humor

BuzzFeed Quizzes Are Good for the Soul

Sure They’re Annoying and Occasionally Insulting. But the Possibilities for Self-Knowledge Are Endless.

Americans have gone quiz-crazy. People who wouldn’t have dared admit to reading BuzzFeed a few weeks ago are now trawling the site late at night to answer questions they’d find insulting anywhere else.

All of a sudden we’re wondering: What about me screams “dachshund”? Was it the love I espoused for a good hot dog that earned me a suggested move to Des Moines? Why did I just tell all my Facebook friends that I’m Thomas from Downton Abbey? (Am I really Thomas from Downton Abbey?)

Zócalo believes such possibilities for self-knowledge are endless, and …

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Please Don’t Laugh at My Jokes

If You Want to Be a Stand-Up Comic, You've Got to Learn How to Bomb

by David Storch |

My heart was beating a mile a minute. Perspiration started to form in my armpits. Soon I would smell like the cab driver who’d brought me here. I was one …

The Irrational Exuberance of the Snark Market

Copping an Attitude Is Still Profitable. But Signs Of Froth Are Everywhere.

by Fuzz Hogan |

Remember when snark was subversive, like the kid blowing spitballs in the back of the classroom, before it became the social norm? I look back to 1986 as a key …

Novelist Lisa Zeidner

Flexible Is Not Something I’ve Been Accused Of

Lisa Zeidner is the author most recently of the novel Love Bomb, the story of a wedding that goes very wrong when the guests are taken hostage. She is also …

Writer Heather Havrilesky

That Time I Dressed As Lint For Halloween

Heather Havrilesky is author of the memoir Disaster Preparedness, a contributor to The New York Times Magazine, and an advice columnist for The Awl. Before participating in a panel on …

Writer Jeanne Darst

Mandarin Ruined My English

Jeanne Darst is a writer and performer and author of the memoir Fiction Ruined My Family. Before participating in a panel on whether women can be funny, she sold out …


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