This week Simon Rich’s new novella “Sell Out” is being serialized on newyorker.com. It’s the story of Simon Rich’s great-great-grandfather, who falls into a pickle barrel and emerges, one hundred years later, into hipster Brooklyn. On the podcast this week, Rich reads excerpts from the first installment, and then talks with Susan Morrison about the inspiration for his novella, his experiences writing for Saturday Night Live, and his love of the comedic premise, as practiced by Roald Dahl, T. C. Boyle, Douglas Adams, Kurt Vonnegut, and others. Listen now: http://nyr.kr/122n043

Ben Greenman: 

The long, hilarious career of the filmmaker, comedian, actor, and performer Mel Brooks has been documented before, but never quite like it has been on the new box set “The Incredible Mel Brooks: An Irresistible Collection of Unhinged Comedy.” While previous career retrospectives have focussed on Brooks’s films, this collection assembles odds and ends from around the margins of his career, ranging from classic inteviews with Dick Cavett and Johnny Carson to sitcom appearances on shows such as “Mad About You” to rarities such as the 1978 parody newsmagazine “Peeping Times” and Brooks’s teaser trailer for the 1962 Italian film “My Son, the Hero.”
 

The set will be released today. While we are pleased to offer the exclusive clip above—it’s a snippet from a 1981 British documentary in which Brooks reflects on his early years, explains his relationship with his mother, and generally acts the tummler—we are doubly pleased that Brooks agreed to discuss the new collection with us. Click-through to read the conversation.

In Tad Friend’s Talk of the Town piece on Penny Marshall in this week’s issue of the magazine, Friend visits the Upper West Side apartment of the “Laverne & Shirley” star and show-biz veteran to discuss her new memoir, “My Mother Was Nuts.” 

Watch the book trailer for the memoir, starring Fred Armisen as Marshall, and click-through for more from Rachel Arons on Marshall: http://nyr.kr/QeEVhl

David Remnick and comedian Andy Borowitz appeared on CBS This Morning to talk about the launch of The Borowitz Report on newyorker.com, and The New Yorker’s long history in comedy. 

(Video via CBSNews.com)

Lewis Black, Playwright. Tad Friend on Black’s new play, “One Slight Hitch”: http://nyr.kr/KetuRy