Author Jack Handey

Episode notes

Photo by Marta Handey

Jack Handey is a great writer.

He’s one of the best to ever write for Saturday Night Live. His skits are interesting, often outrageous and always funny.

If you’re over 35, you’ve probably seen “Deep Thoughts with Jack Handey” on the show.

That skit turned into a book series. Deep Thoughts. Deeper Thoughts. Deepest Thoughts: So Deep They Squeak. Please Stop The Deep Thoughts. And more.

And while Handey left SNL in 2002, he’s still an avid writer. He’s a regular columnist in the New Yorker and an established author with over half a dozen books.

His latest is called Escape From Hawaii: A Tropical Sequel.

It is, as the title suggests: a sequel. The book loosely follows the themes and characters from The Stench of Honolulu. Specifically: a nameless, psychopathic buffoon of a narrator. The plot: not too important! The situations: bizarre! The jokes: constant.

On Bullseye, Jack Handey stops by to chat about his new book. He gets into his time at SNL and which hosts he managed to crack up. Plus, we ask him, very nicely, why he initially declined to come on the show.

Escape From Hawaii: A Tropical Sequel is out now. Check it out here.

In this episode...

Jesse Thorn

Host

Kevin Ferguson

Senior Producer

Jesus Ambrosio

Producer

Richard Robey

Maximum Fun Producer

Daniel Huecias

Maximum Fun Production Fellow

Daniel Arón Speer

Video Editor

Guests

Jack Handey

About the show

Bullseye is a celebration of the best of arts and culture in public radio form. Host Jesse Thorn sifts the wheat from the chaff to bring you in-depth interviews with the most revered and revolutionary minds in our culture.

Bullseye has been featured in Time, The New York Times, GQ and McSweeney’s, which called it “the kind of show people listen to in a more perfect world.” Since April 2013, the show has been distributed by NPR.

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