Sure, we were all fat, unpopular seventh-graders. (Weren’t we?) But, what if the pudgiest outcast in class was actually, secretly an evil genius, one of the richest people in the world, and running a vast, cruel empire from a lair hidden underneath his bedroom? That’s the truth about Oliver Watson, the hero (?) of the new book “I am a Genius of Unspeakable Evil and I want to be your Class President,” out now. The book is targeted for a young adult audience, but with plenty of dark humor, references that may sail over kids’ heads (like all the best Warner Bros. cartoons, or episodes of “The Simpsons”), and has cover blurbs by Judd Apatow and Jon Stewart. Sure there aren’t crazy things like 10 Worst Tattoos For Men or 20 Pictures That Give Steroids A Bad Name, but rest assured there’s plenty for grown-ups to enjoy as well.
Josh Lieb is an Emmy-winner (as an executive producer of “The Daily Show”), screenwriter, veteran of such TV shows as “News Radio” and “The Simpsons,” and now, author. Below, Josh opens up to us about farts in children’s literature, the genius of Captain Beefheart, and what it’s like behind the scenes of “The Daily Show.”
Monkeys love chips.
Josh Lieb: It’s funny you think my editor would object to fart jokes. YA editors love fart jokes. They would like me to add more. And they’re right because kids love farts. Personally, I’d lose the farts before I lost Beefheart, since I think his brand of obsessive genius says a lot about Oliver. But, it wouldn’t be a book about middle schoolers if it didn’t have farts.
JL: The idea for the book came as a bolt from the blue during the strike. I have a lot of ideas stashed away for me to get to when I have more time, but this wasn’t one of them. I was on strike, I decided to write a book, and this was it. Lucky.
JL: No, no one is based on anyone. I knew bullies and mean teachers, of course, but none who became models for characters. I don’t think any of the bad teachers I knew, or any of the bullies, were quite as bad as the ones in the book.
C: What are some of your favorite children’s or young adult books? Were any books you read as a child particularly strong influences on this book or your writing career?
JL: I have a lot of favorites. It astounds me now to think of how much free time I had to read when I was a boy. I had friends, but I didn’t sleep very well.
I’m a big fan of Daniel Pinkwater, especially “Yobgorgle” and “Young Adult Novel” and “The Last Guru.” He was the funniest and weirdest of the writers I obsessed on. I also really like Helen Cresswell’s “The Bagthorpe Saga” (really only the first three in the series), Ellen Raskin, Louise Fitzhugh, “The Great Brain,” and “Richie Rich.”
Influential YA books I read later in life: I don’t read anyone more than Dickens. I pointedly ignored him in high school, and it’s not exactly right to call him YA, but that’s kind of what he is. He is the most human writer I know, and the one I’d like to be most like. “Stalky and Company” by Kipling and the P.G. Wodehouse boys’ school books are favorites. And I went on a big Horatio Alger tear a few years ago.
“All of you who get so exercised about your political decisions, about who you’re going to cast your precious vote for– you might as well be cheering for you favorite football team while you watch them play on TV. And how you vote has about as much effect on the election as the words you scream at the TV have on the game.”
In a 2007 video on the website Big Think, you said something similar:
“Rooting for any political cause is in a way like rooting for a football team. You have about as much effect on it, and whoever wins has about as much effect on what happens in the world.”
How much of Oliver’s worldview is yours? Has your experience on “The Daily Show” changed your political outlook at all?
Oliver is much more cynical than I am. He feels closed off from the emotional world, and so he’s constructed a very crass view of the world — rejecting love before it can reject him. But he’s young.
JL: Oh, I don’t want to scare any kids away from capitalism. It has its faults, but I’ve yet to see anything better. Besides, I think kids will admire Oliver’s business acumen and want to be him — to hold that much power in their hands.
I wouldn’t mind if kids walked away from the book as slightly more enlightened consumers. Realizing that cigarette companies are playing their customers for suckers, and that people are paying for the privilege of getting killed — that’s pretty important. But an enlightened consumer is necessary for a capitalist society to work at peak efficiency. These kids will be adults someday, making hard decisions for themselves. It’s too everyone’s benefit that they make good ones.
And I disagree — Oliver is definitely evil. He’s guilty of Satan’s great sin — pride. Which is strange to say about a boy who allows the world to think he is a complete loser. But it’s his pride that doesn’t allow him to interact fully in the real world, because he knows he’ll never be given the level of respect he thinks he deserves.
JL: Yes. Very comfortable. I think we would all be better off if our nation’s political consultants moved to Nebraska. The only people who would suffer are Nebraskans.
JL: I actually like PBS and public broadcasting in general. I am a monthly contributor to my local NPR station and listen to it every morning and all weekend. Even the shows I hate, like Jonathan Schwartz. But there’s a lot of stuff, especially music, especially late at night, that you won’t find on any other stations.
Oliver’s animosity towards PBS is more personal; he hates PBS because it’s more important to his father than he is. And, as a supremely proud being, he can’t stand the idea of begging — which is, let’s face it, what a pledge drive is. His father represents a kind of pride, too — the pride of a certain kind of public servant who thinks he’s better than everyone else because he’s working for the good of all. Unlike the rest of us who only work for ourselves.
JL: I’m already working on a sequel, “I Am a Genius of Unspeakable Evil and I Want to Take You to the Eight Grade Formal.” I’d love to take him through high school, though I don’t know about the progressively darker part.
JL: You know, I’m actually less protective. As a TV and movie writer, you get inured to throwing out things you like. You begin to enjoy killing especially good lines. I’m glad I’m doing the killing, not someone else.
JL: He doesn’t make anyone call him anything. People just call him McG.
JL: The hours aren’t incredibly long, but they’re very busy. I get in to work around 9:30 and get home around 8. In between, we figure out (or confirm) what the headlines for the show will be, revise scripts, edit montages, and go to a lot of meetings. Friday’s a half day, only noon to six.
JL: I think we did exceptional work at the national conventions last year. We killed ourselves doing it, but the shows were great and it was worth it.
JL: Don Van Vliet was a boyhood friend of Frank Zappa. They grew up together in Glendale, California. He has a rough blues voice and a taste for discord — but it’s discord with a pattern, that only becomes apparent with repeated listenings.
(Another one of my favorite musicians also came out of Zappa’s world — Lowell George of Little Feat. Which is interesting [sort of] because I don’t really like Zappa)
You’ll want to start with his first album, “Safe As Milk.” This is the shallow end of Beefheart’s work, but still completely the greatest. Give the catchy “Yellow Brick Road” ( I think that’s the title) a spin, then get used to some good mean noise on “Abba Zabba” and “Dropout Boogie.” Listen to “Dropout Boogie” one thousand times.
Then listen to “Trout Mask Replica,” generally considered Captain Beefheart and His Magic Band’s masterpiece. It’s great but you have to listen past the first one hundred time when you hate it. I am especially fond of the song “The Blimp.”
I don’t know as much about his later albums. Oliver is the Beefheart expert, not me.
For more great interviews, check out Comedy.com interviewing a strip club DJ and our interview with comic book legend R. Sikoryak.
Posted by Jonathan Shockley, who loves a good book.
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