IHOF: Modern Humorist

The Valentine's Day poem posted below got me thinking about the comedy in my life circa the turn of the millenium. Trust me, nothing deep or profound [that was what your were assuming, right?], just a nostalgia for the allusions and jokes circulating around my Freshmen year of college. One site in particular, Modern Humorist, provided me with plenty of agony and ecstacy during those delightful post-Y2K years.

Now, I am no internets scholar, but it always struck me as a shame that while its comedic contemporaries McSweeneys and The Onion continue to thrive, the Modern Humorist has slipped into relative obscurity. It was certainly not due to a lack of quality in the humor: from the parodic genius of the Holy Tango of Poetry to the now defunct (that is probably symbolic somehow) AskJeez, there were quite literally times when I was ROFL (and NIC5 had some painful linoleum floors). Back in our precocious days, Mark and I sent each other more then a few MH links including the the preview of the (then) upcoming Radiohead Album, OK, I Did It Again.

In 2003 the site didn't go out with so much as a bang, but a whimper as the founders left for greener pastures (and by that I mean talking heads on VH1) and the site was left abandoned with nary a mention of their plans to never publish new material again. I don't think the owners ever really found a way to generate enough revenue, and from interviews, it sounds like the website was merely an exercise in marketing-branding so they could move on to bigger and better things (and by that I mean talking heads on VH1).

Revisiting the site, it is sparser than I remember, but plenty of the humor (Real-Life Worst Case Survival Handbook: Orchestra Seats at 'Aida'; The Haunted Chatroom, a glimpse into AOHELL; WWJD?) has held up amazingly well over time (although the Darva Conger reference may have you rubbing your chin for a second or two).

So, Modern Humorist, provider of so many laughs and so many disappointed mornings of no updates:

I salute you.