Description: A freckled, gap-toothed muse.

Question: Where do you look for inspiration?

Transcript: I have favorite . . . I . . . I certainly was a fan of Mad magazine growing up, especially the Mad comics – the Harvey Kurtzman ones before it became a magazine.  Like you know I had the little re-print digest of those when I was a kid.  And I didn’t know what they were, the history or whatever; but they were so funny and weird.  And I . . . I would say of anything, like those were my biggest, say, comedic influences.  I’d . . . I’d reread those stories over and over again and . . . and sort of scour the background jokes – all the crazy background jokes.  I . . .  You know, I think Animal House is a nearly perfect movie.  It has an incredibly . . . it . . .  It’s like 98 percent of its jokes are successful, you know what I mean?  It’s a perfectly pleasant movie to watch, and with a lot of funny jokes. My family is really not that funny.  My family doesn’t really write.  As a matter of fact, my mother always . . .  Her advice to me as a child was, “Never put anything in writing,” which was strange; but . . .  Now there’s no one . . .  There was no, you know, kooky uncle who inspired me.

Recorded on: 9/4/07