A Newsletter of Humorous Writing

For March 15-21, 2018, a roundup of the week's finest prose humor 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. Friends, have you ever started a book but been worried that it's gonna turn out to have scary ghosts in it? You read in a state of dread, becoming increasingly convinced that each page you turn is bringing you closer and closer to a rendezvous with a terrifying ghost, and then you get to the end and no ghosts showed up and you're like, "I guess there actually aren't any ghosts in Manhunt: The 12-Day Chase for Lincoln's Killer. I just wish I had known that sooner, I was so worried." This happens to us all the time. Anyway, on to the writing!

What We Enjoyed This Week

I’m Sorry Your Friend Is Succeeding, Which Means That You’re a Total Failure by Rekha Shankar (The New Yorker)

Everything We Currently Know About Sleep by Steve Etheridge (McSweeney's)

Revenge Food Diary by Katie Barsotti and Ria Sardana (The New Yorker)

QUIZ: Does He Like You or Does He Just Like Seeing His Tiny Face Reflected In Your Eyes? by Eva Victor (Reductress)

An Old Favorite

Actual Survival Tips from Actual Rich People by Nell Scovell (Vanity Fair)
And if you like this piece, Scovell also has a new memoir out about her time working on shows like The Simpsons, Newhart, Murphy Brown, Late Night with David Letterman, and more!

Updates From Your Hosts and Friends of the Show

James just started working as an editor over at Points in Case. Send them some stuff!

Also, just to go back to the thing about being worried that the book you're reading is gonna have a ghost in it: We'd like to propose that from now on, on the first page of every book, the narrator or a character should say whether or not ghosts exist in the world of the book. It would save us a lot of time and a lot of scares. Thanks for listening.

Did we miss a piece you loved? Did you love a piece we mentioned? Let us know! This is an experiment and we're hoping to continue to make it better and better. 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!

@brianagler, @lukevburns, & @jamesfolta