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Dave Barry was given a Pulitzer Prize in 1988 for writing about boogers. With that, I think I can wrap up my explanation of why he is awesome.

All right, he wasn’t given a Pulitzer specifically for writing about boogers. It was for “his consistently effective use of humor as a device for presenting fresh insights into serious concerns.” By serious concerns, the people who administered the Pulitzer evidently meant exploding whales, owl regurgitation and yes, boogers.

Ladies and gentlemen, I give you the man respected for being snarky and immature in the most hilarious, brilliant, wonderful ways possible.

I give you Dave Barry, whose commentaries have never failed to make me smile.

Dave Barry was a columnist for The Miami Herald and currently writes books. In his days as a columnist, he tackled such important issues as exploding livestock with quick wit and even quicker subject changes. Barry writes the way some people think, bouncing from one topic to the next like a mountain goat leaping from peak to peak.

Like James Thurber, the writer who claimed his sense of humor was “set in motion by the damp hand of melancholy,” Dave Barry has an unexpectedly bitter philosophy: “A sense of humor is a measurement of the extent to which we realize that we are trapped in a world almost totally devoid of reason.”

Fortunately, Barry’s writing is anything but philosophical. He points out the absurdities we overlook, such as silly government spending and cultural phenomena, and mocks the heck out of them.

Barry is the one from whom I picked up the bad habit of coining names for rock bands. To assist him in his endless efforts to invent band names, he uses the acronym WBAGNFARB: Would Be A Good Name For A Rock Band. Another common phrase, following a description of something truly ridiculous, is the straight-faced assertion: “I am not making this up.”

Besides humor columns, Dave Barry has written some fiction and a number of books on government, travel, history and other subjects. I disliked his novel, Big Trouble, but his nonfiction books—well, supposedly nonfiction books—are delightful.

Dave Barry informed me that Indiana, my state of residence, is called the Hoosier State because hoosier is the noise pigs make when they sneeze.

When Dave Barry visited Japan, his major objectives changed immediately from things like “try to determine attitude of average salaried worker toward government industrial policy” to “try to find food without suckers on it.”

Dave Barry gave this illuminating commentary on a fundamental right of Americans: “The Second Amendment states that, since a well-regulated militia is necessary to the security of a free state, you can buy high-powered guns via mail order and go out into the woods with your friends and absolutely vaporize some deer.”

In conclusion, ladies and gentlemen, Dave Barry is awesome.