A Newsletter of Humorous Writing #258
A Newsletter of Humorous Writing
A Newsletter of Humorous Writing
For October 12-18, 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. Our word of the day calendar was "acrostic" today: That hint inspired some novel experiments. We started listing every thing that entertained readers, & interestingly, some hidden answers, unbelievably, now totally emerged! Damn!
What We Enjoyed This Week
Understanding Your Michael Myers-Briggs Type by Simon Henriques (McSweeney's) This premise is such a clever setup for generating laughs by switching gears quickly and playing with close juxtapositions of specifics and tones. By committing hard to the voice of a serious Myers-Briggs assessment, Simon can whipsaw the reader between dry set-up and silly slasher specifics.
Questions I Have Answered About the Tooth Fairy by Lucas Kavner (The New Yorker) A dry, matter-of-fact tone also works well in this piece. Lucas uses it in juxtaposition with a child's fantastical questions about the tooth fairy, and the parent's silly answers to those questions, all of which slowly builds a very specific portrait of the tooth fairy as a divorcee in Van Nuys.
Increasingly Emotionally Manipulative Texts From the DNC by Bess Kalb (The Grudge Report) Bess Kalb's Substack delivers funny and well-written topical writing, and this is one of The Grudge Report's more evergreen pieces, riffing on the unending political fundraising appeals. Unlike other riffs on these begging texts that you may have seen, Bess uses the format as a vehicle to explore things other than just politics.
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 #96.
List: Signs Your Bra May Be The Wrong Size Or A Snake by Sarah Lazarus (McSweeney's) All of us at Humor Writing HQ are big fans of snake-related pieces, this piece included. Everyone says snakes are so dangerous, but maybe they're just misunderstood. Lots of snakes are portrayed as harbingers of evil, but really, just have senses of humor that not everyone gets.
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 just THREE spots left in his Thursday night edition of "Let's Write MORE Short Humor Pieces" starting in November. And if you're curious about writing short humor but aren't sure how to get started, he's also got a few spots left in his class for newcomers starting in just over a week. Check out this thread to see some great writing that's come out of previous workshops!
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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!