Jack Handey (born February 25, 1949) is an American
humorist. He is best known for his "Deep Thoughts by Jack Handey", a large body of
surrealistic
Surrealism is a cultural movement that developed in Europe in the aftermath of World War I in which artists depicted unnerving, illogical scenes and developed techniques to allow the unconscious mind to express itself. Its aim was, according to ...
one-liner joke
A one-liner is a joke that is delivered in a single line. A good one-liner is said to be pithy – concise and meaningful. Comedians and actors use this comedic method as part of their act, e.g. Jimmy Carr, Tommy Cooper, Rodney Dangerfield, Nor ...
s, as well as his "Fuzzy Memories" and "My Big Thick Novel" shorts, and for his
deadpan
Deadpan, dry humour, or dry-wit humour is the deliberate display of emotional neutrality or no emotion, commonly as a form of comedic delivery to contrast with the ridiculousness or absurdity of the subject matter. The delivery is meant to be blun ...
delivery. Although many assume otherwise,
[ Handey is a real person, not a pen name or character.
]
Career
Handey's earliest writing job was for a newspaper, the '' San Antonio Express-News''. He lost the job after writing an article that, in his words, "offended local car dealerships".[ His first comic writing was with comedian ]Steve Martin
Stephen Glenn Martin (born August 14, 1945) is an American actor, comedian, writer, producer, and musician. He has won five Grammy Awards, a Primetime Emmy Award, and was awarded an Honorary Academy Award in 2013. Additionally, he was nominate ...
. According to Martin, Handey got a job writing for ''Saturday Night Live
''Saturday Night Live'' (often abbreviated to ''SNL'') is an American late-night live television sketch comedy and variety show created by Lorne Michaels and developed by Dick Ebersol that airs on NBC and Peacock (streaming service), Peacock. ...
'' (SNL) after Martin introduced him to the show's creator, Lorne Michaels
Lorne Michaels (born Lorne David Lipowitz; November 17, 1944) is a Canadian-American producer, screenwriter, and comedian. He is best known for creating and producing ''Saturday Night Live'' (1975–1980, 1985–present) and producing the '' La ...
.[ For several years, Handey worked on other television projects: the Canadian sketch series '' Bizarre'' in 1980, the 1980 Steve Martin television special '' Comedy Is Not Pretty!'', and Lorne Michaels' short-lived sketch show on ]NBC
The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an American English-language commercial broadcast television and radio network. The flagship property of the NBC Entertainment division of NBCUniversal, a division of Comcast, its headquarters are l ...
called '' The New Show'' in 1984. Handey returned to ''Saturday Night Live'' in 1985 as a writer.[
]
Deep Thoughts
Handey's "deep thoughts" were first published in an untitled essay in '' Omni'' magazine in November 1983. In April 1984, '' National Lampoon'' published a piece titled "Deep Thoughts". Additional Deep Thoughts appeared in the October and November 1984 editions, as well as in the short-lived '' Army Man'' comedy magazine, while more appeared in 1988 in '' The Santa Fe New Mexican'' newspaper. The one-liners were to become Handey's signature work, notable for their concise humor and outlandish hypothetical situations. For example:
*If trees could scream, would we be so cavalier about cutting them down? We might, if they screamed all the time, for no good reason.
*The crows seemed to be calling his name, thought Caw.[
Handey's work next showed up in the ]Michael Nesmith
Robert Michael Nesmith or Mike Nesmith, (December 30, 1942 – December 10, 2021) was an American musician, songwriter, and actor. He was best known as a member of the pop rock band the Monkees and co-star of the TV series ''The Monkees'' (1966� ...
-produced TV series ''Television Parts
''Michael Nesmith in Television Parts'' is a summer TV series run by NBC in 1985. It was a 30-minute comedy-variety series created by Michael Nesmith as a continuation of his Grammy Award-winning video production ''Elephant Parts'', and earlie ...
'' in the format which later became famous on ''Saturday Night Live'' (though in ''Television Parts'', Nesmith provided the narration). Some of these segments appeared in the compilation video of that program, ''Doctor Duck's Super Secret All-Purpose Sauce''.
Between 1989 and 1990, Deep Thoughts were shown during commercial breaks on The Comedy Channel
The Comedy Channel (promoted on air as comedy) is a defunct Australian subscription television channel available on Foxtel, and Optus Television. The channel ceased broadcasting on 1 September 2020.
History
A joint venture between Artist Serv ...
with Handey's narration.
Between 1991 and 1998, ''Saturday Night Live'' included Deep Thoughts on the show as an interstitial segment (between sketches). Introduced by Phil Hartman
Philip Edward Hartman (; September 24, 1948 – May 28, 1998) was a Canadian-American actor, comedian, screenwriter and graphic designer. Hartman was born in Brantford, Ontario, Canada, and his family moved to the United States w ...
and read live by Handey (neither actually appeared on screen), the one-liners proved to be extremely popular. Hartman intoned "And now, Deep Thoughts, by Jack Handey...", and peaceful easy listening music played while the screen showed soothing pastoral scenes, much like a New Age
New Age is a range of spiritual or religious practices and beliefs which rapidly grew in Western society during the early 1970s. Its highly eclectic and unsystematic structure makes a precise definition difficult. Although many scholars consi ...
relaxation video. Handey then read the Deep Thought as the text to it scrolled across the screen. They became an enduring feature of ''SNL'', which often had multiple Thoughts in each episode, and made Handey a well-known name.
Other SNL work
Other Handey creations that appeared on SNL include the Unfrozen Caveman Lawyer,[ "Fuzzy Memories" which depicted reenactments of a twisted childhood memory and aired in the late 1990s, and the short-lived "My Big Thick Novel", which were spoken excerpts from a very long book in the style of "Deep Thoughts" and which aired during SNL's 2001–03 seasons.
Handey is also credited with creating Toonces the Driving Cat, the cat who could drive a car, although not very well.][Carman, John (February 14, 1992). "We Paws for This Message", '']San Francisco Chronicle
The ''San Francisco Chronicle'' is a newspaper serving primarily the San Francisco Bay Area of Northern California. It was founded in 1865 as ''The Daily Dramatic Chronicle'' by teenage brothers Charles de Young and Michael H. de Young. The ...
''. The recurring skit originated in 1989 with Steve Martin
Stephen Glenn Martin (born August 14, 1945) is an American actor, comedian, writer, producer, and musician. He has won five Grammy Awards, a Primetime Emmy Award, and was awarded an Honorary Academy Award in 2013. Additionally, he was nominate ...
and Victoria Jackson
Victoria Jackson (born August 2, 1959) is an American actress, comedian, and singer who was a cast member of the NBC television sketch comedy series ''Saturday Night Live'' (SNL) from 1986 to 1992.
Early life
Jackson was born in Miami, Florid ...
as the crash-prone kitten's owners. In 1992 NBC aired a half-hour Toonces special. Handey, who lived with a real cat by the same name, once said he could not remember exactly how he dreamed up the premise. He said, "It was just one of those free association ideas you write down and look at later and think, 'Maybe.
Further writing
In early April 2008, Handey published his first collection of magazine humor pieces, ''What I'd Say to the Martians and Other Veiled Threats''. Associated Press
The Associated Press (AP) is an American non-profit news agency headquartered in New York City. Founded in 1846, it operates as a cooperative, unincorporated association. It produces news reports that are distributed to its members, U.S. ne ...
critic Jake Coyle wrote, "With absurdist musings such as these, Handey has established himself as the strangest of birds: a famous comedian whose platform is not the stage or screen, but the page."[ Handey subsequently became a regular contributor to ''The New Yorker'' Shouts and Murmurs section.][
On July 16, 2013, Handey's first novel, ''The Stench of Honolulu'', was released by publisher Grand Central.][
]
Personal life
Handey was born in San Antonio, Texas
("Cradle of Freedom")
, image_map =
, mapsize = 220px
, map_caption = Interactive map of San Antonio
, subdivision_type = Country
, subdivision_name = United States
, subdivision_type1= State
, subdivision_name1 = Texas
, subdivision_t ...
, in 1949. He graduated from Eastwood High School in El Paso, Texas
El Paso (; "the pass") is a city in and the county seat, seat of El Paso County, Texas, El Paso County in the western corner of the U.S. state of Texas. The 2020 population of the city from the United States Census Bureau, U.S. Census Bureau w ...
, where he was the editor of the school newspaper, ''Sabre''.
Jack Handey lives with his wife, Marta Chavez Handey, in Santa Fe, New Mexico
)
, population_demonym = New Mexican ( es, Neomexicano, Neomejicano, Nuevo Mexicano)
, seat = Santa Fe
, LargestCity = Albuquerque
, LargestMetro = Tiguex
, OfficialLang = None
, Languages = English, Spanish ( New Mexican), Navajo, Ke ...
. Previously, the Handeys had lived in the Chelsea
Chelsea or Chelsey may refer to:
Places Australia
* Chelsea, Victoria
Canada
* Chelsea, Nova Scotia
* Chelsea, Quebec
United Kingdom
* Chelsea, London, an area of London, bounded to the south by the River Thames
** Chelsea (UK Parliament consti ...
neighborhood of Manhattan
Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...
, New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...
.[
]
Bibliography
Books
*
*''Deeper Thoughts: All New, All Crispy'' (1993). Hyperion,
*''Deepest Thoughts: So Deep they Squeak'' (1994). Hyperion,
*''Fuzzy Memories'' (1996). Andrews McMeel Publishing, – a collection of "stories from Handey's childhood"
**''Fuzzy Memories: CD-Rom'' (2003). Disc Us Books Inc, - An Emersa*Plus Reader/Viewer E-book
An ebook (short for electronic book), also known as an e-book or eBook, is a book publication made available in digital form, consisting of text, images, or both, readable on the flat-panel display of computers or other electronic devices. Alt ...
that contains all of the text and pictures from the original book plus "new memories," 28 videos of "Jack's home movies", and 60 audio files of Jack reading selected stories.
*''The Lost Deep Thoughts: Don't Fight the Deepness'' (1998), Hyperion,
*''What I'd Say to the Martians and Other Veiled Threats'' (2008), Hyperion,
*''The Stench of Honolulu: A Tropical Adventure'' (2013), Grand Central,
*''Please Stop the Deep Thoughts'' (2017), self-publishe
Selected essays
*
*
*
*
*
*[Online version is titled "How the neighborhood has changed, by Jack Handey".]
Television writing
*'' Comedy Is Not Pretty!, Steve Martin: Comedy Is Not Pretty!'' (1980)
*''Prime Times'' (1983)
*'' The New Show'' (1984)
*''Television Parts Home Companion'' (1985) - sequel to ''Elephant Parts
''Elephant Parts'' is a collection of comedy sketches and music videos made in 1981 by Michael Nesmith, formerly of the Monkees. Nesmith produced the video through his company Pacific Arts. ''Elephant Parts'' is one hour long with parody commerci ...
'' by Michael Nesmith
Robert Michael Nesmith or Mike Nesmith, (December 30, 1942 – December 10, 2021) was an American musician, songwriter, and actor. He was best known as a member of the pop rock band the Monkees and co-star of the TV series ''The Monkees'' (1966� ...
)
*''Doctor Duck's Super Secret All-Purpose Sauce'' (1986) - another sequel to ''Elephant Parts'' by Michael Nesmith
*''Saturday Night Live
''Saturday Night Live'' (often abbreviated to ''SNL'') is an American late-night live television sketch comedy and variety show created by Lorne Michaels and developed by Dick Ebersol that airs on NBC and Peacock (streaming service), Peacock. ...
'' (1985–1998 and 2001–2002)
References
External links
*
*
*
*
*
Jack Handey's articles
at ''The New Yorker
''The New Yorker'' is an American weekly magazine featuring journalism, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons, and poetry. Founded as a weekly in 1925, the magazine is published 47 times annually, with five of these issues ...
''
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Handey, Jack
1949 births
American male comedians
American humorists
American television writers
American male television writers
Living people
The New Yorker people
People from El Paso, Texas
Primetime Emmy Award winners
University of Texas at El Paso alumni
Writers from San Antonio
20th-century American comedians
21st-century American comedians
Screenwriters from Texas
People from Chelsea, Manhattan
Comedians from Texas