In Swaim We Trust
The funniest man in online humor takes on a dangerous new mission for comedy and country.
photographer : Saryn Christina
interview : Adam Rosina
Mainstream comedy has fallen on hard times. More accurately, it’s circling the fucking drain. Seth Macfarlane’s become far too busy counting his money to realize the bubble’s nearly burst on how many cutaway jokes his audience will stomach before they tune out completely. South Park has become a little too sanctimonious and preachy. And last year’s runaway comedy hit, The Hangover, was an underwhelming snooze fest of a film, save Zach Galifianakis (and anyone familiar with Galifianakis’ stand-up can attest that his performance in said film isn’t up to snuff by comparison). So where’s a comedy connoisseur to turn?
Enter Michael Swaim. Rising quickly from writing for the UC San Diego comedy ‘zine MQ (along with future collaborator on nearly all of his projects, Abe Epperson) to internet stardom with sketch comedy group “Those Aren’t Muskets” and their breakout viral video, “Internet Party”, Swaim’s career began to gain momentum. Further exposure came through his work at Cracked.com, both as a columnist and as the star of web video series Cracked TV (later re-titled Does Not Compute). His next web series, Agents of Cracked, which saw him co-star with fellow Cracked contributor Dan O’Brien in a buddy cop-type scenario, was met with both critical praise and an award at the Second Annual Streamys (an awards ceremony held to honor achievements in internet video content). Now, with Does Not Compute and a new Cracked series After Hours in full swing, season two of Agents of Cracked, and a feature film in the pipeline, Michael Swaim seems poised to take his brand of vulgarity infused, nerd friendly comedy to the masses.
Howdy. Thanks for sitting down with Auxiliary. This is my first time doing an interview so promise you’ll be gentle and we’ll at least cuddle afterwards.
MS : This is like my third, so hopefully I’ll just trash you. I’ll nail you to the wall.
I’m going to go out on a limb and assume it. Got to admit I’m a huge fan. My friends and I have pretty much stopped talking in a conventional sense and are pretty much purely conversing in this Esperanto-like way that is purely composed of Agents of Cracked quotes.
MS : Nice.
So you can kind of see how much we like the shit around here.
MS : That’s excellent. Thank you, man. Because Esperanto is the world’s most efficient language so that means a lot to me.
If only people picked it up.
MS : I know. That was the only thing I gave a shit about in high school is I tried to learn Esperanto like a goober and was treated thusly.
read the full interview in the August/September 2010 Issue
