Jack Handey: The Man Behind “Deep Thoughts,” Long-Form Absurdity, and a Career that Still Sneaks Up on You
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A quick picture
Jack Handey (b. February 25, 1949, San Antonio, Texas) is the American humorist whose soothingly earnest voice and surreal one-liners made “Deep Thoughts” a pop-culture fixture on Saturday Night Live. He’s also a prolific prose humorist and novelist who continues to publish—most recently in The New Yorker in August 2025—and he maintains an official site where he sells new and classic collections. Wikipedia The New Yorker Deep Thoughts by Jack Handey
Early Years and First Byline From Texas newsrooms to the comedy world
Handey spent formative years in El Paso (Eastwood High School) and attended the University of Texas at El Paso before landing an early job at the San Antonio Express-News. In a detail that feels like a proto–Deep Thought, he has said he lost that job after a column “offended local car dealerships.” Around the same time, he began writing comedy and, through Steve Martin, found his way to Lorne Michaels and television. Wikipedia
First TV steps
Before his celebrated SNL run, Handey wrote for the Canadian sketch show Bizarre (1980), Steve Martin’s TV special Comedy Is Not Pretty! (1980), and Lorne Michaels’s short-lived NBC series The New Show (1984). He rejoined SNL as a writer in 1985 and would help shape the show’s tone through the ’80s and ’90s. Wikipedia
“Deep Thoughts” and the Handey Voice Print to interstitial—and into the culture
“Deep Thoughts” began on the page: Omni magazine (1983), National Lampoon (1984), Army Man, and even The Santa Fe New Mexican (1988). The concept then migrated on-air—first in Michael Nesmith’s Television Parts—before becoming SNL’s beloved pastoral interstitials: Phil Hartman’s dignified intro, pan-flute-adjacent music, and Handey’s lines crawling across the screen like calm confessions from a profoundly odd world. Wikipedia
Beyond the one-liner
Even at SNL, Handey wasn’t just “Deep Thoughts.” He co-created recurring oddities that still get referenced: “Toonces the Driving Cat,” “Unfrozen Caveman Lawyer,” and the faux product spot “Happy Fun Ball.” Those sketches crystallized his sensibility—highly literal, perfectly straight-faced, and always one inch to the left of reality. Barnes & Noble
Books, Novels, and Recent Work The bookshelf of a deadpan maximalist
Handey’s bibliography stretches from the Deep Thoughts paperbacks to essay collections and novels. Highlights include:
Deep Thoughts (1992), Deeper Thoughts (1993), Deepest Thoughts (1994)
Fuzzy Memories (1996)
What I’d Say to the Martians and Other Veiled Threats (2008)
The Stench of Honolulu: A Tropical Adventure (2013) — his first novel, published by Grand Central Publishing/Hachette
Please Stop the Deep Thoughts (2017)
Escape from Hawaii: A Tropical Sequel (2023)
My Funny Cowboy Dance (2023/2024 limited first edition), sold directly from his site
His official pages give current availability and notes on each title, including the new and self-published ones. Wikipedia Hachette Book Group Deep Thoughts by Jack Handey +2 Deep Thoughts by Jack Handey +2
Proof of life (and laughter), 2024–2025
Handey has remained active in The New Yorker’s “Shouts & Murmurs,” with a fresh piece—“Some Funny Things About Getting Old”—running August 18, 2025 (print issue dated August 25). In 2024–2025, the magazine pages and his site also reference My Funny Cowboy Dance, a Handey-ish compendium of short pieces, sketches, and new “Deep Thoughts.” The New Yorker +1
Style and Influence How the Handey voice works
What makes a Handey line land is the contrast between voice and content. The voice is warm, almost wholesome. The content is gleefully misaligned: moral advice gone crooked, logic that argues itself into a tree, sincerity directed at objects that do not deserve it. That’s why his prose (in Martians, Fuzzy Memories, and dozens of New Yorker pieces) reads like a long “Deep Thought”—not because it’s one-liners pasted together, but because the narrator’s brain never blinks.
From SNL to the printed page—and back again
If SNL taught him ruthless economy, the books show endurance: an absurd premise that never tires because the narrator never notices it’s absurd. The Stench of Honolulu and its sequel Escape from Hawaii turn a tropical adventure into a continuous loop of straight-faced wrongness; it’s pulp narrated by a man for whom cause and effect are polite suggestions.
For a recent sampler of his tone in miniature, his 2025 “Shouts & Murmurs” entry is a master class in escalation-by-repetition, wringing new laughs from one word (“shot”) without ever dropping the poker face. The New Yorker
Credits, Awards, and Where He Is Now Sketches and credits you’ve quoted without realizing
“Toonces the Driving Cat”: the crash-happy feline with a human driver’s license and a cat’s sense of consequences.
“Unfrozen Caveman Lawyer”: the courtroom lampoon that speaks perfect English, runs for office, and remains confused by modern ways—strategically.
“Happy Fun Ball”: a parody commercial whose legal disclaimers are the comedy. Each is regularly cited among SNL’s most memorable premises from its late-’80s–’90s run. Barnes & Noble
Awards shelf
Handey has two Primetime Emmy Awards for SNL writing (part of the show’s writing team wins in 1989 and 2002) and several additional nominations, with the Television Academy listing him among the credited winners and nominees—including a 2025 nomination with the writing staff for SNL50: The Anniversary Special. Television Academy EW.com Wikipedia
Where to find him
Handey lives in Santa Fe, New Mexico, and continues to publish and self-publish new work. His official site is both a storefront and a steady drip of new “Deep Thoughts.” For ongoing magazine pieces, his contributor page at The New Yorker is the best index. McSweeney's Internet Tendency Deep Thoughts by Jack Handey The New Yorker
Read and Explore More (Naked URLs)
Official & author pages https://deepthoughtsbyjackhandey.com/
https://deepthoughtsbyjackhandey.com/funny-cowboy-bookstore/
https://deepthoughtsbyjackhandey.com/escape-from-hawaii-bookstore/
https://deepthoughtsbyjackhandey.com/please-stop-bookstore/
https://www.newyorker.com/contributors/jack-handey
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2025/08/25/some-funny-things-about-getting-old
https://jackhandey.medium.com/about
Publisher/Book listings https://www.grandcentralpublishing.com/titles/jack-handey/the-stench-of-honolulu/9781455534531/
https://www.amazon.com/Stench-Honolulu-Tropical-Adventure/dp/1455522384
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/16131209-the-stench-of-honolulu
https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/141214332-escape-from-hawaii
Background & credits https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_Handey
https://www.nbc.com/saturday-night-live/exclusives/tbt/happy-fun-ball
https://www.vice.com/en/article/ppn7nn/why-people-loved-toonces-the-cat
Your requested profiles https://bohiney.com/author/jack-handey/
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