A Newsletter of Humorous Writing

For July 5-11, 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. With the social media landscape growing more fractured by the day, we just want to mention how grateful we are for all our wonderful subscribers and everyone who has taken the time to share the newsletter with others. It's always deeply appreciated, but especially now, when a lot of the usual channels one might use for promotion are growing increasingly unreliable. Thank you for reading and thank you for spreading the word about the newsletter!

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What We Enjoyed This Week

Why I, A 1960s Business Man Having an Affair, Believe Everyone Needs to Return to Office by Carly Silverman (Points in Case) This is a great example of how, when your piece involves timely subject matter (like "return to the office"), you can make it stand out by combining the topical element with something really specific and unexpected. Case in point, all the "1960s business man" details in this are terrific. ("How can my mistress, whose hair is different from my wife’s, inspire my next big success if I’m home in front of my computer?")

The U.N. Trial of That One Barber Who Always Screws Up by Evan Waite (McSweeney's) We just love the juxtaposition of formal trial language with the descriptions of the barber's behavior and the bad haircuts he inflicts on his customers. And (spoiler alert) we love the one line delivered by the Judge. It's so surprising and so funny--and it's the sort of joke that wouldn't land if this piece were overstuffed with too many characters, as sometimes happens in pieces that are in dialogue form. Evan makes it easy for the reader to keep track of who is speaking at all times, so the brief appearance of the Judge pops in a big way.

A Camping Trip with Young Kids, as Imagined by Me Before Having Kids by Julie Vick (McSweeney's) and A Completely Realistic Beach Visit by Zoe Franz (Points in Case) When the premise of a piece involves taking something that is (often) unpleasant and writing about what it would be like if it actually went well for once, you have to be careful that you don't wind up simply describing a normal, perfectly fine experience. Zoe and Julie avoid this pitfall, and deliver two fantastic summer-travel-themed pieces, by heightening how great things are going in each situation to an absurd degree, and by finding clever ways to remind us how things would REALLY play out. ("I admire my now perfectly tanned skin as I stroll back to my car." "The kids at the campground next to us are wrestling and trying to eat burnt marshmallows off the ground, while ours sit and munch on their carefully prepared smores.")
 

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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 #90.

Sorry, But I Don't Think Attending Xavier's School For Gifted Youngsters Will Get Me Into Brown by Felipe Torres Medina and Taylor Kay Phillips (McSweeney's) Apparently, the new X-Men movie totally bombed. Probably because everybody was too busy to go to the theater because they were reading this piece.

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 Show

If you're interested in learning to write short humor but don't have time for a four-week course, Luke's got a single-session workshop coming up on August 19th! As with all of Luke's workshops, it's on zoom, so you can even attend from the beach (we'll just ask that you keep yourself muted if the majestic sound of the waves becomes distracting).
 

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Other Humorous Writing News

And in WGA strike news: If you've been following the strike at all, you've likely already seen this Deadline piece where studio executives admit to an "evil" strategy of continuing to refuse negotiations "until union members start losing their apartments and losing their houses." It's cruel, but it won't work; The studios are clearly scared of SAG-AFTRA, which seems poised to join the WGA in striking, and as many have pointed out, planting this article is a bad look and a worse strategy. A good time to donate to the Entertainment Community Fund! 

David Roth has a great piece in Defector on the rotten business logic and callousness undergirding media CEOs' thinking.

On the lighter side, here's a sketch about the unsung heroes of the strike, sent to us by Friend of the Newsletter Evan Waite, and a old Letterman bit about the studios from the '07/'08 strike

And as always, there's lots of info and ways to show solidarity on the WGA's Strike Hub!
 

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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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