Andy Borowitz is a Web hit with his mockery of the 2012 presidential campaign. (Donald Bowers / Getty Images for the New Yorker) |
When he wrote for TV sitcoms, audience buzz or ratings might roll in over a few days. It could take several stand-up gigs to find the material that truly popped. Today, comedian Andy Borowitz types out ersatz headlines on Twitter or fake news on his Borowitz Report website and gets an instant verdict.
"Christine O'Donnell Favors Separation of Speech and Thought," he offers of the one-time U.S. Senate candidate. "Rick Perry Requests That Debate Format Include Lifeline and 50/50." Or "Fact That No One Likes Him May Be Hurting Romney." Looking forward to one general election scenario: "Potential Race Between Black Guy and Mormon Poses Dilemma for Bigots … Doomsday Scenario, Haters Say."
By many measures on the social Web, Borowitz has been killing this election season. His observations on Campaign 2012 get retweeted by a legion of Twitter followers, numbering 196,000 and counting. Some Borowitz bits that go viral can reach, by Facebook's estimate, 2 million people.
"I always say to my wife when we go on vacation, 'I'm not going to write a column or do anything on Twitter unless there is news,'" he said from his home in New York City. "Which means I will be on call 24 hours a day. When has something funny not been happening in this election?"
The man who made a small fortune creating the TV show "The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air," then threw Hollywood aside to find something more fulfilling, now thrives on many platforms. Last year, he published a bestselling anthology of American humor, he writes for the New Yorker, and last Friday, Amazon released a Kindle Single of his 5,000-word rumination ("An Unexpected Twist") on the botched surgery that almost took his life.
And, yes, live shows are still on his map. Borowitz has sold-out the more-than-1,500-seat Saban Theatre in Beverly Hills, where the nonprofit Writers Bloc will sponsor his Feb. 28 conversation with Grammy-nominated comic Patton Oswalt.
The comedians are bound to talk presidential politics. But Borowitz also might go off on sports ("If Gisele [Bündchen] keeps making idiotic comments about football she'll wind up getting Phil Simms' job.") or jurisprudence ("BREAKING: CNN Viewers Severely Burned by Fire From Nancy Grace's Nostrils") or all matters celebrity ("BREAKING: CNN Says Nuclear Attack by North Korea Would Not Affect Whitney Houston Coverage.")
At 54, Borowitz sounds more content than just about any comic you can think of, holding a job that to him amounts to "goofing around." His bounty has only increased with the slow unfurling of the presidential race and what he sees as its screwball ensemble — including a reality TV star/billionaire and an admitted adulterer who wants to colonize the moon.
"It's like a sitcom with no main characters and just a string of wacky neighbors, one after another," said Borowitz, who lives in Manhattan with his second wife, writer Olivia Gentile, and their daughter, a toddler. "That really does sum up this election."
"What I couldn't have predicted this time around was the way the opposition to Obama has evolved," he added, "with the birthers who think the president is Kenyan and all the Fox News people."
Though a confirmed liberal Democrat, he insists he goes where the laughs are and will take shots at President Obama when the moment is ripe. He just finds the politician-in-chief so controlled that he doesn't present too many openings.
During the 2008 campaign, he mocked the candidate's earnestness by ginning up a series of Obama-approved "jokes."Sample: "A horse walks into a bar. The bartender says, 'Why the long face?' Barack Obama replies, 'His jockey just lost his health insurance, which should be the right of all Americans.'"
Later, he played with the notion of "The One" as a transcendent figure. He quoted a "poll" that showed Obama with "higher approval ratings than either leprechauns or unicorns, mythical beings that almost everyone agrees are totally awesome."
Like the online fake news site the Onion, the Borowitz Report subscribes to the belief that barely extrapolated truth is much funnier than pure fiction. The key now is being timely, jumping on a story when the biggest audience is online. Borowitz recalls being at an Urban Outfitters store when word came that Casey Anthony had been acquitted in the death of her young daughter. He poked out his reaction on his iPhone: "I hate the idea of someone who's clearly crazy & dangerous going free, but that's apparently the deal with Nancy Grace."
Borowitz grew up in Shaker Heights, Ohio, the son of a mother who wrote about literature and art history and a father who wrote murder mysteries. He edited his high school paper and lived for the April Fools' edition, counting himself among the "10% most popular" of the unpopular kids.
At Harvard, he edited the Lampoon. Then, like generations of wisenheimers before him, he struck out for Hollywood. He wrote for "The Facts of Life" and "Archie Bunker's Place," among other shows, before NBC asked him to create a program for an emerging hip-hop artist named Will Smith. With its six-year run, "Fresh Prince" provided Borowitz with a solid bank account and freedom to try other things.
He launched the Borowitz Report in 2001. His principal rule is to have no rules, writing only when inspiration strikes — usually about once a day. He has never bothered to sell ads on the website, worrying that strings might be attached if he tried to turn the Borowitz Report into a profit center. "I've always thought it would ruin the fun of it," he said.
His sense of his own good fortune became magnified about three years ago. Borowitz had gone into the hospital for what he had been told would be routine surgery. But mistakes repairing a twisted colon left him with a severe infection that could have killed him.
His Kindle essay is his first in-depth look at the episode and more personal than most anything he has written before. But he's glad he made the stretch and hopes he struck the right tone.
"It's actually very, very funny, because ...." Well, you can read the essay, which costs 99 cents. Borowitz will confirm, for now: "Having an untwisted colon is the greatest gift of all."
james.rainey@latimes.com
Twitter: latimesrainey
"Christine O'Donnell Favors Separation of Speech and Thought," he offers of the one-time U.S. Senate candidate. "Rick Perry Requests That Debate Format Include Lifeline and 50/50." Or "Fact That No One Likes Him May Be Hurting Romney." Looking forward to one general election scenario: "Potential Race Between Black Guy and Mormon Poses Dilemma for Bigots … Doomsday Scenario, Haters Say."
By many measures on the social Web, Borowitz has been killing this election season. His observations on Campaign 2012 get retweeted by a legion of Twitter followers, numbering 196,000 and counting. Some Borowitz bits that go viral can reach, by Facebook's estimate, 2 million people.
"I always say to my wife when we go on vacation, 'I'm not going to write a column or do anything on Twitter unless there is news,'" he said from his home in New York City. "Which means I will be on call 24 hours a day. When has something funny not been happening in this election?"
The man who made a small fortune creating the TV show "The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air," then threw Hollywood aside to find something more fulfilling, now thrives on many platforms. Last year, he published a bestselling anthology of American humor, he writes for the New Yorker, and last Friday, Amazon released a Kindle Single of his 5,000-word rumination ("An Unexpected Twist") on the botched surgery that almost took his life.
And, yes, live shows are still on his map. Borowitz has sold-out the more-than-1,500-seat Saban Theatre in Beverly Hills, where the nonprofit Writers Bloc will sponsor his Feb. 28 conversation with Grammy-nominated comic Patton Oswalt.
The comedians are bound to talk presidential politics. But Borowitz also might go off on sports ("If Gisele [Bündchen] keeps making idiotic comments about football she'll wind up getting Phil Simms' job.") or jurisprudence ("BREAKING: CNN Viewers Severely Burned by Fire From Nancy Grace's Nostrils") or all matters celebrity ("BREAKING: CNN Says Nuclear Attack by North Korea Would Not Affect Whitney Houston Coverage.")
At 54, Borowitz sounds more content than just about any comic you can think of, holding a job that to him amounts to "goofing around." His bounty has only increased with the slow unfurling of the presidential race and what he sees as its screwball ensemble — including a reality TV star/billionaire and an admitted adulterer who wants to colonize the moon.
"It's like a sitcom with no main characters and just a string of wacky neighbors, one after another," said Borowitz, who lives in Manhattan with his second wife, writer Olivia Gentile, and their daughter, a toddler. "That really does sum up this election."
"What I couldn't have predicted this time around was the way the opposition to Obama has evolved," he added, "with the birthers who think the president is Kenyan and all the Fox News people."
Though a confirmed liberal Democrat, he insists he goes where the laughs are and will take shots at President Obama when the moment is ripe. He just finds the politician-in-chief so controlled that he doesn't present too many openings.
During the 2008 campaign, he mocked the candidate's earnestness by ginning up a series of Obama-approved "jokes."Sample: "A horse walks into a bar. The bartender says, 'Why the long face?' Barack Obama replies, 'His jockey just lost his health insurance, which should be the right of all Americans.'"
Later, he played with the notion of "The One" as a transcendent figure. He quoted a "poll" that showed Obama with "higher approval ratings than either leprechauns or unicorns, mythical beings that almost everyone agrees are totally awesome."
Like the online fake news site the Onion, the Borowitz Report subscribes to the belief that barely extrapolated truth is much funnier than pure fiction. The key now is being timely, jumping on a story when the biggest audience is online. Borowitz recalls being at an Urban Outfitters store when word came that Casey Anthony had been acquitted in the death of her young daughter. He poked out his reaction on his iPhone: "I hate the idea of someone who's clearly crazy & dangerous going free, but that's apparently the deal with Nancy Grace."
Borowitz grew up in Shaker Heights, Ohio, the son of a mother who wrote about literature and art history and a father who wrote murder mysteries. He edited his high school paper and lived for the April Fools' edition, counting himself among the "10% most popular" of the unpopular kids.
At Harvard, he edited the Lampoon. Then, like generations of wisenheimers before him, he struck out for Hollywood. He wrote for "The Facts of Life" and "Archie Bunker's Place," among other shows, before NBC asked him to create a program for an emerging hip-hop artist named Will Smith. With its six-year run, "Fresh Prince" provided Borowitz with a solid bank account and freedom to try other things.
He launched the Borowitz Report in 2001. His principal rule is to have no rules, writing only when inspiration strikes — usually about once a day. He has never bothered to sell ads on the website, worrying that strings might be attached if he tried to turn the Borowitz Report into a profit center. "I've always thought it would ruin the fun of it," he said.
His sense of his own good fortune became magnified about three years ago. Borowitz had gone into the hospital for what he had been told would be routine surgery. But mistakes repairing a twisted colon left him with a severe infection that could have killed him.
His Kindle essay is his first in-depth look at the episode and more personal than most anything he has written before. But he's glad he made the stretch and hopes he struck the right tone.
"It's actually very, very funny, because ...." Well, you can read the essay, which costs 99 cents. Borowitz will confirm, for now: "Having an untwisted colon is the greatest gift of all."
james.rainey@latimes.com
Twitter: latimesrainey
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