A Newsletter of Humorous Writing #195
A Newsletter of Humorous Writing
A Newsletter of Humorous Writing
For July 28 - August 3, 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. Exciting news: We got standing desks at Humorous Readings Headquarters (HRHQ). Less exciting news: things have become very dangerous, very quickly when we started competing to see who could have the tallest standing desk.
What We Enjoyed This Week
Bad Elevator Pitches by Teddy Wayne (The New Yorker) This one is full of fun and creative ideas. Teddy takes a simple premise and really makes the most of it by exploring widely, and not retreading the same ground or reiterating the premise. Longer pieces don't necessarily get longer from more setup or scaffolding; the best pieces use the word count to explore, build, and heighten.
This Couple Made the Difficult Decision to Shoot Their Pandemic Dog Into Space by Sheria Mattis (Reductress) Taking the pandemic pet trend and giving it one absurd twist is a really nice way to heighten a topical-ish idea, and make it more evergreen.
With God as My Witness I Will Not Pick the Restaurant by Joanna Borns (McSweeney's) This is a great example of a piece where dialogue format is the right choice for the premise. There are just two speakers, and both are anonymous and share the same POV, which keeps the reader from getting confused about who is talking. Dialogue format pieces without stage directions sometimes rely on implied action, or have the characters describe actions taking place in the scene, which can often feel awkward or contrived. But this piece is strictly a conversation, and the characters keep their discussion focused on ideas and things they might do. This wouldn't necessarily work for a sketch, but it works GREAT for short humor.
Monkey Tennis by Various (The Fence) Non-fiction isn't our typical fare here at the Newsletter, but this collection of horror stories about failed/bad/bungled pitches is full of fun lines and wisdom, like Lauren Oyler's takeaway that, "perhaps... all pitches are embarrassing."
An Old Favorite
The Boyfriend Who Noodled on Guitar: A Horror Story by Rekha Shankar (The New Yorker) Friend of the Show Rekha Shankar is an extremely talented writer, and this piece is one of our favorites of hers. It's not only a great parody of a horror story, but it's also chock full of funny lines ("Rob was overtaken by the belief that he “should really go on tour someday'") and runners that build in a satisfying and funny way. It does everything a good, closely-observed parody should do, and also everything a good, joke-filled short humor piece should do. A two-fer!
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 is giving away 10 print copies of his postcard game "A Rash and Bloody Deed"! If you'd like one, just reply to this email or send Luke a message on Twitter. First come, first served. And check out this thread to see examples of the print edition out in the wild.
Other Humorous Writing News
Getting and giving feedback on your writing is a really great way to improve. If you've ever wanted to join a feedback group, Emily Delaney is putting one together that is open to all! Seems like a great opportunity to connect with fellow writers, check it out!
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!