Friday, February 20, 2015

Really Tough Loss.

“DONT STOP OR WE'LL DIE show at UCB sunset!”

Harris Wittels tweeted that on Monday. Don’t Stop or We’ll Die was the name of his band. Three days later, he died – of a drug overdose at the age of 30.

Harris wanted to be an actor, but when the work wasn’t really coming, he took writing by the horns, first for “The Sarah Silverman Program” and then as a writer and executive producer for “Parks and Recreation,” my favorite sitcom. Three years ago, he outed himself as the creator of the term and Twitter feed “humblebrag,” which he’d been posting anonymously for many months.

If you’re not familiar with humblebrags, check out this column Harris wrote for Grantland, and you’ll see how prolific he was. All the more reason he’ll be missed.