0:00:03.391,0:00:05.196 (tape rewinding) 0:00:09.033,0:00:12.088 (bluegrass music) 0:00:12.810,0:00:15.898 - [Garrison] There was a man[br]sitting on his front porch 0:00:15.898,0:00:19.543 and the pastor came by[br]and they sat and talked 0:00:19.543,0:00:21.958 about theology for a little while. 0:00:21.958,0:00:25.395 And the pastor asked the man 0:00:25.395,0:00:29.192 if he believed in infant baptism. 0:00:29.830,0:00:31.617 And the man said "Believe in it, hell, 0:00:31.617,0:00:33.289 "I've seen it done." 0:00:33.289,0:00:35.136 (audience laughing) 0:00:39.567,0:00:44.139 A humorist has to, has to, has to what? 0:00:44.139,0:00:45.184 What was I about to say? 0:00:45.184,0:00:46.091 (laughter) 0:00:46.091,0:00:49.224 I was distracted, if everyone[br]would just be perfectly still 0:00:49.224,0:00:50.617 I'm sure I... 0:00:50.617,0:00:52.044 (laughing) 0:00:54.820,0:00:58.001 - When did you decide to[br]become a writer, and why? 0:00:58.001,0:01:02.088 - I grew up in a fundamentalist[br]Protestant family 0:01:02.088,0:01:06.765 that stressed that we[br]were a select people, 0:01:07.312,0:01:11.956 and so we were to avoid[br]contact with others 0:01:11.956,0:01:14.835 who did not share our faith. 0:01:14.835,0:01:16.367 We were isolated. 0:01:16.367,0:01:20.356 And, perhaps, growing up in this world, 0:01:21.068,0:01:25.144 first of all, one has a[br]reverence for the word, 0:01:25.144,0:01:29.556 and for language, God spoke to us through 0:01:29.556,0:01:34.093 the word, and in our family[br]this was the King James Bible. 0:01:34.780,0:01:39.529 It also, I think, gave books, fiction, 0:01:39.529,0:01:42.106 great power, because they were proscribed. 0:01:42.106,0:01:46.492 We were not to touch them,[br]and my family was shocked 0:01:47.075,0:01:50.883 when I came home with[br]a volume of Hemingway 0:01:50.883,0:01:55.039 when I was a boy, and I wanted to read it. 0:01:55.039,0:01:57.570 So there was a price to be paid for 0:01:57.570,0:02:01.097 being interested in[br]fiction and in writing. 0:02:01.889,0:02:03.979 Pushing my family away. 0:02:03.979,0:02:08.437 Books and authors became my family. 0:02:08.437,0:02:12.755 It's a decision however[br]that continually seems 0:02:12.755,0:02:15.611 temporary, that you're never quite sure 0:02:15.611,0:02:17.585 you've made it absolutely. 0:02:17.585,0:02:20.882 I'm only 52, so I made a[br]sort of tentative chice 0:02:20.882,0:02:25.526 that has lasted this[br]long, but, I could still 0:02:25.526,0:02:28.173 fall back on retail sales. 0:02:28.173,0:02:30.954 (laughing) 0:02:31.911,0:02:34.117 - Being considered a humorist,[br]are you constantly aware 0:02:34.117,0:02:35.649 that it's time to come up with something 0:02:35.649,0:02:36.988 as clever as you've just described, 0:02:36.988,0:02:38.938 or to be comic in some way? 0:02:38.938,0:02:42.189 - I think that you're only[br]obliged to be a humorist 0:02:42.189,0:02:46.229 from maybe the age of[br]18 until you turn 30. 0:02:46.229,0:02:48.180 Past the age of 30, I don't think 0:02:48.180,0:02:50.664 there's any obligation[br]to be clever at all. 0:02:50.664,0:02:53.311 After that, you, I think, are supposed to 0:02:53.311,0:02:55.827 settle down, be a good person, 0:02:55.827,0:03:00.401 raise your children, and[br]be good to your friends 0:03:00.401,0:03:04.882 which you may not have been[br]when you were very clever. 0:03:04.882,0:03:08.014 And try to atone for your cleverness. 0:03:10.037,0:03:13.009 Humor has to surprise us, 0:03:13.009,0:03:15.957 otherwise it isn't funny, and, 0:03:15.957,0:03:18.790 it's a death knell for a writer 0:03:18.790,0:03:22.263 to be labeled a humorist,[br]because then of course, 0:03:22.263,0:03:25.593 it's not a surprise anymore,[br]it's what's expected of him. 0:03:25.593,0:03:28.658 And when you come to[br]expect humor of people, 0:03:28.658,0:03:30.701 you will never get it. 0:03:30.701,0:03:33.836 Looking for it, demanding[br]it, expecting it, 0:03:33.836,0:03:38.075 what you do is to kill off every joke 0:03:38.596,0:03:40.482 you ever come across. 0:03:44.122,0:03:47.651 Humor in writing needs to come in 0:03:47.651,0:03:50.693 under cover of darkness and be disguised. 0:03:50.693,0:03:52.736 It has to surprise people. 0:03:52.736,0:03:54.060 You don't want to get that sort of 0:03:54.060,0:03:56.823 badoing, badoing, badoing sound 0:03:56.823,0:03:59.854 in your writing, that boing, 0:03:59.854,0:04:02.174 that gives you away. 0:04:04.613,0:04:08.143 Humor is not about problems with 0:04:08.143,0:04:12.740 airline luggage handlers, it's[br]about our lives in America. 0:04:12.740,0:04:15.108 And it's about the ends of our lives, 0:04:15.108,0:04:17.128 it's about everything[br]that happens after that 0:04:17.128,0:04:19.866 and everything that happened before. 0:04:34.697,0:04:36.601 - [George] Well you[br]paint this lovely picture 0:04:36.601,0:04:37.925 of the piece going up and then 0:04:37.925,0:04:38.993 immediately appearing in the magazine, 0:04:38.993,0:04:41.811 I was wondering if sometimes,[br]at the New Yorker they say, 0:04:41.811,0:04:43.636 "Well you know this is[br]not quite up to snuff." 0:04:43.636,0:04:45.448 Or however they would put it. 0:04:45.448,0:04:47.739 - [Garrison] Well, you see though, 0:04:47.739,0:04:50.943 when the New Yorker turned down work, 0:04:50.943,0:04:55.053 they turned it down in such an elaborately 0:04:55.053,0:04:58.442 gentlemanly way, making[br]apologies for their own 0:04:58.442,0:05:02.624 shortsightedness, and undoubtedly 0:05:02.624,0:05:06.128 it was their fault, but[br]somehow, for some reason, 0:05:06.128,0:05:10.772 this fell short of the[br]remarkably high standard 0:05:10.772,0:05:13.767 that you, by your own work[br]have set for yourself. 0:05:13.767,0:05:15.835 (laughing) 0:05:15.835,0:05:20.013 They had a way of rejecting[br]my work that made me 0:05:20.013,0:05:21.778 feel sorry for them somehow. 0:05:21.778,0:05:23.630 (laughing) 0:05:37.120,0:05:38.444 (tape rewinding)