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Funny writing from The American Bystander, "the world's best print humor magazine."

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Let the Capitalism begin!

Are we a worthy cause? Oh HELL yes

Michael Gerber

Jan 25, 2023

**Mao would not approve.** (Photo Credit: *some person on the internet*)

Dear Peoples of the World,

As of this moment, we can now take your money.

Substack has a big button that says TURN ON PAYMENTS and earlier today Pershan and I held hands, closed our eyes, each held out a finger, and gave it a <push>. We did that for a very good reason, which is: we like money.

Your subscription will not only allow us to keep Substackin’, it’ll support our hand-crafted print comedy quarterly, The American Bystander. (You can download a sample issue here.)

Isn’t it lovely? Arnold Roth, man—the *best*.

The American Bystander has always been an experiment. Could a classic print humor magazine survive in our current media hellscape? Would readers prove the “experts” wrong and support a top-quality publication filled with the funniest writers, cartoonists and illustrators in the world? Since October 2015, the answer has been a resounding “Yeah, pretty much!” All because individual readers have stepped up and supported what we do.

You can also support us by sharing this message on social media.

If you don’t subscribe, nothing’s going to change. No trap door will open. You’ll continue to hear from us twice a week, just the way it’s been.

But if you do subscribe…

Paid subscribers will receive PDFs of Bystander issues as they are published.
The archives of Viral Load will always be available to paid subscribers.
We are sitting on a wealth of archival Bystander material—over 2000 pages—and we want to start reposting our favorite pieces.
And we want to check back in with our favorite contributors. Do you want to get the lowdown on Roz Chast’s pysanky? Of course you do.

Here is what we’ll do with your support:

We’ve always paid writers and artists for their work in the print mag; we’d like to pay them more and faster.
We’ll be able to deepen our work here on Viral Load and make it the best place on the internet to discuss comedy.
There are some Top Secret Bystander projects in the works for 2023. Some of them might be books. Another might be a podcast. We’re not saying, and you didn’t hear it from us. But your support will help make the magic happen, and you’ll be first to know when it does.

Don’t just bystand there—click that button!

Drop a comment if you have any questions—or ideas of things we can do for paid subscribers. (Or just feel free to chime in with an encouraging word of support—that helps too.)

Until Friday, we remain,
Yr ob’t sv’t,
The American Bystander Viral Load