While we’ve had a lot of fun producing The American Jerk for the past year, we’ve decided that we can’t continue producing monthly issues the way we have been. This was a tough decision, reached after much soul-searching and the realization that neither one of us could think of a single thing to make fun of this month.

The effort required to produce this magazine as we have for the past year has been tremendous, requiring no less than two to six hours a day, after work and on weekends, for three of the four weeks in a month. Our goal starting this magazine was to produce the best, most original dark humor on the World Wide Web, attract a following, sell advertising space and do this for a living.

However, we have discovered that there are only three ways to attract the kind of readership needed to make enough money to even break even on a Web site such as this: garner critical acclaim from mainstream press and Web sites, advertise like hell, or agree to trade links with every similar Web site you can find. Unfortunately, the press seems reluctant to embrace a publication so willing to use the word “pigfucker” for humorous effect. We would have advertised, but we’re broke. And we were just not willing to plaster links to other humor sites (Or worse, sites that just post tired, unoriginal street jokes) on our pages. We felt it would belittle us and be unfair to our readers to provide free advertising to sites that we felt were less funny than cancer.

With no income from the site, and no apparent hope that any will ever come in, neither of us can afford the time required to continue to produce issues as we have. Paul has begun studying computer programming in his spare time, and Rob, who misses the sound of live laughter, is writing new material to drift back into stand-up comedy. Neither of these goals can be pursued if we continue to produce The American Jerk in its present form. Plus, Rob has a great deal of community service left to perform, and Ken MacDonald has gone into hiding following a botched attempt to snatch Elian Gonzalez and sell him to the highest bidder on eBay.

The American Jerk will not cease to exist; our archives will remain here, and we will continue to publish new material, albeit less frequently. We will advise people through our mailing list when new material has been posted, or feel free to check back in occasionally to see what’s new.

We would like to take this opportunity to thank our loyal readers (All six of them) for supporting us for the past year and giving us praise, constructive criticism and feedback (Mostly along the lines of “You suck!”). If any of you happen to be in the Boston area, drop us an e-mail and maybe you can see Rob perform and Paul drink Jack Daniel’s and heckle him mercilessly.

Thank you all again for your support. You’ve made the past year a memorable and enjoyable experience for the both of us.

Rob Reuter and Paul St. Fakename, Esq.