A Newsletter of Humorous Writing #28
A Newsletter of Humorous Writing
A Newsletter of Humorous Writing
For March 29-April 4, 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. Hope you had a safe and joyful April Fool's Day and that the brands didn't prank you too badly on Twitter. Many believe that April's name comes from the Latin verb aperire, meaning "to open." But we've always believed what our middle school best friend Shelby told us: that it was named for Avril Lavigne, who was Shelby's crush for most of the early 2000s.
What We Enjoyed This Week
3 Signs Your Biological Clock is Telling You It’s Peanut Butter Jelly Time by Miranda Kronfeld (Reductress)
Please Don’t Answer This 2020 Census Survey By Nehemiah Markos and Jed Feiman (The New Yorker) Friends of The Show Nehemiah and Jed tackling the hot issues of the moment.
A Brief Oral History of Babe Ruth Claiming His Bat Was A Wizard's Staff by Ryan Ciecwisz (McSweeney's)
You're God! How Will You Punish Jim Carrey? by Brooks Oglesby (Points in Case)
Life Is A Comedy by Chas Gillespie (McSweeney's) So simple, so sweet. Like eating a whole sugar packet, but good and not something done on a dare by your middle school pal Shelby, who thought it would impress Avril Lavigne if she ever heard about it.
An Old Favorite
Dirtbag Hamlet by Daniel Mallory Ortberg (The Toast)
You gotta love a piece with the line, "im going to the cemetery to touch skulls," but when it's also a literary reference? You're in humor-hog heaven, pal. The entire "Dirtbag" series on The Toast (R.I.P.) was always such a joy, but this one in particular has always stuck with us.
Updates From Your Hosts and Friends of the Show
James wrote a piece this April Fool's Day about the real April Fool.
Other Humorous Writing News
The Onion, Clickhole, and The A.V. Club voted to unionize this week! Congrats on joining the WGA. We all look forward to the day when comedy writers can finally seize the wacky means of hilarious production, rise up and overthrow the bourgeois, who have to have every joke explained to them.
The writers and Belladonnas behind the McSweeney's piece "New Erotica for Feminists" inked a deal to turn that article into a book, due out 11/18. Congrats!
News About The Next Show
Well, well, well, next week is our April edition of An Evening of Humorous Readings! We're back at le Poisson Rouge, on Wednesday, April 11th. Doors open at 7 pm and the show starts at 8 pm. So you can show up at 7 and drink beers with us, but the show won't start until 8. I know there was some confusion about this last time. Sorry.
But hey, we've got amazing guests:
- River Clegg (The Opposition, The New Yorker, The Onion)
- Ariel Dumas (The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, The Colbert Report)
- Ginny Hogan (The New Yorker, McSweeney's, Little Old Lady Comedy)
Keep an eye on this space! And why don't you RSVP on Facebook? We're hoping the patron saint of April and mall punks, Avril Lavigne, will show up. We promised Shelby. Shelby's going to be devastated if Avril's not there.
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
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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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!