A Newsletter of Humorous Writing #142
A Newsletter of Humorous Writing
A Newsletter of Brian-y Writing
For June 4-10, 2020, a roundup of the finest Brian humor.
Luke and James here. This week we want to share an update from our co-editor and dear friend Brian. We sincerely hope you'll take the time to read it.
If you'd like to send Brian a message, you can reply to this email or contact us at humorousreadings@gmail.com and we'll pass it along. And for those of you who have asked, he and Claire also welcome contributions to their diaper fund and parental leave fund, which you can find right here.
Now, this is the point in the newsletter where we usually list pieces that we enjoyed from the past week, but we recognize that it would be all but impossible for any writer to follow what you just read... any writer, that is, except Brian himself!
And so, we're making this an all-Brian edition of the newsletter. However, to avoid any appearance of a conflict of interest, and to be balanced, we will be forgoing our signature newsletter brand of gentle criticism and good-natured advice, and instead will be mercilessly nit-picking these pieces! Sorry, Brian!
Brians We Enjoy
You Will Never Escape This Fancy Food Hall by Brian Agler (The New Yorker) Sure, you want your piece to have well-observed specifics and details, but not THIS well-observed. What, are you trying to trick us into thinking we're ACTUALLY in a food hall? Jeez, Brian, just accept that mimesis has its limits and quit evoking your readers' memories and experiences in your writing!
The Rules Of This Board Game Are Long, But Also Complicated by Brian Agler (McSweeney's) The big issue with a piece like this is that no matter how funny it ends up being, you always run the risk that it'll also be included in a collection of the best of McSweeney's, and then you'll have to go to a bunch of launch parties and stuff. That's just how it goes sometimes!
Welcome To Sin News: Journalism For Digital Millenials Who Want The Truth by Brian Agler (McSweeney's) Satire ought to be specific, sharp, and pointed, but not SO much that you run the risk of cutting yourself or your reader. Here, Brian falls into the trap of sharpening his satirical observations TOO much, potentially injuring who knows how many people in the process.
How You Can Still Have Your Pudding If You Don't Eat Your Meat by Brian Agler (McSweeney's) If you don't know this lyric, or aren't a Pink Floyd fan, or have never heard of Pink Floyd, this piece is still funny; Brian whiffs on an easy opportunity to shrink the audience who will laugh at this piece.
Famous Authors Write Pieces About Famous Authors Writing About Modern Things by Brian Agler (McSweeney's) Well-worn short humor tropes can be tough to tackle in a fresh way. And meta-humor is even more tricky to handle! Ideally you want to mash all these elements together into an incomprehensible slop, not artfully arrange them like a master chef combining delicate ingredients in a delicious, complex dish, in which each element retains its own unique character while still being integrated into a harmonious whole! If you do that, your piece can end up being not only inventive, but also too delicious. And regrettably that's the case here.
If You See Something, Say Something by Brian Agler (Points In Case) This is a tough one. On the one hand, it's a perfect example of how to maintain surprise and interest in a piece based on a repetitive format. But on the other hand, it's very funny. As we say around here: you can't win 'em all.
This Is An Ad Targeted At Millenials by Brian Agler (McSweeneys) We all know that when you write about millenials you basically have permission to trot out a collection of hacky references and shopworn clichés. Brian, for some baffling reason, chooses NOT to do that here, and instead comes up with a bunch of insightful, original observations tied together by a compelling point of view. Why not phone it in for once, Brian?
Why I’ll Never Be Replaced by a Robot by Brian Agler (The New Yorker) When you write in the first person, you always run the risk of making your character's voice too lively and specific, which is what happens in this piece. We read short humor to look at words lying flat on a page or (preferably) screen, not feel like we're having a conversation with someone who has their own unique patterns of speech and thought, BRIAN.
I’m Jeff Bezos, and I’m Your Dad Now by Brian Agler (The New Yorker) A premise should either be utterly predictable and commonplace or completely insane and unrelatable. This piece starts with a wacky idea but keeps it grounded by personalizing the situation, and does it all in service of making a larger point about society. All we can say is: What were you thinking!
My First Job in Comedy by Brian Agler and Luke Burns (The New Yorker) Luke here! When co-writing a piece with someone, you always want to make it into a horrifying competition to see who can cram in more of their OWN material, while mercilessly cutting and rewriting your collaborator's work behind their back and generally undermining their confidence. Brian, incomprehensibly, did none of those things when we worked on this piece. Instead he chose to be a complete joy to collaborate with; a generous editor whose suggestions consistently improved my writing and the piece, and whose jokes managed to surprise and delight me with every new draft. And overall the experience left me creatively fulfilled and feeling like we'd both become better writers because of all that we learned from each other. I mean come on, Brian!
An Old Favorite
Updates From Your Hosts and Friends of the Show
Again, if you'd like to send Brian a message, let us know; or if you'd like to contribute to the diaper/parental leave fund, you can do so here.
@brianagler, @lukevburns, & @jamesfolta
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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