An interview with Joel Johnson on why he's funny


Joel and I were so angry at each other in this picture that Cat Schwartz literally had to keep us apart.

I don’t usually want to bring people’s personal lives into focus here on CG. After all, we’re dedicated to, as Joel himself always pointed out, self-deprecation and dick jokes. However, since Joel is my mentor and friend I wanted to point you guys to a great interview with him on DadWagon where he talks about abuse at the hands of his step-father, Glen.

Joel wrote his piece [Warning: The first line is a doozy] last week and it spread rather rapidly among a certain group of people. Joel, the former editor of Gizmodo and Boing Boing Gadgets, is brave and both pieces are definitely worth reading – the interview for its reasoned stance and the actual memoir for its brutal honestly.

His level-headed interview with Matt at DadWagon is even more interesting in that he explores many of the emotional barriers that we tech geeks – and techie dads – rarely think about, namely the ways our relationships effect the ones we love. This is not to say we’re all in Joel’s situation or that we could even imagine the impetus for his step-father’s actions, but technology gives us a shield and an excuse. Joel, in this case, refused that respite.

He’s still the best tech writer I know, but he’s now also the best writer I know.