I’m positive you know who John Hodgman is, but I’m not sure exactly what you know him from. Maybe to you he’s the soft-spoken “Resident Expert” or “Deranged Millionaire” from The Daily Show. Maybe you think of him as “PC” from those old Apple commercials with Justin Long. He’s also shown up on plenty of your favorite shows, like Flight of the Conchords, Parks and Rec, 30 Rock, Mozart in the Jungle, and Community, and in movies like Pitch Perfect 2 and The Invention of Lying. It’s possible you recognize his voice from Coraline, The Venture Brothers, and Adventure Time, or you could be a fan of the everyday justice he dishes out on his podcast Judge John Hodgman.
The man is everywhere, playing one funny character after another, and that’s why everyone seems to know him from something different. The one thing we can all agree on though, is that he’s absolutely hilarious at everything he does, and that goes for his print work too. That’s why we can’t wait for his upcoming return to bookshelves everywhere… But this time he’s not writing about fake facts and absurd histories, because Vacationland: True Stories From Painful Beaches is all about his very real, very sincere, very funny experiences in New England.
Especially how the coast of Maine is trying to kill him (and one day certainly will).
Image: Penguin Random House
The reason Hodgman has decided to leave behind the made-up newspaper columns and imaginary graphs of his satirical Complete World Knowledge trilogy (The Areas of My Expertise, More Information Than You Require, That Is All) is because everyone else is making up their own imaginary facts these days. Classic case of fake news market saturation.
In Vacationland, which he originally brought on a live tour two years ago, Hodgman explores his time in three wildernesses: as a kid in Western Massachusetts, to the coast of Maine as a dad, to the metaphorical forest of middle age that connects the two.
So while we all might know him as a different character from any number of things, this time around we’re all going to get to know the real him. Our bet, considering how much we love all the different variations of him we’ve met over the years — we’re going to really like meeting the actual John Hodgman.
Hopefully before some Maine locals feed him to the sea.
Vacationland: True Stories From Painful Beaches hits stores this month on October 24th, and you can pre-order it now.
What do you know John Hodgman from? What’s your favorite show, movie, book, podcast, etc. of his? Tell us in the comments below.
