Keep Scrolling Till You Feel Something: 21 Years of Humor from McSweeney's Internet Tendency

by Chris Monks (Editor), Sam Riley (Editor), Jake Tapper (Foreword)

Featuring way too many forewords, including one by Jake Tapper

It's a great undertaking to raise a humor website from infancy to full-fledged adulthood, but with the right editors, impeccable taste, and a dire political landscape, your online bundle of joy will enjoy years of relevance and comic validation. Join us as we revisit McSweeney's Internet Tendency's first 21 years, from our bright-eyed and bewildered early stages to our world-weary and bewildered recent days. I Intend to Keep Scrolling Until I Feel Something is a coming of age celebration for the pioneering website, featuring brand- new pieces and classics by some of today's best humor writers, like Ellie Kemper, Wendy Molyneux, Jesse Eisenberg, Tim Carvell, Karen Chee, Colin Nissan, Megan Amram, John Moe, and many more.

Genres: Humor, Nonfiction

680 pages, Hardcover

First published November 5, 2019

Reviews

[Thomas Ray · Rating 1 out of 5]

Keep Scrolling Till You Feel Something

Occasional very funny bits. Such as:

NIHILISTIC PASSWORD SECURITY QUESTIONS (pp. 343-344)
What is the name of your least favorite child?
In what year did you abandon your dreams?
What is the maiden name of your father's mistress?
At what age did your childhood pet run away?
What was the name of your favorite unpaid internship?
In what city did you first experience ennui?
What is your ex-wife's newest last name?
On what street did you lose your childlike sense of wonder?
When did you stop trying?


Humor is so subjective.

[Jen Robinson · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've read and loved this website for 21 years so a lot of these were Oldies & Goodies, but some had slipped past me. "I'm Sorry I Bit You During My Job Interview" still makes me (almost) pee my pants laughing and it's even better in print! (for a taste: https://www.mcsweeneys.net/articles/i...)

[Sean · Rating 5 out of 5]

Humour is subjective. Written humour can be difficult to pull off without the performative aspects of acting and stand-up. Many people will clearly not connect with this book but for me it was like coming home.

Even the contributor bios made me laugh.

Worth it for the nihilistic dad jokes alone, but actually bursting with nerdy cerebral wit. I loved it.

[Dave Corun · Rating 5 out of 5]

Jokes!

[Caitlan Meyer]

DNF @ 16%
Idk how I misunderstood what this book was about when I first looked into it. I had this thought that it was a commentary on comedy. Where I got that from god knows. But in reality it’s a bunch or short stories/beginings of sketches that comedy writers made. Once I read the forward I had a feeling I wouldn’t finish this book. I had no idea to the site it was referring to but I figured I owned it and I might as well try. Well I did and I assume this was meant to be funny but so far I just feel confused and not interested to see how things progress from here. I don’t think I could push through 500+ more pages just to possibly read stuff from a comedian/writer I may know.

[David Meyer · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a large collection of hits and misses. Many of the hits are phenomenal, but about half the pieces didn't do it for me, and I felt the collection could've gained a lot in overall quality with addition by subtraction.

[Kasadee Allan · Rating 5 out of 5]

This selection of McSweeney's essays are so great! There is such a variety here that there is something in there for everyone. It is so interesting to see how the website has evolved. I really enjoyed the behind the scenes essays on how specific titles were written.

[Ruth · Rating 3 out of 5]

Later essasys are stronger than earlier ones.

[Xoe · Rating 4 out of 5]

The best bathroom book of all time. It looks classy and most pieces are short enough to read in one trip.

[Mike Bailey · Rating 5 out of 5]

Too too too funny

[Naomi · Rating 4 out of 5]

I laughed when I saw my name listed in “bad names for professional wrestlers” and I cried reading “Rihanna’s ‘bitch better have my money’ expanded for freelancers”.

[Emma · Rating 4 out of 5]

Some of these went right over my head but a lot of this satire was great.

[John Bond · Rating 5 out of 5]

So, so many gems. There are legitimately 25 laugh out loud pieces. Some of the smartest and funniest people contributed to this long book of very short pieces. I wish I could read them to you. : )

[Brittany Durgin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Brilliant. Hilarious.

[Ubernina Mairs · Rating 5 out of 5]

Screamingly funny.

[Dylan Paterson · Rating 1 out of 5]

The first two pieces are bad (bad) and there is a typo on page 44.

[Kayleigh · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love this book. All the laughs of reading McSweeney's Internet Tendency without staring at a screen or fatiguing my mouse hand! When I was reading it in public once someone asked if I was reading the bible. I laughed.

[Kevin Hodgson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Piece after piece, the writers’ wit comes through (with a progressive bent for sure). I loved the behind-the-writing additions, and wished there had been more of them.

[Sharon Wishnow · Rating 4 out of 5]

This beautiful gilded-edged and notched book (seriously) is a gem of humor and contemporary thought on life, politics, and pop-culture.

[Adam Helsel · Rating 1 out of 5]

I love comedy books! I did not love this. Maybe 5% of the material made me laugh. A lot of the titles of pieces alone made me immediately skip them. I see who this is for, but it’s not me.

[James Kingman · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is excellent - and everything pre-Trump seems so benign.