In anticipation of increased traffic from the book jacket’s mention of Banterist as well as the link from the book’s official website, I thought it’d be smart to re-introduce this place.
What is this place?
Banterist is a weblog of original humor founded in Fall 2003 on a whim. The goal of the site was to create an outlet for original humor that aimed to be of a higher caliber than the farts n’ pee stuff that dominates the internet and, sadly, everything.
In general the site was designed to not appeal to anyone who watches Two and a Half Men religiously.
During a chat in 2004 with Gawker Media president Nick Denton I asked him why he didn’t have any humor blogs in his empire. He said there was no money in it. He was right. It’s much more a labor of love, limited by time constraints and my tremendously awful graphical abilities.
How do I acquaint myself with this site?
You can always try the Greatest Hits category, which contains the most-linked-to entries on the site. These are the posts that have been the most popular in the site’s history. Sadly, despite my efforts to be high-brow, two of them are literally toilet humor: the German Poo-Shelf Toilet story and the incredibly popular Chinese Squat Toilet story.
Notable Posts
My eBay auction for unwanted leather pants had remarkable career ramifications.
This summary of a trip to Vilnius, Lithuania was translated out of context into Lithuanian and posted on a popular site there – resulting in a huge backlash by angry Lithuanians who thought I was making fun of them.
The Grammar Cop archives are very popular and document our descent into apostrophic anarchy.
If you want to feel intellectually superior to a large number of people, read A Public Message From Sean P. Diddy Combs then peruse the comments and see how many people lack fundamental reading comprehension skills.
Unclaimed Finances of the Rich & Famous garnered a NY Post Page Six mention and even better, an email from actress Martha Plimpton who I had a crush on for most of my adolescence.
Magician Penn Jillete liked Your New Monkey.
Author Neil Gaiman liked Saddam’s Interrogation Logs.
And Tom Cruise for the Xbox seems prescient in retrospect.
Nazis!
Facebook in the Fuhrerbunker.
US Weekly Visits the Fuhrerbunker.
Tag Index
The tag index lets you browse the site for posts based on tags. This can help you locate posts on topics you might be interested in, like the Crappiest Airport in the World or Horrendous Cat-Face Lady.
Enjoy the site.
Brian Sack
I started Banterist in 2003 after this conversation with my cat. It led to all sorts of good things.
What, no mention of ‘To The Person Who Found My Camera’?!?!
With all due deference to the Unwanted Leather Pants, the explanation for all of the pictures of a cat’s ass on your ‘lost’ camera still has me giggling uncontrollably.
[ Thanks, forgot that one. -B. ]
Wow this is awesome. I have these “What-is-this-site-about-in-anticipation-of-increased-traffic” posts on my blog as well. But you have 3Million hits where i’m barely pushing 3Thousand (please don’t look at my site just cause you feel sorry for me).
I find you hilarious Brian Sack. My blog explains Modern day punditry using Wrestling as an analogy – btw you’re colleague Glenn Beck is an animated member/character in my blog. Anyway you’d think my blog would be hilariously light, but its actually an earnest attempt at deconstructing the charisma, presentation and psychology of punditry and politics. Not enough of the Funny.
I’ve been inspired. I want to be called a humorist – like you! I’m going to change the course of my blog. Create a humorous persona for myself. Just like when Vince Mcmahon came from behind the commentating booth to become a full fledged villain character (i hope i didn’t lose non-wrestling people there).
Expect an email. I think you might be my muse. maybe.