A Newsletter of Humorous Writing #335
A Newsletter of Humorous Writing
For April 3-9, 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. It turns out we've got a theme cooking in this edition: By sheer coincidence, all our favorite pieces from this week have to do with food and beverages. So put on your bib, get your favorite mug out of the cabinet, and get ready to chow down/drink up/ingest... horizontally?... some great prose humor.
What We Enjoyed This Week
Can I Interest You in a Brand-New Sparkling Water Brand? by Jeff Drake (McSweeney's) "Now that I hear it out loud, we’ll probably end up closer to Zoinks than Floop on the Zoinks-Floop Spectrum." This recurring element about what to call the new sparkling water is one of our favorite runners in recent memory.
How to Introduce Whipped Cream Into Your Sex Life Without Completely Ignoring Your Partner by Madison Dillard (Reductress) A type of comedy we love is when a character has an all-consuming obsession, and that obsession keeps getting them into trouble. (Wile E. Coyote and the Road Runner, for example.) Madison delivers a great example of this humor subgenre with this very funny portrait of someone who just can't resist the siren song of whipped cream.
I’m the Draft List at This Brewery and No, You Can’t Have a Light Beer by Emily Delaney (McSweeney's) The voice of the narrator is terrific. The tone and syntax are so specific and well-developed, it really takes this premise (which is already very funny) to the next level. "If it sounds like a mistake, we’re brewin’ it and we’re callin’ it something like, 'I Bet You’ve Never Seen a Penguin Drive a Sportscar.'"
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An Old Favorite
Excerpts from Ina Garten’s Anarchist Cookbook by Tom Smyth (McSweeney's) This juxtaposition of Ina Garten (whose voice Tom completely nails, by the way) and anarchist cookbook specifics is a real winner. Almost every single sentence manages to combine these two elements in one way or another, giving this piece a truly impressive joke per word ratio.
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 is a guest on Rejected Shorts this Sunday, April 14th, at 5PM at Caveat (21A Clinton Street)! The lineup is full of great writers--snag a ticket and come check it out!
Thanks so much to everyone who came out (via zoom) last night to check out our show celebrating Evan Waite's new book Life Wants You Dead. And big thanks to guests River Clegg, JiJi Lee, and Sarah Pappalardo, and of course, our guest of honor, Evan Waite himself. We had a blast!
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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