Also check out Gonville: A Memoir,by my brother-in-law Peter BirkenheadTAD's take on the cover: He looks a little funny - sort of like a monkey. I'm wondering why there are still a little bit of white spots on those letters. That doesn't look very good. 

 Pictures and videos are not guaranteed publication. When you submit your material, you grant MPWA a non-exclusive, irrevocable, royalty-free license to use the work to be used, copied, sub-licensed, adapted, transmitted, distributed, published, displayed or otherwise under our sole discretion throughout the universe in any and all media now known or hereafter devised in perpetuity. All rights owned and controlled by My Parents Were Awesome 
 
 
 
 now available on Amazon Before the fanny packs and Andrea Bocelli concerts, your parents (and grandparents) were once free- wheeling, fashion-forward, and super awesome.Also, if you're interested, you can follow my personal Tumblr here 

 Some content on this page is not suitable for young eyes or faint hearts. 
 
 Views expressed by Sleep Talkin' Man rarely reflect the opinions of waking Adam. 
 
 Especially the desire to exterminate all vegetarians (but he does hate lentils.) 

 Mar 22nd, 2010 
 
 The Internet Meme Hall of Fame: Exploiting Your Relatives for Fun and Book Deals 
 
 Five blogs built off familial weirdness. 
 
 By Chris Mathias 
 
 The internet has recently offered a feast of familial eccentricities in blog form, and the response has been huge — book and TV deals, merchandising and TV appearances, thousands of fans and followers. So the next time your drunk uncle is telling slurred stories about his night in Atlantic City, remember, put it on a blog! Here are five examples to get you started. 
 
 1) Shit My Dad Says 
 
 twitter.com/shitmydadsays 
 
 By far the most successful family-weirdness blog around: last summer, Justin Halpern moved in with his parents and began documenting his seventy-three-year-old father's hilarious and blunt diatribes on Twitter. The sage and profanity-laced wisdom of this grumpy geriatric has generated a Twitter following of over 700,000 people and led to a TV show on CBS... starring William Shatner. 
 
 2) Tiny Art Director 
 
 tinyartdirector.blogspot.com 
 
 Artist Bill Zeman asks his five-year-old daughter to critique his work. She's harsh, very specific, and generally feels most of the work would be improved by the addition of dinosaurs. Her commissions often include instructions like, "I'm going to tell you what to draw. Draw a dragon sneaking up on a girl. She's picking flowers." Zeman has documented all of this on his blog, and a book is due out later this spring. 
 
 3) Sleep Talkin' Man 
 
 sleeptalkinman.blogspot.com 
 
 A British woman records her husband's musings... in his sleep. Often hilariously self-aggrandizing ("Awesomeness now has a name. Let me introduce myself") and heavy on violence toward small animals ( "Don't move a muscle. Bushbabies are everywhere... Kick 'em!"), this guy's ramblings have appeared on NBC's Today Show and ABC's World News Tonight; the couple is now selling merchandise on the website as well. 
 
 4) Emails From My Mother 
 
 emailsfrommymother.blogspot. com 
 
 Started as a simple tribute to founder Chloe Jankowitz's mom, Emails From My Mother has grown into a great online repository for reader-contributed emails, voicemails (including the legendary "You're starting to look like a dyke"), and AIM chats of mothers being mothers — concerned, technologically illiterate, fierce, and loving. 
 
 5) My Parents Were Awesome 
 
 myparentswereawesome.tumblr. com 
 
 
 
 You may think your parents are the uncoolest people on Earth, but they too were once young, hip cats just trying to have a good time. My Parents Were Awesome is a user-submitted web base for old photos of parents from back when they were more like, well, you. 
 
 FIND MORE 
 
 Venn Diagrams 
 
 Internet Meme Hall of Fame: Fun With Google Maps 
 
 My Parents Were Awesome
– Easter and Passover are coming up, which means more embarrassing incidents at family get-together, plus a silver lining: You could potentially score a book deal. Chris Mathias, writing for Nerve, lists five blogs based on “familial eccentricities” that have scored their creators some cash—or at least some popularity: Shit My Dad Says: Moving back in with your parents doesn’t suck so bad when your 73-year-old father’s hilarious utterings end up getting you a TV show—starring William Shatner, no less. Tiny Art Director: An artist’s 5-year-old daughter offers harsh critiques of his work, often involving the addition of dinosaurs or dragons. The book will be out soon. Sleep Talkin’ Man: A British woman’s hubby says hilarious things in his sleep, like, “Awesomeness now has a name. Let me introduce myself.” After appearances on the Today show and World News Tonight, the couple started selling merchandise. Emails From My Mother: The founder started it as a tribute to her mom, but now reader contributions have turned it into “a great online repository of mothers being mothers," like the concerned mom who told her daughter she was "starting to look like a dyke." My Parents Were Awesome: At some point after our teenage years, we begin to realize that our parents were actually cool at one point. This is the place to submit photographic evidence.