Q&A with Janine Annett, Author of I Am "Why Do I Need Venmo?" Years Old
A few questions for the author of a funny comic book for people who are old enough remember Clippy.
Q&A with Janine Annett
This month I'm bringing you a Q&A with Janine Annett, author of the new hilarious gift book I am "Why Do I need Venmo Years Old?", a collection of comics that are extremely relatable for people of a certain age.
What is your book's origin story?
I met the wonderful Ali Solomon at the Satire and Humor Festival in NYC in 2019. We hit it off right away - we were already familiar with each other’s work - and knew we wanted to collaborate. After I’d had dinner with some friends where one friend said I could Venmo her my share of the bill, I suggested to Ali that she and I collaborate on a take on the expression “I am __ years old”. I wrote a bunch of them, Ali illustrated them with her extremely charming illustrations, and the resulting short humor piece “I Am ‘Why Do I Need Venmo?’ Years Old” was published on McSweeney’s Internet Tendency. The piece went viral and we got a lot of positive feedback on it.
My friend Andy Bomback (a fine writer himself as well as a doctor and a parent! I truly don’t know how he does it!), who is in my writers’ group, said to me, “You should turn this into a whole book”. Ali already had an agent (the fabulous Rebecca Strauss of DeFiore & Company), so I told her maybe she should ask Rebecca if she thought this was worth working on turning into a book. Indeed she did! The book came out in July 2021 with Running Press. I can’t even begin to tell you how much fun I had creating it, and to see it out in the world has been amazing.
What role does humor play in your life?
Humor plays an essential role in my life and my writing. I like to think that when it comes to humor and humor writing, I live right on the fine line between clever and stupid. Even if I’m writing something fairly straightforward, I usually try to inject a little bit of humor into it (except when I’m doing, like, grant writing or healthcare-related writing, which I also do… I can’t really inject much humor there).
My dad, who passed away in 2003, had a great sense of humor and was always making jokes and finding the humor and absurdity in things. I think I got a lot of my sense of humor from him. I definitely believe in the old adages “if you don’t laugh, you’ll cry” as well as “tragedy + time = comedy.” This fall, I’m teaching several humor writing workshops, so I hope to encourage and inspire other people to write more humor. I think the world needs it.
What is something you can recommend to readers that makes you laugh?
I really enjoyed the book The Particulars of Peter: Dance Lessons, DNA Tests, and Other Excuses to Hang Out with My Perfect Dog by Kelly Conaboy. As someone who’s also obsessed with my dog (the best dog ever, Murray!!!) I related to this book so much. Kelly’s a great writer, and her book about Peter is such a fun read, even if you aren’t obsessed with your dog. After I read the book, I sent Kelly (whom I did not know at all!) an email with the subject line “Dogs! Dogs! Dogs!”, and I included a picture of Murray, and she wrote me back saying Murray is so cute and she loves him.
By the way, it’s never a bad idea to write to someone and tell them you loved something they wrote. I do this fairly often. No one has ever said, “How dare you read this thing I created and then go on to tell me, and presumably others as well, about it!” (I am very fortunate to have occasionally received nice emails from strangers, and only a few people have ever written angry emails to me about things I’ve written, including a woman named Maddie who was very offended by the idea that I do not participate in “Elf on the Shelf” and said I was a bad mother.)
Thanks Janine! Check out more about Janine at her website.