By: Alexis Madrigal

“We nuclear people have made a Faustian bargain with society.”

By: Tom Nealon

His criticism was easy to parody, infuriating, and brilliant.

By: Lucy Sante

“Bookworm parrot Legba biker orphan pirate poet.”

By: Brian Berger

“The fingering… may here and there appear somewhat strange.”

By: Mark Kingwell

His was a voice of unmatched irreverence and hatred of boredom.

By: Sarah Weinman

She typified ’80s excess by insuring her breasts.

By: Ingrid Schorr

She didn’t have to sing about crying into her beer.

By: Franklin Bruno

For Beckett, joking — like farting — is a futile but necessary stay against death and time.

By: Patrick Cates

He turned the jazz and funk scenes of the ’60s and ’70s upside-down.

By: Mimi Lipson

He may be the best put-on artist since Andy Kaufman.

By: Joe Alterio

His rockabilly was an act of defiant generational treachery.

By: Joshua Glenn

“Life in this society being, at best, an utter bore…”

By: Mark Kingwell

His slogan could be: To the appearances themselves!

By: David Smay

He suffers exactly enough to make the joke.

By: Tor Aarestad

His musical schizophrenia can’t be contained.