A Newsletter of Humorous Writing #119
A Newsletter of Humorous Writing
A Newsletter of Humorous Writing
For December 26, 2019-January 1, 2020, 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. Welcome to 2020! (Did you see our 2019 round-up edition yet?) It's a big year ahead and we're tidying up Humorous Readings Headquarters (HRHQ). We discovered half-eaten sandwiches, old notebooks full of unwritten ideas, and the other halves of those sandwiches, also uneaten. This year we're hoping to finally finish a sandwich.
What We Enjoyed This Week
Santa Kayfabe by Harmony Cox (The Belladonna) The Belladonna ran a series of holiday essays that was a nice change of pace from straight short humor to longer, more serious pieces by funny writers. This piece by Harmony Cox unpacks her childhood experience with Santa through the lens of professional wrestling.
Don’t let an AI (even an advanced one) make you a cocktail by Janelle Shane (AI Weirdness) We're big fans of Janelle Shane's weird neural net experiments and this one, where a bot comes up with recipes for cocktails like "ROYAL SUFFICIENT" and "DINOSAUSTE - TUBE IN SCREW," is very fun.
Mannequin Kinda Hot by Louie Aronowitz (The Hard Times) This is a weird and funny premise, but now that it's a new decade, we're all going to have to get used to a world that is increasingly horny for plastic.
An Old Favorite
What in the Hell is That Thing? FAQ by Mike Sacks (McSweeney's)
Mike Sacks is a big light in the humor world. He's talented and prolific, and a champion of this kind of writing. This piece threads a tough needle well, handling a coy premise where the central idea (here, what the thing is) is a question and takes a long time to be revealed. Ideas like this can be hard to sustain, both because answering the question straightaway bursts the premise of the piece, and also because readers will only tolerate not knowing for so long. Mike manages to keep us invested by regularly doling out little bits of information and taking fun digressions that build the character, the location, the situation, and more context. Building the larger story lets the titular, central question rest a bit, so the reader can just enjoy Mike's jokes.
Updates From Your Hosts and Friends of the Show
James had two pieces in Yes Plz Weekly, a zine for a coffee subscription company, called "Hobo Code For Double Dates" and "What Your Spot In The Brunch Line Says About You." You have to be a subscriber to get the hard copies and try the coffee beans, but you can also take a look at the pieces on Twitter.
Other Humorous Writing News
More from Mike Sacks: He was interviewed in Interrobang about his latest Audible show "Passable in Pink." It digs into the process of creating the show and also finally answers our nagging question of whether or not Mike Sacks hates Ferris Beuller. And if you haven't listened to "Passable in Pink" yet, it's a great show!
News About The Next Show
We're looking forward to our first show of 2020 on January 28th at Caveat! And we can't do it without you! We'll be hanging out starting at 6:30, and the show's gonna start at 7:30. And just look at these guests:
- 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!