Before he went on television, JOHN HODGMAN was a humble writer, expert, and Former Professional Literary Agent living in New York City. In this capacity, he has served as the Humor Editor for the New York Times Magazine, Occasional Flight vs. Invisibility Consultant on “This American Life,” Advice Columnist for McSweeney’s, Comic Book Reviewer for the New York Times Book Review, and a Freelance Journalist specializing in Food, Non-Wine Alcohol, “Battlestar Galactica,” and most other subjects.This was enough of a career for any human.But then he wrote a book of COMPLETE WORLD KNOWLEDGE entitled THE AREAS OF MY EXPERTISE and was asked to appear on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, where he continues to provide commentary as the show’s Resident Expert. Now, at 37, he has unexpectedly become a Famous Minor Television Personality, appearing as the “PC” in a series of television ads for Apple brand computers, and accepting guest roles as “the person wearing glasses” in a variety of films and TV shows, including “Battlestar Galactica,” a show he once wrote about as a journalist.From time to time, he is asked to explain his professional life, and in particular, the effect of this dramatic and surprising change of fortune, and typically, he finds he cannot do it.
He published his first book in 2005. Titled The Areas of My Expertise, its a comical compendium inspired by Poor Richards Almanac and The Book of Lists, but is different in that it contains exclusively false information.
Is the first person on "The Daily Show" to be a guest on the show before joining the cast.
Is a contributing writer at the New York Times Magazine, where he is also the humor editor.
Although he plays a "PC" in the "Get a Mac" advertisements, in real life, Hodgman is a Mac user.
(March 2006) Is the newest addition to the cast of "The Daily Show" and is living in New York, New York.
(May 2006) Plays the "PC" versus Justin Long s "Mac" in the new series of Apple ads.
Attended Yale University.
Worked as a literary agent at Writers House in New York, representing Bruce Campbell , among others.
The villain of any story is often the most compelling character.
First of all, I wish I could grow a beard.
I know nothing about letting go.
A lot of my time is spent reading antique or out-of-print books of,reference.
All I can ask from society is that it please stop telling me why I,should like sports.
All books should be trilogies; I mean I think we all agree on that.
It seems that every generation needs its public, tweedy, literary,personality to sell its consumer electronics. To whatever degree I can,live up to the Plimptonian legacy, I am humble and proud.
Everyone wants to write a book. Very few people are able to do it.
Creating fake facts does require a measure of haphazard research,insofar as they need to not just be possible, but also interesting.
Comedy does offer an avenue to television and film careers for,untelegenic people that great drama does not.
As you know, the thing that I know the least about is the topic of,sports.
Hosting a TV show is a full-time job in which success is defined by it,never ending.
Generally speaking, I, like anyone else who does anything publicly, like,it when people like what I do, and would like to hear as much.
Part of the transaction between writer and reader is the pleasure of,building a community and encouraging people to play along.
My fame is due to broadcast television.
Well, I always had this desire to celebrate and somehow be a part of,things that I thought were really great.
The most important book on the Internet is, essentially, the Internet.
The few people who ask to have their photographs with me, I almost,always say yes, except for a few circumstances, like when my family is,around.
My career as a magazine writer was largely prefaced on the idea of,curiosity, to go on adventures and weasel my way into the lives of,people that I admire.
For a long time, I would write without music, because I thought it was,distracting until I appreciated that it actually unlocks a certain,unconscious productivity vault in my mind.
I know electric knives are excellent for carving turkeys that have had,their bones removed and been forced into a mold to shape them. Please,note that those turkeys are called hams.
I feel that there is a decision people make to either engage in a,legitimately ridiculous process to get your kid into school, or choose,not to engage in that so much, and end up finding a nice local school,that fits.
I do not think that a museum needs to engage with pop culture in order,to make itself interesting to museum-goers. Museums are already,interesting and engaging with pop culture for its own sake is just a,quick way to seem and become dated.
More people have more access to more readers for less money than ever,before in history. It means a lot of dross; but it means a lot of very,talented people can find and nurture a readership in ways that were not,possible twenty years ago. From a creative perspective, that is all,that writing is about.
Many people, many girls have tried to teach me the rules to football.
People who run for president seriously and people who become president,enter a bizarre secret society in which they have had an experience,that none of us will ever have.
We have all been empowered by the web: everyone with a keyboard can now effectively broadcast to a national audience. In a sense, it puts each of us on the same footing as the major media conglomerates, except for AOL, who now apparently own all our thoughts and teeth.
It’s been a tough couple of years for condescending nerds. And if bookstores fall, Jon, America will be inundated with a wandering, snarky underclass of unemployable purveyors of useless and arcane esoterica.
Houdini, the magician who debunked magic, could not bear to see the great rationalist [Arthur Conan] Doyle enchanted by ghosts and frauds. And so he did what any friend would: He set out to prove spiritualism false and rob his friend Doyle of the only comforting fiction that was keeping him sane. It was the least he could do.
If you have not seen it, FOOTBALL is a game in which men shove one another back and forth for no reason. They do not choose how, when, or whom they shove. All that has been decided for them in advance. All they need to do is follow the orders given to them before the game, showing them where to run and how to violently deploy the meat of their bodies against the meat that is running at them. They are doing this in order to please one angry old man on the sidelines. This old man is called the "coach" or "yelling surrogate dad who will never be happy.
This is one of the defining sorrows of books: that we cannot see one another.
