The Joy of Trash Kickstarter is Officially Over. The Joy of Trash Backerkit Campaign Has Only Just Begun!

On 4:13 A:M, March 5th, the Kickstarter campaign for my next book and this glorious website’s second literary spin-off, The Joy of Trash: Nathan Rabin’s Happy Place’s Definitive Guide to the Very Worst of Everything officially ended with a final tally of 458 backers and 16,407 dollars in pre-orders.

At the risk of being immodest, that’s real fucking good. One of my main goals with the Joy of Trash campaign was to top the backer count and overall haul for The Weird Accordion to Al Kickstarter. I am forever wrestling with self-doubt and insecurity. Part of me worried that the reason The Weird Accordion to Al was a success and the only reason it was a success (beyond Felipe Sobreiro’s amazing artwork, of course) was because I was not only writing about one of the most beloved American entertainers of all time in “Weird Al” Yankovic, I was also, in a very real way, writing it with Al as well, since he volunteered to copy-edit and fact-check and also graciously agreed to write the introduction. 

Would a follow-up to The Weird Accordion to Al do anywhere near as well without the involvement of a goddamn national treasure? I had my doubts so I was VERY happy and excited that  not only did The Joy of Trash match The Weird Accordion to Al’s overall haul it topped it by sixty-eight backers and three hundred and sixty five dollars.

Not to get all Sally Field here or anything, but that suggests that you like us, you really, really like us! Or you at least you like the books that Felipe and I have been working on for the past few years. 

I suspect the Kickstarter would have done even better if it had not ended in the wee small hours of the morning. I know there are people who like to keep a close eye on a campaign, and contribute in the final hours or even minutes. Unless you were taking powerful stimulants or are a long-haul trucker glued to your iPhone there’s a very good chance you were not able to do that with a campaign that concluded at 4:13 A.M. 

As a small businessman, author and website proprietor, I want to make it as easy, convenient and appealing to give me money, buy my books and generally provide me with the financing I need to stay in business during a singularly difficult time.

To that end I have once again hooked up with Backerkit for a secondary campaign for The Joy of Trash that affords YOU, the beautiful, brilliant, absurdly wealthy and generous (I’m hoping!) Nathan Rabin’s Happy Place reader an opportunity to get in on the action by pre-ordering The Joy of Trash through Backerkit and getting all manner of exclusive extras. 

What kind of extras? Well, for starters, everyone who pre-orders the book through Backerkit gets a nifty 5 x 7 card autographed by Felipe Sobreiro (who will be doing the artwork for The Joy of Trash just as he did the illustrations for The Weird Accordion to Al) and myself of “Weird Al” Yankovic alongside Steven Seagal as the Q Shaman, an indelible image that captures our curious current cultural moment. 

But that’s not all! There are also signed, exclusive cards of Felipe’s artwork for the Fyre Festival and “Christmas at Ground Zero” as well. 

AND if you pre-order The Joy of Trash through Backerkit you get access to original articles I will be writing for the book AS I write them.

Next up is an article on the “"That's swell Tom, but YOUR LITTLE BROTHER IS STANDING IN THE MIDDLE OF AFGHANISTAN!” Scene from Studio 60. Not the series, mind you, or even the episode but that particular scene because it says so much about Aaron Sorkin and the hilarious mistake that was his bizarre, self-indulgent ode to the power of satire to change the world. 

I’ve got all kinds of awesome stuff in the works for the book, including the second season of Baywatch Nights (the one that rips off the X-Files), Ben Shapiro’s novel, The Secret Diary of Desmond Pfeiffer, Homeboys in Outer Space, Shasta McNasty, the infamous Four Seasons Total Landscaping press conference and much, much more. 

As much as I love writing for y’all, I desperately need the money from my books and this website to survive.

So please do pre-order The Joy of Trash through Backerkit and go on this wonderful journey with me!

Pre-order The Joy of Trash: Nathan Rabin’s Happy Place’s Definitive Guide to the Very Worst of Everything and get access to original articles AS I write them and plenty more bonus stuff like exclusive cards featuring Felipe Sobreiro’s amazing artwork for the book at https://the-joy-of-trash.backerkit.com/hosted_preorders/cart

Help ensure a future for the Happy Place during an uncertain era AND get sweet merch by pledging to the site’s Patreon account at https://www.patreon.com/nathanrabinshappyplace

Also, BUY the RIDICULOUSLY SELF-INDULGENT, ILL-ADVISED VANITY EDITION of  THE WEIRD ACCORDION TO AL, the Happy Place’s first book. This 500 page extended edition features an introduction from Al himself (who I co-wrote 2012’s Weird Al: The Book with), who also copy-edited and fact-checked, as well as over 80 illustrations from Felipe Sobreiro on entries covering every facet of Al’s career, including his complete discography, The Compleat Al, UHF, the 2018 tour that gives the book its subtitle and EVERY episode of The Weird Al Show and Al’s season as the band-leader on Comedy Bang! Bang! 

Only 23 dollars signed, tax and shipping included, at the https://www.nathanrabin.com/shop or for more, unsigned, from Amazon here