A Newsletter of Humorous Writing #259
A Newsletter of Humorous Writing
A Newsletter of Humorous Writing
For October 19-25, 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. If you're looking for a last-minute costume, here's a short humor-related idea: wear a normal outfit, but with one big, oversized boot and go as The Kicker. Probably not a good idea to kick people, but to get your point across, make sure you've got some room, say "and here's the kicker..." and give 'em a little of The Kicker's signature leg action.
What We Enjoyed This Week
They Didn't Have the Potato Chips We Usually Get, So I Made Sure to Grab the Most Disgusting Ones I Could Find by Anthony Scibelli (Points In Case) We're big weird chip fans over here at Humorous Readings Headquarters (HRHQ), so this one hooked us right from the get-go. Anthony's heightening and exploration are especially well handled here; the choice to explore the behavior of "bad substitutions" as opposed to getting bogged down in too much chip-chat makes for a more interesting variety of beats.
My Eight Deranged Days on the Gone Girl Cruise by Imogen West-Knights (Slate) One of the most important decisions in writing a premise-based piece is finding the right form in which to explore your premise. And when your premise is, as we read three paragraphs in, "What do you mean, Gone Girl cruise?" then the only option is to take and document that cruise. And wow, what a cruise.
A Guide to the 12-Foot Skeletons of NYC by Kate Mooney (Hell Gate) Another bit of journalism that made us laugh, this time about the various huge skeletons around NYC. Our favorites are the two sentinels guarding the domain of the SmoKing, but there's something for every taste in this exhaustive survey.
An Old Favorite
The Very First Written Use of the F Word in English by Colin Marshall (Open Culture) Taking the "old" in "Old Favorite" pretty literally this week, but if there's one thing that's consistent in all of human history and humor, it's that we have always loved cussin'. This earliest written record of one of the biggest curses in English is also a great lesson in juxtaposition: we won't spoil the punchline, but it's very funny that a monk in 1528 took the time to curse out their boss in the margins of a guide to moral conduct, of all places. Be sure to click through for the image of the scribbled insult next to gorgeous Gothic script.
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
Allison Kelley, Danielle Kraese, Kate Herzlin, and Ysabel Yates have a new book out called Jokes to Offend Men, that "transform[s] classic joke setups into sharp commentary about the everyday and structural sexism." They have a series of events coming up, including a virtual event this coming Friday, 11/28 with The Rumpus' Funny Women that is sure to be a great time! You can also buy the book, and find out a lot more about it, right here.
Luke's got just five spots left in his "Let's Write MORE Short Humor Pieces" workshop starting on November 12th! (And just ONE spot left in the one starting on Nov 10.) Writing that's come out of past workshops has gone on to be published by McSweeney's, The New Yorker (in print and online), and more!
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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!