A Newsletter of Humorous Writing #346
A Newsletter of Humorous Writing
For June 19-25, 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 Sunday we’re sending out another subscription edition of the newsletter, in which we’ll be talking about one of our big comedy influences: The Onion. If you’ve got memories of The Onion you’d like to share, drop us a line and we may include them!
What We Enjoyed This Week
My Recent Interview to Simply Rent a Small House in Los Angeles for Six Months by Dan Kennedy (McSweeney’s) There’s so much to like about this piece, but we were particularly taken with this description of a laugh: “I start a goddamn nervous laugh that suddenly feels like the kind of nervous laugh someone would use if they were trying to swindle you out of something or convince you that they’re not lying. It’s a terrible laugh.” (And yes, we triple-checked to make sure that the link above goes to the REAL Dan Kennedy’s website.)
Woman Wishes It Were Easier to Have Big, Toxic Friend Group in Adulthood by McKayley Gourley (Reductress) The details of the dynamics of the big toxic friend group (BTFG) are very funny: “‘Humans are social creatures,’ said Dr. Moira Gates, a professor of anthropology at the University of Michigan. ‘And part of that socialization includes confronting a 12-person group chat about a preferred lighter that went missing last night and is presumed stolen.’” The ending is great too—an impressive mix of comedy and poignancy.
Interview Questions for Potential Employers Who Refuse to Reveal the Salary by Stephanie Redmond (Points in Case) You could imagine a version of this piece that also included the responses from the potential employer, but Stephanie is able to communicate everything we need to know about how the conversation is going with just the questions. It’s a great choice that keeps the focus on the main thing that’s funny about the piece, keeps us briskly moving from joke to joke, and keeps the piece from feeling too much like a sketch. (Also we love lines like, “I’m trying to find out if they’re greedy fruit goblins.”)
-- ADS --
On Sunday, June 30th at 5 PM, SOME FUN LINES: A SATIRE AND HUMOR SHOWCASE is back at Caveat! Come see some of the best satire writers in New York City, and therefore planet Earth, read some of their best short humor pieces. Featuring Aarushi Agni, Jenny Arimoto, Michelle Cohn, Jennie Egerdie, Madeline Goetz, and Chloe Radcliffe. Hosted by Johnathan Appel (Last Week Tonight), Chandler Dean (Lovett or Leave It), and Maeve Dunigan (The New Yorker). Get $5 off with promo code somecheaplines.
A play? In Los Angeles?!?!?! How cute would that be...
On 7/2 at The Lyric Hyperion, a talented lineup will perform a staged reading of an absurd comedic play by TV/film writer Mary Gulino (Upload, Hailey's On It, The New Yorker, McSweeney's, etc). The show, JIGGLE FRIENDS FRIENDSHIP HOUR, explores the world of superfandoms through various access points while tackling themes like "inevitable decay" and "job."
Performed by: Scott Egleston, Becca Savoy, Yolie Cortez, Ari Friedman, Isabella Gerasole, Sanjay Nambiar, & Rachel Kaplan
Tickets are 5 bucks-- available here!
(Do you have an ad you'd like to place in the Newsletter? Fill out this form!)
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 #69 (nice).
Awfully Critical Software Updates by Jordan Landsman (Weekly Humorist) Would this newsletter be more popular if it were an app? Hypothetical question, of course. We fear technology and believe that society should return to the land.
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 just ONE spot left in his advanced short humor writing workshop starting on July 9th! Writing from past workshops has gone on to be published by the New Yorker (print and online), McSweeney’s, and more!
Other Humorous Writing News
We were very excited to hear that The Onion is restarting its fellowship program. You can find the full details here. Applications are due on July 15th!
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!