A Newsletter of Humorous Writing #150
A Newsletter of Humorous Writing
A Newsletter of Humorous Writing
For September 16-22, 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. 150 editions of this newsletter! We're proud of all of them, but this many newsletters means that it's hard to keep up with the tidying. We have a quick request: if you're reading our archive, would you mind taking a turn with a duster while you're there, to get some of the cobwebs and dust? We want to keep the place looking nice!
What We Enjoyed This Week
The New King Of Pop? This Man’s Joints Are Fucked Up by Bethel Afful (Flexx) Sometimes news satire pieces don't explore much beyond the initial joke in the headline, but Bethel does a great job of giving us delightful details about the main character's life and all the different ways his body creaks and cracks. (It's also way too relatable.)
DIVERSITY WIN: TV Show To Introduce No-Nonsense-Lady Character They Hope You’ll Assume Is Lesbian by Kath Dunham (Awf) Another news piece that finds fun ways to explore the world behind the headline. Here, Kath gives us the perspectives of lots of different folks, opening up space for more jokes without getting repetitive or muddying the main narrative.
How to Unlock Luigi in Marcel Proust’s In Search of Lost Time by Ted Kindig (McSweeney's) Literature and pop culture mash-ups are a McSweeney's staple, but Ted's piece stands out because the mashup is so outrageous and unexpected, and because he's filled it with such great specifics and funny turns of phrase. ("Wobert de Walla-Woup": Nice.) Proof that a piece that's on the shorter side can be just as substantial and heighten just as much as a 900-word behemoth.
Bruce Springsteen or Stephen King? by Amanda Lehr (McSweeney's) Not only a fun list, but Amanda cites her sources, too!
An Old Favorite
This week's Old Favorite is a Brian Agler Selection (TM)--a piece whose accompanying note was written by Brian--from Newsletter #21.
Email Addresses It Would Be Really Annoying to Give Out Over the Phone by Michael Ward (McSweeney's)
Not all humor pieces need to be esoteric, novel-length joke-bundles. Sometimes, you just want 'em short and sweet. This piece is five lines long, but scores as many humor points* as anything else you'll see on the circuit.
*We trademarked this. If you try to steal this, expect a call from our lawyers, which we definitely have.
Do you have an Old Favorite of your own? Let us know by filling out this form and we may run your pick in a future edition of the newsletter.
Updates From Your Hosts and Friends of the Show
Luke's still got a few spots left in his "Where to Start With Short Humor Writing" Workshop! By the end of this workshop you'll have done a bunch of writing, generated a bunch of material, and will have a roadmap for how to finish up your piece and start submitting it. Sign up or get more info right over here. (Or feel free to drop Luke a line if you've got any specific questions.)
Want some feedback on your writing and support a great cause? Friend of the Newsletter Rekha Shankar is offering feedback on writing for anyone who phonebanks for Nithya Raman, a candidate for LA City Council! Nithya is a fantastic candidate, so it's a win-win.
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.
This newsletter is free, but if you enjoy it and want to support the work we do putting it together, you can send us a tip here. Any amount is greatly appreciated, and 1/3rd of each donation will go to Stand Up To Cancer.
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.
This newsletter is free, but if you enjoy it and want to support the work we do putting it together, you can subscribe to our paid tier, or you can send us a tip here. Any amount is greatly appreciated, and 1/3rd of each donation will go to Stand Up To Cancer.
If you'd like to place an ad in the Newsletter, please fill out this form.
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!