(C) BoingBoing
This story was originally published by BoingBoing and is unaltered.
. . . . . . . . . .



These Faulkner-style comedic shorts are utterly brilliant [1]

['Jennifer Sandlin']

Date: 2025-07-11

This video of comedian Jerry Wayne Longmire reading his electric bill as if it's a William Faulkner novel is one of the best things I've ever seen on the internet.

Houston Life recently featured a short piece on Longmire, explaining that the Houston-based comedian owned a construction company before selling it in 2019 to pursue a full-time career in comedy. Inspired by his grandfather and his life in Texas, he also hosts a podcast, "The Reckon Yard," which Houston Life states:

captures authentic Texas stories about his relationships, upbringing, and the junkyard lessons that shaped his comedy career.

Houston Life describes Longmire's comedy, which he performs live and also posts online, as "down-to-earth," as he draws from his Southern, blue-collar experiences. While all of his videos are funny, I find those in his Faulkner series, including "As my chicken lays burning," a Fourth of July Faulknerian ode to burnt chicken, and "The reckoning of Room 214," which features a phone call to a hotel desk, the best — in fact I find them utterly brilliant.

And the best of the series, to me, is his Faulknerian reading of an electric bill. Just check out the text, below, which perfectly captures the language, cadence, and vibe of a character in a Faulkner novel:

It come on a Monday. The envelope bore no mercy, no smile. Only that cruel, whirling sun of TXU, a logo that shines not with hope but with consequence, as if to say, you danced, now pay. I broke the seal back like I was peeling back the bandage on a wound I done give myself. And there it was, six hundred and ninety six dollars and twenty seven cents. Now, I recall a time not too long ago when a man could just sleep with just a fan on. Box fan in the window, sheets damp with his own resolve. But then came August. August, that devil in cargo shorts. She comes with air so thick you can taste the mosquitos before they bite you. And I, a weak and weary creature, I touched the thermostat, dropped her down to 71, the sin of comfort. I knew what I was doing, each degree a betrayal, each hour a soft lie told in freon. But I pressed on. A man cannot sweat through three showers a day and still hold his head high at the HEB. And now I'm shackled, betrayed, and bound by wattage and poor choices. And yet, I will do it again. For I have known the chill, and I will not go back.

Faulkner scholar William Rodney Allen writes that Faulkner "first considered himself a poet," which is illustrated through the language used by characters such as Darl and Addie in his novel As I Lay Dying. Comedian Longmire (are we sure he's not also a Faulkner scholar?) captures both Darl's "metaphysical speculations and lyrical musings" and Addie's "austere eloquence," as Longmire's electric-bill-reading character "uses words poetically" and demonstrates the same "special quality of expression." In his essay, "The Imagist and Symbolist Views of the Function of Language: Addie and Darl Bundren in As I Lay Dying," Allen explains that the "essence of the poetic sensibility is sometimes said to be the ability to find similarity between seemingly different things," and Longmire, like Faulkner, relies heavily on the device of simile. Like the language used by Faulkner's character Darl, Longmire's language is "filled with highly unusual comparisons, rapid associations of thought, and unexpected flashes of lyricism." Like Faulkner, Longmire creates similes of "startling inventiveness" — for instance comparing the TXU logo to a sun shining with consequences rather than hope, the breaking of the bill's envelope seal to peeling back bandages on a self-inflicted wound, and the summer air to some kind of thick and dense mosquito-flavored soup.

I don't know if Longmire studied Faulkner, or what, but he has absolutely nailed his style in these short, clever, and funny vignettes. Please go take a look if you have some time — if you're a fan of Faulkner you will enjoy them immensely. And Jerry Wayne Longmire, if you're out there and happen to read this, please, I'm begging you, make more Faulkner-inspired content! It's fantastic!

See more from Jerry Wayne Longmire on his YouTube or Instagram.

Previously:

• Southern gothic science fiction collection

[END]
---
[1] Url: https://boingboing.net/2025/07/11/these-faulkner-style-comedic-shorts-are-utterly-brilliant.html

Published and (C) by BoingBoing
Content appears here under this condition or license: Creative Commons BY-NC-SA 3.0.

via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds:
gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/boingboing/