Switchblade Comb

http://www.shmittenkitten.com/

As much as I love telling people about stuff that I like I really don’t like writing about WHY I like it, ironic since I “write” for a music / movie / comedy / whatever blog. “Uh… It’s a band that sounds like this other band, it’s a delicious sandwich with bacon on it, it’s something hilarious that has Jon Glaser in it.” As Patton Oswalt once said, and I’m paraphrasing here, “I don’t care why I like the things I like, I just like the things I like!”

With that in mind, I wanted to tell you all about this hilarious website I ran across a few weeks ago that has become a favorite of mine and Kat’s. However, Instead of trying to tell you why we think it’s awesome I decided to have the creator of the site Anna Goldfarb tell you why she KNOWS it’s awesome.

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SBC: Give us a little background on the site. How it started, why you started it, how long it’s been around, how many people write for it. Ya know, that sort of thing.

AG: Shmitten Kitten started on a brisk January day in 2008. I was having coffee with my friend Shannon and I told her that I started a blog called Shmitten Kitten, but I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do with it. She suggested that we talk about all the terrible dates we’ve been on. I immediately scoffed, as I was sure that NOBODY would want to read that. But, I indulged her. And so, Shmitten Kitten was born.

After a few months, we started to post sketches of the guys we’d see around town mostly to crack each other up. We started to pick up a following. In September 2008, Shannon left to concentrate on medical school so I brought in some contributing writers. It pretty much took off from there.

We now have seven writers and our own in-house graphic designer. It’s my sister Rachel, but still, it’s pretty awesome.

SBC: The highlights of the site are definitely the Boner Killer and Surprisingly Not Boner Killer posts. They’re hilarious and very spot on. How did the idea for those come about?

AG: Well, we started the site telling stories about our dates but it started to get dicey because the guys I would write about would read the blog. It was…awkward. So, I wanted to write about guys still, but in a more general way. My friends and I called turn-offs bonerkillers, so it seemed natural to label those posts that.

After doing a few dozen of those, I was more shocked at what qualities didn’t turn me off from a guy. Like, any sane woman would run the other way at any of those behaviors, but I seem to lap it up if not outright relish it. It’s bizarre. I need a life coach, obviously.

SBC: There’s obviously no shortage of funny internet sites but the REALLY funny ones are few and far between. What do you think sets your site apart from the less funny ones?

AG: I try to write stuff that would crack my friends up. If other people think that’s funny; great. I happen to have really funny friends so I guess it just translates well.

And, not to toot my own horn, but I’m funny as shit. I just tooted my own funny shit horn! Ha!

SBC: There seems to be a trend right now of blogs getting book / TV / movie deals. If you were presented with the option of turning Shmitten Kitten into one of those would you do it, or are you content with just keeping it a very funny website?

AG: I would do all of those things in a heartbeat. It’d be like how there was Spaceballs: The flamethrower. Or Spaceballs: the toilet paper. I want a Shmitten Kitten flamethrower! How cool would that be? (Rich: Let me just jump in here for a second and say that I love the fact that she referenced SPACEBALLS. That is one of my favorite movies ever and I think I’ve met approximately 3 females in my entire life that like it. Go Anna.)

Honestly, I would love to have a book collecting our posts. That’s one of my biggest goals for the site. It’s my dream to go to Urban Outfitters one day and see my book deeply discounted among the cracked housewares and shattered shot glasses in the clearance section. Aim high!

SBC: The site is based in Philadelphia. Any Charlie, Mac, or Dennis sightings when they’ve been filming there?

AG: No! But, if I saw Charlie, I would probably kidnap him and keep him in a cage to amuse me with his freak outs and impromptu songs. Sorry, this is starting to sound like It’s Always Sunny/ Silence of the Lambs fan fiction. Not that I’ve read any before. That’d be weird.

SBC: Since Shmitten Kitten is a dating story site, can you tell us what was truly your low down, dirty, most shameful date you have ever been on?

AG: I guess it was the date that never happened: I got stood up to go to Taco Bell. He wanted to take me there because he “was broke as hell” and he never called. This wasn’t even like a high school date. This happened, like, two weeks ago. It was straight-up fucktarded. Whatever. He always writes, “lol” in his facebook chats to me. That was a big sign that we were doomed. Besides, I HATE facebook chatting. It’s like a car horn on a VW bug: Limp. It’s hard to feel sexy when there’s a status update from my Mom in the background telling me that she scored 165 in Wordscraper. The background is all bright. It’s basically like a guy trying to kiss me in a Gap dressing room. If I were British, I’d tell Facebook chatting to “piss off.”

SBC: What was your best date ever?

AG: It was a first date with this adorable Rivers Cuomo look-a-like and we went thrifting, then out for thai food, then out for a low-key beer, then back to my place to make out to Sunny Day Real Estate. It was ama-ZING! If I could just do that date forever ala Groundhog’s Day, I’d be a happy girl.

SBC: Final question, Mike Seaver or Teen Wolf?

AG: I have to choose? Can I have Mike Seaver on even days and Teen Wolf on odd ones? And, can I have Seth Green as an alternate in case one of them gets sick?

SBC: Anything else you’d like to add?

AG: We have some projects in the works for Winter so keep reading ShmittenKitten.com for updates. And, thanks for the interview. It’s been fun!

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