A Newsletter of Humorous Writing #118
A Newsletter of Humorous Writing
A Newsletter of Humorous Writing
For December 18-24, 2019, a roundup of the week's finest prose humor and prose humor-related news.
Our next show is January 28, 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. What is that, wrapped so nicely, under the tree? A new bike? A dollhouse? Hardly! It's a weekly curated list of humor writing, that your family printed from this very email, and wrapped up to give to you! There is no gift greater. At least, that's what we're telling the digital media concern we're trying to sell this damn thing to.
What We Enjoyed This Week
New Hallmark Original Christmas Movies From Your Favorite Hollywood Directors by Riane Konc (New Yorker) We all know Riane is the queen of Christmas-related short humor. In fact, she has a book to prove it. She defends her crown with this gem, a fantastic take on the vintage, McSweeney's-style humor construction, "What if famous authors did X."
You're All Wrong, Die Hard is a Chanukkah Movie by Keaton Patti (Slackjaw) Speaking of Holiday movies, Keaton Patti presents an unassailable case in what is truly the dumbest argument on the internet. We're all sold, and we're ready to fight with nerds on Twitter about it.
Christmas Brag Letter From Your Dickhead Neighbors, The Millers by Janet Eve Joselyn (Points in Case) We love this one for the details. Every line has so much going on. When you're writing it's easy to find ways to take a break--"I'll put a joke at the end of this graf." Not so here, and it shows.
An Old Favorite
The Twelve Days of Christmas by Colin Nissan (McSweeney's)
Colin read this piece at our last show, and man did it kill. There's a lot to love about it, but what we think is most interesting is that there isn't necessarily a weird, wacky premise to this one. The conceit is logic; wouldn't it be strange if we just took this song literally. What would happen? Colin follows through to figure it out--and gives us a narrator with personality in the process. Like the song, everything about this piece is classic. It's ten years old and it really holds up.
Updates From Your Hosts and Friends of the Show
Nothing from us but good tidings and good cheer!
News About The Next Show
Our next show on January 28th at Caveat.
The hangout starts at 6:30, and the show starts at 7:30. We've got some great guests lined up:
-Nicole Boyce (The New Yorker, Reductress, New York Magazine)
-Bizzy Coy (McSweeney’s, The New Yorker)
-One more TBA!
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!