A Newsletter of Humorous Writing

For November 10-16, 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. There's nothing like a seasonal snack on a crisp, fall day. This past weekend we went out for a cider donut and a cup of coffee, and lo and behold, found that our local donut joint had been acquired by a tech company and only sold iCder donuts! They were very dry and gave our phones horrible viruses. I guess the lesson is to double-check before you order so that you don't accidentally purchase a snack that is also a hacky joke from a decade ago!

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What We Enjoyed This Week

Billy Pilgrim Calls the VA by Sloan Green (McSweeney's) The question of how much explaining to do at the top of a piece is always tricky, especially when a premise hinges on a reference. What does your reader need to know to get the joke? Will the explanation take longer than it's worth? Or do you accept that there's enough in the piece for anyone to enjoy, and the references are Easter eggs for some? There's no one-size-fits-all answer. Here Sloan chooses to forgo any explanation or contextualization -- if you know, you know -- which allows for more space to explore in a sharp, specifically detailed piece. Sloan, we assume, has figured that enough people have read Slaughterhouse-Five, or know of it, or is fine with a more limited audience for this piece. Needless to say, if you're a Slaughterhouse-Five or Vonnegut fan, this one's a treat!

Why It’s Reductive to Call Me the ‘Female Santa Claus’ Just Because I Climb Down My Neighbors’ Chimneys and Drink Their Milk by Damien Kronfeld (Reductress) This is such a funny premise, and Damien commits to it so hard, but what really makes this one sing is its perfectly defensive and indignant tone. High-status and self-assured is always a goldmine for comedy, and it's so funny to hear from this character who has made an aggressively ridiculous choice that they refuse to back down from.

Top 7 Financial Aid Resources To Help You Attend (1) Destination Wedding by Kim Taylor (Flexx) A big pitfall for short humor is not delivering on the promise of a piece's premise (if you hurt yourself saying this three times fast, we're not liable). This is not the case here: Kim sets up a crystal clear and funny premise with a title and a brief intro, and then gives us seven very fun beats of that premise. Each beat is specific and different from the last, which keeps us surprised and interested, but none of them stray from the premise, making for a tight and funny piece.

Hi, I’m Your Best Friend Who Can Rationalize Anything! by Lauren Bans​ (The New Yorker) Narrative is tough to pull off in short humor, since it can oftentimes lead to a piece that is juggling too much and ends up being unsatisfying as both a short story and as a humor piece. Lauren offers a counterexample here, of a light narrative structure as a framing device. Each beat in her piece heightens, explores, and could maybe stand on its own, but is connected to the previous beat by the narrative thread of a very bad day that keeps spiraling to worse places. This lets the piece take us on a short journey, but keep the focus on short humor since that journey also moves the piece to the next example of someone going to great lengths to rationalize.

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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 #57.

I Think I Should Get More Credit For Killing Hitler  by Dru Johnston (The Occasional)

The Occasional (RIP) was Funny or Die's humor writing outlet. It was, in no uncertain terms, fantastic. The pieces were always top notch, the writing staff was full of all-stars, but most of all, the stuff that went up was always different. The Occasional never had a problem with a bizarre premise, so long as the writer was willing to put in the effort to make it work. And when it worked...it worked. This piece, by Dru Johnston, is the perfect example. Sure, it takes a diagram to figure out. But, it's worth it. Do yourself a favor, go get lost in The Occasional's archives (but don't get lost for too long, because then you won't be able to send out your humor newsletter!) We promise you'll have a great time.

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

We'd like to invite you to our new show called "Space Council!" It's a choose-your-own-adventure sci-fi comedy where the audience plays as Space Council, advisors to the King of Mars, and must tackle a crisis facing Mars using the power of VOTING. We're excited to perform it with an all-star cast:
The show is on December 8th and 18th at 7 pm at Super Secret Arts in Gowanus, Brooklyn! Your ticket will get you into BOTH Space Council performances (why not see 'em both? The show's action is dictated by your choices, so it's different every time!), AND it will also allow you to see ANY OTHER SHOW at Super Secret Arts from now until the end of the year! 

And if it sweetens the deal, here's the poster we designed for the show!

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Other Humorous Writing News

If you're interested in producing your own live shows, but don't know where to start, Kylie Holloway is teaching a three-part boot camp on that very topic for Rubbish Theater! The class covers "all the little nuts and bolts of getting your idea out of your head and in front of an audience," from pitching to showtime. Kylie has produced a ton of live comedy shows in NYC and from having worked with her on An Evening of Humorous Readings, we can personally say that she's very, very good at it! The class is $75, and will be every Tuesday from January 4-18th at 7:00-8:30 PM EST on Zoom. Click here to see more and sign up!

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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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