Denial in the world of the moving is one thing, but denial in the age of the Internet is a total different lady. And by lady, I specifically mean my mother. Though I’ve always suspected it, this weekend I explicitly found out my mom reads my blog.
Geeks only paragraph: I feel like Peter Wiggin when his parents told him they knew he was Locke the whole time, except way lower stakes.
It should be known that my mom is amazing, and super supportive of everything I do. In case you wanted to know her feedback, she likes my writing, but she wishes I wouldn’t curse so much. She also thinks it’s just about the coolest thing in the world that Chris Kattan tweeted at me, but she is probably less pleased that even that transaction involved talk of cursing.
Geeks only paragraph: Email me if you want a specific formula to get people of Chris Kattan-level fame to tweet back at you. I got theories.
My comedy friends have this conversation all the time — how competent are our parents at the Internet? My parents text, but they don’t have Facebook or Twitter, and most tellingly, they both still actively use their AOL accounts. So cute! The general concensus is that we aren’t going to let it inhibit us, and we aren’t going to make YOLO jokes about it. We will, however, make jokes about Zac Efron’s tatttoo.
The Internet is the world’s biggest stage, so anyone pursuing comedy really has to be comfortable knowing that everyone they have ever known might be watching or reading. It’s not something that I personally let inhibit me because I feel like I am true to myself both in person and on the Internet. Then there is that whole awkward thing of wondering if our future children will ever find our content, and whether they’ll think it as quaint as having an AOL email address in 2012. Future kids, I DGAF, embrace that phrase, bring it to elementary school.
What follows is a letter for parents of comedians:
Congrats, your child is smart and provides a great good to society*! They’ll make people’s lives rich with laughter, and they will also inspire a lot of groaning at bad jokes, but they can handle that.
*unless you’re Dane Cook’s parents
Geeks only paragraph: I am pretty sure there is a tangible correlation with being unfollowed by those porn spambots on Twitter and making Dane Cook jokes. Also, fuck Dane Cook.
Hugs///
Ashley @alltidashley
Also mom, you don’t have to check my blog twice a week, if you hit the subscribe button on the top right, my posts will be sent to your AOL account. Love you!
Ashley Jillian 
Ha ha ha! I like the little postscript… I’m a mom, too, my offspring (wheeeeee) are all grown, and I, too, wish you wouldn’t use the “big” cuss words so much. I think you’re way too smart for that, unless you wish to make that your schtick.
are you my mom? haha, I think a lot of it is an homage to my favorite authors. I don’t curse much in real life, for what it counts.
Hey Ashley, I am 57 and I Tweet, Facebook, Google, Yahoo and blog on four sites. I embraced computers in the early 1970s, when they were the size of big houses, and that’s the best thing I ever did. Tell your mom to take a course. It makes it so easy to stay in touch with everyone. Great post. Thank you.
Thanks for reading! My parents are definitely technologically-competant, but I am honestly a bit relieved they don’t have Facebook. I would be OK with it if they did, though, I am Facebook friends with my best friend’s parents, which is the next closest thing.
And the cuss words bug me too – function of my age – but I am used to younger people using them a lot and I survive as do the friendships.
For what it’s worth, I specifically use them to be a counterpoint to the HelloGiggles version of comedy. Also, I only used one the above post and it was very much on purpose. Also, thanks for reading despite them 🙂 🙂
I LOVE this post! I recently found out MY mother (and the dreaded mother-in-law) read mine and my first reaction was to start filtering! I have since removed the Mother filter, but maintain the in law one. I have so much I’d like to put out there that concerns our particular relationship, but don’t think it would survive…so will hold my tongue for now. Bravo on this one…
R
how frightfully awkward!
Good stuff (as always). My mum has taken things further and actually blogs as well, thankfully we’re very similar so I don’t censor my writing too much in case my mum reads it, although I do hold back on the expletives a little bit
I think my mom would have a really cute blog if she decided to go for it
do “chris kattan” and “fame” belong in the same sentence?
in a certain year they did, but definitely not in this one
i so hate dane cook. he tells boring non-stories but with emphasis. big shit. and anything he tells that might be funny, he stole it from louis c.k. you ever see the youtube video that shows cook doing jokes and then louis, but dane cook was like a year or two later than louis?
I just don’t understand how he was ever a thing
he preyed on dumb college kids who weren’t around long enough to know that his jokes were borrowed.
Dane Cook stole my essence.
is your essence bro-douche?
Are you unfamiliar with Dane Cook accusing Steve Byrne of stealing his essence on Marc Maron’s WTF podcast?
ah, I am so podcast-fatigued that I haven’t listened in a long time
I love your blog! be sure to check out harrisanddarwish.wordpress.com BTW my prof pic is me (Harris Ansari) with Jessica Alba.
thank you!
My exhusband and 12 year old son read my blog. The 12 year old would like me to cuss MORE.;)
Dane Cook – pfffft. I guess some people like tired stories yelled at them.
your son sounds like a cool kid!
Yes, my mother still uses her account with AOL, too. OMG, how awesome is Ender’s Game going to be with Harrison Ford? I appreciate your efforts in your campaign against the style of humor from Hello Giggles.
I actively avoided the Harry Potter and Hunger Games movies, but I am going to midnight show Ender’s Game
Ender’s Game. (FIngers crossed. Please don’t let me be disappointed with the movie)
Oh, funny post – as always
oh my i hope my parents don’t follow mine…although they may get a real dose of reality if they found it…eek
haha, I mean, there is a fair chance they do, but reality is cool
i would have heard about it by now if they did…
I am debating telling my mom about my blog. I’d be curious about her feedback… but then again she would realize when I tell her I am having a glass of wine, I really mean a bottle. It really is for her own good. No one wants their mom to worry, right?
lol
So cute. My mom reads my blog and tells me things like “Oh my, people enjoy your humor.” She doesn’t realize this sounds sarcastic… she’s just happy 4 people get my jokes. Gotta love the moms!
Moms are so cute!
Without cuss words speech would be like one big run on sentence! You need to punctuate to accentuate dammit! anyway…
amen!
Here’s how you know Dane Cook sucks. Imagine The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson. Now imagine Dane Cook doing stand up on that Tonight Show stage. If Johnny called you over to sit down after your last joke, you were the new king or queen of the stand up world. Johnny would never, ever call Dane Cook over to the couch. I feel that your Mother would agree.
agreed!
Gotta agree on the Johnny Carson reference…too true…
I still fail to see how a cuss word is different than any other word. Every cuss word has a synonym. So why is saying it one way worse than the other? I don’t get it…
I think it’s just a cultural/generational thing
Whooop, there it is! 🙂
am becoming a fan of ur blog.
awesome! you rule!
God, I wish I knew what the hell you were talking about. Not you, God, I’m talking about Ashley, but frankly I don’t understand either of you. What the hell is an AOL account. And I still haven’t got the hang of twitty, oh, sorry, I mean twitter, but twitty sounds a hell of a lot more interesting. Oh, well, if I continue to read your blogs I may grow up. – pjs –
teehee
Oh yeah, my Mom reads my blog and leaves comments on it! Like she just corrected a quote I used. And she wishes I wouldn’t swear so much. And we’re both a titch older than you and yours; you have so much to look forward to! As to your future kids, they’ll just do the eye-roll but secretly be proud. Proud as shit.
🙂
I’m impressed! My mom reads my blog and comments by sending me emails which I somehow don’t get, so she calls. She joined Facebook for 2 days and then gave it up.
she’s trying! and that is pretty cute 🙂
Love! My parent use AOL and I have to let my mom know when ther’e a new post….she doesn’t get the subscribe…
presh!
Smile, Ashley! You’ve been nominated for the prestigious Versatile Blogger Award! http://jeffwhelan.wordpress.com/2012/05/23/the-versatile-blogger-award/ I’d have notified you last night but it was way past my bedtime. Had to grab some shuteye first. Cheers!
Thanks for the nod! I am morally opposed to awards, but I appreciate the sweet intentions!
Any readers are good in my book – and particularly if they buy my book and pay to see my show. Yes, Mum and Dad, that’s £7.50 each to see the play. And you’re not getting the pensioner rate. Unfortunately, neither of them read blogs. So I’m going to have to tell them to their face. So much harder.
hahaha
At least your mom knew how to find your blog! My mom knows I blog but I get the feeling she thinks its some kind of article I write for a magazine or something. She never asks me for the link … and quite honestly, I never offer.
On the other side of this – I AM a mom and constantly use my son for posts. IF he ever figures this out, I’m not sure if he’d think he was ‘famous’ for being in the blog or he’d be upset with me for sharing all the weird stuff he does. One day he caught me writing down what he was saying, asked me if I writing his words … I lied and said no. Hopefully he’ll have the same sense of humor as his mom and think it’s cool that he’s mommie’s blog feature 🙂
I think she probably just googled my name, I don’t think I’m that hard to find. I might be, though, who knows? And your son will be cutely embarrassed by your blog, as it will sort of be like awkward childhood photos. haha.
I’m probably older than your mom and I just discovered this blog thing by accident. Give her time. Hey, at least she can text, which is more that I can do with a cell phone.
I like your style. You have a clear voice – it’s refreshing.
My mum was my first subsciber 🙂 she’s on Facebook too which sort of freaked me a little, it’s all good though! MIL I’m still working on … She would probably like my blog, if she could get away from the local ebay 🙂
Great post, and I am tickled by the cursing thing because as a writer, with my writer friends, we all cuss like sailors. It’s the language of the writing profession – we use words for a purpose, as you said in one of your replies. And nothing punctuates a point like a good curse word.
As a mommy, however, with non-writer friends, I have to watch my language – not even around the kids, it’s with the other moms, who are suitably horrified that I don’t have a hypothetical problem with my son (hypothetically) swearing himself. I just trust that he’ll use it to good effect…
Loved this. The thing about moms is that they know a lot more about their kids than their kids will ever know. Most of the time, we choose to respect their privacy. As long as they are using their creative gifts, I will support whatever endeavour, including cursing. But, then again, I have a potty mouth of my own….
Hahahaha, yes, love this post!
I knew a woman who had an AOL account and changed it YEARS ago.
But what is AOL?
I’m a kid in this 21st C so I don’t know much about ‘vintage’ things.
Like Friendster.
:p
Love it and keep on rocking!!!
K
Hahahaha, This post was so funny! And you are totally right about those awkward moments when you realise…you mom has always been behind the curtain 😛
Best,
LMAO!! I am loving your writing!! Honestly, it’s refreshing. And therefore, I am gonna be following you. In a non-stalker way.
P.S Thanks for stopping by on my blog!
Great! I’ll have to print the letter out and keep it in my pocket so I can have it ready for the right time to whip it out.
I am so glad your mom is supportive. That means a lot.
Nice blog Ashley – love your writing style…your Mom has good taste in the blogs she follows!
Thank you!!!
I kind of feel bad for Dane Cook in that he wouldn’t know if his parents are proud of him or not since they’ve both passed away (according to his official Facebook and Twitter anyway). And overall I could see how peeps would think he was overrated or annoying but I don’t know, I find his bit on crying to be true and pretty funny, and as a Transformers geek I got a good laugh over his bit about naming his kids Optimus Prime and Cobra Commander since that was a shout-out to those guys before they got their live-action movies and were still just cult/nostalgia figures.
As for how my parents reading my blogs or watching my videos goes, my mom makes a point to watch all of my videos, even if they’re about the things she doesn’t care about (such as Transformers and comic book related stuff) because she’s supportive and knows that all views (slowly but surely) lead to more Blip residuals for me. She likes the movie reviews though but she doesn’t like the swearing I occasionally do in them so that’s why I’ve made it a point to do two different versions of my reviews every time I see a new flick.
If you’re a Transformers geek, you deserve Dane Cook
Hmnn…generations, like ships in the night, pass seeing only each other’s lights…
Voluminous swearing was membership in the uneducated, advertised. Next gen, it’s fuel for the rebellion of the young and a membership card for their peer group most often waved by the educated. Our very human comedy never ceases to reward the observant. Your comedic touch seems gentle though well equipped to puncture pomposity…Write on!