A Newsletter of Humorous Writing

For October 17-23, 2019, a roundup of the week's finest prose humor and prose humor-related news.
Our next show is November 26, 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. Welcome to the Pumpkin Spice Edition of the newsletter. It's the same newsletter you know and love, but attached to this email is also a little bit of pumpkin spice seasoning that we ran through a quantum computer, turned into a series of 1s and 0, and linked to this digital message. Smells great, right? What's that? You can't smell it. Aw, hell. Guys! The quantum computer is busted again. Try turning it off and turning it back on again.
 

What We Enjoyed This Week

A Guide to Asian Restaurants by Ali Wong (Vulture) In an excerpt from her book, Dear Girls: Intimate Tales, Untold Secrets, and Advice for Living Your Best Life, Ali Wong gives us the inside scoop on what makes a great Chinese place, what makes a bad Vietnamese place, and so forth. It's not often that humor pieces are funny and filled with actual, practical advice, so this one is a real gem.

My Ten-Year-Old-Self Does Standup by Emma Rathbone (New Yorker) Emma Rathbone absolutely nails the voice on this one--mixing and mimicking tropes to make this whole piece feel effortless. Also--and we can't emphasize this enough--the riff on "magic" is gold.

Punta Grande Resort Reviews by Colin Nissan (McSweeney's) The People's Champion of humor writing, Colin Nissan, is back with an instant classic. This piece is so sharp, and so funny, and continues to surprise even though you know exactly what's coming.

Back in My Day by Sarah Hutto (New Yorker) Right from the get-go, this premise works. Sarah Hutto does a great job of establishing a point of view and then using it to make some pretty insane ideas feel totally grounded.
 

An Old Favorite

Ashton Kutcher Fan Fiction: "The Middle School Dance" By Melissa Bell, Age 13 by Teddy Wayne (McSweeney's)

Last week, Luke and Brian performed at the launch party for Keep Scrolling Till You Feel Something, a compendium of 21 years of McSweeney's Internet Tendency humor. Teddy Wayne also read--specifically, this piece. It absolutely destroyed. No wonder; it's a classic. We can't recall another piece that so feels like it was written by the "narrator." What really does it for us are the past tense synonyms for "said" that "Melissa" clearly just learned. For some bonus content, check out this video of "Melissa" herself, reading the piece.
 

Updates From Your Hosts and Friends of the Show

Luke made a choose your own adventure game that is basically a playable short humor piece. It's called  "A Series of Choose Your Own Adventure Stories Where No Matter What You Choose You Are Immediately Killed by a Werewolf."  One review says it's "a jewel of tongue-in-cheek humor, just the right amount of meta-snark, and still captures the pulpy fun of Halloween horror." Thank you to everyone who has already played, shared, and donated!
 

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.