Comedy Chapter 2 Author's Note!
March 31st 2026
Here's my author's note for Chapter 2 of Comedy! This chapter was kind of a bit of a challenge because I had to put a lot of things in at a bit of a fast speed, as I wanted to actually show them being friends since childhood, instead of just telling you that they were.
First, I had to do a scene where the LOLigans come up with their name. I based this interaction off of an actual real thing that happened back in 2020 where we tried to come up with a name for a Discord server. One of my now-ex friends suggested "Quirky Turkeys" and we laughed cuz we thought it was very bizarre. I still can't remember who exactly said it or if it was said as a joke, but it is a running inside joke.
Summit Valley Mall is actually based on a real-life mall called the NewPark Mall. A lot of the things I describe about how the mall looks, it’s actually accurate to the NewPark Mall. The only difference is that while the real-life NewPark Mall did have an Aladdin's Castle arcade, it closed down before my time. But I decided to keep the arcade in this one open in order to give the group a central hangout spot.
The incident that I described in middle school of them play-fighting and getting in trouble is actually based on a real-life incident. One of my now-ex friends gave me a playful shove and I shoved him back, and we were like doing a fake-ass cartoon character shoving match, and the assistant principal did not like it.
The segment in band class was actually added at the last minute because I wanted a scene that shows that they were in band. I noticed that I didn't actually really talk about that in the book, and them being in band is pretty important to their bond in middle school. Also, When I talk about prom, having it in the Space Museum is also based on my real-life prom. Mine was held in the Chabot Space and Science Center of all places, so I wanted to have their prom there as it is a pretty odd setting, but I really, really liked it 'cause I am a sucker for space and learning about astronomy.
Finally, we have one of my favorite scenes in the book, which is them talking in the amusement park about the future. This is also based on a real-life interaction that I had with my friends at Disneyland—more accurately, Disney’s California Adventure. We were in the A Bug's Life area, and my friends were pretty tired, so we just sat there and we listened to the cartoon bug ambience playing through the speakers and we just kinda talked and admired the setting of Disney-Pixar's A Bug's Life now in theaters 1998.