Interview: Brian Lane of Fake Civil War

When I was growing up I was obsessed with history, but mostly I was obsessed with The Civil War. My family used to visit Civil War battlefields on vacation, I bought Civil War paraphernalia and I'm pretty sure I was the only student in my junior high school who had a subscription to the Civil War Time-Life Books series. Gradually, my obsessions turned to subjects like electric guitar and Stephen King books, but I've always retained an affinity for the subject. I guess it's just the idea that something so dramatic and violent happened in America of all places. The idea was almost impossible to believe (until 9/11, I guess.)
So, when I found the hilarious Twitter feed Fake Civil War a few weeks ago I was instantly hooked. If comedy really is tragedy plus time, Fake Civil War is making the War Between the States funnier every day. Here's a taste of just some of the recent highlights:

Quote of the Day: "I had a dream where the Civil War never happened! I was a slave! It was crazy! I hated it!" - Martin Luther King, Jr.

Today, Virginia celebrates Lee-Jackson Day, or, as it's known in the South, every day.

Lincoln hated dealing with his cabinet so much that he’d sometimes pretend the telephone had been invented, and that he was on it.

One of Mary Todd’s greatest regrets in life was never finding out how Our American Cousin ends.

John Wilkes Booth refused to do gratuitous nudity in his plays, but he was open to the idea if it was "justified in the script.”

I decided to find out who was behind this phenomenon. Let's go there now:

Rob Burgess: What are your names, where are you based and how did you two meet?

Brian Lane: My name is Brian Lane. I live in Brooklyn. My partner on FCW is Gene O’Neill, who lives in Los Angeles. I met Gene in my first couple weeks of college, in the shadow of 9/11.

RB: Besides Fake Civil War what line of work are you two in?

BL: I am a sustainable energy blogger. Gene works in Hollyweird for the movies.

RB: What inspired you to start Fake Civil War?

BL: I didn't know much about Twitter at the time. I used it sparingly and didn’t really follow many people. One day I saw a Tweet from some history podcast that was like, Today in History: some asshole did some bullshit. The idea flashed in my head to do fake history facts—I was so naïve I thought such a thing was radically new for Twitter. Anyhow, I knew I'd need help and Gene is the funniest person I know, so I asked him. He said yes.

RB: What has been the general reaction from Civil War buffs you've encountered? What percentage would you say have a sense of humor about it?

BL: More or less non-existent. Most people who interact with us seem to have a general interest in history or seem to just like jokes. The Civil War people don’t really say anything, and I don’t know any Civil War people in real life, so I don’t know. I do know some CW buffs follow us, so some of them are entertained, but they rarely say anything. I have noticed that we have a large minority of librarians and archivists following us--that is pretty cool. I also enjoy when I see people’ve followed us and they describe themselves in their profile—lots of Christians, conservatives, Democrats, Southerners, whatever.

RB: How did you choose the Civil War? Why not a different war? Is it that it's been just long enough to be funny?

BL: The Civil War is insane and terrible, but it's also old timey. Old timeyness is the key to ridiculousness.

RB: What is your opinion of Pride and Prejudice and Zombies and Abraham Lincoln, Vampire Hunter? Do you see Fake Civil War as part of the same movement?

BL: My opinion: low. Aren't those just crass marketing ploys? Like, those are books without substance designed to exploit current trends and the publishers are thinking, Man, I hope some kid picks these up! $18.95! Oh fuck, movie deal! Our industry is so desperate!
Wow, so that was a cynical critique of that genre of nonsense, but I looked into it and it’s actually true:

In a similarly off-beat brainstorming process, Rekulak, the editor of Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, sat down with a list of popular novels in the public domain and another list of popular fanboy characters like ninjas, pirates, zombies and monkeys, and just drew lines between the two. “Once I saw Pride and Prejudice and zombies I knew we had a hit,” he said.

Ugh, fuck that guy.

RB: What is your creative process for generating new material?

BL: It's really boring: I think up jokes and try them on my friends to see if they’re funny. We share our jokes with one another and can veto or rewrite ideas. A lot of it is making sure people who aren't obsessive about the Civil War can get the jokes, so I’ll mostly reference Ulysses S. Grant as opposed to, say, Don Carlos Buell or Dan Sickles.

RB: Are there any parts of the Civil War you won't make fun of?

BL: The Holocaust.

RB: How has the reaction to Fake Civil War matched up to your expectations?

BL: I just thought it would be a fun laff, so I'm pleased if people like our jokes. Jesse Thorn of Bullseye (formerly The Sound of Young America) helped get us followers by retweeting our jokes and talking about us on his podcast Jordan, Jesse, GO! (Gene has been a guest on that a few times) and eventually offering us a shot on his program.
Outshot: Fake Civil War by Bullseye with Jesse Thorn

Shelby Fero also accidentally retweeted us—she retweeted, and then immediately deleted, one of our tweets—and that got us a lot of followers. Thank you, Shelby!

RB: What's next for Fake Civil War? What does success look like?

BL: We are working on another audio thing. As I said, I am very pleased that people like us. For the time being, I’m happy for FCW to do what we’re doing and if we get side projects like the Bullseye appearance, awesome. Gene and I are working on another thing for more laffs, but it’s entirely unrelated and will hopefully be coming together soon.