A Newsletter of Humorous Writing #222
A Newsletter of Humorous Writing
A Newsletter of Humorous Writing
For February 2-8, 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. Newsletter number 222! That's right: an angel number. We looked up the meaning of this particular numerological sign, and it's auspicious: 222 signifies that you're on the right path, not in life, but specifically when it comes to your newsletter subscriptions! Great job!
What We Enjoyed This Week
How Non-Librarians Imagine a Librarian’s Typical Workday by John Howard Matthews (McSweeney's) A simple format lets you spotlight specific choices and jokes in a piece. Framing this as a schedule for a workday lets John's fun specifics shine.
Five Misconceptions About Self-Publishing (Your Own Unauthorized Sequel to Walden) by Adam Dietz (McSweeney's) Another great example of how choosing the right format can set up a great piece. Juxtaposing the singular situation of writing a new sequel to Walden (which sounds great, by the way) with a parody of a generic advice listicle makes for a fun pattern, where Adam shifts quickly from the general to the specific.
5 Food Mascots to Lust After Now That the Green M&M Isn't Sexy Anymore by Brianna Wellen, Dennis Lee, Lillian Stone, and Angela L. Pagán (The Takeout) There are a lot of ways to approach a topical idea, but often the takes that have the most timelessness manage to pivot to a premise that is more universal, beyond the specifics of the news of the day. And there's nothing more timeless than getting horny about food characters. This piece is also great because it teaches you the Pringles' guy's name.
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 #66.
A Football Halftime Pep Talk Given By Someone Who Knows Nothing About Football--Namely, Me by Wendy Molyneux (McSweeney's) Now that we're in the thick of the NFL playoffs (yup, this is a sports newsletter now) this piece seems appropriate. Truth is, it's always appropriate. Wendy is an accomplished comedy writer--she currently writes for Bob's Burgers--and this is a fantastic example of just how consistently sharp she is. This style of piece ("I don't know about this thing, but I'm going to try my darndest") is harder to pull off than it looks. The "narrator" can't just be dumb, because then there's no reason to keep reading. Instead, they have to tease a bit--getting close, and then falling off; being confident, but realizing that they're a half a step behind. When it works, it works, because you just want to see how much deeper a hole they can dig.
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
James had a piece run this week on 251 called "On The Spot News: Bringing you closer to the news!" about an overzealous news network that can't help but get closer and closer.
Other Humorous Writing News
In case you missed it, there was a big political endorsement in the short humor world.
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!