A Newsletter of Humorous Writing #153
A Newsletter of Humorous Writing
A Newsletter of Humorous Writing
For October 7-13, 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. The weather has gotten chillier in New York this week, and that means one thing: It's mulling season. Here at Humorous Readings Headquarters (HRHQ) we're mullin' up a storm. Now the most popular mulled beverages are, of course, mulled wine and mulled cider, but the truth is, if you have mulling spices, you can mull anything you want. Take it from us: We've made mulled milk, mulled Moscow mules, mulled meatloaf, and it's all turned out great. What are some of you favorite liquids to mull? Let us know and we may mull mull in a mull mull mull mull mull!
What We Enjoyed This Week
Word-Salad Recipe for Your Upcoming Corporate Meeting by Natasha Vaynblat and Ellie Skrzat (The New Yorker) This is a wonderful entry in the "taking a figure of speech literally" subgenre of short humor. The premise plays out really nicely, with lots of surprising beats and unexpected jokes.
My Guinea Pig's Estate Sale by Maeve Dunigan (The Belladonna)
Great specifics here: You can almost smell the urine-soaked wood chips. If you had a hamster, gerbil, or guinea pig as a child, this will give you flashbacks.
Six Things Millennials Have in Common With Dr. Frasier Crane (No. 5 Will Drive You Into a Deep Depression) by Reuven Perlman (The New Yorker) It’s difficult to parody or make jokes about things that are already supposed to be funny, and it's near-impossible to find a fresh take on anything millenial-related. But that's okay, because this isn't really trying to do either of those things! It's a parody of listicles, not Frasier, and its jokes come from the wonderfully specific voice and tone of the narrator and the looming threat of the mysterious entry #5. A piece with a great twist that is all-around very fun and very funny.
An Old Favorite
The Vast Bay Leaf Conspiracy by Kelly Conaboy (The Awl)
Anything you have strong feelings about can be a great starting point for a humor piece--and petty grievances are often particularly conducive to the short humor treatment. But sometimes it's more fun to poke fun at yourself and the fact that you have such strong feelings about something so minor, rather than to try to convince the reader that your opinion is correct. Here, the joke is ultimately about the person doing the interviews and the lengths they'll go to in their quest to discredit bay leaves, not about the merits of bay leaves themselves. Newsletter readers may also be interested to know that Kelly has a book coming out in December, The Particulars of Peter. (And for the record, here at HRHQ we are firm believers in the flavoring powers of bay leaf.)
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
By popular demand, Luke is offering a weeknight edition of his Intro to Short Humor workshop on Tuesday, November 10th from 7 PM to 10 PM Eastern. Class size is capped at 10, and the previous section sold out, so snag a spot sooner rather than later.
Now available for preorder: Notes From the Bathroom Line, "a collection of never-before-seen humor pieces — essays, satire, short stories, poetry, cartoons, artwork, and more — from more than 150 of the biggest female comedians today." Check out the contributor page and you'll see lots of Friends of the Show and Friends of the Newsletter.
The WGA has formed The WGA Audio Alliance to advocate for fair compensation, benefits, and credit for audio writers -- if you are writing, or are interested in audio writing, there are a ton of great resources! The Alliance is also hosting a live event called "The Art of Audio Fiction" on Monday, October 26 at 8 PM. It's sure to be a great conversation with talented writers, especially if you're interested in podcast writing. Sign-up to attend here!
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!
See you next week!
@lukevburns & @jamesfolta
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.
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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!