A Newsletter of Humorous Writing #204
A Newsletter of Humorous Writing
A Newsletter of Humorous Writing
For September 29-October 5, 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. At the 1984 Grammy awards when "Every Breath You Take" won Song of the Year, I bet at least one of the other nominees reacted by whispering to themself, "Sting? More like... STINK. Synchronicity? More like... STINKronicity!" It's a bit unkind, but Sting wasn't even at the Grammys that year, so I think it's understandable.
What We Enjoyed This Week
What I Imagine Happens at My Senator's Office upon Receiving an Email from Me by Leila Sales (Points In Case) It can often be difficult to sustain a piece that is based on characters or a narrator saying the opposite of what the truth of a situation is, relying on the reader to make the connection; but this one succeeds because of how precisely it captures so many of the very specific mental gymnastics one performs when sending an email to a politician. Having "What I Imagine" in the title quickly and clearly frames the premise and sets the reader's expectations.
Will You Marry Me? (No Pressure) by Evan Waite and River Clegg (The New Yorker) The stakes are already quite high from the start of this piece, but it manages to continually up the ante with expertly-paced-out details that reveal more and more surprising things about the situation.
If You Wish to Print a Document, You Must Pass These Six Trials by Ella Gale (Points in Case) Describing a grounded, banal situation in over-the-top language is a classic way to generate laughs in short humor. This piece's mock-heroic tone is a ton of fun, and it's delightful to see the various ways it gets applied to the all-too-relatable frustration of dealing with an uncooperative printer.
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 #15.
Extremely Loud Doorbells by Jack Handey (The New Yorker) Jack Handey is a goddamn genius--this, we all know. For most people, that genius generally takes the form of "Deep Thoughts" from SNL. Of course, Deep Thoughts is incredible, but the humor is quick and short. It was Twitter before there was Twitter. Can Jack Handey do more than 280 characters? We of little faith... Jack Handey is a jack of all trades (thank you, thank you. I'll see myself out.) He can do humor pieces, and even comic novels, with the best of them. There were so many examples to choose from. This is a personal favorite, but honestly, you can't go wrong.
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
Nothing from us this week! How are you?
Other Humorous Writing News
The Belladonna has launched a newsletter! It features "writing tips, round-ups of recent Belladonna pieces, throwback pieces from the vault," calls for submissions, and more. You can check out a sample and subscribe here.
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!