Dave Barry and Alan Zweibel Coauthor 'Lunatics' — a Comic, Absurd Novel

What do you do when your weekly humor column is due in an hour, and your screen is blank? Columnist Dave Barry spills the beans.

What if your famed Saturday Night Live skit “Weekend Update” goes live in a few hours, but you have no jokes? Former SNL writer Alan Zweibel shares his secrets.

See also: Richard Pryor's comedy still stands up.

Pulitzer-winning humorist Barry and Emmy-winning writer Zweibel had an easier time collaborating on their recent novel, Lunatics, than they sometimes do at their day jobs. The book chronicles the escapades of Jeffrey, a "forensic plumber" and Philip, a pet store owner, as they are reviled as terrorists and later honored as freedom fighters.

More about that, and why the two men agree that comedy is an "unnatural act" and a gift that might disappear at any moment, in the video above. As they interview each other for this segment of My Generation, we learn how these writers — in this new book and throughout their careers — turn the seemingly mundane into comic gold.