A Newsletter of Humorous Writing

For November 8-14, 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. There's just one week 'til Thanksgiving, and we can't wait to prepare our favorite side dish: A roasted yam the size of a footstool topped with an enormous marshmallow that we spend hundreds of dollars to have specially fabricated for this recipe. Come by Humorous Readings Headquarters (HRHQ) if you want a scoop!

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What We Enjoyed This Week

Stephen Sondheim Dissects the Jardiance Jingle by Eric Gordon (McSweeney's) Overanalyzing something banal is a great way to generate laughs, and this piece has funny analysis aplenty: "Why does our pensive, distant Joanne, pushing intimacy away with such stiff and formal constructions as 'at each day’s start' and 'as time went on,' suddenly burst into the Guys and Dolls vernacular of 'really swell'?" Also major credit to Eric for including a revised version of the jingle at the end of the piece! After all the critiques of the real jingle, and given that the narrator is Stephen Sondheim, the pressure is on to come up with something good, and he really delivers.

This Week’s Punctuation Power Rankings by Jeff Drake (McSweeney's) We always enjoy a good absurd ranking. The fact that the narrator updates these rankings every week amps up the character element of the piece in a satisfying way.

Use Your Dang Gravy Boat by Jaya Saxena (Eater) A delightful paean, not just to gravy boats, but to all single-use kitchen implements. If you've got a favorite esoteric cooking gadget (or a cherished gravy boat) write in and let us know!
 

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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 #112.

Flyover State Erotica for Journalists by Kimberly Harrington (McSweeney's) If we have to read another piece about political pundits going to diners to learn about America, we're canceling all of our subscriptions (not just to newspapers...all the subscriptions). But, we would gladly read another piece like this one because it's clear, funny, and we just love it.

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

The hour-long Intro to Short Humor workshop Luke is doing for the UCB training center is... TONIGHT! It's designed to very quickly impart the essentials of short humor writing and give you the tools to start working on your own drafts. (And if you can't make it tonight, you can buy a ticket and get access to the recording of the event for the next week!)
 

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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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