A Newsletter of Humorous Writing #242
A Newsletter of Humorous Writing
A Newsletter of Humorous Writing
For June 22-28, 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 another overwhelming and infuriating week in America. If you, like us, want to help protect the right to bodily autonomy and to have an abortion, here's a good document of ways to take action, including this list of abortion funds to donate to, sorted by state. Plan C is an organization working to spread information and build support for self-managed abortions through pills by mail, and they have a great page on how to help their work. Take care of each other, and we hope you'll find some little bit of respite in humor.
What We Enjoyed This Week
Before You Enjoy Your Summer, Here Are Some Minor Budget Cuts for Next Year’s High School Music Program by Kurt Zemaitaitis (McSweeney's) In addition to the great specifics and voice, one of the strengths of this piece is the fun runner about the football team and their aggressively expanding budget, which makes for a strong throughline that heightens in surprising ways.
The Best Shoes for Standing Awkwardly on the Fringes of a Small Group by McKayley Gourley (Reductress) A simple, funny, and all-too-relatable premise that finds an impressive number of ways to describe the excruciating feeling of failing at small talk.
Boy, That Guy, I Tell You by Lillie Franks (Points In Case) Pieces that riff on one specific turn of phrase can be tough to sustain, but Lillie manages to keep this piece cruising along with plenty of great specifics, and by dissecting the construction of these euphemisms, and letting the syntax warp and then completely fall apart.
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 #109.
My Ten-Year-Old-Self Does Standup by Emma Rathbone (The New Yorker) Emma Rathbone absolutely nails the voice on this one--mixing and mimicking tropes to make this whole piece feel effortless. Also--and we can't emphasize this enough--the riff on "magic" is gold.
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
Luke's got two spots left in his July "Let's Write MORE Short Humor Pieces" workshop, and spots (including scholarship spots) left in his July "Let's Write a Short Humor Piece" workshop! Get those summer writing goals checked off in a fun and supportive environment.
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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.
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!