A Newsletter of Humorous Writing #285
A Newsletter of Humorous Writing
A Newsletter of Humorous Writing
For March 19-25, 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. We've been heisted! A gang of dapper thieves got together for one last job, and that job was to steal our prized gems, which were a gift from the royal family (not the one you're thinking of) as thanks for helping them with some pieces they submitted to McSweeney's. Please let us know if you see a bunch of hot people in suits and gowns, who have a small bag of gorgeous rubies and emeralds and a note saying "Cheerio, thanks for the feedback!"
What We Enjoyed This Week
Varieties of Moth, Categorized by What They Sound Like by Chris Eno McMahon (251) This is such a precise piece -- every category and every entry in those categories are so earned and specific. With listier pieces, you want to feel like each beat has been carefully considered, no matter how short. Each moth name is fun to read and consider, a real testament to how precise Chris was in putting this together.
Fuck It, I’m Making a Funfetti Cake by Rachel Reyes (McSweeney's) Short humor pieces with narrative arcs can sometimes feel a little overstuffed, because the work of chronicling the action can crowd out the premise and the jokes. Rachel earns the full arc here, of impulse buying cake mix to cake-induced stomachache, by making that plot part of the premise -- each beat advances the story but also heightens the premise.
It's 1178 BCE and the Bronze Age Has Never Looked Stronger. No, I Won't Lift My Eyes to the Horizon Right Now by Daniel Lavery and Mattie Lubchansky (The Chatner) This has everything that you want from a Daniel Lavery piece: great jokes, a deep knowledge of history, and an unapologetic willingness to make obscure references. What makes this particular piece, co-written with Mattie Lubchansky, so impressive is that it manages to keep us interested despite the coyness of the premise. ("This thing that you, the reader, know will happen will definitely NEVER happen!") The great jokes and brisk pacing keep the piece moving, so we never get too bogged down in thinking about the logic at play here. Really what I'm trying to say is that if you haven't subscribed to The Chatner, you gotta.
I’m Just a Typical British Man by Neil Tollfree (McSweeney's) This is a broad premise, which can often lead to flabbier pieces that just skim the surface of a topic. What Neil does really nicely is make choices within the piece to zoom in, and focus on smaller topics to riff on. It makes the whole piece more specific (and there are really wonderful specifics here) and gives Neil places to heighten more pointedly, as opposed to skipping around.
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Do you want to learn how to extract humor (and writing material) on a variety of topics, including the news, pop culture and events from everyday life? Then Writing Satire and Humor with Amy Currul is for you!
In this workshop-style course, you will learn how to brainstorm, draft and rewrite short humor and satire pieces, leaving class with multiple finished works ready for submission to publications such as McSweeney’s Internet Tendency, The New Yorker, The Belladonna Comedy and other internet outlets.
All participants will receive access to both Writing Class Radio’s First Draft writing groups, (which meet over Zoom, Tuesdays noon to 1:00 ET, and Wednesdays 7-8 pm ET) and access to Writing Class Radio’s Tips Clinics, noon to 1 ET on Zoom every second Saturday.
(Do you have an ad you'd like to place in the Newsletter? Fill out this form!)
An Old Favorite
Just What About the Phrase “Don’t Leave Cameron Alone With the Goddamn Cured Meats” Do You Not Understand? by Lillian Stone (McSweeney's) This is a great entry in the meat-humor canon, which also includes one of our favorites: Seth Reiss' Onion piece, "Meat." In this piece, the implication that Cameron's meat-madness has happened over and over is so fun, and the fact that Cameron's family has a plan to deal with it makes for a great premise. And the writing meat-sparkles -- Lillian excels at evocative, visceral details, and that skill is put to great use here in describing this little freak who is horny for cured meats.
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.
Updates From Your Hosts and Friends of the Newsletter
Luke and James are very excited to announce that the comedy podcast they've been working on will be debuting at the Tribeca Festival this year! The show is called Scriptulated! and it's a lightly-scripted, heavily-improvised comedy podcast where each week, a guest goes on an adventure through a different movie genre. It stars a very funny cast of improvisers: Peter Kim, Guillermo Martinez, Kelley Quinn, and Rehka Shankar. The Festival is coming up this June -- if you're planning on attending, let us know!
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!