A Newsletter of Humorous Writing #130
A Newsletter of Humorous Writing
A Newsletter of Humorous Writing
For March 12-18, 2020, a roundup of the week's finest prose humor and prose humor-related news.
Hello and welcome to A Newsletter of Humorous Writing, the email propaganda arm of the acclaimed humorous readings show, An Evening of Humorous Readings. Usually, we fill this space with some sort of weird patter. Instead, today, we'll just say, we hope everyone is staying healthy and staying safe. We've picked out some fun pieces for you, none of which have anything to do with Coronavirus. It's not that there isn't some great humor out there about it (there is!) but it's that, frankly, we all deserve a break.
What We Enjoyed This Week
How I Wish to Receive Notifications by Emily Flake (New Yorker) This is a fun one--pure and simple. We get to explore so many different takes on a solid premise. Every joke works and they're all surprising; you get the feeling that this piece could have been 4x as long and still totally felt sharp the whole way through.
Dear Mr. Joker, Regretfully We Will be Unable to Publish Your Comedy Article Submission 'Must Kill the Batman by Dan Caprera (Robot Butt) Readers of this newsletter that are also writers have surely received their fair share of rejection letters. We certainly have! Some, are kind and thoughtful (looking at you, Chris Monks). Some, like those featured in this piece, tell us that we're spending "too much time" on "how we want to kill" our "mortal enemies." Editors, ya know?
Shhh! Quiet In The Library, The Books Are Sleeping by Libby Marshall (Slackjaw) What a silly idea--and we mean that in the best way possible. Sometimes, the most fun pieces take a goofball premise and just go with it, treating it as super-logical. For writers stuck with a blank page, try this format out. It often leads to fantastic results.
An Old Favorite
Kafka's Joke Book by John McNamee (McSweeney's)
We're big fans of existential ennui brought upon by the crushing weight of the bureaucracy. Big fans. So naturally, we love this piece. But seriously folks, for this week's "Old Favorite," we wanted a classic--both in age (6 years to the day!) but also in style. This is vintage McSweeney's. The premise is straight as an arrow. The voice is clear from the very first joke. You better believe it's literary. It's also just funny, which is an impressive feat considering that in less deft hands, this could just be very sad and foreboding.
Updates From Your Hosts and Friends of the Show
Just a reminder that if you're looking to get feedback on your short humor writing, Luke is very much available right now, with lots of free time on his hands to give notes! Or if you're interested in putting together a writing group to work on sketches or short humor pieces and get some socializing in, he's also available to run those sessions via skype or google hangouts or your platform of choice. Drop him a line!
News About The Next Show
When things clear up--whenever that may be--we'll be sure to keep you posted about the next show.
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!