A Newsletter of Humorous Writing #34
A Newsletter of Humorous Writing
A Newsletter of Humorous Writing
For May 10-16, 2018, a roundup of the week's finest prose humor and prose humor-related news.
Hello and welcome to A Newsletter of Humorous Writing, the email propaganda arm of the acclaimed humorous readings show, An Evening of Humorous Readings. Well, the summer heat is here and you know what that means: we're starting to assemble a crack team, Ocean's-Eleven-Twelve-etc.-style, to pull off the perfect beach day. We need a guy who can keep the beers cold. We need someone who can let us know when the water is just right. We need a security expert to keep our reading material from getting sandy. But most of all, we need someone who is going to say frequently, but not irritatingly often: "wow, what a nice time I'm having with you guys."
What We Enjoyed This Week
Important Moviepass Update: Moviepass Can No Longer Be Used To See Movies by Andrew Cushing (McSweeney's)
Your Mission, Should You Choose to Accept It, Is to Get My Stepson Keith to Stop Yelling "You've Got That Silly Putty Dick" at Me by Ryan Ciecwisz (Points In Case)
Your Perfect Mother’s Day (According to People Who Aren’t You) by Sarah Aswell (The Belladonna)
An Old Favorite
This week's guest pick comes from the wickedly funny Bizzy Coy, whose work has appeared in The New Yorker, McSweeney's, and she even has her own newsletter (oh hello there, newsletter synergy).
Movie Pitch for a Horse in Motion (1878) by Collin Gossel
"I admire the editorial prowess of Splitsider's Brian Boone (Editor's Note: see below), who seems to share my love of conceits that are just plain silly and jokes that are hammered home long past the point of absurdity. Collin Gossel's "Movie Pitch for a Horse in Motion (1878)" is a great example.
Collin deftly squeezes ten clever paragraphs out of the eleven frames of Eadweard Muybridge's photographic study of a horse galloping. Even though the protagonist's film pitch is basically horseshit, I love the commitment--infusing a few seconds of grainy footage with every beat and turn of an epic, full-length feature."
Updates From Your Hosts and Friends of the Show
The gang's been busy this week. Brian published a piece that you may remember from the live show called If You See Something, Say Something that's not just for transit freaks.
And Luke is over on New York magazine with a hilarious survey of talking houses called, ‘Our House Is Having a Nervous Breakdown!’: A Survey of Smart Homes in Film.
Other Humorous Writing News
In a sad bit of news for the small world of humor, the Splitsider Humor Section isn't going to be making the migration to Splitsider's new home with New York magazine. The Humor Section was always consistent, helmed by the talented and attentive Becca O'Neal and then for the past five years, Brian Boone. It always sucks to lose another venue for this type of writing. Brian was always great to pitch to, and published some real gems over the years.
In other online humor news, Little Old Lady Comedy just got a little facelift and a new domain. They've been publishing great stuff lately--be sure to check it out.
News About The Next Show
As our usual venue didn't have space for us this month, we've opted to instead host a little humor writers and fans meetup! On Thursday, May 31st, at 7pm, at Peculier Pub, join us and some of our dearest comedy writing pals for A Party of Humorous Readings! It'll be a chance to meet and mingle with like-minded comedy nerds. Which is all this has ever been about in the first place. And we'll hopefully know about June's show soon--keep an eye on this space for updates!
See you next week!
@brianagler, @lukevburns, & @jamesfolta
Did we miss a piece you loved? Did you love a piece we mentioned? Let us know! This is an experiment and we're hoping to continue to make it better and better. 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.
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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!