A Newsletter of Humorous Writing #170
A Newsletter of Humorous Writing
A Newsletter of Humorous Writing
For February 3-9, 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. Wasssup?! Have a great Thursday, and hey, if you're free this weekend, why not give your old pals The Cool Beer Frogs a call to hang out? Now THAT sounds like a great time! [Ed. Note: We've started selling ad space in this introductory section of the Newsletter, but at the moment the only buyers have been The Cool Beer Frogs from the 1999 "Wassup?" commercial. Sorry!]
What We Enjoyed This Week
Drake Songs or 16th-Century Lutenist John Dowland Parlor Bops with Which to Court Your Desired After This Foul Plague Hath Passed? by James Bennett II (McSweeney's) It's wonderful how difficult it is to tell Drake from Dowland after a while, kudos to Bennett on the deep cuts here. Also a great example of a title, with that little dollop of 16th-century flavor at the end, setting a tone for the whole piece.
Rejected Bachelor Limo Entrance Ideas by Emily Bernstein (The Belladonna) The entrances in the opening episodes of The Bachelor/ette are already so wild, that a lot of Bernstein's pitches here feel eerily plausible. So much to say: Keep an eye out for these pitches to make an appearance next season.
Op-Ed: Where Is The Anthem For All The Ladies Who Actually Do Want A Scrub? by Nathan Kamal (Flexx) Prefacing this with "Op-Ed" is a very funny heightening move. It gives this very fun, very silly premise a slight stamp of authority, and implies a fun juxtaposition: imagine this next to some Bret Stephens column about how defeating cancel culture is our new space race. Magnificent.
An Old Favorite
Plastics: A Super Career For Any Confused Young Man by Rachel Urquhart (Spy)
Spy left its fingerprints all over media, but one of the magazine's legacies that we wish we saw more of is humor pieces in glossy, print magazines. The front pages of Spy were full of short, funny pieces like this one, by Rachel Urquhart. This is a classic humor premise--exploring a what-if from The Graduate, and full of fun lines and extrapolations--executed in a sharp, witty piece. If you like this, check out the full archive of Spy here. It’s a treasure trove of snarky vitriol, voice-y journalism, and (frankly too much of) an obsession with New York celebrities and society.
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 ordered a copy of An Atlas of Valentine's Day Island, it's in the mail and on its way to you! If you haven't checked it out yet, look at how good it looks in real ink and paper! If you'd like one for yourself, there are still copies available: snag 'em 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.
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!