We first wrote about the irascible scribbler known as the Craigslist Curmudgeon in March. The Curmudgeon is a sort of online vigilante, exposing those who advertise for writers in the writing/editing section of Craigslist but offer no pay, piddling in-kind compensation, or a dubious remuneration plan. These attempts at luring desperate writers into such unrewarding exchanges he dubs "assery," a term yet to find its way into the dictionary, though the century is still young... Anyway, we asked the Curmudgeon, with some trepidation, a few questions over email:

So you're a professional writer, we assume?

Yes I am. I recently made the switch to freelancing full time.

What prompted you to start the page?

Because Craigslist is free and doesn't seem to have too many rules and regulations, it's an assery magnet. Anyone can post a job, even if no job exists... Plus they allow job ads for people who don't want to pay their workers. I've seen it getting worse over the years and I know I can't do anything to stop it. But I can educate people and show some of the newer writers how silly some of these requests are. Hopefully by doing it in a way that makes people laugh it shows how ridiculous many of these ads and requests are.

All right. Where'd you get the term "assery" from?

Assery: The practice of being an ass. I made it up in honor of a past employer.

What's the most ridiculous attempt at exploiting writers you've seen thus far?

It's the cheap web content/SEO (search engine optimization) people. They ask for 1,000 words and pay something like $2.50. The article has to be researched and run through Copyscape and there's always this long list of requirements for this $2.00 article. Assery at its finest.

Any hate mail? Praise from grateful writers?

Lots of great mail from writers who appreciate the laugh, and that means the world to me. The only hate mail I've received was from people whose ads I featured.

But what do you say to the small publication/labor of love that genuinely wants to publish good writing but just can't afford to pay anything? Is there any place for that type of request?

They have to pay something, right? They have to pay the printer, right? The distributor? The webmaster? In these cases, it's always the writer who gets the shaft. Why? Hey if you have a labor of love, by all means, labor away. Just don't expect someone else to do all the work while you rake in the ad dollars.

What's the least amount of money you'd write for?

It depends on the gig, the hours, the research. Anything that's not insulting.

Despite all the assery, do you consider the Web more of a boon or a bust for writers?

I think it's the best thing that ever happened to us. There's work for all of us, and there will continue to be work for all of us.

Okay, then. That wasn't so curmudgeonly, after all. Thanks Curmudgeon, and as writers ourselves, we say: "Keep up the good work."

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We first featured the San Francisco-based sketch comedy group Kasper Hauser in 2005, pointing to their witty take-off of Craigslist. We then re-visited the troupe last year, after the launch of their parody of "Skymall," that catalog-in-the-sky airlines like to tuck behind the emergency landing procedures in the seat pocket in front of you. Obviously, this is one group that's funny both online and off. When we emailed the fabulous foursome, they told us what it's like to haggle with a Nigerian email scammer, how imitating Ira Glass can be spooky, and how it feels to be one of iTunes' best podcasts of 2006...

So why the name "Kasper Hauser"?

In the early 90s, James found an old New Yorker magazine in a dumpster. It had a story about feral children (The Karpfen Bear Girl, The Justadel Snow Hen, the goat boy, etc...) and Kasper Hauser was one of the cases. He was the boy who wandered into the town of Nuremberg in 1828. When it came time to name our sketch troupe, we kept coming back to the name Kasper Hauser. It's nice and pretentious, and he was a wild kid with bad manners, just like us.

How much more exposure have you gained by putting your stuff on the Web? Do you have any "Web-only" fans that you know about?

Tons. We get emails all the time from fans who've discovered us through the podcast or the website. The Internet has given us a much broader reach than playing onstage for 50, 100... or 4 people at a time. Thank you, Internet. Although dial-up is driving us crazy.

Any more comedy bits due to go up on your site?

Absolutely. We're working on more video and audio podcasts as we speak. We regularly update our fake craigslist site, and we're excited to do more of Jacobus' video blogs from the 14th century. Since we have another book coming out in 2008 (a super secret parody project that's going to revolutionize the humanities), the site is going to be the first place to check for updates, shows, and sneak previews.

How closely did you study the original before coming up with the SkyMaul catalogue?

As much as any bored air traveler, which is to say very, very thoroughly. It's strangely irresistible—you just can't believe people actually buy these products, until you find yourself whipping out a credit card to purchase the Animatronic Chimpanzee Torso.

In our parody, we wanted to capture the tone of the real catalogue but push the insanity of the products further. But even some of our made-up products wouldn't seem too out of place in the real SkyMall—like the hybrid magnet, which you stick on your car to make it seem like a hybrid.

Did you have any trepidation over entering into a prolonged back and forth with the Nigerian email scammer?

Not too bad, we just had to wear fake moustaches for a couple of weeks. It was a little scary—they can get pretty angry and pretty threatening, but you figure that you're just one of dozens of folks that they're scamming. Hopefully we're not worth too much of their attention.

How's the podcast going?

Really well. We were honored to be chosen as one of iTunes' best podcasts of 2006. Jesse Thorn produces it, he's the host of the (totally awesome) podcast and public-radio program The Sound of Young America," and he had been urging us for some time to record some of our sketch material. When we finally got it together and Jesse got it out on the Web, we realized why he kept telling us (nicely) to do it—it's been such a great tool to help our comedy find a bigger audience.

The "This American Life" parody is pretty spot on. How hard was it to re-create the show?

We really used the parody as a jumping-off point to create a bizarre alternate universe. That was really our goal more than poking fun at the original. We're huge fans of "This American Life," so we'd probably internalized a lot of the rhythms and tone of the show over the years without even knowing it, and when it came time to imitate Ira or the other storytellers, it was like we were channeling them. It was spooky.

We've seen you do "Phone Call to the 14th Century" live—that's pretty brilliant. Do you guys consider that your signature bit? And is it viewable online?

Well thank you. "Phone Call" and "Spicy Pony Head"—two of the earliest sketches we wrote—are probably tied for "signature bits," if we had to choose. There are audio versions of both at our podcast, but no video versions yet. We hope to make those someday, but animal cruelty laws in the U.S. are so strict, that we'll probably have to do those off-shore.

Anything else you want to say?

Yes: Donkey-Hobbit-Junkie-Hippy-Wolfbait. The answers are in the code. Oh, and come see us perform live in L.A on October 17th or in New York on November 9th (both at the UCB theaters)!

Well said, indeed. We'll be checking your site, KH—keep up the hilarious work.

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