A Newsletter of Humorous Writing #327
A Newsletter of Humorous Writing
For February 6-13, 2024
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. This newsletter is free, and will always be 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, particularly now: TinyLetter was a free service, but we pay an annual fee to use our new platform, Buttondown. Your donations will help keep the newsletter financially sustainable for us, and 1/3rd of the money will go, as always, to Stand Up To Cancer in honor of our pal and newsletter co-founder, Brian.
What We Enjoyed This Week
Sexy Valentine’s Day Date Ideas That Honor the Life and Faith of Saint Valentine by Angus Duffin (McSweeney's) Juxtaposing a modern "fun and flirty" tone with specifics drawn from the life of the historical Saint Valentine generates big laughs in this short-but-sweet list piece. Bonus points for a reference to beekeeping, the funniest profession because it involves the funniest animal.
Ten Grapes I Ate Anyway by Mike Range (Points in Case) The word "anyway" does terrific work in this title, recontextualizing everything that came before, and tantalizingly suggesting what's to come without giving too much away. The piece lives up to the great title, painting a very funny picture of the narrator via the stories of the ten grapes.
Is the phrase The Tortured Poets Department grammatically correct? by Olivia Rutigliano (Literary Hub) As we always say, there's nothing we like more than when a writer gets granular about a specific topic, and Olivia gets VERY granular indeed: "In this interpretation, the Poets don’t possess the department the way the Dean might possess an Office. (That would be written as Dean’s Office, or, if it’s an office for multiple Deans, Deans’ Office, or if it’s the office of someone named Deans, Deans’s Office.)"
-- AD --
The UCB has three exciting ***ONLINE*** panels coming up as part of our "Training Center Presents" series!
On February 19th, there's a Q&A with Connor Ratliff about his hit podcast Dead Eyes.
Next, a Q&A about how to submit your work to festivals (like the Edinburgh Fringe!) with Gabe Mollica.
And then – a panel about Sesame Street and writing for children!
Tickets are only $15, and buying a ticket gets you access to the recording for a week after -- so don't worry if you can't tune in live.
Get your tickets and check out our other events here!
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An Old Favorite
A Very Chill Email to My 47 Gorgeous Bridesmaids by Mitra Jouhari (McSweeney's) This piece heightens in a big way very quickly, but it never feels overly random or scattershot thanks to Mitra's expert selection of weird, funny details, and the way those details emerge from more grounded wedding specifics. For example, the expected discussion of what the bridesmaids will wear at the wedding is what leads to the wonderfully wacky "heather grey sweatsuits, either one size too big or one size too small."
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
Masters of the Nefarious, the French cult comedy classic comic that Luke translated, is still available for pre-order! Thanks to everyone who has already bought a copy--let Luke know if you get one too!
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!