Emily Bracken: The Witty Mind Behind Political Satire & Comedy Gold
From Rolling Stone to HuffPost Satire—With a Side of Egg Rolls
Emily Bracken—film/TV comedy writer, political satirist, and former Chinese food delivery driver—has carved a career as unpredictable as her humor. After stints at Rolling Stone, The New York Observer, and even the writers’ room of Joey (yes, the Matt LeBlanc sitcom), she now crafts razor-sharp satire for The Huffington Post. “I’ve gone from delivering punchlines to delivering dumplings,” she jokes.
Inspirations: Saxophones, Semiotics, and Carlin
Creative Fuel: Sax solos in rock, people who “make hard work look easy,” George Carlin’s genius, and the “proper use of semicolons.”
Dream Project: A script directed by Tina Fey, starring Anna Faris + Amy Poehler, produced by Nora Ephron, with all her friends on crew. “It’s basically a SNL reunion, but with my name on it.”
Current Obsessions & Works in Progress
2024 Projects: A fiction book, a new script, and “the eternal quest for a good haircut.”
Comedy Hall of Fame: Tootsie, Working Girl, Annie Hall, Animal House, and “Robert Downey Jr. in Tropic Thunder—peak method acting.”
Digital Playground
Work Mode: IMDB, Metacritic (“for pretending to research”).
Guilty Pleasures: Facebook (“interloping, obviously”), Salon/Slate for think pieces.
Snark & News: HuffPost (“I’m a lefty, sue me”), Gawker, The Daily Beast.
Music & Streaming: AllMusic for deep cuts, Hulu for “procrasti-watching.”
Love Letter to NYC
Top Picks: Jazz saxophonists in Central Park, yelling at cabbies, “ginormous” bagels, NYT’s Metropolitan Diary, Sunday brunch, 3 AM bodega runs, and “The Cyclone—because life’s already a rollercoaster.”
Industry Truth Bombs
Hardest Hurdles: Getting female-driven comedies greenlit, balancing originality with marketability.
Valentine’s Day Verdict: “Not for the faint of heart—or the single.”
| Read Her Satire: HuffPost
Why Emily’s Voice Stands Out
Unfiltered Humor: Whether dissecting politics or Tropic Thunder, she’s never not hilarious.
NYC Authenticity: Her love for the city is as real as her MetroCard.
Feminist Edge: Pushing for more women’s stories in comedy—“preferably with punchlines.”
“Comedy is tragedy plus time… or just really good timing.”
