A Newsletter of Humorous Writing #219
A Newsletter of Humorous Writing
A Newsletter of Humorous Writing
For January 12-18, 2022, 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. Just a quick heads up: this is the last week when still having your holiday decorations up is "forgetful"--starting next week, they will be "weird/worrisome." But if you hang in there for another two or so weeks (depending on the tides), still having your decorations up will become "funny/whimsical"!
What We Enjoyed This Week
You’re Invited to the Wedding I Planned in Middle School by Anjali Alwis and Patty Terhune (The New Yorker) Extremely granular, late '90s-early aughts specifics really make this child's dream wedding feel real.
A List of My Priorities by Django Gold (The New Yorker) A great game of anticipation here. Friend of the Show Django Gold slow walks us to the big reveal--the whole time the reader just knows it's going to be something big. It's risky but it pays off! What sells the anticipation is the commitment; the piece is focused on keeping the opening grounded, without a bunch of distracting, throw-away jokes, which makes the reveal and subsequent exploration feel especially satisfying.
In Her Happy Place! This Woman Sent an Email but Hasn’t Yet Received a Reply by Freddie Shanel (Reductress) Just a great parody news piece: a simple, relatable premise that is well explored and heightened, all while remaining grounded and within the world of the parody.
An Old Favorite
How to Stay Up Really Late for No Other Reason Than Ruining Tomorrow by Taryn Englehart (Reductress) Reductress' writers and editors are good at so, so many things, but one that we particularly enjoy is their satire of banal "tips & tricks" lifestyle guides. It's a particularly tough thing to parody, since the voice, style, and form are polished so smooth and mundane that it can be tough to find an element to heighten. Oftentimes the way around this is to provide a juxtaposition, usually with a fun, hyperspecific character or scenario. Here, Friend of the Show Taryn Englehart flips the script, and uses that anodyne, how-to style to explore something we don't want to know more about: the urge to stay up super late for no damn reason. The specifics in this piece feel very true, and the easy-breezy style is not only good parody, but it's also a great juxtaposition.
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.
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!