Yes, True is sometimes a touch raw. Usually it works out fine — it’s balanced well between tragedy (like a school committing a grievous Zero-Tolerance punishment on a truly innocent kid) and comedy. But now and then, after I’ve written an issue, something comes up that tilts the balance, and the result is awkwardly off-kilter.
Death
That’s Not Funny!
Now and then a reader will write to say they’re outraged by a story — that it’s “not humorous.”
Dick Ebersol’s Plane Crash
You may have heard about the plane crash last weekend (November 28, 2004) in Montrose, Colorado, mainly because a “celebrity” was aboard (NBC Sports head Dick Ebersol; his wife is actress Susan Saint James).
Binge Drinking in College: No, Not Funny
I periodically remind people: the stories in This is True are not always meant to be funny. Even the funny ones are often chosen to drive home a point, but sometimes being funny isn’t the way to do that. A good example is this two-story line-up from True’s 3 October 2004 issue:
Driving Home a Point
In the Premium edition (only), I sometimes run a Tagline Challenge, where I include an extra story without my usual “tagline” and let readers suggest how they think the story should end. This month the Challenge was indeed a challenge.
A Story Subject Responds
It isn’t often that someone featured in a This is True story writes to complain or argue about a story about them. The few that have written with comments are indeed generally not at all upset, but rather quite amused by the whole thing. So much so that I wish I got more such notes.
Honorary Unsubscribe
Without any announcement, the first “Honorary Unsubscribe” runs in True.