A Newsletter of Humorous Writing

For September 5-11, 2019, a roundup of the week's finest prose humor and prose humor-related news.
Our next show is September 24th, get your tickets here!

Hello and welcome to A Newsletter of Humorous Writing, the email propaganda arm of the acclaimed humorous readings show, An Evening of Humorous Readings. Apologies to anyone who got two copies of the newsletter last week! Tinyletter was having some technical issues and--no joke--according to them, the letter got "stuck" on "its way out from [their] servers." The culprit is probably all those newsletters about wet wipes and cooking grease. We can only assume that the issue was resolved because Tinyletter finally sent someone down to their basement with a plunger or something. Anyway, fingers crossed there won't be any issues this week, but if this newsletter is a little grimy when it lands in your inbox it's probably just harmless gunk that got kicked up during the unclogging process.
 

What We Enjoyed This Week

My Typical New York Day by Eddie Small (The New Yorker) The setup for this is perfect: With just the title and the first sentence you know exactly what kind of world this piece is going to be exploring. Come for the premise, stay for the truly excellent New York specifics.

Your Audience Question At This Comic Con Panel Was So Good, I’d Like To Offer You A Job by Sarah James (Slackjaw) This piece also does a great job of setting everything up for the reader. The situation plays out wonderfully, with expertly-timed reveals of more and more hilarious details about both the character asking the "question," and the fictional show being discussed.

Women's Miranda Rights by Casey Rand (McSweeney's) Using the Miranda Rights as a format in this piece is inspired. It's one of those premises that's so good you can't believe nobody's done it before.

A Few of My Greatest Fears, in No Particular Order by Josh Gondelman (The New Yorker) This piece has really great pacing and heightening, something that other pieces like this one--made up of short sentences that riff on a common theme or subject--often struggle with. It also does a great job of balancing relatable details with real weird ones. And hey, this is an excerpt from the book Josh Gondelman has coming out next week. Why not mosey over to your local independent book store and see if they have a copy?
 

An Old Favorite

Punch Lines Suggested by Ashton Kutcher for Punk’d that Were Rejected Due to Their Archaic Nature by Afsheen Family (McSweeney's)

As you can probably guess from the fact that it's about the show Punk'd, this one is from way back in the archives (June 2, 2004!). Though it's not long at all, you can tell that a lot of care went into crafting this piece. Each short sentence has a delightful rhythm and musicality that makes it a pleasure to read and reread.
 

Updates From Your Hosts and Friends of the Show

See you next week!

@brianagler, @lukevburns, & @jamesfolta

Did we miss a piece you loved? Did you love a piece we mentioned? Let us know! This is an experiment and we're hoping to continue to make it better and better. If you have any thoughts, notes, wishes, or dreams for this newsletter, please email us or respond to this email and tell us what the score is.