A Newsletter of Humorous Writing #137
A Newsletter of Humorous Writing
A Newsletter of Humorous Writing
For April 30 - May 6, 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. We think our computer may have gotten a malware or a virus, so we want to apologize if during our Zoom calls from Humorous Readings Headquarters (HRHQ) it looked like we were all inside our bathroom and couldn't get out no matter how much we all pulled on the doorknob. It's just a technical glitch!
What We Enjoyed This Week
Well, Stranger, It Seems This Town Ain't Big Enough for the Both of Us, on Account of My Torso Mysteriously Growing Larger Every Time I Say the Word "Ain't" by Spencer Roth-Rose (Points In Case) We've talked before about silly premises, but this piece does a great job of sustaining a really wild situation by answering the reader's questions about what's going on right up top and relying on familiar tropes of the Old West. It makes for a simple and fun piece that can heighten to some insane but well-earned places.
‘What If You Just Didn’t Let It Bother You?’ Muses Therapist Cryptically by Kathy Lynch (Reductress) This piece does a great job of putting you inside the head of the narrator, and finding moments to explore that introspection while moving through the beats of the piece.
Aunt Betty Finds Another Way To Misspell ‘Quarantine’ by Taylor Garron (Reductress) Reductress has done a great job of finding premises that obliquely address the pandemic. It can be hard to find angles of satisfying humor on such an awful and ubiquitous story, so pieces like this one, that riff on a smaller ripple of the crisis, are so nice to read. Great editorial direction and writing from Friend of the Show Taylor Garron!
An Old Favorite
If you could go to the moon for free, would you do it by Drew Millard (The Outline)
While this isn't our typical fare here from the Newsletter, there's a lot that's similar in this piece to short humor: a solid, simple premise with well-defined stakes and parameters, very funny specifics and POVs, and plenty of heightening and surprises within that premise. It makes for a very fun piece. And we can never say it enough, but what a shame The Outline isn't around anymore.
Updates From Your Hosts and Friends of the Show
Friend of the Show Steve Young is doing a neat little Instagram project called Cut and Paste Movies where he's mashing up short movie reviews and it's yielding some really fun results.
Looks like the computer glitch also pulled the bathroom doorknob off and got it stuck under the sink. Just an update in case you got some frantic emails from us. Again, just a computer thing! We're on the phone with technical support now.
News About The Next Show
Can't wait to see you at the next show, provided we've figured out this bathroom computer glitch!
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!