A Newsletter of Humorous Writing #114
A Newsletter of Humorous Writing
A Newsletter of Humorous Writing
For November 21-27, 2019, a roundup of the week's finest prose humor and prose humor-related news.
Our next show is December 17th, 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. Happy Thanksgiving! This year Brian, Luke, and James are hosting all their families at Humorous Readings HQ (HRHQ). As longtime readers know, HRHQ is a well-appointed mansion on the Upper East Side of Manhattan, so it can easily fit everyone, but still, things are getting pretty hectic around here. But before we run off to get the turducken (the most humorous food of all) in the oven, we just want to say how thankful we are for all of you, and for all the support you've shown over the years for the show, the newsletter, and the three of us. Thank you. Awwww.
What We Enjoyed This Week
All My Ex-Girlfriends Were Totally Crazy (After Being Driven to Madness By Cthulhu, Cosmic God of Horror) by Caitlin Rathbun (McSweeney's) The two levels of language used in this piece--baroque Lovecraftian declamations and kinda bro-y everyday banter--are perfectly balanced. And even though there's a lot of switching back and forth between the two modes, the narrator's point of view is always perfectly clear. No easy feat! Also we just love a good Lovecraft spoof.
It’s Me, a Very Fun Person to Hang Out With! by Asher Perlman (Medium) When your premise revolves around describing a type of person we all recognize and relate to interacting with, the challenge is to find specifics that feel familiar but not obvious. This piece has a wonderful range of extremely well-observed details, and builds in a satisfying way both because of how specific it gets, and also how those specifics accumulate.
The Perfect Engagement Photo Session by Susanna Wolff (The New Yorker) The language used to describe the different parts of the photo shoot is excellent, and has the effect of revealing things about engagement photos that we didn't notice before but which feel utterly obvious once they're pointed out: "Your wifely upper-tum-pat pressure should be somewhere between burping a baby and when you gently palm the purse you hung on a hook under the bar in a crowded restaurant, just to make sure it’s still there." Sometimes descriptions in humor pieces generate laughs by reaching for the most incongruous analogy or metaphor possible. But here, even when the prose gets a little over the top, it still feels deeply connected to the themes of the piece. (There's also a fun subgame about murder.)
Gaming Addiction Study Participant Pretty Sure He Got Placebo Game by Grant Mulitz (Hard Times) This piece starts with a great premise and plays it out really nicely all the way to the end, where it takes a surprising turn for the philosophical, asking the reader to consider the question, "What is a game, really?"
An Old Favorite
We Hope You Enjoy Yet Another Thanksgiving Issue of Our Food Magazine! by Krithika Varagur (McSweeney's)
This piece utterly nails the tone of food magazines, and its beats are so compelling and intriguing, you find yourself wanting to hear more about each one. For example, one could imagine a whole piece that focused exclusively on exploring the idea of a "Historically Accurate Thanksgiving"--but it's also possible that doing a deep dive on one of the beats would only yield diminishing returns. In this case, the author decided that it was better to keep the focus broad, and that proved to be a very wise decision. It's a good reminder that one of the jobs of the writer is to decide when to get more granular, and when to step back and expand your focus, to see if your initial idea might work better as one element of a larger whole.
Updates From Your Hosts and Friends of the Show
For a way to pass the time before the meal gets underway, or while everybody else is watching football, why not check out Luke's game "A Series of Choose Your Own Adventure Stories Where No Matter What You Choose You Are Immediately Killed by a Werewolf"? A recent review says it's "absurd and ridiculous, making for a delightful good time." It's also a fun family activity: share with your relatives, and then race to see who can get killed by a werewolf the fastest.
On December 10, at Caveat, Brian, and the team at West Wing Writers is hosting another edition of SpeakEasy, New York's (the world's) only comedy/educational show about speechwriting and rhetoric. Friends, Romans, get your tickets here.
Other Humorous Writing News
If you're looking for even MORE great pieces to read, you glutton you, check out this thread started by Brian Boone, writer and former editor of Splitsider. Brian asked people to share their favorite things they wrote in 2019, and the result is a truly wonderful, eclectic collection of writing.
And if you came out to the Satire and Humor Festival in Chicago this past weekend, and especially to our first Windy City edition of An Evening of Humorous Readings: thanks! Hope you had a blast and be sure to keep in touch, we'll be back next year!
News About The Next Show
Thanks to everybody who came to the show on Tuesday! Our next one is going to be December 17th! As always, it's at Caveat (21 A Clinton Street). Doors/Hangout at 6:30PM, show at 7:30PM. And we've already got one extremely great guest booked:
- Colin Nissan (McSweeney’s ["It's Decorative Gourd Season, Motherfuckers"], The New Yorker, The Best of McSweeney’s Internet Tendency, @cnissan)
You can get your tickets right here.
And we've also got show dates set with caveat through APRIL 2020, so if you want to buy your tickets, way way way in advance (season tickets to the show would make a great gift), or just put the dates down in your calendar, you can get the full scoop over at our website.
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!