A Newsletter of Humorous Writing #154
A Newsletter of Humorous Writing
A Newsletter of Humorous Writing
For October 14-20, 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. A lot of fans have been asking us if we're planning on commenting on the big magazine controversy this week. While it should be pretty obvious what's right and what's wrong, here are our thoughts: we think that it's not appropriate to rip things out of the magazines at the dentist's office. Some of us were enjoying finding out which celebrities we forgot were in-laws, and were unsatisfied to only read about only four of the promised six.
What We Enjoyed This Week
Nine Scenes From the Recently Discovered Cut of Flubber Where Flubber Has Bones by Allie Rubin (McSweeney's) A very simple, very satisfying premise. Keeping the air in something like this can be tough, since the reader can easily get ahead of the pattern. Here, Allie keeps the piece feeling fresh by varying the set-ups and committing to a strong tone when talking about the horrifying, undying life of bone-Flubber.
Gabriel García Márquez Writes “Bones” Episode Descriptions by Forest Abruzzo (Slackjaw) Another simple and clear premise that benefits from specific details that both casual and well-versed Márquez fans can get into.
Excerpts from Poseidon’s Boat Blog by Lillian Stone and Evan Allgood (The New Yorker) Sometimes, a piece isn't really about what it seems to be about. The real heart of this one is the exploration of Poseidon's life, told through the vehicle of his boat review blog. The mini-biography is the throughline that allows all the good jokes about the boats, Poseidon's house, etc., to serve as fun embellishments.
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 #56.
Behold Your Newest Silver-Screen Sex Goddess, Jane Neighbor by Rachel Axler (New Yorker)
The celebrity-profile seems like a genre that's easy to satirize, but it's harder than it appears. Yes, you have to mock the tropes, but you also have to add a little something extra (a zing of pumpkin spice, if you will). It's not enough to simply parrot the form; the best pieces have a unique point of view or character to play with. This piece does that, and more, from the get-go. Right away, you know it's going to be truly insane, but also grounded. It expertly stays within the confines of profile genre while continually pushing them to their logical breaking point. But, perhaps most importantly of all, it includes the phrase, "She is the kind of gorgeous that can only be found in or very near rivers."
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
James was on the Gotham Writer's "Inside Writing" podcast with writer Seth Fried, talking about writing, pitching, finding your voice, and more! You can listen here.
Luke's doing a weeknight edition of his intro to short humor workshop on Tues, 11/10/20, from 7-10PM Eastern (via Zoom, naturally). You bring in pitches/ideas for short humor pieces, and by the end of class you’ll have a title, an angle, a list of jokes and beats, a map for how to move forward, and the confidence to jump right into writing that first draft. Limited to 10 spots so snag one asap!
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!