A Newsletter of Humorous Writing #306
A Newsletter of Humorous Writing
A Newsletter of Humorous Writing
For September 13-19, 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. Did you know that there's a Columbo tie-in book called The Grassy Knoll, in which the detective investigates the assassination of JFK? It's true! What we're wondering is, does the book follow the format of the TV show and reveal who the killer is right off the bat? We suspect that approach wouldn't feel quite as satisfying in a story about the Kennedy assassination. If you've been able to get your hands on a copy, write in and let us know what the deal is!
What We Enjoyed This Week
Who Made This Hummus? by Colin Nissan (McSweeney's) We particularly appreciate how Colin handles dialogue here. Though the character names don't appear before each line, it's always completely clear who's speaking. It can often feel awkward to have characters identify themselves, or the person they're speaking to, in their dialogue, but Colin sidesteps any potential problems by playing up the clunkiness and making it into a joke, like in this line: "I’m firing both of you, and I can totally do that, because I’m your boss." (You would, of course, recognize your boss if you were speaking to them, and they would have no need to identify themself.) A great piece--and we expect no less from the great Colin Nissan!
Fool Me Once, Shame on You, Fool Me Twenty Times and That's a Situation by Lillie Franks (Points in Case) It's always really impressive when a writer establishes a very clear pattern in a piece, follows that pattern in each beat, and STILL manages to surprise you. Lillie finds so many funny reversals and heightens the relationship between the fooler and the foolee in a really satisfying way.
A Review by the Couple That Only Rented This Airbnb to Bang by Joanna Borns and Erin Chack (McSweeney's) What's so much fun about this piece is the way that Joanna and Erin let readers infer what the couple was doing in the Airbnb, rather than spelling it out. They put the pertinent information in the title, and leave us to connect the dots in the body of the piece. If you didn't know what the title was, you might not be able to figure out what was going on until the third-to-last paragraph. It's a great illustration of how important a title is to a short humor piece, and how smart choices about a title can generate big laughs. We also love the use of repetition for comedic effect in this early paragraph: "The bed frame could be sturdier. The kitchen counter could be sturdier. The patio furniture could be sturdier. The bathroom sink could be sturdier. The refrigerator is surprisingly sturdy—no complaints there!"
-- AD --
Comedian, writer (the Late Show with Stephen Colbert, the Onion), and occasional Newsletter of Humorous Writing honoree Django Gold has just released BAG OF TRICKS, his debut stand-up comedy special! An hour of jokes, humorous observations, and rambling paranoia. Watch it right......... here!
(Do you have an ad you'd like to place in the Newsletter? Fill out this form!)
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 #56.
Everything I've Done That Made A Rich Old Lady With Opera Glasses Faint Or A Monocle Fall Out Of A Rich Guy's Eye by Alex Watt (The New Yorker) This piece was so funny, it made me want to eat a horse's ass! (Ed note: This is only funny if you've read the piece beforehand. Now, it's just weird.)
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 Show
Luke's got just FOUR spots left in his advanced humor writing workshop starting on October 7th! In four weeks you'll write three drafts, get feedback and support, and meet other funny folks. (He's also got a weeknight advanced class starting on October 12th!)
Other Humorous Writing News
And in strike news: The WGA and the studios met yesterday and planned to meet today to negotiate! Fingers crossed that the studios are serious about making a deal, but as always be wary of rumors! It was a big week for shows walking back their announcements to cross the picket line: both Drew Barrymore and Bill Maher decided to change their minds and do the right thing -- good! Before Barrymore's announcement, some members of her show's staff, including co-head writer Cristina Kinon, spoke out: "Unions only work when you stick together with unions across the labor spectrum." California announced unemployment benefits for striking writers. Despite the studios' best PR efforts to imply otherwise, showrunners are firmly supportive of the strike. And of course a big Newsletter "hell yeah" to the striking UAW auto workers! Here's an interesting piece outlining one cool way that workers at non-striking plants are eagerly supporting the strike.
If you're looking to support striking workers from WGA and SAG, as well as Unite Here 11 hotel workers, Teamsters, and IATSE members, here's a great list of mutual aid funds that could use your donations!
There's lots of info and ways to show solidarity on the WGA's Strike Hub!
(A few of you have shared links and updates from the picket line with us--thanks! If there's anything you'd like us to share, a link, or a resource, or your personal thoughts or anecdotes from the strike, please reply to this email!)
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!