Auntie’s invites you to Zoom your blues away

Satire can be difficult to pull off. In his 1729 “A Modest Proposal,” Jonathan Swift suggested that Ireland could help itself financially by selling its babies for food.

As Swift wrote, “I have been assured by a very knowing American of my acquaintance in London, that a young healthy child well nurs’d, is, at a year old, a most delicious, nourishing and wholesome food, whether stewed, roasted, baked, or boiled; and I make no doubt that it will equally serve in a fricassée, or a ragoust.”

Not everyone was amused, though some clearly did get the joke.

In the same way, most – if not all – people will understand the ironic title of John Moe’s book “The Hilarious World of Depression.”

A longtime radio reporter, comedy host and author of a book of satire, Moe developed his book from his podcast of the same name. The genesis came from his own bouts of depression, and he figured he would confront it by talking to the entertainers he knew.

“I could talk about depression with someone from the Mayo Clinic or with Maria Bamford ,” he told Stuart Miller of the Los Angeles Times . “People are going to download Maria more. It’s putting the pill in the ice cream.”

Writing in the New York Times , Melissa Broder praised Moe’s message that “that mental illness is not a cause for shame, and that sharing honestly (and even humorously) with fellow sufferers can be a path to healing.”

Broder continued, “If there are readers out there who still believe, as Moe once did, that ‘mental illness is for people in the booby hatch doing sad craft projects with safety scissors’ as in ‘Girl, Interrupted,’ this book could be their path to deeper understanding and openness, by way of laughter in the dark.”

Auntie’s Bookstore will be streaming a special Zoom event featuring Moe talking about his book at 7 p.m. on Friday.

Rest assured, though, no babies will be harmed in the making of this event.

Photo at top : John Moe interviews comedian Jim Gaffigan.