A Newsletter of Humorous Writing

For January 25-31, 2023

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. This week is your LAST CHANCE to fill out our (quick, anonymous) 2023 Newsletter Survey! In next week's newsletter, we'll reveal the results of the question, "Which two person sport/activity do you think Luke and James would be best at?" So make sure you weigh in before it's too late!

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What We Enjoyed This Week

Peaches the Instagram Dachshund Wants a Cut by Tom Ellison (McSweeney's) The vocabulary and turns of phrase in this piece are all wonderfully specific and well-chosen, and it's so funny to imagine this voice coming out of a tiny little dog. As a writer, sometimes you can get so caught up in tone that other elements of a character fall by the wayside, but Tom makes sure that the reader never loses sight of the fact that the narrator is a celebrity dog on the internet, reminding us by peppering in plenty of great Instagram Dachshund details at regular intervals.

I’m About to Relate to Your Story by Telling My Own Semi-Related Story by Adam O'Kane (McSweeney's) A glimpse inside the mind of the kind of person who, in conversation, is not a listener, but rather a "waiter until it's their turn to talker." The way that Adam shows how the narrator's focus shifts, receding from the external to the internal and back, is really compelling--but it doesn't come at the expense of laughs.

The Couch Had Nothing to Do with Me by Maya Binyam (The Paris Review) An account of one writer's obsessive quest to acquire a white couch followed immediately by another quest to get rid of that couch as quickly as possible. The prose is wonderfully dry and witty: "I divided everyone I encountered into two camps: people I respected, and people whose taste I judged to be compromised enough that they could be convinced that the couch was precious and necessary."

I followed Nancy Pelosi's diet of breakfast ice cream and hot dogs for a week, and I ping-ponged between euphoria and the depths of despair by Sophie Kleeman (Insider) Another obsessive quest, but one concerning diet rather than decor. Here at Humorous Readings Headquarters (HRHQ), we're just suckers for hot dog related humor. In the words of Brian Agler, "Hot dogs are funny." And there are hot dogs aplenty in this delightful diary of Sophie's descent into Nancy Pelosi's bizarre culinary world.
 

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An Old Favorite

I Hope You Enjoy Your Airbnb Stay At My Home, a Place I Have Never Resided Nor Visited by Dave Powers (McSweeney's) A great satire of the disparity between the ostensible values of Airbnb, as espoused by the company and Airbnb hosts, and the actual experience of staying in an Airbnb. It's also a hilarious collection of the different types of weird, janky things that you frequently encounter during such a stay.

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 Newsletter

One last reminder to fill out the Newsletter Survey! And big thanks again to everyone who has already taken the time to respond.

On February 12th, Luke's doing a single-session workshop on form and narration in short humor writing! The workshop involves a bunch of fun, low-pressure writing exercises, and it's always a blast to see the hilarious stuff people come up with IN CLASS based on the prompts. You'll laugh, you'll think, you'll get those creative juices flowing!
 

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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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