Why I love Bridget's Writing - Phetasy Digest
Comedy dates at Mothership, Burnout is a bastard, Billionaires want me to be incels apparently, Lockdowns were a lie (and also a bastard), and Trump thinks we shouldn't believe our lyin' eyes
As Bridget pointed out in last night’s Dumpster Fire, Burnout Season is upon us. So I wanted to slow down a bit and pay homage to one of my all-time favorite writers: Bridget Phetasy.
My first encounter with Bridget was her writing. She was a guest on Glenn Beck’s podcast, which I was a producer and writer for at the time. We met at Glenn’s studios in Dallas, and became immediate friends—Bridget does immediate friendship better than anyone I know.
I’ve gotten to know Bridget a lot since. She performs a lot of roles (a whole lot), but, to me, her creativity is most alive in her writing. Girl is a writer.
In the 2010s, she wrote personal essays in a way nobody else could. I remember reading “Bill Cosby Raped Me…Kind Of” and thinking, I’ve got to meet this chick (life is funny, isn’t it?)
At the time, plenty of writers tried to imitate her style, but their voice just resembled an insincere text message version of stream of consciousness, and not the Kerouac beauty that thrives in Bridget’s deceptively minimalist prose.
Sincerity is an important part of authenticity in its purest form. A person who is sincere takes all the same risks needed in order to be authentic.
Her work at Playboy was raw yet compassionate, vulgar yet intensely thoughtful. Ironically, her concern for men may have played a role in the shifty wokeification of Playboy, a magazine supposedly designed to validate masculinity at its most unapologetic.
This phase felt like an advancement of the renegade journalism of early Vice Magazine, when Gavin McInnes wrote a ton of the articles under various pseudonyms. (Coincidentally, she’s also written for VICE.)
She bested Playboy in 2022 with “I Regret Being a Slut,” an essay people ask me about more than any others (“That essay made me cry in a good way.”)
The Spectator era has added an austere, essayistic, and at times even scholarly hue to her work. She’s also an excellent script writer, what Old Media calls TV writing. When I started with Bridget, I was immediately impressed by the amount of writing she does alongside Maggie.
She got published in The Atlantic, which is an “I made it” moment for any writer, but the Phetasy is that she did it the same year that she appeared on Curb Your Enthusiasm.
But, I gotta say, my favorite Bridget writing project is “Geriatric Mommy.” It marked a whole new phase of Bridget’s literary evolution. The winking angst of her earlier work grew with a maternal depth that can only emerge after becoming a parent. But “Geriatric Mommy” showed the Bridget at her most real—bereft of all Phetasy.
Only Bridget knows what’s next in her literary journey, but I bet it’ll be transformative. Have a good weekend, and enjoy all this beautiful loot below.
STAND-UP
Mothership with Adrienne Iapalucci
November 28-November 30 at the Comedy Mothership. If you’re anywhere near Austin, check them out, it’ll be a blast.
DUMPSTER FIRE - EPISODE #264
The Billion-Dollar Pickup Line
Have you ever used a pickup line that worked? Or has a pickup line ever worked on you? A billionaire went viral over the weekend for sharing his favorite pickup line with young people and it’s either charming or creepy, you decide. Also the battle of the sexes had a new term “mankeeping”.
REAL AMERICA WITH BRIDGET PHETASY
The Lasting Effect of School Closures & The Scandal That Was Ignored
This week on Real America, you guys talked about AI, with guest Natalya Murakhver. It’s a little over 5 years after the pandemic and instead of looking at what did and didn’t work, it feels like the people in charge, who often made bad decisions, are just trying to memory hole all of it. Specifically we want to talk about the school closures.
WALK-INS WELCOME - EPISODE #365
Gen Z Is Furious and Ready To Revolt - Natalya Murakhver
Ever wonder how “15 days to slow the spread” turned into more than two years of Zoom torture, kids in masks all day, and elite children getting private tutors while public-school families got crushed? Natalya Murakhver, a former Upper West Side progressive turned “Open Schools” mom, joins Bridget to discuss her new documentary 15 Days, a forensic analysis of what happened to children during school closures, including devastating learning loss, mental health crises, and inequality.
DUMPSTER FIRE - EPISODE #265
Advice From A Human Dumpster Fire
Fighting the “Fuck Its”. Tips for ending the year strong and not giving into nihilism and the darkness. In other words, don’t break your ankle on the dismount.
THE SPECTATOR
It’s the cost of living, stupid
The MAGA agenda will only succeed if Americans feel material relief.
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She’s a ball of talent. I found her podcast but didn’t know she wrote too! 👏🙏🌺❤️
I think BP is one of the very funniest humorists / human observers (?) in America today. I don't even know all of the content (too many notes your Majesty?) like with Mr. Phetasy and some others, but it all seems super good. God bless you Bridget, Maggie and the team for your courage and relentless good vibes.