A Newsletter of Humorous Writing #223
A Newsletter of Humorous Writing
A Newsletter of Humorous Writing
For February 9-15, 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. We're thinking of getting some gargoyles put in here at Humorous Readings Headquarters (HRHQ), and so we've spent the last week brainstorming different funny faces they can have. So far we have "just about to do a spit take," "having an idea for a devious but not mean-spirited prank," "faux smug look that underlines the dumb thing they just said," and "silly mouth," but are open to any suggestions you might have!
What We Enjoyed This Week
A Captain Crushed by Ethan Kuperberg (The New Yorker) The tone and voice of this one are really carefully handled, with the austerity and formality turned up just enough to read as 18th-century writing, but leaving enough space for recognizably modern phrasings. It makes for more subtle juxtapositions in the old-timey-alongside-contemporary-language game of the piece, which lets the characters and relationship take more of a center stage.
Where Do You Go to Work These Days? by Julie Sharbutt (The New Yorker) This piece has such a strange and fun structure--the repetition of "where do you go to work" has the rhythm that reminded us of kids books. The individual beats about where everyone works are fun, but this off-kilter formatting makes this one very compelling.
FAQ’s about life. by Arthur Meyer (251) So simple and so fun. Sometimes short pieces leave you feeling like there is more left to be explored, but this piece nicely implies a lot more than it explicitly says.
An Old Favorite
Can You Match The Celebrity To The Name Your Mom Refers To Them By? by Michelle Spies (The Belladonna) Michelle could have easily written this as just a list of very funny guesses at celebrity names, and it would be a great piece. But the fact that each guessed name also has a corresponding celebrity name is an extra layer of thought and grounding that is really impressive.
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
This Saturday would have been Brian's 33rd birthday, and each year his wife Claire coordinates a fundraiser for an organization that Brian would have loved. This year, Brian's Birthday Gift is raising money for the Texas Freedom Network, and you can find lots more info and a link to donate here, if you'd like to join us in giving!
Happy birthday, Brian!
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!