Kupperman tosses ideas out to his following and is impressed by the tweets that bounce back.

Question: How does Twitter help you?

Michael Kupperman: Twitter is like an old little, kind of Petri dish of comedy. And I'll make jokes or I'll throw things out that are kind of deliberately not even finished thoughts or that are suggesting other things, because then I know that people will come back with all these great jokes or additions or versions of their own, sometimes better than what I thought of. So it's fun and it's very interactive. I just became a father, which is why I'm so exhausted, but I really started using Twitter in the month after my son was born, because I was staying indoors all the time, I was awake nearly 24 hours a day and, you know, I just felt so isolated, it was just amazing to start talking to these people all over the world and really feel some sense of connection with them.

Question: Are you interested in any other mediums?

Michael Kupperman: Well, I have plenty of things I'd like to do, as, you know, I've learned, it depends who gives you the opportunity. I really would love to do some more animation. You know, I would like to do a graphic novel at some point, but I'd also like to go in the other direction and do a book with not so many drawings and maybe no drawings, you know, at some point, yeah.

Question: Which comedians have influenced you?

Michael Kupperman: Over the last few years and with the help of the internet, I've been able to become friends with a lot of English comedians, performers, writers, actors, and that's been amazing to me. Peter Serafinowicz, who was in, who did Look Around You, and Graham Linehan, who does the IT Crowd. And they're doing humor, especially Peter, and his partner, Robert Popper, are doing humor that I feel very close to, it's very close to my vein of jokes.

Question: What programs shaped your sense of humor?

Michael Kupperman: Look Around You is an amazing show, it's an education, mock-educational show, done in a style, well, the first season was done in the style of educational programming of the '70's. and the second was done more in the style of the '80's. But it was just bizarre, surrealist humor, a whole show about ghosts and a competition at the end that was for the best song that was judged by Prince Charles, who they digitally laid in from, you know, '80's footage, really amazing. And Graham Linehan, he produced the IT Crowd--sorry, I said that. Graham Linehan has produced, directed--no, no, no. Graham Linehan has written and produced the IT Crowd and Father Ted, both of which are amazingly funny shows.

 Recorded December 19, 2009