A Newsletter of Humorous Writing #19
A Newsletter of Humorous Writing
A Newsletter of Humorous Writing
For January 25-31, 2018, 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. Tuesday night was the State of the Union, which, beyond being a dispiriting reminder of the current state of affairs, also essentially turns Twitter into an @Midnight pun-making game. But not to fear, because the State of Humorous Writing is strong. There are so many talented folks out there doing great work, keeping us all happily in stitches. Keep up the good work, all!
What We Enjoyed This Week
When Life Gives You Lemons by Holly Theisen-Jones (McSweeney's)
The #MeToo Movement Has Put A Stranglehold On Me, The Least Funny Person In Room by Brittany Van Horne (McSweeney's)
‘Lady Bird’ Fans Are Begging To See More Of The Fictional ‘Sacramento’ Universe by Grace Perry (Reductress)
Mom Getting Ready: The Minutes by Sam Corbin (The New Yorker)
An Old Favorite
On The Inevitable Decline Into Mediocrity Of The Popular Musician Who Attains A Comfortable Middle Age by David Musgrave (The New Yorker)
We think about this poem a lot. We wish there was a larger subgenre of poetry that just functioned as a Trojan Horse for mean jokes about older pop culture icons.
Updates From Your Hosts and Friends of the Show
Luke's Maude team has a show coming up on Monday, and Luke has written an incredibly stupid sketch for it, as is his custom. Tickets are only $7? What a steal. Aside from that, there's been a lot of movement behind the scenes. Sorry we can't bring you closer, show you our process, but we've been hurt before.
Other Humorous Writing News
From Beth Newell, one of the editors-in-chief at Reductress:
"WOW Reductress is the latest victim in Facebook's continual removal of harmless and humorous posts that make fun of men because they "violate community standards." Facebook's existing system continually removes posts by women who say things like "men are scum" while allowing men to continue the actual hate speech that leads women to post these things in the first place. Of course all of this is fueled by a user initiated reporting system that disproportionately affects women because MEN ARE FRAGILE! I also suspect there are mostly white male employees behind the scenes deciding which flagged posts deserve to be removed and which users banned. If history is the judge, this post will very possibly get removed."
This is an infuriating phenomenon that has been cropping up more and more frequently on Twitter and Facebook. People (read: men) are abusing the reporting functions of social media to target humorous or satirical posts and get them removed. It's maddening. There's nothing that Reductress runs that hurts or threatens anyone. It's a tired point to make, but the internet is changing comedy and not always for the best. In addition to Reductress being targeted by trolls, this week there were also massive layoffs at Funny or Die, word came down that The Toast's archives were going to be deleted until the Library of Congress intervened, and a ton of humor and other writing was scrubbed from Cafe's website (including some by your humble newsletter hosts), all following patterns of similar purges, pivots, and rebrands at online media companies.
Be a good internet citizen. Support live comedy. Buy books and magazines. Be kind, be thoughtful, be well read. Don't be an asshole. It'll be a start. There isn't a silver bullet solution here. This is the water we all swim in now.
News About The Next Show
We are finally in talks with a new space and the show is coming back March 12th at 8pm! We're booking guests as we speak! Just to be safe, go ahead and clear your schedule for the entire month of March and keep an eye on this space for updates!
Did we miss a piece you loved? Did you love a piece we mentioned? Let us know! This is an experiment and we're hoping to continue to make it better and better. If you have any thoughts, notes, wishes, or dreams for this newsletter, please respond to us or this email and tell us what the score is.
See you next week!
@brianagler, @lukevburns, & @jamesfolta
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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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!