The Gist

Good Grief

Comedian Laurie Kilmartin has tips to help you boost your Twitter following and mourn your dying parent at the same time.

Laurie Kilmartin performs on Oct. 17 in New York City.

Bryan Bedder/Getty Images for Seeso

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When comedian Laurie Kilmartin found out her father had advanced lung cancer, she processed it the best way she could: by tweeting jokes about her father’s decline. The real-time mourning gave rise to Kilmartin’s stand-up special, “45 Jokes About My Dead Dad,” available on Seeso. Kilmartin is a writer for Conan on TBS and author of Sh*tty Mom: The Parenting Guide for the Rest of Us.

In the Spiel, noting the death of Debbie Reynolds and the prospects of a two-state solution.

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