A Newsletter of Humorous Writing

For July 21-27, 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. This is our last edition before the end of National Hot Dog Month, and we hope you had some great dogs over the last few weeks! Here at Humorous Readings Headquarters (HRHQ), we've been eating plenty of hot dogs, but we've also been hot doggin' around town: riding our bikes with no hands, composing emails after doing a bunch of somersaults, brushing our teeth while dancing, etc. We're a little dizzy, but we've enjoyed ourselves!

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What We Enjoyed This Week

I’m the Guy Who Wears Jeans in the Summer, and You’ll Never Get Me to Admit That I’m Burning Up by Graeme Carey (McSweeney's) You may remember that we featured a piece by Graeme last February about a guy who wears shorts in winter, and he's back with a new piece about seasonally inappropriate bottoms. Like the winter shorts piece, this one also finds laughs in the specific, weird justifications for the narrator's behavior. Also, Graeme does a great job of organizing his jokes into their own paragraphs, which guides the reader and helps with pacing the piece. Finally, we're just suckers for a good reference to Poughkeepsie.

Do You Have a Toddler or Is Your House Haunted by the Ghost of the Widow of an 1800s Sea Captain? by Lucy Huber (McSweeney's) Pieces about toddlers can sometimes veer into predictability, but Lucy keeps things fresh and finds a unique angle by leaning on haunted nautical tropes. The little runners (by which we mean jokes, not toddlers) in this piece give it a nice rhythm as well.

I Am The Writer Of Happy Birthday And The Pressure On My Second Song Is Immense by Andy Ward (Slackjaw) This piece manages to be both an exploration of this songwriter's backstory as well as a narration of his struggle to pen a second song, without overwhelming or confusing the reader. Andy rests one idea while exploring the other, so that the toggling between the two threads ends up serving the piece.

Baby Shoes, Never Worn: The Twenty-Episode Podcast by Mike Lacher (McSweeney's) Friend of the Show Mike Lacher returns with a really fun piece that nails the podcaster voice and uses it to satirize the current podcast boom we're in.

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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 #121.

My Layoff Letter Ground Up with Text From Meat Processing Trade Magazines by Tina Gross (McSweeney's) We talk a lot about specifics, and how they can make a piece. This piece is proof. It's also, maybe, the most specific piece we've ever read. In a similar vein, it's also the most horrifying piece we've ever read.

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.

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Updates From Your Hosts and Friends of the Show

There's just one spot left in Luke's August section of his "Let's Write a Short Humor Piece" workshop!

James tried a venison hot dog a few days ago and it was pretty good! The flavor was interesting and paired well with condiments, but the size was a little off -- it was ever so slightly too wide, which made it feel like more of a sausage than a hot dog. Overall, a B- dog.

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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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