Following the announcement that the hilarious, wonderful website The Toast will be closing on Friday 1 July, our staff have been sharing some of their favourite articles from the archives with one another in commiseration.

Here’s just a sample of what we love best about The Toast.

I’ve loved Mallory’s mini-essays in celebration of minor Simpsons characters – as she writes at the start of each piece, the world owes them a great deal. From the blissful ignorance of Ralph Wiggum to the bruised dignity of Principal Skinner, her character studies are exceptionally warm and generous, revealing a surprising depth to these ridiculous and pathetic characters, and really highlight what has made the show such an enduring success.

But ‘The Queen of Summer: Martin Prince’s Finest Moments’ is my favourite: ‘He has not yet learned to appear as if he cares about anything less than he does. When he enthuses, he does so with his entire tiny, vibrating body.’ It’s a piece that is so full of love for ‘that wonderful, fey little boy’ that I was genuinely moved by the end of it. It’s that combination of humour and heart that I’ll miss most about The Toast.

– Alan Vaarwerk, editorial assistant

The Toast’s If X Were Your Y series has made me laugh until tears streamed down my face on multiple occasions. If I had to pick a favourite, it would be a toss-up by two pieces written by the funniest woman alive, Mallory Ortberg: ‘If Justin Bieber Were My Terrible, Golden Son’ (As in… ‘If Justin Bieber were my nightmare son, I would cradle him to sleep every night in the soft crescent of the moon, and I would gun-murder any star that orbited too close to him’) or ’If Stanley Tucci Were Your Boyfriend’ (As in… ‘If Stanley Tucci were your boyfriend, your dad would refer to him genially as “The Tooch.” “Come to the house this weekend, and bring The Tooch with you.”’). Aghh, too good.

– Stella Charls, events and marketing coordinator

I visit The Toast many times a week, so I have almost too many favourites to mention. While they’ve published a lot of serious and important work, my greatest enjoyment always came from any piece where Mallory was being funny. My personal favourites include the Western Art History series, Mallory’s sustained belief in the theory that Dumbledore was a time-travelling Ron Weasley, the Femslash Friday series, and the Two Monks Inventing Things series.

– Nina Kenwood, marketing manager

Look, I want to say something very intellectual and bookish and feminist but I actually have a soft spot for the regular If X Were Your Y series in general, and ‘If Stanley Tucci Were Your Boyfriend’ in particular. They appeal to my overactive imagination, and my (deeply embarrassing) teenage habit of fantasising alternate realities for myself. Plus Stanley Tucci is perfection and probably the only film star I’d be goggle-eyed to meet.

– Lian Hingee, digital marketing manager

I have so many favourites! In particular, I can’t think of another publication that has been so consistently funny, smart and inventive in covering literature – the Texts From, Dirtbags, and How To Tell If You’re In a Novel series are all terrific, as are one-off posts like this one.

Most recently, I found myself laughing quite a bit at Mallory’s list of all things she’s yelled at the TV while watching Miss Fisher’s Murder Mysteries. And I cried with laughter at her pisstake on decluttering last year: 'What’s in your kitchen cabinets? Pots and pans and handheld graters and hateful trash that’s preventing you from calling your estranged sister. Throw them all away. Replace them with a single sunflower seed.’

I’m so sad about The Toast closing, but I’m really excited to see what Nicole and Mallory do next as I feel certain it will be brilliant.

– Bronte Coates, digital content coordinator

You can read a statement from editors Nicole and Mallory about The Toast’s closure here.