Episode 53: Rob Kutner

George McFly’s A Match Made in Space, from “Back to the Future”...

Hank Moody’s God Hates Us All,” from “Californication”...

Dr. Frederick Frankenstein’s How I Did It, from “Young Frankenstein”...

Some of our best-loved movies and television shows feature books written by one of the lead characters. In many cases, the publication of those “books” becomes a central plot point or a running gag. (Think Handbook for the Recently Deceased, from “Beetlejuice.”) In other cases, those books leap from the screen and onto our bookshelves—IRL, as the kids like to say.

That’s the case with Look Out for the Little Guy, the in-movie memoir by Scott Lang, also known as Ant-Man, as seen on screen in the Marvel Studios blockbuster, “Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania.” The book was published by Hyperion Avenue in September and became an immediate New York Times best-seller, but here’s a news flash: it wasn’t really written by Scott Lang, the “Everyman Avenger” played in the movie by actor Paul Rudd. And no, it wasn’t really written by Paul Rudd, whose face graces the front cover of the book in stores and online, and as it appears as a prop in the movie.

In fact, the book was really written by our guest Rob Kutner, a veteran comedy writer who has collected five Emmys, a Peabody and a Grammy writing for such shows as “The Daily Show with Jon Stewart,” on Comedy Central, and “Conan,” on TBS. Rob’s other television writing credits include “Teen Titans Go,” “Angry Birds: Summer Madness” and “Dennis Miller Live,” and he has also written material for the Oscars, Emmys, and MTV Movie Awards broadcasts, as well as for two White House Correspondents Dinners.

He is also the author of Apocalypse How: Turn the End-Times into the Best of Times! and the just-published Snot Goblins and Other Tasteless Tales, with illustrations by David DeGrand.

Join us as Rob shares what it was like to channel the voice of a fictional character to craft a page-turning memoir of an ex-con turned world-saving superhero, and to be tasked with the caretaking of the life and legacy of one of the most beloved characters in the Marvel Universe.

Learn more about Rob Kutner:

• Website
• Facebook
• Twitter

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