A Newsletter of Humorous Writing

For October 28 - November 03, 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 hope all our readers are doing well and hanging in there. Regardless of the outcome of the election, it should be abundantly clear to all of us that there's a lot of work that needs to be done in this country. We want to remind everyone: Political satire is not a substitute for activism and it's never too early to start thinking about the next round of midterm and local elections.

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What We Enjoyed This Week

What in the World Is a $590 Scratch-and-Sniff T-shirt Doing in 2020? by Caity Weaver (The New York Times) Informative and hilarious. A unique angle on an unusual topic. This has everything we've come to expect from a Caity Weaver article.

Smucker’s Uncrustables Frozen BBQ Chicken Bites by McKayley Gourley (McSweeney's) It can often wear thin when the main joke of a piece is that the narrator is claiming something, and we, the reader, are meant to understand that it is not true. (E.G.: "I'm a real human and DEFINITELY NOT just 100 butts stacked in a trenchcoat. Please ignore all those noises, they are NOT farts.") But here the device of the "totally real, I swear" children works nicely and provides a wonderful throughline for the discussion of these new uncrustables. That and the sparkling prose make this an all-around delight to read. (Plus "uncrustables" is just a really funny word to read and say.)

List: The 3 Sleeves on My Sweater, Ranked by How Much I Really Need Them There by Kyle Goulston (Points in Case) In addition to perfectly parodying the tone of "_____ Ranked" articles, this piece does a great job of generating humor by building up the reader's anticipation. We can't wait to hear what the deal is with the third sleeve. We KNOW it's gonna be something weird, and when we finally get to it, the release of the built up tension makes all the wonderful jokes and specific details hit that much harder.
 

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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 #9.

The Sea is Dope by Chris Ryan (Grantland)

Not a traditional humor piece, per se, but this piece is so funny that it doesn't matter. Claiming absolute and objective certainty over that which requires neither is always, always amazing. (See what we did there?) The pacing of this piece is fantastic. It's so tight. It's like jazz. Chris Ryan is a consistently hilarious and sharp writer. His takes--be they hot, or thought out--are wonderful. This piece is the purest example of that. Also, RIP Grantland.

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. 

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Updates From Your Hosts and Friends of the Show

There is ONE spot left (out of a class size of 10) in Luke's intro to short humor writing workshop on Tuesday Nov 10 from 7-10PM EST! (Via zoom.) Feel free to drop Luke a line if you have any questions.

Denise, the sketch team Luke has been directing, has a show coming up on Friday at 9:30 on Twitch! The last sketch of the show will be performed LIVE on stream, and the whole thing is going to be very fun and very funny.

James is teaching a course in December on parody writing for Pandemic University! If you're interested in learning about print parody, brainstorming ideas, and developing a piece from conception to draft, this is the class for you. It'll be four sessions over three weeks -- Dec. 8, 15, 21 & 22 -- from 7-9PM. Find out more and sign up 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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