The Gawker blogger, who rose from the ranks of the advertising department and into editorial, will stick around through the end of July; he will then leave the very popular website a safe space free of gays for the first time in some years. Related! By our rough calculations, Lawson is the first person to actually quit a media job in the calendar year 2009.
Monday, June 29, 2009
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Richard, if you see this here, best of luck to you, buddy.
Come hither, LOLCait.
:(
Off to do Tinsley Mortimer fan fiction full time?
One can only hope.
Please apply for his job.
Seconded!
Where is he going?
Wouldn't be hilarious if he were going back to the ad side? "Guys, it's been fun, now time to pay the rent!"
No? I am probably the only one who thinks this.
To be a star.
Um, he was about the strongest writer in current!Gawker. His Real World and Real Housewives recaps are legendary. More info, please.
Yes. I still believe his recaps would make excellant summer theatre a la Shakespeare in the Parking Lot, low-rent, ad-hoc kinds of things.
And also now I don't feel so bad for, once again, getting banned (god, one little tit joke about Neda and people get all out of control....).
Wow this is sadder than Billy Mays' passing. I knew something was wrong when there was no RHONJ reunion recap :(
I KNOW! I was so confused by that.
He's coming here, right?
Right?
The Awlson!
All I can say is this gentleman oughta be making serious coin doing more of the same, kind of schtick he's doing now. His theatre background shows in his use of language--so fun. You guys should hire him here.
I hope it has nothing to do with this post and Cajun Boy hitting on Lawson…
Oh no! I did it, didn't I?!
God, Gawker is so bad now. I know that's an obvious thing to say (especially here), but the writing is just shit. Richard is the only one worth reading, so now it's really over.
HEY.
You forgot to say "Present company excepted."
Also, have you forgotten that Alex Pareene is a contributor to this site too?
Hamilton and Cook and Pareene are all good writers (among others)but there is something special about Richard's work.
But how will this affect LOLcait?
Oh, noes! Now everyone will know that they are one and the same....
Hold i t- LOLCait is a boy?
I just realized that I get LOLcait and KarenUhOh confused...
I'll always remember him as the one who ruined Gawker.
Ha! Now maybe Gawker will be un-ruined again!
Richard Lawson is indeed the best thing about Gawker and it is sad to see him go without any idea of where one can read his work in the future.
His Twitter feed says something about his being offered a residency in the dialectics of irony in compositional discourse in Santiago de Campostella, Spain funded by the John T. and Catherine C. MacArthur Foundation. This stretched over a number of individual tweets.
Don't believe it. He's going to help Choire develop those cigarettes for dogs.
he has a twitter? do tell.
LOLCAIT IS A DUDE?!?!?
Seriously, I now haz a sad. How can I continue to keep up the vivid fantasy life in which Richard and I are happy, nerdy husbands without being able to read him daily?
Richard Lawson is probably one of the best things ever to happen to Gawker, both as a commenter and a writer.
Actually, he's probably THE best thing to happen to Gawker, when you consider the totality of both his commenting and staff-writing work.
The second-best thing. How could you forget Foxy Brown?
Third, if you add Ask Tionna.
The Foxy Brown episode never would have happened if it weren't for him if I recall correctly.
This makes me sad. Richard is a talented writer and one of the few reasons I still read the site.
I'm going to wear one white glove all week to remember him.
Can't wait to see how he's treated after leaving.
I'm sure Denton understands that he needs to be on his best behavior.
There goes the neighborhood. Are they still female-free too?
They are definitely spelling-free.
They sure are. Sigh.
Phyllis Nefler is decidedly a female. And although her Altarcations contributions are sadly all-too-infrequent, they are nevertheless wonderful and deserving of mention here.
For realz? Haven't been back there since this place opened. Editorial, can we get some Nefler over here?
NO YOU MAY NOT TAKE HER AWAY FROM ME KTHX.
To be fair, those babies write themselves. Phyllis just brings the institutional memory of Amanda Congdon's glorious rack.
Anyone know why no one at Gawker has mentioned this?
Because it hasn't been adequately re-blogged on Tumblr enough yet?
because Gawker is always the last to report on Gawker news. ALWAYS.
Now I really will have no idea what Natalie Archibald is up to on a weekly basis. Because I didn't have to actually watch GG, thanks to Richard.
Speculation: recent trip to Paris = love; love = relocating for love.
I'm not at liberty to discuss Richard's future plans but for those who love him, you will of course have plenty of opportunity to read him.
Also Gabe at Gawker wrote this morning to say he is trying to get Richard to contribute to Gawker very part-time, but I can't see how his new home would care for that!
Please say it's not the Observer...
Is it Perez?
It better not be TMZ.
Unless Television Without Pity is hiring, I can only assume that he's found himself a sugardaddy who isn't too fussy about looks.
Ow
I think I'll miss you most of all.
Are you guys finally going to just announce what we already know? That you're married? Or the same person?
Or both?
Miss? You are such an optimist.
Looking forward to more "uninhibited" writings...
Richard, dear, remember your parting words to me on Gawker when you banned me for the fourth and final time because of the nice things I had to say about Choire joining Balk at Radar?
"Good riddance" is what you said. Funny the things that stick in your mind at a time like this!
Honestly, what is wrong with you?
Wookie, you are always saying mean thing.
If it's true that she's Canadian, then it's a whole lot meaner.
I'm going to casually drop musical theater references into everyday conversations this week, in his honor.
Me too. Total change from my usual ways.
No doubt that he picked a good time to end it.
Gawker's loss, obviously, and ours as well. I hope it means bigger and even better things are on the way :)
Richie!!! If you promise to keep writing, I'll sell my old socks and buy you a 40. I'll even sell my old comic-books for you man. Don't stop writing, Richie. Don't ever stop. Okay I'm drunk and bawling now.
51 Comments? I guess getting Richard to quit his job regularly to drive page views isn't viable a long-term monetization strategy.
Hope he wasn't jealous of the other Richard's success with This is Why You're Fat, with the book deal and all. Either that, or perhaps, Nick isn't providing enough cocktails, hors d’oeuvres, and social cache for his writers.
[On a sidenote, how does one get a proifle pic chere?]
gravatar.com
YOU ARE BLOWING MY HEART. MY HEART IS BLOWN.
Unless he's coming to The Awl, I really can't listen to this today.
For those of us who've been pining for Richard to return to his roots in vaudeville, though, this is marvelous news.
Now is the summer of his disco tent.
A sad thing.
I would like to Leave a Reply about the large pile of money bills that Denton had better be shipping to Richard, all sewn up together and fastened into a leather-bound volume of He's Just Not That Far Into You.
Richard grew beyond the Gawker format some time ago. Can't wait to see him under a new banner.
Entertainment Weekly is the perfect place for him, seriously. (No idea if that's where he is going, but would be a helluva hire for them.)
Richard: Which philanthropic organization are you endowing with your Monty Millions?
Richard was the one thing that made me question my decision to stop reading Gawker. Now we are both free. Fly you crazy baby bird, fly!
Oh sad. Richard, you were too good for this world.
Oh, what? He's not dead? Well good...I'll read him elsewhere!
Know what's nice...seeing all these names again in the "Richard is not dead, but it feels like it" posting. Some really funny folks who used to read Gawker.
I'm not surprised, I'm just a little sad. It feels like a lonely world again...
This is great news. Our lil' LolCait has outgrown the nest. Or something. I hope to at least see an occasional column from him here, if not full employment.
Who is responsible for making this post the number one response on Google right now if you search for "richard lawson"??? That's some amazing techno-genius powers!
awesome-o, richard! may the road rise up to meet you etc., etc. i hope you're on to something spectacular and shiny.
i still take full credit for your career, since i approved an anonymous LolCait for comment privs on that day in the long, long, long ago (i'm also still waiting for my royalties. any day now).
best of luck! we'll be following.
What was his first comment?
i'm not about to go back into gawker comments anytime soon to find out, but surely it was pithily epic.
I know. And fuck if I'm telling.
can't help you with the royalties, but you have my undying gratitude (which is worth lots in some circles)
hopefully, he's come to his senses and sold out by going back to advertising and therefore, avoiding certain homelessness.
Good for him!
This reminds me of the time Spinderalla left Salt N Pepa.
Sweet.
You know. . . .this is almost as bad as when Mary Richards had to move out of her first apartment because Rhoda refused to clean the sheets after Lars and Phyllis' "accident."
Richard's comments shaped and defined a whole generation.
He's probably completely spent after having to go into those Shaman induced trances once a week to write his reality show wrap ups. But I must say, his writing totally made my Wednesday mornings. I think that says more about me then it does about him, actually.
Whatever you do, I hope it KICKS ASS.
Condolences -- unless, as someone else said, he's coming here?
I think they definitely will be poorer for it over there... and this is coming from someone he once banned from the site!
Signed,
(the erstwhile) TimeWarnerRhymeAnaheim
My prediction is that he's only leaving gawker for defamer.
He said he was going to TV.com. So this might mean the end of Defamer.
He and I will always have fox hunting.
I'm going to tweak my nipples like Farrah in Playboy in his rememberance.
For me, the personality of his writing interested me more than any other. I wish him well.