The Rubesletter - Be authentic? I'd rather you pretend.
This is the Rubesletter from Matt Ruby. I’m a comedian, writer, and the creator of Vooza. This is a paywalled newsletter. If you’re on the free plan, you’ll still get to read plenty of good stuff, but if you’re a paid subscriber you’ll get exclusive content sent only to those who support financially. Sign up here. Thanks! Be authentic? I'd rather you pretend.Musings on Travis Kelce, tote bags, Leonard Cohen, camo, boomboxes, Lauren Boebert, Dave Portnoy, and more.🪞 Travis Kelce def gonna do a "shake it off" thing after a touchdown, you just watch. 🪞 It's weird how Liberals love tote bags so much more than Conservatives. Doesn't everyone need to carry stuff? Maybe a tote bag/holster could sway 'em? 🪞 I want to travel to Turkey to get a Brazilian butt lift just so I can tell people and have it be a geographical mindf*ck. 🎧 Why Always the Jews? Interesting podcast interview on why Jews are such a lightning rod for conspiracy theories. 🪞 Memory foam mattress? Uh, I don’t want a bed that remembers everything that happened there. I need an amnesia mattress. 🪞 Clinical depression would make more sense if there was also clinical happiness. 🪞 The problem with “be authentic” is interacting with other human beings requires pretending. You pretend to be in a good mood. You pretend that guy’s joke was funny. Pretending is the lube of a functional society. Without it, we’re all friction. 🗯 On the other hand, here’s David Foster Wallace on the power of authenticity.
🃏 I post clips of my standup (and more) at Instagram, TikTok, Threads, and YouTube. 🪞 Re: WaPo/Portnoy Pizzagate, "35+ plus [pizza] shops slated to participate." Literally don't understand the point of having 35 pizza places at a single fest. Ya going to eat 35 slices of pizza!? Go to one good pizza place and have a couple slices like a sane human. Another example of "good on the flyer/bad in person." 🪞 I heard the face a guitar player makes when soloing is the same face they make during orgasm. So I bought my girlfriend a guitar. I figured it’d be fun for her to make that face somehow. 🃏 My other newsletter, Funny How: Letters to a Young Comedian, is all about doing standup. Recently there: How much can comedians lie? Also: Kurt Vonnegut's advice on telling stories and writing jokes. 🗯 Feminist Caitlin Moran believes feminists have become largely humorless and blames social media, which she argues is like a new religion.
🪞 My beef with pronouns has nothing to do with gender identity — it just seems really egotistical to introduce yourself by telling me how you’d like me to refer to you when discussing you in the future. (After all, that’s what third-person pronouns are all about.) I feel like you should have to do something interesting first. Eat 200 Tootsie Rolls while tightrope walking and then tell me you prefer to be called “they/them” – ‘cuz I’m def gonna tell someone about you after that. But if we’re just on a random Zoom meeting together, the whole pronoun dance feels more like a bizarre form of egotism. 🗯 16 lessons from legendary clown school instructor Philippe Gaulier:
🎧 Check out my Kind of a Lot with Matt Ruby podcast.
Up ahead for paid subscribers: Boebert goes full Alanis, conservatives vs. libs as comedy audiences, Bari Weiss’ sexual revolution “debate,” the sneaky affirmative action in college admissions, Elon Musk’s forward motion, and the general who told Stephen Miller to STFU. ... Keep reading with a 7-day free trialSubscribe to The Rubesletter • by Matt Ruby (Vooza) to keep reading this post and get 7 days of free access to the full post archives.A subscription gets you:
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Older messages
Why no one trusts the media anymore – and what to do about it
Wednesday, September 20, 2023
People are defending Russell Brand because they don't even understand how journalism works. Reporters should fight back. Here's how...
How to solve toxic masculinity
Tuesday, September 12, 2023
Men like me have the most privilege, yet we're also the most upset. What gives? And how can we fix that? The answers may surprise you.
🎯 Burning Man Attendees Told to Conserve MDMA
Tuesday, September 5, 2023
Organizers cut off access in and out of the DJ booth for Instagram models with fewer than 1M followers.
🎯 10 great YouTube videos you've got to see
Tuesday, August 29, 2023
Watch Norm Macdonald on Howard Stern, Leonard Cohen on MTV, love lessons from a divorce lawyer, the psychedelic renaissance, Bill Maher vs. Jordan Peterson, Gordon Ramsay chopping an onion, & more.
9 times mistakes turned into great art
Tuesday, August 22, 2023
Led Zeppelin, Martin Scorcese, Navajo weavings, and why you should "leave the bloody hair on."
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