I’ve been an extremely bad friend and not yet written anything about Venn That Tune, by Andrew (who long-term readers will know as Salvadore, who guest-edited here for a while).

Andrew’s the reason why this journal started in an indirect sort of fashion, in that we both wrote comedy together for a while before he left the partnership to become successful. I went on to Village-based material, whereas he started exploring the potential of maths, and came up with the song graph idea that lots of people seem to think ‘just happened’ on the internet.

Anyway, the book’s very funny, especially the footnotes section. I’ve bought it for Christmas for my cousin who was in a pre-Genesis Phil Collins band, and if you have any relatives or friends with similar early prog-rock connections, I strongly advise you to do the same. Or just anyone who likes music.

Andrew’s done a bit of press, but was unfortunately hit by the Daily Telegraph, who inflicted a ‘hejoked’ on him – no doubt to maintain the balance between jealous and threatened so-called MSM media and a mere blogger who has written a book. A ‘hejoked’ is a common device that any comic or humorist dreads – it is a phrase frequently used by writers with no sense of humour whatsoever, and is often accompanied by an unwanted exclamation mark.

Essentially, the concept behind a ”hejoked’ is that you can report the funniest, wittiest, pithiest, cleverest, most killer comic line ever, and utterly destroy it by using the phrase ‘he joked’ as a suffix.

“I’ll have an empty arm,” he joked.

“Infamy! Infamy! They’ve all got it in for me!” he joked.

“I was thrown out of college for cheating on the metaphysics exam; I looked into the soul of the boy sitting next to me,” he joked.

I have never really seen a ‘hejoked’ in action before and it was terrible to behold. But despite that, the book’s doing well, and I do urge you to ‘check it out’, as they say on the Internet.

Pants situation: down to two pairs once more.

27 thoughts on “Venn that Tune

  1. Paul says:

    You could at least have posted a link to the Telegraph article, so we could judge for ourselves whether the comment was funny…

  2. “Thanks, Jonny. You are a great friend”, he stated truthfully.

  3. admin says:

    Paul – I meant to! And forgot. But I’ve just looked it up, and it’s just too painful to link to. It’s like an article written by someone’s dad.

    The main reason I forgot is that the ‘preview post’ thing isn’t working, so I’ll have to look that up cos I use it a lot.

  4. Megan says:

    You’ve just crushed me by revealing that Salvadore is not actually Salvadore but Andrew. Totally throws out my mental image which was vaguely swarthy and hairy (just vaguely. Am very bad at mental images – could just as easily been a chimpanzee in a turtleneck now that I think about it). Will have to spend the rest of my Friday sorting out what a Venn expert named Andrew should look like. Probably ginger…

  5. Megan – What about swarthy and ginger?

    Anyway, you already know what my son thinks I look like, and who is to argue with him?

  6. Paul says:

    “admin” – getting a bit big for your boots aren’t you?

    What’s wrong with JonnyB? (perhaps that could be your nexty competition)

  7. z says:

    I put it on my wishlist (which no one is supposed to look at) as a reminder for me to buy copies for various people, and now it’s vanished, so evidently I’ll get a copy myself (hooray) but I don’t now know who not to buy it for.

  8. Penelope says:

    I’ve been promoting this book all over the place – it’s pure genius as far as I’m concerned. I’m also hankering after a signed copy in return but not getting very far with that ;o)

  9. They hejoked him? The bastards. Almost as bad as using exclamation marks in the title of a post. Glad we don’t know anyone like that.

    Clever concept young Andrew has there, but I’m not sure how he made it fill a whole book. It bears the unmistakeable aroma of “Ideal Christmas Gift”. The toilet windowsills of Britain await…

  10. Mr Angry says:

    I bought a copy.

    With real cash money.

    It is actually a lot more difficult to complete than you might think. It is a bit like Sudoku for the iPod generation.

  11. Nadia says:

    Paul: JonnyB just explained the previous post that he’s not “admin” he’s management, but hasn’t yet figured out how to change his title yet. That’s because he’s not the PA.

    Can I get the book on Amazon? Don’t think it’s in the Swiss stores yet.

    JonnyB: shall I send you your pants back? Oh, that’s right, you didn’t send them in the first place so I can’t send them back. Never mind, where’s my framed chicken picture?

  12. Two pairs of pants? – Does this mean you have four pants? He joked!!!

  13. Three exclamation marks, IBM? You bastard. Bastard bastard bastard.

    Bastardo!!!

    I’m allowed, ‘cos that’s Italian. Exclamation marks are mandatory. Just like the flying spittle in German…

  14. Bob says:

    “Flying Spittle in German” — What a great name for a blog!!! Any copyright issues?

  15. tillylil says:

    Well Xmas is coming and I am sure you will be furnished with extra pants from Santa providing of couse you have been a very good boy this year.

  16. You know it is not really necessary to wear pants at all. Girls know this. Or you can wear your wife’s tights instead. Buy a kilt?
    she joked.

  17. Ivan: ‘the flying spittle in German…’ I am a Mugged ALIEN and I fly in something akin to a Spittle!!!! He exclaimed. Alot.

  18. Pat says:

    Yesterday I tried to leave a comment and it was impossible – wrong server or some such. Then I tried an earlier post. Zilch. Then I tried to e-mail you – wrong server. Anyway it seems to be working now. I wonder what my comment was about?

  19. Nadia: just click on ‘Venn that tune’ and get it from Amazon.

  20. admin says:

    Hullo Pat

    Comments seemed to go down completely today (and yesterday, from what you say). I am Keeping an Eye on it. But email is nothing to do with that – it’s just a regulation email address.

  21. test says:

    This is a test comment!!!

  22. Diana says:

    I can confirm Pat’s comment – did the same with same result. Tried to e-mail you to tell you about it – no e-mails either. That was earlier today. All seems to be back in order now… How’s the washing machine?

  23. admin says:

    Hm. Thanks Diana. When you say ‘no emails’ do you mean that the ‘contact’ page didn’t work?

    The washing machine is… erm… well about as reliable as the blog at present…

  24. JonnyB says:

    Another test comment!!!

  25. Diana says:

    Yes, that’s what I meant – the “contact” page wasn’t contacting you. Presume that’s what Pat meant too?

  26. Saltation says:

    good heavens, did SALVADORE start that??

    i never knew…

    *shame*

  27. Megan says:

    Salvadore – no worries. Have simply replaced chimpanzee with orangutan and everything is fine. Out of respect for the LOVELY SON I now include a very expensive watch and a cricket bat.

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