Episode 71 — Nicole Byer, Our Close Friend

[xoValeriexo 4369]

Am I gonna cry now every time I hear "She Got Titties in All the Right Places"?

 

Harris is one of my favorite people and I can't believe this happened. If an episode of Parks and Rec was original instead of just being full of jokes about Ron Swanson liking meat and Aubrey Plaza being dark, I knew Harris wrote it. Honestly, go through and watch all of Harris' episodes. He's the best. And Humblebrag is full of perfect jokes. Harris was always so genuine and who he genuinely was is the most likeable person there could be. I'm so upset about this. I've never had someone die whom I loved so fully.

[gototimsvlogdotnet 2886]

I've never been so personally upset by a celebrity death before. I always would make fun of it, because it had never been someone I loved so much. Harris brought me (and all comedy fans, and people who didn't even know who he was) so much happiness.

 

Comedy fans deal with things through comedy. We listen to comedy when we're happy to make us even happier. We listen to comedy when we're sad. We listen to comedy when we're bored. It's often light on the surface, but so deeply meaningful because of how important it is to us. It's everywhere in our lives.

 

I don't know anyone in my real life who loved Harris, and I don't know how to express my sadness anywhere but here, because I know you people are all feeling the same thing. This one is going to take a long time to get over.

 

I'm going to go for a run and listen to some Harris.

[Freja 1290]

i work with addicts every day. the pain and suffering they go through is just so immense and my heart hurts so much for harris and for all the people who knew and loved him. when i first heard his YMIW episode, i felt sick to my stomach. the way it ended without a resolution. this is just too much. what an absolute tragedy.

 

http://www.samhsa.gov/find-help

[Casaba 5942]

I've been on a Sarah Silverman Program kick recently, rewatching all of the episodes. I watched this one today while eating my lunch: Season 2 Episode 2

http://youtu.be/PoBIos-mz4w?list=PLmL3qmTpBIXZZA_30_PT6HkrwD12_upkD

[marshall mellow 1671]

We've got tickets for her Sarah Silverman and Friends show tomorrow night, which I bought awhile ago. Reading her tweets is so sad, she must be so devastated obviously.

[Introcourse 49]

Here is a playlist of all of Harris' foam corner: http://goo.gl/gGNC41

[Andrew 4646]

This is just awful. I still have the You Made It Weird episode sitting in my queue, this is going to suck.

[agata 2789]

my heart hurts.

[Andrew 4646]

I remember the only other time I "got" a celebrity death was Phillip Seymour Hoffman and this feels very similar. It isn't just the sadness of losing someone you loved and respected and admired, but also the disappointment of their work suddenly stopping. What new hilarious things could he have brought us in another year? Five years? I enjoyed everything he did, it's so sad. And I didn't even know him, I can't imagine what his family and friends are going through.

[honlads 8798]

Echoing everything you guys are saying.

 

I've never felt like this about someone I've never met. I read the news and immediately cried as if I'd lost a friend. You don't realise how attached you are to these people until something like this happens. Thoughts are with everyone that was close to him. I can't imagine the pain.

[Bozos of Basketball 3689]

As some of you may know I'm a wrestling fan so this happens to me a lot, but this one is worse I think. Curt Hennig and Randy Savage were pretty bad, but I really related to Harris as he filled my ears and brain with comedy genius on a regular basis.

 

Was always curious how his style would have meshed with Hayes and Sean's if he ever hopped on a HH. Really sad I'll never get the chance to hear that.

[Zsinjeh 1677]

i come home from a funeral and there's more death waiting, fuck you world - ilu harris

[dixon 5920]

How friends mourn

[takehomejoke 670]

Man, this one really hurts. I keep wishing this just hadn't happened - like I could rewind to Wednesday night and change things somehow so he wouldn't be gone. I felt so strangely close to him just hearing him on podcasts. This is a hard one to live down. Harris, you rule

[RanRan 3242]

On Tuesday night I was waiting for my friend at a bar and overheard a girl at the next table name-dropping Harris Wittels. I was surprised for a second, and then I remembered that he is an actual famous person. I can see a similar attitude in a lot of people's reactions. He was one of the funniest people I've ever heard, so much so that everything he did felt very special and personal to me. I think he had that effect on a lot of people, and that's part of why this is so hard to take.

 

The other part, of course, is that it really felt like he had so much left to do. Obviously he'd done an incredible amount for his age, but it still felt like the best was yet to come. When that girl at the bar name-dropped him, her friends were like "Who?" and I remember thinking, "You'll know who he is soon." And now he's not gonna do anything else fuck fuck FUCK

 

And the other other part is that there are a lot of people I'm close to who have struggled with substance abuse and I'm sure I'm not the only one in that position so just a reminder to appreciate those people and tell them you love them and make sure they know you're there for them no matter what ok I'm crying at work gotta go bye

[SteveH 11126]

Not that this was ever in question, but the Hollywood Handbook forum is the best forum on the internet. This is a group of people who came together over a podcast that is just pure comedy, and whatever the opposite of "earnest" is (they won't even take a position on school shootings or slavery!), and here everyone is, remembering a great comic/writer/dude, and mourning in a really genuine way.

 

[JacobCrites 4977]

Listening to the Farts and Pro episodes, his Foam Corner playlist and some other Harris stuff. It's still not really sinking in that he's actually gone. He really did leave behind an amazing body of work, and was able to hone in on such a prolific and endearing comedic voice in such a short amount of time. I've heard a lot of people say this, but Harris is the reason I started paying attention to writing credits on comedy shows.

[honlads 8798]

I dropped out of college in 2010, aimless and despondent. I got a job working on an organic farm; on my own, on my hands and knees, planting vegetables for hours a day. It turned out to be a formative period of my life. Alone, in the cold and the rain, I listened to hours and hours of podcasts. I really enjoyed these people’s “company”. They shaped my sense of humour, and a lot of my opinions have been influenced by them. Harris was one of those people. His comedy lifted me out of some dark times throughout that year. I even listened to Phish for a month before I thought, “No, wait, this is very shit." I ended up picking up my shit and going back to college, and now I’m a few months away from graduating.

 

It’s only hitting me today how highly I thought of Harris; reading of his death, realising the gravity of it, feeling the lump in my throat, then being a huge fucking nerd about it online.

[marshall mellow 1671]

You are all really special people on this forum, and you are making me cry. I obviously didn't know Harris, but he made a laugh alot and he will be missed. He was so young, and this hits me hard. I lost my brother young (24). He was in a dark place and for him it was alcohol. I don't like to think about it because it brings up all those feelings of guilt and he was a really nice person too that felt things very deeply. A real sensitive soul. Sounds like Harris was too. So sad. This forum is a special place for sure.

[kneisage 2108]

Ugh, this is still so hard to wrap my head around. My heart goes out to his friends and family. I'm devastated just as a person who only looked up to him for his jokes and podcast appearances, I can't imagine what kind of grief they are feeling.

 

I may have been the only person in the world to see this moment, so it feels important to share:

 

I saw Harris once in real life. I was waiting in line to see Comedy Bang Bang at the RiotLA festival and he came out of the theater and stood nearby to smoke a cigarette. No one else in line even seemed to notice he was there so I tried to keep my freakout internal, but now I really regret missing my chance to tell him that his jokes were important to me.

 

Anyway, as he was finishing up his cigarette, he pulled out his phone, wrote something really quick and then went back inside the theater again. Minutes later, he came on stage for his Foam Corner and said that he had just written a joke, and proceeded to do his famous bit: "I hate smoking sections. Unless we're talking about The Mask with Jim Carrey, in which case the 'smoking' section is my favorite part."

 

Even though I guess some people would consider it just a dumb little joke, it really felt like I got a personal glimpse at a genius actually creating something special right in front of me.

 

Which is also how it felt to listen to him perform on podcasts. OK that's all The End. Rest in peace, Harris.

[Proposition Phil 218]

I wonder if Cody's performance this week will set a precedent for engineers to get more involved. I definitely wouldn't mind that shit, the engineers are funny as hell.

[honlads 8798]

lol this is great

 

[Andrew 4646]

I dropped out of college in 2010, aimless and despondent. I got a job working on an organic farm; on my own, on my hands and knees, planting vegetables for hours a day. It turned out to be a formative period of my life. Alone, in the cold and the rain, I listened to hours and hours of podcasts. ...

 

Not to detract from what was a sincerely touching post, but this does sound like an origin story for a lame superhero.

[marshall mellow 1671]

 

Not to detract from what was a sincerely touching post, but this does sound like an origin story for a lame superhero.

 

Also, another HH forumer working with plants !

[honlads 8798]

I now have the combined strength of a grown man and hundreds of mp3s.