Author Mark St. Amant talks to actor, writer, comedian Rob Delaney about what makes something funny, manhood, and a very naughty word beginning with “C.”

I am one of Rob Delaney’s gazillion Twitter followers. (Number 108,744, I believe, although I didn’t get a cool certificate like I did when I joined the Kiss Army back in ’77; thanks for fucking nothing, Delaney.) So I’m obviously a fan. Of his views on the world, silly people, pickup lines, vaginas, society at large, penises, Mitt Romney, kids, wives, you name it. Of how he’s wisely leveraged a social phenomenon (Twitter) to raise his national profile while many are still figuring out how to even start a feed. And of his strategic use of naughty words.

Because unlike many wannabe funnymen, he never swears or “goes blue” for pure, lazy shock value. Rather, he does it with a subtext of intelligence and fancy book-learnin’ that actually enlightens — dare I say embetters — those who follow him, making us all just a tiny bit smarter by the time we reach character 140 than we were at character 1. (And he’s also a dad and a husband, which — along with our Y chromosomes and Boston roots — practically makes us brothers!) So needless to say, I was happy to unleash my amateur (read: shitty) interviewing skills upon poor Rob and tap into one of the biggest, most innovative comedy brains around.