The Home Video Film Festival

A short film festival where your younger self is the star. Plus recommendations for Aimee Nezhukumatathil's poems, Jiminy Glick vs Bill Hader, and Hua Hsu on fatherhood.

It was the first annual Home Video Festival and the backyard was packed. Over the course of the evening, 11 brave filmmakers would present lightly edited home videos that showed them as children. As attendees, we were asked to bring a food that reminded us of our childhood and help select songs for a nostalgia-heavy playlist.

I showed up with a large bag full of string cheese. As the dulcet tones of Lou Bega’s Mambo No. 5 played over the speakers, I took stock of a table covered in chocolate chip cookies, Fruit Gushers, a large communal bowl of SpaghettiOs, and several flavors of popsicle. It was going to be a good night.

I had no clue just how good though.

I have not laughed harder in years. It turns out that watching semi-embarrassing footage of your friends as kids is my favorite genre of comedy.

Three highlights (from people who all gave me permission to share):

• My friend Dan, who once wrote an all-time great guest post for this newsletter about working as a cashier in CVS while having undiagnosed OCD, shared a video that contained footage of him as a young boy performing this disturbingly suggestive Disney song, where a lady mouse does burlesque. Dan did an eerily identical rendition.

• Our host for HVF2024, Alison, showed a shot-for-shot remake that she and her siblings had made of the movie Pulp Fiction, where the only difference was that they swapped in potatoes for drugs. It was called Potato Fiction. You might think that young children watching Pulp Fiction would have been the most disturbing part of Alison’s submission, but that’s only because you didn’t see the clip where they threw boiling water on one of the character’s crotches to punish him for not giving them their fair share of the potato profits. Tarantino would have been proud. (sidenote: Alison is currently fundraising to make a short film which is not at all potato-based, but still going to be amazing)

• The undisputed winner of Home Video Fest was Jen Jackson, with a submission that consisted of reading the daily reports from her daycare / pre-school. Day after day included reports of Jen refusing to nap, loudly crying, and then eating as many as five slices of bread in one sitting. But the pièce de résistance was a note Jen herself had written in the journal. She’d started writing it in the morning and, while difficult to decipher her kid handwriting, Jen translated for us that she had written “I will make my day a good day.” However, after her day had not worked out as planned, she erased that note and wrote an update.

  

  Translation: I was wrong. My day was not good.

There was not a single attendee of Home Video Fest who was not crying tears of laughter over this message and the way Jen spelled it. Instantly iconic.

I wis rog.

My day wis nit gid.

For the rest of my life, I will be saying that whenever things don’t go my way. I genuinely believe now that the word “wrong” should be spelled “rog” when things really go off track.

Overall, Home Video Fest was a smash hit. I cannot wait to attend in 2025 and I will spend the next year digging through the archives to find a submission of my own.

In the meantime though, I hope you all have a day that is gid.

My projects and upcoming events:

LIVE IN SAN FRANCISCO: Wrong Answers Only at The Independent - THIS SUNDAY, June 30th at 7 p.m. It’s not too late to get tickets to see comedians Josh Sharp, Aparna Nancherla, Joanna Hausmann, and me make jokes and learn about dark matter and the formation of the universe from Stanford’s Dr. Risa Wechsler. Details and tickets here

PODCAST: How to Be a Better Human (TED/PRX) - David DeSteno studies religion and faith but as a scientist. His peer-reviewed studies look at the science of spirituality and how those benefits can be understood (and applied to your own life, even if you don’t have a faith tradition). We had a wide-ranging conversation that I think will be of interest to believers, atheists, and agnostics alike. Listen here (or wherever you get your podcasts)

PODCAST: Fake the Nation - I was a guest on Negin Farsad’s very funny current events podcast. The other guest was comedy legend Andy Richter! The three of us had a lot of fun breaking down political news, social media trends, and the hottest baby names of the year. Listen here

AUDIOBOOK: Let's Hang Out: Making (and Keeping) Friends, Acquaintances, and Other Nonromantic Relationships - This is out now as an audiobook or e-book on Everand. You have to create an account to listen or read, but you can get a 60-day free trial with promo code ChrisDuffy60 or if you click this link it should automatically fill out that code. You can always cancel after reading and not get charged!

This week’s list

GREAT:

We are most definitely in summertime now. The days are hot and long, full of stonefruit and swimming. Aimee Nezhukumatathil is a Pushcart Prize-winning poet who is able to capture the feeling of this time of year better than any other writer I know. I love her poem The Woman Who Turned Down a Date with a Cherry Farmer but I also love Baked Goods and Are All the Break-Ups in Your Poems Real? They’re short, why not read them all?

FUNNY:

Whenever I watch Martin Short’s comedy, I feel like it shouldn’t work. What he’s doing is so bonkers and nonstop and over the top, I shouldn’t be laughing. But, oh boy, does he make me laugh. I don’t know how he does it but I do know that somehow it works. This interview, where Short is playing his character Jiminy Glick and interviewing Bill Hader, is a work of art. I don’t think Bill Hader ever gets to say more than two sentences in a row. He’s laughing the whole time and so was I. I particularly loved the bit about the spelling of lisp and the way that Martin Short keeps checking his script to remind himself of Hader’s name. Incredible stuff. Out and About with Jiminy Glick (h/t Mollie)

INTERESTING:

Earlier this year, I read Hua Hsu’s book Stay True. It was one of those pieces of writing that pretty much guaranteed that I’ll read anything else Hsu writes forever. I’m not alone in feeling that way. I mean, it won the Pulitzer Prize. But I feel a distinct thrill every time his name pops up. I know I’m about to read something thoughtful and beautiful and subtly comedic and self-deprecating in exactly the right ways. This essay, ostensibly a book review, is about “our contemporary scripts for fatherhood.” It’s also about trying to control the uncontrollable, the gap between who we are and how we want to be seen, and whether it’s possible to think about big issues when you’re very tired. Hua Hsu: Should We Expect More From Dads?

(related: Trolley Problems Variations for Dads)

BONUS FOR PAYING SUBSCRIBERS:

Paying subscribers make Bright Spots possible! Subscribers get access to special features as well as all posts in the archive. This week’s bonus feature is an audio recording where you can hear me do a dramatic reading of Jen’s masterpiece of a journal entry. Paying subscribers also get my undying gratitude (which never dies). It’s never too late to join them!

That's it for this week. Thanks for reading! Please share Bright Spots with anyone you think might enjoy it.

I wis rog,

Chris Duffy

This has been Bright Spots, a newsletter.

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…wait, who are you?

I'm Chris Duffy, a comedian, TV writer, podcast host, and both a former fifth grade teacher and a former fifth grade student. I’m currently writing a nonfiction book about humor for Doubleday.