A Newsletter of Humorous Writing #105
A Newsletter of Humorous Writing
A Newsletter of Humorous Writing
For September 19-25, 2019, a roundup of the week's finest prose humor and prose humor-related news.
Our next show is October 22--and it's gonna be an extra-special one! 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. No bits this week, just a hearty Evening of Humorous Readings Thanks (EOHRT) to everybody who came out to the show on Tuesday! We appreciate all the support and hope you had a good time.
What We Enjoyed This Week
Reviews of New Food: Odwalla Apple & Greens Smoobucha by Molly Brodak (McSweeney's) We like to keep things positive in this newsletter, but sometimes there's nothing more satisfying and funny than a good negative review. The last line is an all-time great sick burn.
Impassioned, Remorseful Emails That Will Have Your Professor Saying, ‘OK’ by Miranda Kronfeld (Reductress) A very funny exploration of an all-too-relatable situation. The initial observation that inspired this is so relatable and so specific, and the piece absolutely nails the tone and details of this type of email exchange.
Fearless Female Career Spotlight: Siren by Janie Beaufore (The Belladonna) The choice of format for this piece is really clever--it's a familiar and fun format that has a very specific tone, AND it makes it easy to explore the premise and get right to the jokes.
Streaming Wars Begin! Local Bootlegger Unveils Knock Off Streaming Site, Disny± by Taylor Gonzalez (Flexx) The bootleg DVD specifics in this one are just fantastic.
Instructions For Building My Rube Goldberg Machine by David Guzman (McSweeney's) Using a Rube Goldberg machine as a format is so much fun. Each beat works on its own, but each one also gives you more information about the narrator, which helps bind everything into a satisfying whole.
An Old Favorite
I Am a Leafblower by Steve Macone (The New Yorker)
Fall, as we all know, is a classic season for humor writing, and here, Steve Macone continues the long, storied tradition. This piece does a great job of exploring its extremely funny premise. The voice is consistent. It's full of creative, unexpected turns. But what really sets it apart is that it's absolutely packed with damn good joke writing. ("Before me, [leaves] were called 'stays.'") All too often, humor writing can lean too much on cleverness at the expense of tight, well-crafted jokes, and a piece like this demonstrates that you can, and should, do both.
Updates From Your Hosts and Friends of the Show
James is teaching a four-week class on parody writing at the Magnet called Use The Whole Buffalo. This is a good class to take if you want to think more deeply about parody and how it works, develop some ideas for shorter and longer projects, and workshop your writing. It’s starting in late October, but why not sign up now?News About The Next Show
Our next show is October 22, and it's going to be an extra-special "Christmas in October" edition, celebrating the release of Riane Konc's new book, Build Your Own Christmas Movie Romance. Riane, who is making a special trip into town, will be doing some readings from the aforementioned book, AND we've also got three other amazing guests:
-Ziwe Fumudoh (Desus & Mero, Our Cartoon President, The Onion, Reductress, @Ziwe)
-Josh Gondelman (Desus & Mero, Last Week Tonight, The New Yorker, @joshgondelman)
-Kate Sidley (The Late Show With Stephen Colbert, The New Yorker, McSweeney's, @sidleykate)
Wow wow wow. You can already get your tickets here! And you can also keep an eye on our website for updates!