Also, read the site description.

Satire is a high form of art. Explain the ways in which you put that DiVinci fellow to shame?
We don't tell anyone its satire. Some readers don't know. That's really the problem with affliating with Satire News Assocations ;-) That's why my links page is givng me such problems. I want to affiliate for normal reasons and to support other people, other sites and broaden the exposure of the writers who are working so hard for brainsnap just now. I want to do it in a way that doesnt too obviously identify brainsnap as one of them.

I like people wondering if we're taking the piss or not. I don't want to stamp satire over it. My idea of success will be when people steal our news reports and post it elsewhere without realising we were bullshitting. I'm going after the yellow journalists.. I dont want brainsnap to be dismissed as simple satire.

I think this:
Satire belongs on the edge of controversy. It's not just a pat, neat little genre for some cheap laughs. It should make people a bit uncomfortable. Offending is probably a good idea when we're faced with the rise of, well, fascism, once again.
It should make people laugh and wisen up. It would disappoint me if we became a hugely successful but notoriously liberal satire place. I'd rather preach to the non-converted, make republicans snicker at that Rush Lim-whatever-his-name-is.

Why do I know it's art? At university I wrote a thesis about russian satiricists. The artists who languished (languish is my word of the day) under despotic regimes. It always resonated and boy that knowledge is coming in useful. Who'd have thunk the Right would rise again in the mid-late nineties? Holy cowies. I think to be effective, we can't nail our allegiances to the mask. Agitprop, remember ? ;-)

How would your site being banned in a communist country affect your professional career?
I'd rather it be banned in a capitalist country.

Satire is a business, what are your office hours?
Its 5.28am, Ive been up all night. I woke up at 7.40am, I'll probably wake up at that time again tomorrow and keep going. I'm an all singing, all dancing, satirising fool.

What's the best cheating you ever did in college?
Her name was alison and she had a swimming pool.

How has your near-death experience made you feel (and perhaps act or even write) more alive?
I had an amazing near death experience man. It's unlike anything I ever heard about. Ask me about it sometime. It made me go overseas. I met my wife in consequence, I started Brainsnap in consequence. Everything since 99 has been a consequence. NDEs are probably best handled that way.

Which fictitious character is your greatest hero or inspiration?
Jesus.

Satire was once illegal, should it be banned again?
Laughter scares the hell out of people in power. They can handle the corridors of power, the backstabbing, backbiting, the lack of trust, the machievelian shirts. They can handle anything but being in a room of people laughing at them. It's a matter of When it will be banned again.

Generally speaking, Why?
Because im not a bastard. There are too many bastards, the world is unoriginal that way. People act selfishly and stupidly. In exposing that, and in bringing humour to the world, we make the world a better place.

Maybe we'll never be rich because we're not self-serving, but, damn it all man, someone has to put their foot down. Someone has to draw a line in the sand and say everything on this side of the sand is righteous and true, and everything over there is hypocrisy, vanity and dangerous, warlike folly.

I'm drawing a line in the sand to say 'Ha. Damn your eyes, sir. Damn your liver. Damn your stupid world. You can have your factories and greed and bomb but I'm taking the last laugh thank you.'

Hm. Where was I?

May I (mis)quote you?
It'd be fair, I'm misquoting everyone nowadays.

How much money would I have to pay you to disappear?
I dont know. My fees are pretty reasonable and on a job like that I wouldn't have far to commute, I guess.

The world ends tomorrow, with whom would you re-people the earth?
You really dug on Dr. Strangelove huh?

Well, yes.
Okay, the honest answer is a contingent of buxom Norwegian Valkeries, and I apologize for my sexual politics.

Boxers or briefs?
A contributor to Brainsnap who shall remain nameless ('cause Luke is my brother afterall and I have long been one to espouse the virtue of fraternal loyalty) wears... how do I put this delicately... womens panties... and is what they call "a cross dresser". I hope no reader has a problem with this. After all, it just means more chicks for us real men. So the answer to your question is vexed and will be revealed at the proper juncture, in due course and after all consideration, meaning of course, in the fullness of time.

If you've enjoyed this interview feel free to visit thier site directly for more wit, news and disenlightenment.

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