A Newsletter of Humorous Writing

For May 18-24, 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. It’s been a tough week for all of us, and there’s not much we can say, but we hope you’re all doing okay.

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What We Enjoyed This Week

A Modern Art Critical Analysis of Birds’ Nests by Sophie Lucido Johnson (McSweeney's) A spot-on parody of art criticism--the tone, specifics, and vocabulary are all well-observed and ring true. Each beat is rooted in a different trope of the art world and art criticism, which generates surprise and humorous anticipation: You can't wait to find out what the narrator's take on each nest is going to be. The illustrations are great too, and their inclusion means that there's no need to spend time describing each nest for those who might not be familiar, which allows Sophie to get to the (very good) jokes even faster.

A Passenger’s One-Star Review of the Trolley Ride from the Trolley Problem by Tyler Gooch (McSweeney's) A very funny exploration of a familiar situation from an unexpected perspective. The premise is rock-solid, and Tyler finds surprising ways to heighten, sprinkles in plenty of fun side jokes along the way, and leaves us with a very satisfying final line. It's also a great example of how you can get laughs by having a character ask questions about the logic of the world of your piece. You don't have to answer the questions, which might overcomplicate things or sell out your premise; using the questions to point out absurdity is enough.

How to Leave Someone a Voicemail Without Imagining Them Listening to It After You’re Dead by McKayley Gourley (Reductress) This way of thinking about voicemails is so funny and too relatable. The specifics of the imagined scenario where someone is listening to your voicemail after you die are built out really nicely. ("Those long, anticipation-filled pauses where you can’t tell if the voicemail ended or not.") It also ends with another great final joke (one that works similarly to the final joke of the trolley problem piece above).

This Town Ain’t Big Enough for the Two of Us, Partner—So I’ll Just Leave Then. Enjoy the Town! by James Knapp (McSweeney's) This piece is based on a very simple reversal of expectations--but simpler is often better, when it comes to premises, and this simple reversal has a big impact, laughs-wise. The narrator's old West cowboy voice is just perfect, and the ancillary details about the weird stuff going on in the town are a ton of fun as well.
 

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An Old Favorite

Dante’s Nine Circles of Hell, As Demonstrated By Assembling a Portable Basketball Hoop In the Driveway With My Husband by Katie Hughes-Pucci (McSweeney's) As we've mentioned before, the nine circles of Hell are a great way to structure a piece. The details of the assembly process included in each section are well-chosen, and feel deeply representative of their corresponding circle of Hell. If you've ever had to put together one of those goddamn hoops, you'll appreciate just how accurate this is.
 

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

There are just two spots left in Luke's June edition of "Let's Write MORE Short Humor Pieces"! In it, you'll write three short humor pieces over four weeks, 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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Other Humorous Writing News

Reductress is accepting "pitches from new contributor applicants" until June 14th! Send a message to apply@reductress.com to get the full scoop.
 

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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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