John Swartzwelder

John Swartzwelder
Swartzwelder in a 1992 staff photo for The Simpsons
Born	John Joseph Swartzwelder, Jr. (1949-02-08) February 8, 1949 (age 68) Seattle, Washington, United States
Occupation	Television writer, novelist
Period	The Simpsons: 1990–2003, 2007 Novels: 2004–present
Genre	Observational humor, surreal humor, black comedy, detective fiction, absurdism
Subject	The Simpsons, Frank Burly

John Joseph Swartzwelder, Jr. (born February 8, 1949) is an American comedy writer and novelist, best known for his work on the animated television series The Simpsons. Born in Seattle, Washington, Swartzwelder began his career working in advertising. He was later hired to work on comedy series Saturday Night Live in the mid-1980s as a writer. He later contributed to fellow writer George Meyer's short-lived Army Man magazine, which led him to join the original writing team of The Simpsons, beginning in 1989.

He worked on The Simpsons for fourteen years as a writer and producer, later contributing to the program's 2007 film adaption. He is credited with writing the largest number of Simpsons episodes (59 full episodes, with contributions to several others) by a large margin. After his retirement from the show, he began a career as a writer of self-published absurdist novels. He has written over eleven novels, the most recent of which, The Animal Report, was published in 2014.

Swartzwelder is revered among comedy fans; his colleagues have called him among the best comedy writers. He is famously averse to press, living life as a recluse.

Swartzwelder was born in Seattle, Washington, the son of Gloria Mae (Matthews) and John Joseph Swartzwelder, Sr. He attended high school in Renton, Washington. Swartzwelder started out with a career in advertising. He sent a joke submission to the writers of Late Night with David Letterman in 1983, which he signed but left no address. Writer Jim Downey traced Swartzwelder based on the Chicago postmark on the card via phone books at the New York Public Library. After contacting his mother in Seattle, she redirected him to her son, who was then working at an advertising agency in Chicago. Downey described Swartzwelder's interview as "one of the most spectacularly awful in history," as it consisted of him entering David Letterman's office without permission, and discussing the state of television (that it was "all shit") whilst smoking and drinking. He was not hired for Letterman, but Downey did bring him to work on Saturday Night Live (SNL) beginning in 1985.