SHORT:
Every time I use the men’s bathroom, I lower my voice…
……….
………….
……………
……………
so they think I’m Cher.
Haha! Sort of a classic misdirect joke! Did you like that?
MEDIUM:
I want to go on T, but I’m worried I will lose my absolutely incredible, stunning, and gorgeous singing voice.
I don’t know what life will be like if I can’t sing the high notes in a Jason Robert Brown song.
I suppose many people are out there, still thriving, without the ability to do so.
Perhaps I should accept the uncertainty.
LONG:
I want to change my name for many reasons (one of those reasons being that I share it with Meghan McCain who tweeted “I miss my father” during the capital insurrection on Jan 6).
Then again it’s sort of powerful that I’ve queered this name to hell and back (someone give me an HRC award).
I know Megan Rapinoe is doing a lot to queer the name too... but she plays soccer and has a hot wife… and I got banned from TikTok for posting a photo of James Charles’s bare ass… so who’s the real hero? Who’s doing the real work?
Speaking of work, as you readers know, I got laid off from my job a few weeks ago. But before I was officially done, my boss had me send her a check for 2 dollars.
I know: 2 dollars! (had something to do with stocks and lawyers idk).
The only problem is, the only checks I own, have anthropomorphized M&Ms all over them 🇺🇸
You see, a while back, I was ordering checks from Wells Fargo so that I could pay my landlord.
I thought, why not brighten his day? Why not give him a piece of paper with a lil brightly colored chocolate treat turned human once a month? How nice of me! I am sweeter than every product the 33 billion dollar Mars Chocolate corporation has ever made! And it was sweet. And cool. And ALL FUN AND GAMES until my boss requested 2 dollars via mail ASAP.
I culled through the checks for the least embarrassing anthropomorphized M&M option:
Green? Too sexy
Red? Too intense
Blue? Looks stupid
Yellow… ?
… Harmless
… Beautiful even
Maybe if she looks at the check fast enough she’ll think it’s a sunrise…?
Or a Warhol painting...?
or just
ANYTHING OTHER THAN AN ANTHROPOMORPHIZED MNM
I chose yellow.
And sent it.
And
of course had to humiliatingly
sign it “Megan” (give me HRC award).
EXTRA:
This week I’ve been particularly obsessed with the show Search Party.
I finished Season 4 and am rewatching older Seasons now (along with every living interview the showrunners and creators have ever done).
SP perfectly captures (and exaggerates) the nightmare of being in your 20s. The horror and comedy tropes are so fun and operate with a similar conceit → reveal structure that is thrilling.
I’m most fascinated with the show’s exploration of truth and performance. Who’s a “good actor”? Who’s a good liar? Who’s “real”? And who’s “lost”?
Truth in the show is fluid and nebulous and almost doesn’t matter.
The four main characters are each their own sort of skilled performance artist tangled in the consequences of the drama they’ve created (while adamantly and relentlessly searching for “true meaning” in their lives).
In Season 1, Dory is determined to find out “the real truth” about what happened to Chantal, but it’s soon flipped and flipped and flipped until season 4 when it all flies out the window.
This line of questioning, to me, is a very queer line of questioning, and it’s no coincidence that cast is chalk-full of queer comedy performers who have spent the bulk of their careers asking these questions (onstage, and perhaps in real life too as everything sort of blends together in a Brooklyn basement/underground venue).
SP is a brilliant showcase for everyone, especially John Early whose delivery of many lines but especially this one absolutely SENDS ME (S2E2, look it up).
Anyway, I just love that it’s genuinely hilarious AND looks at what’s real and who has deluded themselves into thinking that certain personal and interpersonal performances are reality.
And aren't they? Performances still have consequences so doesn’t that make the truth sort of obsolete? Or omnipresent?
Plus if everything is constructed and performed then what is true? I guess, death, which the show asserts and plays with. Being alive vs. dead.
I think none of us are real. We’re all just playing versions of ourselves and performing and I shouldn’t have to worry about M&M checks and embarrassing myself because we’re all people who came out of the womb disgusting and tiny. I hate that we just choose to forget that when it comes to holding a position of power or making money or deriving personal worth.
Also the wedding episode in Season 3 is one of the best things ever. Portia singing “I’ll Make Love To You” makes me laugh so hard I cry.
Thank you for reading this newsletter! Reminder that you can still fill out This Survey with your thoughts, questions, prompts, etc! Wanna read the older, better-written ones? Click here!
-Meg
Social- @megspope@mpopetweets
Venmo- @mpope-venmo-26
Website- meganpopework.com
Donate to The Audre Lorde Project
Podcast Of The Week: Secure The Gag! I’ve been editing for it and it’s a blast! Nathan is a great host! Smash that subscribe button!
Cool Thing Of The Week: I got contacted that I’m a semi-finalist for a grad program I applied to. I don’t know if I’m allowed to put this in here but oh well.
Really Special Thing Of The Week: I have been applying to fancy non-comedy podcast jobs where they ask for sample of podcast you produced that you’re really proud of and all my options are people talking about their loose bleached assholes
Life is a cabaret and I’m the fake eyelash hanging off the gorgeous drunken singer’s face!
See you next week!
P.S. I started watching Real Housewives of SLC, and I love Brooks who has awesome photos and captions like these 😎
