A Newsletter of Humorous Writing

For October 27-November 2, 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. We're sprawled on the floor of Humorous Readings Headquarters (HRHQ), unable to get up after eating too much candy over the past few days. We don't think we'll be able to get back on our feet unless we have some greens, so if someone could drop by HRHQ and toss some broccoli through one of the windows that would be great. Lightly steamed, please! The broccoli has to be firm enough to break the glass.

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What We Enjoyed This Week

Ten Albums to Listen to Before You Die Tomorrow by Eddie Small (McSweeney's) Friend of the Show Eddie Small does a great job revealing new information about the situation in each paragraph, and finds a nice variety of ways to pivot to the "you're going to die tomorrow" aspect, keeping us surprised even though we know what's coming. And what a title: just one word added to the end of a familiar phrase gives you an original (but easily apprehensible) premise and sets it up crystal-clear.

I Am the Woman Who Comments “Divine.” On Every Single Internet Recipe by Caroline Cotter  (The Belladonna) You know EXACTLY how this character says the word "Divine." The wonderfully specific narrator voice is complemented by fun reveals about this character's life ("empty nester, fourth-time divorcée, two-time widower, and one-time accidental grandma"), and it all culminates in an online battle between two rival recipe commentators.

A Eulogy for Tom Brady (1977-2296) by Jared Eimicke (Points in Case) There are three elements in perfect balance in this piece: Details about what this strange world of tomorrow looks like, details about Tom Brady's future life and career, and a spot-on parody of the way people talk about sports heroes. All three components come together to deliver great jokes like this: "Tom did it the old-fashioned way his whole career. One brain for every game." The unique combination also makes it easy to avoid using the shopworn specifics that often pop up in pieces about weird sci-fi futures.
 

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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 #45.

How I Imagine it Is To Be Rich by Megan Downey and Bizzy Coy (Points in Case) Another winner from Friends of the Show (DC and NYC!) Megan Downey and Bizzy Coy, who have a lot of fun with this piece. It's clear and concise, and it gives us all the more reason to get HumorPass* up and running.

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.

*Check out Newsletter #45 in the archive for more context on the "HumorPass" joke!

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Updates From Your Hosts and Friends of the Show

Nothing from us this week! Get us that broccoli as soon as you can!
 

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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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