A Newsletter of Humorous Writing

For March 29-April 4, 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. Here at the Newsletter, we've never shied away from controversy, and this week we have another one of our bold and daring opinions to share: We fervently believe that when it comes to hamburger stands, the more old-timey the better. We will stand by this no matter how much flak we take!

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What We Enjoyed This Week

QUIZ: Is He Quiet and Mysterious or Just Obeying the Laws of the Library? by Malia Simon (Reductress) This piece is chock-full of delightful turns of phrase: "Devout follower of library dogma;" "this stoic man knows better than to make noise out of his mouth;" and, of course, from the title, the great "laws of the library."

10 Reasons Why There’s Absolutely Nothing Sad About Eating At Medieval Times Alone by Rob Steinberg (The Hard Times) There's one particular paragraph in this that really got us, and we're going to mention it here, so if you don't want it spoiled, read the piece first and then come back! Okay here we go: The idea of someone buying out a whole section of Medieval Times so that one of the knights has to fight just for them is truly hilarious.  

My Wild Weekend at the Philip Roth Festival by Erin Somers (Esquire) A fantastic mix of reportage, personal history, and thoughtful reflections on living life as a writer and the landscape of contemporary literature, this article is also full of very funny details: "I hear an older lady with a skunk-like hairdo shouting toward the dais, 'CAN’T HEAR YOU' approximately ten times. I hear a septuagenarian say the word 'threesome' into a microphone."
 

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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 #27.

New Baseball Stats by Ezra Deutsch-Feldman (McSweeney's) Today is MLB Opening Day, so it's only appropriate that we feature a baseball piece in the newsletter. We love this piece because it is--to borrow a baseball phrase--right down the middle. Super-clean premise. Tight jokes. Even if you aren't a fan of advanced statistics or even a fan of baseball in general, this piece still works.
 

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

Luke's got just ONE spot left in his Tuesday night advanced short humor writing workshop starting on April 18th! Check out this thread (just updated!) to see some of the great writing that's come out of previous workshops.
 

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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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