Legendary Santa Barbara resident and author Ashleigh Brilliant has died at the age of 91. He passed on September 24, 2025 following a brief illness and hospital stay, according to his obituary.
Brilliant was born in London, England, on December 9, 1933, attended Hendon County School, lived in Australia, and later moved to the United States. He earned a PhD in history from UC Berkeley in 1964, taught on a round-the-world “floating university” in the mid-1960s, and later at a community college in Bend, Oregon.
During San Francisco’s 1967 “Summer of Love,” he gave daily lectures near the Haight Street entrance to Golden Gate Park and recorded a rare live album, Ashleigh Brilliant in the Haight-Ashbury (Dorash LP-1001), featuring witty, participatory parody songs set to familiar tunes about the hippie movement; he also compiled related material as The Haight-Ashbury Songbook. He has published a total of 14 books.
Brilliant is perhaps best known for his “Pot Shots,” epigrams of funny phrases, witty thoughts, and interesting sayings all in 17 words or less. They could be considered the grandfather of the modern-day meme.
In a 1992 profile, The Wall Street Journal called Brilliant “history’s only full-time, professional published epigrammatist.” His 1979 lawsuit (Brilliant v. W.B. Productions Inc.) established that his epigrams—unlike generic short phrases—are copyrightable.
Brilliant met Dorothy Tucker in 1965 while sailing around the world as a teacher on the “floating university.” They married in 1968 and settled in Santa Barbara in 1973. Dorothy died on May 24, 2018.
A public memorial for Ashleigh Brilliant has yet to be announced.
Living on Earth may be expensive
But it includes a free trip around the Sun
-Ashleigh Brilliant
And luckily he got 91 of them. He sure was One-of-a-Kind. A consistent talent in the backdrop of our SB walk of life. I believe it was on eBay that I once came across an article from back in the 60’s about his sidewalk performances on the Haight. Across the decades, he’s become a permanent piece of our way cool California Culture with works read by multiple generations. What an observant and gifted wordsmith.
From a Pot-Shot (1986?):
The future is a strange place in which at some point I must say goodbye to myself
Don’t happen have one his books within reach at the moment but here’s some writings found online:
Life is too important to be taken as a joke,
but too ridiculous to be taken seriously
I want it clearly understood that I am totally confused
Sooner or later I will be punctual
My life has been greatly influenced by many books
which I have never read
Right now I’m working on a fascinating project: staying alive
Please don’t believe everything you hear about me,
regardless of how true it may be
Sometimes I need what only you can provide – your absence
It’s human to make mistakes
And some of us are more human than others
I don’t understand you
You don’t understand me
What else do we have in common?
Speak nothing but the truth and you’ll soon be considered dangerous
Strangely enough, this is the past that somebody in the future is longing to go back to
Nothing we do can change the past, but everything we do changes the future
There’s many more (even better ones) in his published collections.
In print or picture format they include his illustrations, which deliver a more impactful expression of the (humorous, sarcastic, contemplative) remarks.
Gift idea: Maybe go to Chaucer’s to pick up Brilliant’s books (never-fails to bring smiles).
Or check his website if it will remain online.
BTW, that was his real name… funny how he actually grew into it.
Goodbye Ashleigh Brilliant, “Thanks for Being”.
I’d checked his home page { https://www.ashleighbrilliant.com/ } yesterday clicking on the FIRST VISIT (cause I forgot where it took me), then realized maybe I/we should see where he loft off for the Potshot of the Day (it was & still is #3449)
https://www.ashleighbrilliant.com/potshot%20of%20the%20Day.htm
“DEATH is what happens when your subscriptions to life and time are permanently discontinued.”
Thank you for this post!
Bicyclist, grateful to you for posting about this elsewhere on edhat earlier. Tried to reply to you then + there but for some reason the comment was deleted. Visited the link you provided. Thanks for that too. I bet you can remember the spin-able Pot-Shot postcard racks stationed inside many of those funky local shops we used to have around here. Glad to have you to share the nostalgia + sentiment with today.
I wonder how many people who rad that last one are young enough to not know that they are both magazines!
is this the guy who beat up a gardener for using a leaf blower?
He only “beat up” the leaf blower, not the gardener, dufus. Assault != battery.
hunkymon: He didn’t exactly “beat up” the gardener. He was yelling at the gardener (who was wearing hearing protection) to stop using the leaf blower. Of course, the gardener could not hear the screaming and “ignored” Brilliant’s demands. For some wild and crazy reason, Mr. Brilliant “lost it” and decided to accost the gardener by attempting to yank the blower off the gardener’s back. This made the gardener fall violently to the ground, inflicting great pain and massive back injury. Gardener took Ashleigh to court and won. We all make mistakes, and Ashleigh realized what he did was wrong, plus had to fork out a few bucks.
Sounds like an assault. That sucks. No excuse.
Wonderful obituary in the NY Times with lots of stories.
Free link:
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/10/03/arts/ashleigh-brilliant-dead.html?unlocked_article_code=1.q08.akSw.tiU15dxkg213&smid=url-share