A Newsletter of Humorous Writing #106
A Newsletter of Humorous Writing
A Newsletter of Humorous Writing
For September 25-October 2, 2019, a roundup of the week's finest prose humor and prose humor-related news.
Our next show is October 22nd, 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. If you've been following the news, you know that media consolidation in the digital space is accelerating. Vice just bought Refinery29; Vox bought New York Magazine. That is why we hope it comes as no surprise to you to learn that A Newsletter of Humorous Writing has been acquired by Alibaba. Yours truly received a fat, multi-dozens-of-dollars payout, and we're off to enjoy our golden years reading humor and not telling anyone about it. See ya later, suckers!
What We Enjoyed This Week
Edgar Allen Poe Shops for a New House by Keaton Patti (Slackjaw) From the title, to the clear voice, to the pacing, this is the classic humor writing we love to see here at Humorous Readings HQ (HRHQ). This piece is funny no matter what's in the news, or what's trending on Twitter. And that's of course because there's nothing funnier than the macabre energy of America's favorite humor writer, Edgar Allen Poe.
Four Times I Came Back From The Bathroom With A Wet Spot On My Pants, But It Was Not From Pee, It Was Just Water, And The Songs I Chose To Try And Air Guitar My Way Through Each Situation by Pete Reynolds (McSweeney's) In lieu of erudite analysis, we'll just say this: If "I Think You Should Leave," was a humor piece, it would be this piece. Frankly, we can think of no higher compliment.
Evaluations From Every Doctor I Visited Before My Insurance Ran Out by Julia Edelman and Ginny Hogan (New Yorker) This is a piece that does two things really well: 1. Enjoy the game it creates for itself. 2. Play off of Millenial foibles without leaning on them so hard that we lose sight of the clever writing.
I Am The Horrible Goose That Lives in Town by Daniel Mallory Ortberg (The Shatner Chatner) If you're not familiar with Untitled Goose Game, this piece isn't going to make much sense. Though, perhaps, even if you were familiar, it wouldn't make much sense. And that, friends, is the point.
An Old Favorite
A Person with Extreme Anxiety Imagines What Will Happen If Seen Tripping on the Sidewalk by Rebecca O'Neal (The Rumpus) Rebecca O'Neal is the founding editor of Splitsider's Humor Section (RIP). She's also a hilarious writer in her own right. Don't believe us? Just take a look at this piece. Joke after joke after joke. What's impressive isn't just how funny it is, but how it does such a great job of finding new angles to play off of what is truly a minor, everyday occurrence--proof that with a strong conceit, there's always material to be found.
Updates From Your Hosts and Friends of the Show
James is teaching a four-week class starting later this month on parody writing at the Magnet. Sounds like the sort of thing you might be into, huh?
Brian will be co-hosting the latest edition of SpeakEasy--the world's only comedy show about speechwriting. Come see Ziwe Fumudoh (Desus & Mero, Our Cartoon President), Randall Otis (The Daily Show with Trevor Noah), and the team from WWW. Laugh! Learn! Love!
News About The Next Show
We're so excited that our next show is a special one. Friend of the Newsletter, Riane Konc, has a book, "Build Your Own Christmas Movie Romance", coming out. So, we're throwing an extravaganza! Celebrate Riane (The New Yorker, McSweeney’s, Reductress, @theillustrious) along with a Murderer's Row of guests:
- Ziwe Fumudoh (Desus & Mero, Our Cartoon President, The Onion, Reductress)
- Josh Gondelman (Desus & Mero, Last Week Tonight, The New Yorker)
- Kate Sidley (The Late Show With Stephen Colbert, The New Yorker, McSweeney's)
Join us at Caveat, 10/22. Hangout starts at 6:30, show starts at 7:30.
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.
See you next week!
@lukevburns & @jamesfolta
We started this newsletter with our dear friend Brian Agler, and we want it to always honor his memory and his love of all things humorous. You can find our newsletter tribute to Brian here.
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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!