A Newsletter of Humorous Writing #166
A Newsletter of Humorous Writing
A Newsletter of Humorous Writing
For January 6-12, 2021, 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 squirrels outside Humorous Readings Headquarters (HRHQ) have been really enjoying the snacks we've been leaving out! In order to train a group of funny squirrels, we've also left out some Jack Handey and some Dorothy Parker next to the plate of nuts and seeds. We can't be sure how much the little guys are picking up, and they've been chewing on the books more than reading, but they seem to be chattering with more wit, so we're on the right path!
What We Enjoyed This Week
One Writer’s Year in Pandemic Think Pieces by Craig Thomas (The New Yorker) Creativity in form tends to yield fresh and fun results, especially when coupled with great joke writing, as is the case here. Headlines are a nice frame for tracking the ups and downs of this couple over time, and the satire of think piece tone and vocabulary is spot on (the parentheticals are particularly fun).
Visiting Paris vs. Giving Me $20 to Throw Dirt On Your Floor and Dress Like a Pigeon by Maddie Weigelt (McSweeney's) This piece starts with a really zany premise that does not relent. What really makes this one hit is the sustained weirdness in the details that weave an increasingly bizarre and startlingly specific world. We're convinced: dirt pigeon cosplay trumps the City of Lights!
Congrats! The US Military Will Now Use Your Podcast To Torture Prisoners Of War by Amamah Sardar (Flexx) Seems like it's only a matter of time before this really comes to pass, huh?
An Old Favorite
All 349 “Murmurs” in the Twilight Saga, Charted and Ranked by Rachelle Hampton (Slate) This piece is so impressive. Even with ctrl+F and ebooks, there are still a ton of "murmurs" in these long books to catalog, sort, and analyze (be sure to check out the linked spreadsheet!), and all of the sweat Rachelle put into this is so worth it. The charts, the hypotheses ("Are Murmurs Contagious?"), the charting of best and worst "murmurs" -- it's all so fun. We'd love to see more scientific-paper-style, investigative, and analytical pieces! What a fun genre.
Updates From Your Hosts and Friends of the Show
Nothing from us this week. Some birds have also started taking the nuts and seeds and pecking at the books so it's getting to be a regular Algonquin Round Table out there and we don't want to miss a minute!
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!