It was the most tumultuous relationship I have ever had. But was it distressing, embarrassing, or amusing enough to crack up a room full of strangers? I downed a Red Bull (without vodka, which is what I really needed) and sped off to the home of Nadelberg, where the audition was going down. As luck would have it, he had red wine.

Nadelberg came up with the idea for Mortified five years ago, after he stumbled upon an old love letter he wrote when he was a junior in high school to a girl who didn't know him from Adam. It was a secret-admirer type of letter that he signed but, thankfully, never delivered. "I went home one year and dug up this old box," he remembers. "Inside was this horrific, embarrassing, mortifying letter written to a girl. It was a draft of a love letter. I saw a window into this kid's life, what it's like to hear someone come totally unhinged. It's so squirm-inducing because you feel so bad for him. Except I had the realization that that idiot was me."

Choice verbatim line from the letter: By now you may be wondering just who IS this dork, why exactly is he writing me, how did he know my name, is he emotionally and/or mentally unstable, how long is this sentence going to be, and what is the most popular internationally play[ed] nonprofessional sport?

Nadelberg brought the letter back to Los Angeles, where he was toiling away as a writer (he has actually­ sold television pilots to Comedy Central, VH1, and UPN, though none have ever aired), and read it to a few friends. They laughed their hind ends off and encouraged him to go public with it. You know what they say about the rest. Mortified struck a chord in a town full of failed and frustrated writers, all now kicking ­themselves for not coming up with such an obvious idea.