Ep 198: Jonny Sun

First Draft Episode #198: Jonny Sun

Jonny Sun, Canadian author and illustrator of Everyone’s a Aliebn
When Ur a Aliebn Too and Gmorning, Gnight!, TV writer on BoJack
Horseman, screenwriter, one of TIME Magazine's 25 Most
Influential People on the Internet in 2017, and a doctoral
candidate at MIT and a creative researcher at the Harvard
metaLAB.
Links and Topics Mentioned In This Episode



Jonny remembers watching The Muppet Show as a kid (even
though in some ways that really isn’t a kids show), and later
he realized that was why he loved sketch comedy




Jonny loved reading Calvin and Hobbes as a kid, and he read a
good amount of Charlie Brown, Zits, and The Far Side, all of
which were comedy




The Wayside School books by Louis Sachar was Jonny’s intro
into absurdist humor




He watched American Pie (movie) with his family, lol




Playwright David Ives, who Jonny calls the theater version of
sketch comedy




Jonny played Nathan Detroit in a production of Guys and
Dolls, and his best friend played Sky Masterson — Jonny’s
best friend went on to perform with Second City and is now
appearing in Come From Away in Toronto




Bruce Springsteen’s show, Springsteen on Broadway, is an
interesting example of an artist engaging with works from
every phase of their life




Shit My Dad Says by Justin Halpern and As Seen on Tumblr was
part of a wave of books made from things that were funny on
the internet




Winnie the Pooh is used as a reference for how Jonny
structured Everyone’s a Aliebn When Ur a Aliebn too like a
social media site




Jonny recently gave a TED Talk!!!!




The Perry Bible Fellowship is a webcomic by Nicholas
Gurewitch




He didn’t hesitate to illustrate Lin-Manuel Miranda’s book,
Gmorning, Gnight! and he’d been a fan of Miranda’s plays,
especially “In the Heights,” for years




Jonny made TinyCareBot after the 2016 election as a way to
gently nudge himself to be kind to and take care of himself


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