti-maskers still believe this shit??
?pic.twitter.com/jCq6h2dpH1
Who are some of your favorite comedians right now?
Theres such a long list of underappreciated comedy writers and performers.
I will definitely forget some, and I am going to get so pissed at myself later for it.
Colin Burgess, my roommate, is also insanely funny.
Colin and Tynan DeLong make really good and funny short videos together that everyone should check out.
My friend from ClickHole, Grace Thomas, makes really unique and funny stuff that I dig.
ClickHole and the Onion have made some of the funniest stuff ever in my opinion.
Draw your own conclusions from this.)
Eric Rahill makes videos that are truly insane and I love them.
Scotty Nelson also does videos that are extremely quotable and funny.
Jeremy and I also laugh really hard at Nick Gruneruds super-hammed-up fake songs.
Theres also the cartoonist Pants (Josh Mecouch) his stuff is very cool to me.
The characters in his cartoons have such three-dimensional emotions.
Not controversial to say or anything, butSuccessionis also one of my favorites on TV right now.
Jeremy wrote that damn piece!
It was so fucking funny to me.
Jeremy:Ill break it up into political and not political.
And do it in a funny way.
A lot of Brooklyn alt-comedy people weve worked with are people whose comedy I love.
Lorelei Ramirez, Colin Burgess, Sandy Honig, and Jack Bensinger all make crack my shit up.
I love Eric Rahills videos.
Kristoffer Borgli is a filmmaker Ive met online whose work is really inspiring to me lately.
Its corny, but Bernie inspires me.
Nobody read the magazine either.
It really helped me just have fun doing comedy rather than seeking something from it.
I specifically remember the stuff in the magazine didnt have a structure or anything, which felt really cool.
I dont know if this counts as advice, but I think it helped me a lot.
And I honestly think thats just a recipe for making bad, uninspired stuff.
Also, at ClickHole, I would shit out headline lists that were like 50 headlines long.
In my opinion, you could very well just write a good thing right off the bat.
You should always be inspired or excited by what you are creating.
That is what I think.
He said, Dont watchTheSimpsons.
I instantly felt targeted because I had literally just started rewatchingTheSimpsons.
Maybe this will come back to bite me.
Im gonna get impaled by aSimpsonsDVD one day and die.
Then, I felt my upper lip, and it was absolutely drenched in snot.
I never talked to her the same way ever again.
But I like this question because it forces me to not be cynical.
I also like some elements of writers rooms being remote I guess.
But, I also do miss seeing my co-workers in person.
So maybe if quarantine ends, there could be a good balance of remote rooms and in-person rooms.
Jeremy:Because we write together at our job, Rajat and I Zoom each other every day.
I love seeing Rajat every day.
When quarantine ends, I hope I continue to see Rajat every day.
