A Newsletter of Humorous Writing #164
A Newsletter of Humorous Writing
A Newsletter of Humorous Writing
For December 23-29, 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. Happy New Year! Once again, we forgot to get our 10-foot-tall New Year's Eve Countdown Clock out of storage in time for New Year's Eve. Do you think it would be weird for us to just use it as a regular timer throughout the year? Admittedly it's not the most practical thing, since it only counts down 10 seconds, and when it gets to zero it loudly plays "Auld Lang Syne" and shoots a bunch of fireworks out of its sides. It's just a shame, we've had it for years and have never remembered to use it on the night.
What We Enjoyed This Week
New Year’s Resolutions for Toddlers by Shannon J. Curtin (McSweeney's) Well-observed toddler specifics and a spot-on parody of the tone of "helpful tips and tricks" articles combine to make a great piece.
Mom and Baby Are Both Doing Fine by Jen Spyra (The New Yorker) Jen debuted this one at an Evening of Humorous Readings show all the way back in November of 2019. It's a true delight and also makes us very nostalgic for doing our live show. We miss you all!
What the Hole Is Going On? by Rachel Handler (Grub Street) This true story of an intrepid journalist investigating a mysterious bucatini shortage is suspenseful, surprising, and also very funny. Read it now before it gets optioned as a movie.
An Old Favorite
Crate and Barrel Tableware Style + U.S. President = Fictional Delta Blues Singer by Josh Michtom (McSweeney's) In a short list piece, your prose had better be as polished and sparkling as you can get it. These names roll right off the tongue. Try saying a few of them out loud! It's a lot of fun.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
If you haven't already, be sure to check out our End of Year edition of the newsletter, in which we highlight some of our favorite humor writing from 2020. Other than that, nothing from us this week! Just have to get the giant countdown clock back into storage. Next year we'll remember. Next year.
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!