“Don’t Hannity victory to us just yet,” Jerzy wrote.
“It didn’t take O’Reilly long time for these puns to come out,” I added.
The puns went on and on, but then Isaac mentioned that he wouldn’t be able to make it that night. Neither could Ariel or Tim. And I didn’t go either. It wasn’t that I was done with puns, but it felt like less of a priority. Just as puns only last a moment, so do the roster of regulars at Punderdome. It comes in waves, like the shifting of the guard at O. Henry, or the funniest pun you can remember. Going to Punderdome every month forever is as impractical as a pun tattoo. I know I’ll keep going, if for no other reason than to see what my friends will say—and what I will say—when we get onstage. I want to see the graffiti castle get scrubbed and redecorated again every month. But I’ve also got my popcorn ready for whatever they do outside of the Dome—whenever Jerzy writes his next play, or Rekha’s pilot gets picked up, or anyone else makes something that lasts.
Acknowledgments
This book would not have been possible without the following people: Stephanie Hitchcock, my editor and the world’s least likely @midnight superfan; Noah Ballard, my very handsome agent; Eric Alt, my very understanding editor at Fast Company; Jo Firestone, Fred Firestone, Tim Donnelly, Jerzy Gwiazdowski, Jordan Gwiazdowski, Rekha Shankar, Ally Spier, Melton Sharpe, Max Parke, Isaac Klein, Ariel Boone, Sam Corbin, Nikolai Vanyo, all the regulars at Punderdome, Alexandra Petri, Benjamin Ziek, Gary Hallock, David Gugenheim, Brian Oakley, Big Poppa E, Valerie Ward, Arthur Simone, Southpaw Jones, Matt Pollock, Dav Wallace, Dr. Richard Lederer, Dr. Vinod Goel, Dr. Christian Hempelmann, Dr. Salvatore Attardo, Peter McGraw, Neil Strauss, Shea Serrano, Joshua Foer, Elliott Kalan, Stuart Wellington, Dan McCoy, Wendy Molyneux, Lizzie Molyneux, Josh Gondelman, Jensen Karp, Myq Kaplan, Eliza Skinner, Zach Sherwin, Paul F. Tompkins, Jen Kirkman, Randy Sklar, Alex Blagg, Allie Goertz, Bob Mankoff, Brian Agler, Jonah Spier, Gracie Deegan, Diana Gruber, Deb Pines, Brayden Simms, Margi Conklin, Darren Walsh, Ed Toutant, Greg Behrendt, Joe Randazzo, Emmy Blotnick, Kevin Porter, Jason Zinoman, Joe Sabia, Loren Bouchard, Mike Drucker, and Sean Gray. You are all champions in some way or another, whether you’ve won Punniest of Show or not.
About the Author
Joe Berkowitz is an editor and staff writer at Fast Company, covering entertainment and pop culture, and he’s also written for the Awl, Cosmopolitan, Salon, Rolling Stone, Vulture, BuzzFeed, GQ, and the Village Voice. He is the coauthor of You Blew It: An Awkward Look at the Many Ways in Which You’ve Already Ruined Your Life. He lives in Brooklyn with his wife and an ideal tuxedo cat.
Discover great authors, exclusive offers, and more at hc.com.
Copyright
away with words. Copyright © 2017 by Joe Berkowitz. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.
first edition
Cover design and illustration by Milan Bozic
Digital Edition JUNE 2017 ISBN: 9780062495624
Print ISBN: 978-0-06-249560-0
About the Publisher
Australia
HarperCollins Publishers Australia Pty. Ltd.
Level 13, 201 Elizabeth Street
Sydney, NSW 2000, Australia
www.harpercollins.com.au
Canada
HarperCollins Canada
2 Bloor Street East - 20th Floor
Toronto, ON M4W 1A8, Canada
www.harpercollins.ca
New Zealand
HarperCollins Publishers New Zealand
Unit D1, 63 Apollo Drive
Rosedale 0632
Auckland, New Zealand
www.harpercollins.co.nz
United Kingdom
HarperCollins Publishers Ltd.
1 London Bridge Street
London SE1 9GF, UK
www.harpercollins.co.uk
United States
HarperCollins Publishers Inc.
195 Broadway
New York, NY 10007
www.harpercollins.com
Away with Words Page 23
