By Michael Rogers

• First novel I Love You, Beth Cooper wins $5K prize
• Beats Patricia Marx and Simon Rich
• Doyle was writer for The Simpsons and Beavis and Butthead

Larry Doyle October 6 won the 2008 Thurber Prize for Humor, taking the $5000 award for his novel I Love You, Beth Cooper (HarperPerennial). Doyle, a former producer and writer for The Simpsons, bested contenders Patricia Marx (Him Her Him Again The End of Him) and Simon Rich (Ant Farm). He writes a monthly column for Esquire magazine and is a frequent contributor to The New Yorker. I Love You, Beth Cooper, his first novel, will be released as a feature film directed by Chris Columbus in 2009.

Judge Firoozeh Dumas said: “Clearly Larry Doyle was not the BMOC (“Big Man on Campus” for those of you who have suppressed the Eighties.) Had Larry been cool, he could have never written I Love You, Beth Cooper, a hilarious yet painfully accurate account of high school in all its pimply glory.” Doyle’s other writing credits include TV’s Beavis & Butthead and Daria, and the films Duplex and Looney Tunes: Back in Action. He lives in Baltimore, MD. The prize is presented annually by Thurber House, a literary center unique for its combination of historic preservation and literary programming.