A Newsletter of Humorous Writing #267
A Newsletter of Humorous Writing
A Newsletter of Humorous Writing
For December 14-20, 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 holidays! We hope you're having a warm and restful end of the year. As you gather with loved ones, don't forget the things that truly make the season bright: humorous prose and the newsletter writers who deliver it weekly down your digital chimney!
What We Enjoyed This Week
Eight Nights of ASMR Triggers for Hanukkah by Justin Kaplan (McSweeney's) Short and sweet, this is a great example of how specificity can make something pop where it might otherwise feel thin. The evocative language really sells the ASMR aspect of the premise -- Justin really makes these holiday sounds come to life.
I Called a Scent a ‘Flavor’ and Now the People at Bed, Bath, and Beyond Think I Eat the Lotion by McKayley Gourley (Reductress) With a silly and specific premise, sometimes it can be tough to find beats that reiterate the premise in new ways, or in ways that don't shatter the silliness of the initial idea. McKayley uses the piece to explore the narrator's backstory and the "flavor" fallout, including a nice turn at the end.
Norrisville Elementary’s Non-Compulsory Mid-December Spirit Week Has Nothing to Do with Christmas by Talia Argondezzi (McSweeney's) Talia starts with a relatively big choice in the first beat, and then keeps heightening and heightening. For a grounded premise like this, you can't ask for a better execution.
An Old Favorite
I Solved the Santa Theorem! Your Move, Nobel Committee by Bruce Handy (Vanity Fair / Spy) A holiday classic from the pages of the legendary Spy magazine. For a kids' supplement in 1990, Bruce crunched the numbers on Santa's famous yearly ride, cataloging the impossible and fatal physics that would turn St. Nick's rosy cheeks into "pink goo." Yet another reminder that the real Santas are newsletter writers who can deliver a fine edition not a mere once annually, but each and every week!
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
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!