The Wednesday letter

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October 2026

Oct 14

Michael Che's Daycare Business and Seinfeld's Ticket Policy

Michael Che opens three imaginary daycares in Minneapolis, Jerry Seinfeld keeps a heckler's money and Elf Lyons sends a clown to do her job.
Oct 7

Lion King Summons, Hockey Sticks and Apollo 13

A comic gets sued mid-set over a Lion King joke, a rat meets a hockey stick, and a clown explains the lunar module on tiptoe.

Sep 30

Deniz Göktaş Takes His Act to the Dock

A Turkish comic closes his defence with a tag, Sam Morril asks you to admire the structure, and Catherine Bohart leads with her pelvis.
Sep 23

The Danger of Yelling at Hecklers

Chris Cantrill solves a rural tree murder, Natalie Cuomo loses the room to a heckler, and Mark Thomas celebrates forty years in political satire.
Sep 16

Chris Cantrill’s Quiet Life Requires an Investigation

Chris Cantrill moves to the country for peace, then builds an acclaimed comedy hour around his failure to leave the village alone.
Sep 9

Chris Cantrill Cannot Escape Other People

Chris Cantrill investigates his neighbours, Ian Stone lets spectators choose the material, and Sam Eley makes hostility the attraction.
Sep 2

When Comedy Gets Too Comfortable

This week, we dissect the shifting landscape of comedy: from award-winning shaggy dog stories to raw creative processes and improvised family specials.

Aug 26

Fringe's Odd Rewards: Chaos and Radical Honesty

Translating unhinged clown shows to streaming, the burden of stage honesty, and the Fringe's broad definition of what actually works.
Aug 19

Kelsey Cook Sold Netflix a Finished Asset

Waiting for a green light means waiting forever. Comedians are shooting their own specials and treating platforms like acquisition markets.

Jul 15

Jeff Arcuri Puts the Crowd on Mute

In a baseball stadium, the physical body of the comedian is just a rumor in the distance. The business of standup has outgrown its buildings.
Jul 8

Jeff Arcuri Made the Algorithm Pay Out

The algorithm demands sixty seconds of crowd work, but Netflix still demands a full hour of comedy.
Jul 1

Deniz Göktaş Itemized His Underwear For The State

A Turkish comedian goes viral, gets investigated by the government, and issues a statement itemizing his packed underwear.

Jun 24

Ricky Gervais Sold His Silence

Cancel culture is a highly lucrative business model if you know how to sell your own suppression to a major streaming platform.
Jun 17

Kevin Hart Industrializes the Open Mic

Netflix is attempting to optimize the highly inefficient market of standup comedy with reality television mechanics.
Jun 3

CBS Swaps Stephen Colbert for Cheap Syndication

CBS has replaced Stephen Colbert with a twenty-year-old panel show to save forty million dollars, proving the spreadsheet has defeated the monologue.

May 27

Morgan Jay Tries to Autotune Wembley

Morgan Jay just announced a massive UK arena tour, raising the question of how you autotune fifteen thousand British people at once.
May 20

The Roast of Kevin Hart Was a Culture War Pit Fight

Being a harmless, sponsor-friendly celebrity is a great way to make a hundred million dollars, until Netflix hires Shane Gillis to host your roast.
May 13

Nate Bargatze Fills the Intuit Dome

The industry has taken the most intimate art form and placed it inside an airplane hangar to see what happens to the punchlines.
May 6

Jeff Arcuri Broke the Standup Comedy Ladder

A club comic bypassed the entire gatekeeping apparatus to sell out theaters, proving the traditional standup ladder is officially dead.

Apr 29

Ari Shaffir Raided the Comedy Central Tomb

Comedians used to complain about network executives, but now they make enough podcast money to fund the formats themselves.

Issue illustrations are AI-generated.