Read This: The uncannily funny textual comedy of ClickHole’s Jamie Brew
Jamie Brew, head writer at the A.V. Club’s sister site ClickHole, can generate convincing Strokes lyrics or passable X-Files scripts seemingly at will. Presidential debate soundbites, Craigslist ads, and Anthony Bourdain soliloquies are no problem for Brew either. Examples of these and other bits of text-based comedy are routinely posted to his consistently hilarious Twitter account. To some observers, it would seem that Brew has gotten internet comedy down to a science, and that turns out to be true. As a novice coder with only one college course under his belt and a working knowledge of Python, he has developed what he calls a “predictive text imitator” that he uses to create his fictional quotes. That name may not sound terribly funny, but what Brew has managed to do with it is often comically devastating. Jay Hathaway sheds some light on Brew’s unique working methods in a piece for The Daily Dot called “How An Internet Comedy Legend Coded A Program To Make Humans Laugh.”