My Photo

Buy The Book

Who Is Mr. Irresponsible?

  • ...and what is he doing here?

    Mr. Irresponsible is the pen name of the world’s most widely read advice columnist. His newspaper column, “Mr. Irresponsible’s Bad Advice,” ran in over 1100 newspapers until early 2004, when it was suddenly and without explanation suspended by its syndicate. He is the recipient of the Heidelberg Prize, the Baxter Award (1987 and 1999) and the Lifetime Achievement Award of the Personal Improvement Institute, which he refused, sending a life-sized cutout of teen idol Justin Timberlake to the awards luncheon in his place.

    Mr. Irresponsible has many enemies and must travel in disguise. He lives alone and likes it. Rumors that he "shot a man in Reno just to watch him die" have never been proven to have any basis in fact. Currently a party to 19 separate lawsuits involving his former syndicate and enjoined by the courts from working as a professional advice columnist, Mr. Irresponsible now utilizes shiny, futuristic weblog technology to dispense his wisdom directly to the public for free.

The Mr. Irresponsible Theme

  • Irresponsible Town
    (3.8 MB MP3, 160k)

    Mrisingsshad

    (Click on image to enlarge)

    In answer to many requests, here's a selection from the ultra-rare and highly collectible "Mr. Irresponsible Sings!" LP. It's the album's only instrumental track, and longtime fans will remember it as the theme to Mr. Irresponsible's syndicated radio show, "Night Yak." It originally appeared as the B side of Mr. Irresponsible's hit single "Tell You What (To Do)," which charted as high as #7 in Scandinavia and Japan in the summer of 1964.

Media Inquiries

Contact Mr. Irresponsible

« Here's The Creepy Imaginary Pizza You Didn't Order | Main | "I'm so, so sad... Hey! Get out of my key light or I'll have you killed! KILLED! So sad... " »

Monday, July 03, 2006

"And here's Miles with a nutty story about death from the skies!"

You have to love CNN for its devil-may-care approach to Armageddon. LARGE ASTEROID ZIPS PAST EARTH, The Most Trusted Name In Newstertainment banners a story about a half-mile-wide boulder that just came within 269,000 miles of torching the Earth, melting the polar ice caps and sending what's left of our planetary home into a second Ice Age. The "Everybody mambo!" part is, I guess, implied.

Alas, that kind of tone-deafness is typical of cable news. Maybe the broadcasters need some help. Maybe they need a succinct set of guidelines. Herewith, as a public service, some suggestions:

FORBIDDEN WORDS 2006 (Cable News Edition)

  • Chilling
  • "What do you think? We want to hear from you."
  • Blogosphere
  • Dramatic
  • "You're in the Situation Room."
  • Tragedy
  • "Your {insert noun here} headquarters"
  • Lockdown
  • {Insert noun here} Watch
  • Ominous
  • Shocking
  • Icon
  • "Stay tuned for Rita Cosby."

Other nominations? Send 'em along.

10:43 AM in The Press |

The Celebrity Interviews

Mr. Irresponsible Meets Mr. Cruise

Feed Me

  •   It's the RSS, baby

Email me

  • Get your Mr. Irresponsible on... by email

    Enter your email address:

    Delivered by FeedBurner

What They Said

  • Boing Boing
    " ... it speaks to the lizard brain in all of us that wants to squash annoying people like bugs. That it's also hilarious is an added bonus."
  • Fast Company Now
    "The last self-help book you'll ever need... Mr. I is in the vanguard of a campaign to restore manners to our hopeless species."
  • Jade Gurss
    " ...the site I'll now rely upon for guidance and comfort... "
  • RabbleTease
    " ...the Machiavelli of advice columnists.... Mr. Irresponsible’s advice is brutal, cruel, honest and effective."
  • scrubbles
    " ...advice that is caustically funny but also, strangely enough, useful."

Recent Posts

Archives

Categories

Friends of Mr. Irresponsible

Search



Add me to your TypePad People list