A Newsletter of Humorous Writing

For February 20-26, 2020, a roundup of the week's finest prose humor and prose humor-related news.
Our next show is March 24. It's our big anniversary show! 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. Sorry for the delay. It's a leap year and that's wreaking havoc on the mainframe here at HQ. There's steam coming out of it. It's not accepting any punch cards. And its beeps sound very, very angry. We're all trying to figure out what's what, and we're really worried we're going to have to go back to sending out the newsletter by longhand and snail mail.
 

What We Enjoyed This Week

Our Gang is Only for Tough Guys Who Will Also Participate in Our Thought Exercise About Which Dogs Would Be the Prettiest as Human Ladies by Drew Zwetchkenbaum (McSweeney's) Wow. Talk about a premise. The worry, with something like this, is that the A+ title will start you strong, but you won't have enough juice to make it through the end of the piece. Not an issue here--not an issue at all. The premise is executed perfectly. Specifically, the comedic heightening comes from exploring the rules and minutiae of what the thought experiment looks like and how it works. It's hilarious. Also...poodle.

What I’ll Think If You Schedule a Meeting But Don’t Specify Why by Ginny Hogan and Laurence Pevsner (Little Old Lady) The thing about our mainframe is, it doesn't have Outlook, so whenever we want to schedule a meeting, we have to scream the date and time into the void and hope for the best. Though, as seen in Ginny and Laurence's piece, it sounds like calendar invites can be bad. What we like about it, in particular, is that, as a list, it feels connected. Each item builds on the ideas that came for it. There's a clear voice and character and neuroses. It just clicks.

8 Solid Reasons Why I Just Farted in This Crowded Elevator by Brock LaBorde (Robot Butt) Look, we're not running a fancy museum here. We're not wearing three-piece suits. We don't have monocles. This piece is funny. Sure, it's about farts, but it's about farts in a smart, logical way. Don't take our word for it--there are literally eight reasons why we're correct.

Aww, Our Newborn Baby is So Beautiful...Right? by Kristen Mulrooney (McSweeney's) This piece is a great example of voice and specifics coming together in just the right way. The voice (and the confidence in that voice) lay the groundwork. The reference to Wallace Shawn takes it to the next level. That's the secret to comedy writing folks...Wallace Shawn.

An Old Favorite

Where My Ideas Come From by River Clegg (New Yorker)

This isn't the first time we've featured River in this newsletter. And the reason why is pieces like this. It's textbook. The writing is so clear, right from the beginning. Within a few sentences, we know exactly how this is going to work--that is, what the narrator thinks. From there, we're off to the races. And because of that clarity, River gets to be as strange, goofy, and funny as he wants. What's more, he gets to pull in whatever details he wants. Why? Because it's all grounded by an ultra-clear point of view. 

Updates From Your Hosts and Friends of the Show

Luke directed two sketch teams this month, and their shows are coming up soon! 1. Denise, an extremely funny Boogiemanja team, has their show on Friday 2/28/20 at 9:30 at the PIT. 2. House of Birds, an extremely funny Maude team, is putting up their show on Monday 3/2/20 at 7:30 at the UCB theater in Hell’s Kitchen. Both shows are likely to sell out (on account of how good the teams are) so get your tickets sooner rather than later!

Friends of the Newsletter, the team behind The Belladonna, has a new podcast featuring interviews with amazing humor writers. Our mainframe just started working again, so we were able to give the first few episodes a listen. They're fantastic!
 

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.