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Jamie
Loftus
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Raw Dog
Part travelogue, part culinary history, all capitalist critique—comedian Jamie Loftus's debut, Raw Dog, will take you on a cross-country road trip in the summer of 2021, and reveal what the creation, culture, and class influence of hot dogs says about America now.
Hot dogs. Poor people created them. Rich people found a way to charge fifteen dollars for them. They’re high culture, they’re low culture, they’re sports food, they’re kids' food, they’re hangover food, and they’re deeply American, despite having no basis whatsoever in America's Indigenous traditions. You can love them, you can hate them, but you can’t avoid the great American hot dog.
Raw Dog: The Naked Truth About Hot Dogs is part investigation into the cultural and culinary significance of hot dogs and part travelog documenting a cross-country road trip researching them as they’re served today. From avocado and spice in the West to ass-shattering chili in the East to an entire salad on a slice of meat in Chicago, Loftus, her pets, and her ex eat their way across the country during the strange summer of 2021. It’s a brief window into the year between waves of a plague that the American government has the resources to temper, but not the interest.
So grab a dog, lay out your picnic blanket, and dig into the delicious and inevitable product of centuries of violence, poverty, and ambition, now rolling around at your local 7-Eleven.
Jamie Loftus
Part travelogue, part culinary history, all capitalist critique—comedian Jamie Loftus's debut, Raw Dog, will take you on a cross-country road trip in the summer of 2021, and reveal what the creation, culture, and class influence of hot dogs says about America now.
Hot dogs. Poor people created them. Rich people found a way to charge fifteen dollars for them. They’re high culture, they’re low culture, they’re sports food, they’re kids' food, they’re hangover food, and they’re deeply American, despite having no basis whatsoever in America's Indigenous traditions. You can love them, you can hate them, but you can’t avoid the great American hot dog.
Raw Dog: The Naked Truth About Hot Dogs is part investigation into the cultural and culinary significance of hot dogs and part travelog documenting a cross-country road trip researching them as they’re served today. From avocado and spice in the West to ass-shattering chili in the East to an entire salad on a slice of meat in Chicago, Loftus, her pets, and her ex eat their way across the country during the strange summer of 2021. It’s a brief window into the year between waves of a plague that the American government has the resources to temper, but not the interest.
So grab a dog, lay out your picnic blanket, and dig into the delicious and inevitable product of centuries of violence, poverty, and ambition, now rolling around at your local 7-Eleven.
About the author
In Jamie's own words:
hi, this is jamie loftus. i am a comedian, emmy-nominated tv writer and podcaster (sorry) in los angeles if that's okay, but am from boston originally, with your permission of course. i just finished working on LOLITA PODCAST, a feminist and survivor-focused documentary series on lolita by vladimir nabokov and all its crummy adaptations. it’s been recommended by the new york times, the new yorker, indiewire, paste, vulture, the av club and more. before that, i made a show called MY YEAR IN MENSA. it’s about joining mensa as a joke, then getting sucked into the undertow of far-right secret mensa facebook groups, and the history of IQ tests on the whole. it was ~declared~ one of the best podcasts of 2020 by the new york times and a bunch of other places.
here is a short list of things that are true. i, jamie, am:
- a tv writer that has staffed for ‘robot chicken’ on adult swim, ‘magical girl friendship squad’ on syfy, ‘human kind of’ on facebook watch, and soon ‘teenage euthanasia’ on adult swim.
- the cohost of ‘the bechdel cast,’ a feminist movie podcast on iheartradio with caitlin durante.
- writer and performer of ‘boss whom is girl,’ about a devious corporate feminist named shell gasoline-sandwich at edinburgh fringe 2019, recommended by the guardian.
- a nationally touring standup back when that was legal.
- an illustrator and animator who has worked for comedy central, vice, playboy, paste magazine, JASH, cafe and i guess myself.
- creator, writer and star of ‘irrational fears’ on comedy central digital, and talent and writer for ‘upgraded’ and ‘robot takeover’ on the now-deceased super deluxe.
The award show by and for funny people.
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