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Q. How would you describe your style?
A. My theory about humor, to the extent I have one, is that it's fear that the world is not very sane or reliable or organized and that it's not controlled by responsible people. Anything can happen to you, and you have no say in it, and it could be bad. What a humorist does is sort of poke through that. You get on an airplane, and if you're like me, you have no idea how an airplane could possibly fly and every fiber in your body tells you it can't. Nothing you've ever seen that heavy can fly. You get on there with all these other people convinced of exactly the same thing, but you say, "Well, it must be able to fly. Look at the guy up there with the short haircut, the military bearing. Scientists built this, it must work." And the humorist says, "Nah, it probably really can't fly. You're right to be afraid of the airplane -- it's probably going to crash, and you're going to die." People laugh because it's easier to laugh than to really admit they're afraid. But I don't think I'm the first person to observe the close connection between fear and laughter.
Q. What is it you like least about yourself?
A. Well, sometimes I've been very meanspirited for the sake of a joke, and I've regretted it. I once made fun of an organization called People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals. I told how this group had bought seven lobsters from the tank in a Chinese restaurant, flew them up to Maine and set them free % in the ocean. I figured that now they'll be recaptured by lobstermen, resold to the Chinese restaurant, rereleased by the People for Ethical Treatment of Animals, and the life cycle will continue. I dumped pretty hard on that group. I knew nothing about them. Nobody wrote me saying "You scumbag." But some people said, "We thought your column was kind of funny, but you don't know anything about us, and this is what we're all about." I thought, I could have written that same thing without sliming that organization, which actually represents some things that I think are good. I still think the event was worth making fun of, but I shouldn't have lumped those people in with the whole animal-rights thing as brusquely as I did. I try to avoid it now, but there's a side of me that will do that. Otherwise, I'm a great guy.