A Newsletter of Humorous Writing #290
A Newsletter of Humorous Writing
A Newsletter of Humorous Writing
For May 24-30, 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. Sometime last week, the keys to the Rare Blogs Room at the Humorous Readings Headquarters (HRHQ) went missing. We've looked everywhere, and we're afraid that they may have accidentally been sent out with last week's Newsletter -- let us know if they ended up in your inbox!
What We Enjoyed This Week
Nothing Will Change When My Baby Arrives by Sally N Miller (The Belladonna) Pieces that juxtapose two disparate elements can often fall flat when they don't spend enough time on one of the two parts of the premise. This piece would be dull or stilted if it were all parenting specifics, or if it were all robbery specifics, but Sally strikes a nice balance here between "challenges of being a new parent" and "Mission-Impossible-style heist" details. It keeps the reader on their toes and makes the jokes land that much harder.
Every Chess Piece RANKED by Mark Paglia (Slackjaw) The cliche about chess players is that they're all nerds and supervillains, but Mark has a different theory: chess players are gamers. Using the language of video game writing to discuss chess is such a simple premise and makes for some great lines: "The Magikarp of chess pieces, a pawn is most useful if you invest the time to grind EXP and promote it to a queen."
I’m the Epigraph to the Novel You’re Reading, and I Don’t Know Why I’m Here Either by Jeff Bender (McSweeney's) A solid piece that not only explores and heightens nicely, but also got us thinking about what an epigraph for our Newsletter might look like. Probably something from Revelations? Or a Simpsons quote? Or both?! We'll have to ask the folks at Tinyletter if that's even allowed.
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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 #124.
How to Get Out of a Hammock by Jiji Lee (New York Times)
What a simple premise; what a funny piece. Jiji Lee proves that you don't need a crazy conceit ("It's The Old Man and the Sea but it's a Vine, and it's directed by the love child of Michael Bay and the orthodontist I had in middle school," you just need to have faith in your idea, keep heightening, and see where it goes. And oh, the pacing! The quick beats and sharp jokes make you feel like you're struggling in the hammock right alongside the narrator--it's a masterclass in using the structure of the piece to enhance the overall joke.
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
James is going to be on a panel at the Tribeca Festival on June 12th, along with a bunch of (terrific) audio creators sharing who will be sharing insights into their (very cool) projects that are premiering at the festival. James will be talking about Scriptulated!, the podcast he and Luke created, and if you're at all interested in podcasts or the audio space, you won't want to miss it!
If you're interested in trying your hand at writing short humor pieces like the ones in this newsletter, but aren't sure where to start, Luke's got a workshop for you coming up on July 8th: Where to Start With Short Humor. In four weeks you'll learn the essentials of short humor writing, meet funny people, and write a draft of your own. (He's also got an advanced workshop starting in July as well.)
Other Humorous Writing News
And in WGA strike news: making their priorities clear, Netflix and Comcast are asking for CEO payraises in the middle of the strike, and the WGA is pushing back. Katharine Trendacosta wrote a great, comprehensive piece for Defector on what this strike is about and why it matters. And the strike is working, especially the strategy of shutting down productions with the help of the Teamsters and IATSE. The Entertainment Community Fund has financially helped hundreds who are out of work because of the strike -- consider giving them a donation, if you can!
As always, there's lots of info and ways to show solidarity on the WGA's Strike Hub!
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!