Blog Archives - Dan Fiorella: Writer @ large

Dan Fiorella

Hashtag, You're It! - Medical Metal Bands

8/29/2024

Weekly Humorist, a humor magazine I often submit to and occasionally get in, runs these Hashtag Games on Twitter (X), where they name a topic and we submit humorous responses. These games play right into my gag reflex, so I always throw up something. I've taken to setting my calendar to get online every Wednesday to "play" (and by "play" I mean submit content to their website for free--I like to think of it as pun bono work). I always submit a bunch of them on X (Twitter) and some of them get selected for inclusion to their online site.

I was around for this week's game. I'm starting to wonder about this. My favorite (AC/IV) wasn't chosen. I saw some others that were really good and didn't get selected. Not sure who's judging it these days, but I am not always happy with their choices. And the matrix pulled up metal bands again as the baseline. And, face it, most people only know a couple of metal bands, really. So, we're all bumping up against the same half-dozen names to parody. In that sense it can get a little repetitious. And WH usually grabs the obvious ones and we have to work a bit to create something unique. Anyway, that's how I see it.

#MedicalMetalBands

Hashtag, You're It! - Patriotic Pop Bands

8/28/2024

Weekly Humorist, a humor magazine I often submit to and occasionally get in, runs these Hashtag Games on Twitter (X), where they name a topic and we submit humorous responses. These games play right into my gag reflex, so I always throw up something. I've taken to setting my calendar to get online every Wednesday to "play" (and by "play" I mean submit content to their website for free--I like to think of it as pun bono work). I always submit a bunch of them on X (Twitter) and some of them get selected for inclusion to their online site.

All right, not that anyone's paying attention, but I've been offline for a week or so. Plus WH is playing around with links and their site, where I can't even get in to see posts they do until a few days later. Very odd. Any, the last game I actually got involved in was this. Did the usual, looking up a list of "nursey rhymes" and there's a surprising number of them. And a lot of little songs and says I've heard of actually started as nursey rhymes. So these games are educational! I only got 3 in, but there's some fun things here.

#NerdyNurseryRhymes

All the News Fit to Fake- WWN: Dear Dottie 8/27/02

8/28/2024

Back in the aughts, Cracked magazine was owned by the same company as the Weekly World News. During the rocky final years of Cracked, our editor, in an attempt to give the writers a pay check, had us contribute articles to WWN ("the humor magazine that nobody knows is a humor magazine.") It took me a while to get the hang of the paper but first the editor suggested I do the "Letter and Answer" format for their Dear Abby-style advice column, except that their "expert," Dottie, was a bitch. I struggled with the format, kinda of recycling various jokes and bits I had over the years into a letter format with a snotty answer.

Tangent: Years after I worked on the WWN, I was talking to my friends college-age son. I happened to mention that I wrote for WWN and the kid's eyes popped out. He didn't know I was a writer, so he certainly had no idea I wrote for the WWN. But he was actually impressed. Back when he in was in college, the 2000's, the magazine was a big read on campus. They loved it. So, for a brief, shiny moment I had some cred.

Man, a lot of old bits of mine in this one. Tattoo confidential, from a script. The cell phone guy is a sequel to my turning signal guy and their fight against "the man." The last letter I copped from a PHC ketchup sketch I wrote. The communion one is pretty much how we feel about those A&E-style First Holy Communion parties we see every year. I kind of liked the confidentials, they were like a prose version of a Bob Newhart bit. You can to do the set-up and punchline together, wording it just right to figure out what the letter was about.

All the News Fit to Fake: WWN: Dear Dottie 8/20/02

8/21/2024

Back in the aughts, Cracked magazine was owned by the same company as the Weekly World News. During the rocky final years of Cracked, our editor, in an attempt to give the writers a pay check, had us contribute articles to WWN ("the humor magazine that nobody knows is a humor magazine.") It took me a while to get the hang of the paper but first the editor suggested I do the "Letter and Answer" format for their Dear Abby-style advice column, except that their "expert," Dottie, was a bitch. I struggled with the format, kinda of recycling various jokes and bits I had over the years into a letter format with a snotty answer.

All these letters were various bits knocking around my head. The airline one was something that had been in the news. The turn signal one was from an article I wrote for the Staten Island Advance. The confidentials are lifted from some radio skits I wrote. Why the heck would a TV exec write to Dear Dotti? Because he needed to be mocked!

Hashtag, You're It! - Pitiful Pixar Movies

8/10/2024

Weekly Humorist, a humor magazine I often submit to and occasionally get in, runs these Hashtag Games on Twitter (X), where they name a topic and we submit humorous responses. These games play right into my gag reflex, so I always throw up something. I've taken to setting my calendar to get online every Wednesday to "play" (and by "play" I mean submit content to their website for free--I like to think of it as pun bono work). I always submit a bunch of them on X (Twitter) and some of them get selected for inclusion to their online site.

This week's game was weirdly specific. I mean they've done Disney movies before and different genres, but Pixar? I guess that means they've arrived with enough movies to mock. I pulled up the list of their movies and worked by way down, creating my usual dozen. I got 4 picked. There were a fair number of submissions, but WH is getting picky. The weekly list seems lighter and weighted down with their in-house creations. See for yourself as we list:

#PitifulPixarMovies

Gi60 1-Minute Play Festival- "Are You Ready to Rock!!!"

8/8/2024

I finally got a chance to download and edit my 1-minute play from Gi60's night of tiny plays. It's something I had in the slush pile, a quick sketch that I trimmed it down to a minute (or so). It got to open the show, which was great and kinda logical, since it's a parody of a rock show open. I wish the sound was better; the venue had difficulty with the audio and Gi60 had their own equipment on hand to record it all. I would have liked to get the original feed so I could have edited it as a "multi-camera" video.

I didn't attend in person, the theater since had strict COVID protocols still in place and I just didn't want to deal with it. I watched online, but as I said, the sound was terrible. I finally got the link and checked it out. It goes by quick, and there is "interaction" with the audience, so I slipped in some subtitles. It's a fun, goofy piece. I hope you enjoy it.

All the News Fit to Fake- WWN: Dear Dottie 8/6/02

8/7/2024

Back in the aughts, Cracked magazine was owned by the same company as the Weekly World News. During the rocky final years of Cracked, our editor, in an attempt to give the writers a pay check, had us contribute articles to WWN ("the humor magazine that nobody knows is a humor magazine.") It took me a while to get the hang of the paper but first the editor suggested I do the "Letter and Answer" format for their Dear Abby-style advice column, except that their "expert," Dottie, was a bitch. I struggled with the format, kinda of recycling various jokes and bits I had over the years into a letter format with a snotty answer.

Here, I took the idea of a cheating husband and made it sound like he was cheating with Dottie. I had issues with a timeshare, so that's there. A little mockery of Hollywood and topical stuff. Hey, I reached my word count for the week.

Hashtag, You're It! - Sinful Summer Olympics

8/5/2024

Weekly Humorist, a humor magazine I often submit to and occasionally get in, runs these Hashtag Games on Twitter (X), where they name a topic and we submit humorous responses. These games play right into my gag reflex, so I always throw up something. I've taken to setting my calendar to get online every Wednesday to "play" (and by "play" I mean submit content to their website for free--I like to think of it as pun bono work). I always submit a bunch of them on X (Twitter) and some of them get selected for inclusion to their online site.

Only 2 this week. What can I say, I was late and I wasn't thrilled with the topic, especially since it seem to bump up very close to an article (HOlympics) I had submitted and gotten accepted. But the game went live before my article went up, so I felt like I was dancing around my own material. Nevertheless, I participated and that's what it's all about, right?

#SinfulSummerOlympics

Leave it to the Prose: HOlympics

8/5/2024

Well, I usually shy away from topical stuff with the prose because the ideas don't come until after the event has passed. But this time, after reading about the reactions to the Olympic opening ceremony, over the weekend, something got triggered and I came up with a piece that I quickly put together the Monday after and Weekly Humorist accepted it. It's one of my silly lists with punny names, but, as I said, it got accepted! The title kind of presented itself as I was trying to save the file and made a typo. So, for people who need to get mad at the Olympics, we present:

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