A Newsletter of Humorous Writing

For May 12-18, 2021, a roundup of the week's finest prose 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. Here at Humorous Readings Headquarters (HRHQ), we just started getting into humorous still life painting--it's like regular still life painting except if you're like, painting a bowl of lemons, you also throw a whoopie cushion in there. We're just about ready to start submitting our paintings, so if anybody has any tips, please send 'em our way (we couldn't find any submission info on the Met or MoMA's websites).

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What We Enjoyed This Week

Who Wore It Better: A Professionally Styled Model, or Me? by Hannah Matthews (McSweeney's) This structure--using "professionally styled model" section as setup and "me" section as payoff--works so well. This is also a great example of how to pack your piece full of jokes without pulling too much focus from your central premise: The "model" paragraphs are all satisfying in their own right, filled with funny details and specifics, but they still do the work of teeing up the "me" paragraphs and their precisely composed sick self-burns. ("Supernaturally enormous toddler.")

Climate Scientist: I Will Be 4 Degrees Hotter By 2030 by Max Barth (Slackjaw) The contrast between the two types of tone and vocabulary (climate scientist stuff, hot person stuff) generates some real good laughs.

Why We Need to Forgive Student Loan Debt and Also Me for My Peace Sign Phase by Alyson D'Lando (Reductress) This piece does a great job of pivoting from debt forgiveness to peace sign and, most impressively, manages to keep the switcheroos fun and surprising, even though we know they're coming.

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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 #42.

Welcome to My Rare and Antiquarian Ebook Shop by Eric Hague (McSweeney's) A friend of Washington D.C.'s Evening of Humorous Readings, Eric Hague is a true sharpshooter. His pieces are always so tight, the characters are expertly drawn, and the point of view is crystal clear. Oh, they're funny too. This piece, in particular, demonstrates all of that--and does so on a few different levels. There are a lot of different threads and jokes in this one, but they all reinforce one another. Together, they take a subject we've all talked about and re-imagines it in a way that is both surprising and makes perfect sense.

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Updates From Your Hosts and Friends of the Show

Luke's got a Tuesday Night edition of his workshop, Let's Write a Short Humor Piece, starting in June! Note: is the only new section of Let's Write a Short Humor Piece that he'll be offering until July, so snag a spot now and avoid the wait! More info, schedule, and signup form right here.

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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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