A Newsletter of Humorous Writing #207
A Newsletter of Humorous Writing
A Newsletter of Humorous Writing
For October 20-26, 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. Happy Halloween! We can't wait for trick-or-treaters to start arriving at our door. We've got a big bowl of candy, copies of our "How To Tell If Your Premise Has Legs... For Kids!" zine, and handmade ribbons for costumes we appreciate that say things like, "Very Droll" or "How Witty."
What We Enjoyed This Week
Presenting “The Bob Mullen’s Life Halftime Report” by Evan Waite and River Clegg (The New Yorker) Evan and River stick to, and make great use of, the format, voice, and jargon of the thing they're parodying--play-by-play announcers. Not only does it keep the piece focused, orient the reader, and set up a ton of jokes, but it also gives them a great button. Now that's great parody!
Jim, We Need to Talk About the Serial Copy-and-Pasting in Your Work Emails by Janet Manley (McSweeney's) While we're talking about paying attention to the specifics of the thing you're parodying to really make a joke land, how about this piece? The formatting choices are so fun and also serve to enhance the writing. And like Evan and River, Janet also wrote a clever and satisfying button that naturally follows from the conventions of this type of email.
Fall Foliage: A Guided Meditation by Colin Nissan (The New Yorker) It's always nice to see good writers taking the space to explore in longer pieces, and Colin, The Prince of Autumnal Short Humor, makes the most of the word count here. This piece takes a number of fun, unexpected turns that weave their way to a satisfying callback.
The 6 Worst Chairs by Dayna Evans (Eater) This piece is based on an astute observation, and uses it as a platform for some funny and pretty sick burns on these six chairs.
An Old Favorite
The Entirety of My Thoughts as I Eat My Son’s Mac and Cheese Dinner by Maura Quint (McSweeney's) Choosing the right format for an idea can open up avenues for jokes that wouldn't otherwise be on the table. The premise of "parent sneakily eats kids mac and cheese" could have been executed in so many different forms or styles, but writing it as an internal monologue lets Maura's narrator be completely honest and follow weird tangents.
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 had one spot open up in his November "Let's Write MORE Short Humor Pieces" workshop, and still has two spots available in his November "Let's Write a Short Humor Piece" workshop. Check out the links for more details, and check out this thread to see the 20+ published pieces that were written by people in past workshops!
Other Humorous Writing News
Looks like The Onion is hiring a staff writer! Could be the perfect fit if you're funny, you like Chicago, and you love unionized jobs!
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!