A Newsletter of Humorous Writing #30
A Newsletter of Humorous Writing
A Newsletter of Humorous Writing
For April 13-18, 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. Dear reader, we have a request: As you know doubt know, most internet companies (e-businesses!) make their money by harvesting their users' data, and selling that data to advertisers. That, or a subscription model. Well, we would never charge you to read free internet humor (e-humor!). So, humbly, we ask that you give us your data. All of it. Name. Gender. Favorite food. Allergies. Greatest fear. Please write all of this information down, and fax it to us at a Headquarters of Humorous E-Businesses. Thanks! XOXOXOXO!
What We Enjoyed This Week
Things to Do in Philadelphia that Don't Involve Beating My Ass with a Big Hammer by Jon Plester (Points in Case) They say not to judge a book by its cover--but this is a great title. Just top notch. And the piece lives up to the hype! Pat's! Gino's! Pat's! Gino's. Philadelphia...what a city.
How to Pay Taxes on Your Emotional Labor by Ginny Hogan (McSweeney's) AND Introducing Form 1040 EL (Emotional Labor) by Caren Lissner (New York Times) Outside of the fact that both of these pieces are very funny, this is a great example of something that happens fairly often in the e-humor business: parallel thinking. Sometimes, two authors have the same (fantastic!) idea, and the pieces run at about the same time. There's nothing malicious or unsavory happening here; just two great writers both identifying the same, true thing that's worthy of critique and satire. Both pieces are worth a read.
An Old Favorite
Friends, we're trying something new here. For the next few weeks, we’ve decided to turn over the Old Favorites section to some special guests--Friends of the Newsletter--who will be telling you about some of their favorite pieces.
To kick things off, we're handing the reins over to Hallie Cantor (Arrested Development, Lady Dynamite, The New Yorker). Her selection:
My Hobbies by Ellie Kemper (McSweeney's)
"I like this piece because even though it is basically about nothing and has no real stakes and a pretty relaxed (if any) "game," I still end up thinking of lines from it and inwardly chuckling at them fairly frequently, 9 years after it was published. My favorite parts are 1) "Extremes are not really my thing. Baths are." And 2) The line where the narrator wonders if she will have enough energy to go to H&M once it stops raining. I love comedy that articulates thoughts that some might consider too boring, weird, or dumb to articulate...because usually I have also had those thoughts, and it is fun in a surprising-but-reassuring way to see them reflected back to me."
Updates From Your Hosts and Friends of the Show
Big week for Mr. James Folta.
Go read his fantastic piece, "The Sea is My Mistress. Please Don't Tell My Wife" in McSweeney's.
Also, read his blurbs about John Hodgman's wonderful book, Vacationland and Jack Handey's Deep Thoughts. This list also features picks from some other Friends of the Show. See if you can spot them!
News About The Next Show
We're working on getting a date for the next show, but in the meantime, keep sending us your personal data, and keep an eye on this space for updates!
See you next week!
@brianagler, @lukevburns, & @jamesfolta
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!
@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!