A Newsletter of Humorous Writing

For November 23-29, 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. The Short Humor Premise World Cup is about to enter the knockout stage and we couldn't be more excited. We're in for some all time classic matchups: This week alone we've got "highbrow author writing lowbrow subject matter" vs. "confident idiot narrator"; "current events mapping game" vs. "description of unusual product or business"; and most exciting of all, "monologue from unexpected person, character, or object" vs. "list quiz where each item could fit equally well into both categories mentioned in the title"!

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What We Enjoyed This Week

Last Words by Jay Katsir (The New Yorker) "Video will" is such a fun trope to play with and such a clever format for a piece, and Jay uses it to great effect in painting a picture of this character and his very specific milieu. The narrator's voice is tons of fun too, and the piece is packed with wonderful turns of phrase. ("A surprise WhatsApp group called Father Has Perished.")

A Brief Guide to Encountering a Weeping Person in Public in NYC by Molly Osberg (Hell Gate) A funny and poignant evocation of a classic experience of living in a city. If any of our readers disagree with Molly's conclusions and directives--particularly if you are someone who wouldn't mind getting a hug from a stranger while crying in public--sound off in the replies!

So No One Else at Game Night Gives a Fuck About Winning? by Freddie Shanel (Points in Case) Here at Humorous Readings Headquarters (HRHQ) we're big fans of board game-centric short humor pieces (see Brian's classic "The Rules of This Board Game Are Long, But Also Complicated"), and this piece is a fine addition to the canon. It's a very relatable exploration of a familiar character: the one person at a game night who takes the game a little too seriously.
 

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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 #39.

Breakfast at Kennedy's by Jon Stewart (Naked Pictures of Famous People) Yes, that Jon Stewart. Before he was the host of The Daily Show, Stewart was a humble humor writer. This book was my (Hi! It's Brian!) first introduction to humor writing. For some reason, it was on our bookshelf at home. Did I buy it? Did my parents buy it? Was it placed there by a kind stranger? I truly have no idea. All I know is that I've read it countless times. It is, in a word, fantastic. I could have chosen any piece from the book (I recommend "The Cult", and "Lenny Bruce: The Making of a Sitcom" in particular), but Google Books only lets you sample a few of them ("Don't Be Evil" my ass!) That said, Breakfast at Kennedy's is a great one. It is funny, and yet, so very disturbing. But more than that, it's an indication that well before he became America's premier satirist, Stewart still understood what terrible and hilarious things made important people tick.

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

Get a jump on your New Year's resolutions and writing goals by signing up for one of Luke's January 2023 short humor workshops! He's got one workshop for beginners, and two for more experienced short humor writers, one starting on January 5th and the other on January 7th (only three spots left!).
 

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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.

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