A Newsletter of Humorous Writing

For May 11-17, 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. This weekend we're gonna go egg and TP the house of the scientist who's working on a self-checkout machine that can tell the difference between organic and non-organic produce. Who wants to come with?

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What We Enjoyed This Week

Ten Possibilities the Applebee’s Waitress Considers Before It Occurs to Her the Women in Booth Fourteen Might Be a Couple with Two Children by Susan Perabo (McSweeney's) This piece presents a fun variety of surprising scenarios, and heightens nicely without going so far afield that the reader loses track of the reality of the situation. Also a great example of a longer title done well: It gives you all the information you need, sets a very specific scene, and is just plain funny in its own right.

Woodmont College Commencement FAQ by Jason Roeder and Mike Sacks (McSweeney's) Here at the newsletter, we love the use of the FAQ format to explore a weird character, situation, or institution. This is an excerpt from Welcome to Woodmont College, a new book from the comedic dream team of Jason Roeder and Mike Sacks. We're big fans of prose comedy projects like this and think it's great that McSweeney's is putting this one out.

Why I’m Adjusting Expectations for Myself if the Rest of You Agree Do the Same by Justine Jung (Reductress) The narrator of this piece is such a fun, specific character: Someone who is so competitive and work-obsessed that they think the very idea of taking care of yourself is a plot concocted by their rivals to undermine them. This is a really satisfying exploration of that unique and funny point of view.

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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 #33.

The Writer by Colin Nissan (The New Yorker) This piece, from Friend of the Newsletter Colin Nissan, hits very close to home. So close, in fact, that this piece is living in our closet, and paying modest rent. While, yes, it brings up a great deal of existential questions, it also saves us a few hundred dollars a month, and splits the electric bill with us. So, it's all a wash.

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

Luke's got two humor writing workshops coming up in June! The first is a single session class focused on form and narration. The second is a four-week course in which you'll write three short humor pieces, getting feedback, notes, and support along the way. Check out this thread to see some of the great work that's been coming out of the workshops (including some very funny recent McSweeney's publications).
 

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-- AD --

From writer-director Lizzie Logan (that's me! hi!) comes a romantic comedy starring Natalie Walker as Kat, an agoraphobic YouTube star who falls in love with her delivery guy. ‘People People’ premiered at the Ashland Independent Film Festival in 2018 and won the Best Narrative Feature award at the deadCenter Film Festival. Do you want to rent it? You can do that. In fact, you should. It’s a pretty delightful movie!

(Do you have an ad you'd like to place in the Newsletter? Fill out this form!)

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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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