A Newsletter of Humorous Writing #251
A Newsletter of Humorous Writing
A Newsletter of Humorous Writing
For August 24-30, 2022.
Hello and welcome to A Newsletter of Humorous Writing, a roundup of the week's finest short humor pieces and funny articles, and a celebration of the fantastic writers who wrote them. Happy September! When a Newsletter comes out on the first of the month, it is officially a First Edition of A Newsletter of Humorous Writing! So be sure to print out this email and store it in a safe place -- it could be worth something someday!
What We Enjoyed This Week
Health Inspector’s Notes from the Fisher-Price Kitchen in Miss Carol’s Preschool Classroom by Sari Beliak (McSweeney's) The humor here is heightened by the specific and well-drawn character voice, which gives the premise and absurdities a solid grounding. The straight-faced tone that we'd expect from a serious health inspector really makes the great toddler specifics pop. Also, a great use of format: the last paragraph reads exactly how you'd expect a document like this to end, and is a springboard for some surprising jokes.
Why I Gave Up Alcohol and Started Trying to Draw This Beautiful Arabian Stallion (Reductress) A weird premise often gets a laugh from the seemingly illogical connection between the parts: How do we get from sobriety to horse sketching? In a piece like this, the job of the writer is to try to fill in that logic in a way that is satisfying, and that enhances and doesn't snuff out the initial fun of the weirdness. This piece does a nice job of playing out the weirdness while giving us just enough backstory to not wonder "why" too much. (And as always, please let us know if you know who wrote this headline and this article -- we'd love to shout out the writers in a future edition!)
I Went to Trash School by Clio Chang (Curbed) Just in case you thought we only read short humor and/or that we have some sort of grudge against the Department of Sanitation: we loved this affectionate portrait of the DSNY's Trash School. It's full of so many funny details and specifics, and by the end of the article you'll not only have more respect for sanitation workers, but your definition of "juice" will expand as well.
An Old Favorite
I Wish To Speak To The Chef by Bob Vulfov (McSweeney's) In this piece, Bob pulls off a number of things that are very difficult: coyly titling a piece in a way that doesn't telegraph the premise, writing only one side of multiple dialogues, and changing the location within a piece that is an unbroken monologue. But it ends up coming together not just as a humor piece but as a sort of prose sketch because Bob is able to quickly and unobtrusively orient and reorient the reader, all while delivering lots of fun lines. The reader is guided through this scene in the life of a negligent Coast Guard foodie who is simultaneously having a bad day and a great meal.
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
Due to popular demand, Luke has added another September section of Let's Write MORE Short Humor Pieces! He's also doing a single-session humor workshop on September 18th focused on editing, how to give effective notes on other people's work, and how to get more helpful notes on your own work--perfect if you're working with a writers group! Which segues nicely into the next update...
Alex Baia, editor of Slackjaw, is organizing some Humor Writing Sprint Groups starting in September. These are a chance to work on your humor writing in small, curated feedback groups. If this sounds like something you'd be interested in, you can find more details, and sign up, here!
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!