A Newsletter of Humorous Writing #179
A Newsletter of Humorous Writing
A Newsletter of Humorous Writing
For April 7-13, 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. We're right in the middle of a big mayoral campaign in NYC, where Humorous Readings Headquarters (HRHQ) is located. As of yet, no one has addressed our biggest policy concerns: Will the next mayor slash the police budget and use the money to put more short humor in schools? Will the next mayor tax the wealthy so we have the means to punch up the city's crumbling premises? Will the city get serious about reinvigorating the subway system and fulfill all the parody potential of its maps and signage? Will the next mayor take on the city's real estate interests to make it easier for small business to succeed, especially ones that are creating droll and wry short prose? Since no candidate has replied to our repeated invitations to a "Short Humor in The City Mayoral Forum," we'll just have to keep waiting for answers.
What We Enjoyed This Week
I’m Not from the Past—I Sweareth! by Eli Burnstein (The New Yorker) Pieces with a strong, clear joke in the title can often get bogged down in repeating different versions of that joke, but Eli makes a point of exploring, so that we get to see more of the character, the world, and the implications of the situation we've been dropped into. Eli also fills this piece with jokes and wordplay that are good and funny, but also flesh out a biography of his narrator.
What I’d Tell My Younger Self by Mary Houlihan (The New Yorker) Another piece that has a great voice and cadence. Mary does a great job balancing the fun of revealing details to her younger self, and the digressing and back-tracking to fill in the blanks so they make sense. Also, great set-ups and callbacks to make the piece feel rounded.
All Of The Samoas In This Box, Ranked by Rachel Marsh (Slackjaw) This is such a creative format and framing for a piece, and Rachel uses it to tell a fragmented narrative of a snack. What if Memento were about binging a bunch of cookies? Now we know.
An Old Favorite
Notes on “Sweet Child O’ Mine,” as Delivered to Axl Rose by His Editor by John Moe (McSweeney's) This was part of a column John wrote for McSweeney's that used songs and musicians as the jumping-off point for humor pieces. This one is maybe the most "McSweeney's-y" of the bunch: academic and literary tone and POV used to analyze pop culture. But it takes that familiar formula and builds on it. John does the expected well and has a lot of fun poking at the holes in the song's writing, but where this piece really sets itself apart is by establishing a relationship and stakes between the narrator and Axl Rose -- this isn't just critiquing the song, it's an urgent letter from an editor who's aghast at their client's draft. Not only is this more rich and specific, but it gives a solid justification for the nit-picking that might otherwise read as simply pretentious.
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
Luke's got just TWO spots left in his "Let's Write a Short Humor Piece" workshop starting on May 8th! And just three spots left in the section starting on May 22nd! Take one of these and you'll have a full draft of a humor piece finished by June. Click through for more details and to sign up!
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!