A Newsletter of Humorous Writing #311
A Newsletter of Humorous Writing
A Newsletter of Humorous Writing
For October 18-24, 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. What's the minimum amount of toasting that is required for bread to become toast? Is there a certain amount of heat and time? Could one argue that the moment bread enters the toaster, it becomes toast? We'll keep pondering this philosophical conundrum.
What We Enjoyed This Week
Son, You Will Not Binge-Watch LOST—You’ll Watch One Episode a Week and Be Frustrated Like Mom and I Did by Max Davison (McSweeney's) Even if you've never seen a single episode of Lost, you'll still be able to appreciate the way this piece gets at the difference between binge-watching and watching a show as it airs. That being said, there are a TON of terrific, very funny Lost and Lost fandom details in here.Vows from the Woman Who Hates Her Future Husband by Kirsten King (Points in Case) A great satire of those wedding vows that cross the line from playful, good-natured teasing into outright complaining about a future spouse. The story of "that day at Six Flags" is delightfully weird, but Kirsten never gets so caught up in that weirdness that the reader loses track of the fact that the story is being told in the context of wedding vows.
This Core Workout Will Make Your Abs Ponder the Futility of Believing in God by Miles Kahn (McSweeney's) A juxtaposition of workout instructor tone and existentialism? That's a recipe for some classic short humor laughs. Miles packs this piece with a bunch of great specifics and some very funny vocabulary and turns of phrase. ("Carve out some SERIOUSLY DESOLATE ABS.")
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Writers Write About Their Own Writing
This is one of the only humor pieces I wrote during the height of the pandemic, a time otherwise characterized by genuinely concerning amounts of reality TV. I had it on my to-do list for a month—"write something about being a horny 10-year-old???"—and finally cracked it. In the end, the piece got a good amount of traction, and that's how I got my agent and, eventually, my book deal! I think it's a cool reminder that the best pieces don't always come easily, and it's worth working on funny stuff even when the muse is hiding behind hours of reality TV consumption.
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 advanced humor writing workshops starting on Nov. 7th (just ONE spot left) and Nov. 11th (five spots left)! He's also doing a single-session hour-long intro workshop with the UCB Training Center on November 16th. The intro workshop is designed to very quickly impart the essentials of short humor writing, set you up to be a more insightful reader of short humor, and give you the tools to start working on your own draftsJames and Points In Case's EIC Court Sullivan talked with Benjamin Davis at Chill Subs about humor writing, editing, advice to submitters, and shared the big list of humor sites to submit to PIC compiled. Check out the full interview here!
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!