A Newsletter of Humorous Writing #356
A Newsletter of Humorous Writing
For August 28-September 3, 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. To boost our readership, we’re trying to go viral by filming a rat running around the subway with some short humor in its mouth. A stunt like this is harder to pull off than it looks, so if you have any tips on how we can make Short Humor Rat happen, let us know!
What We Enjoyed This Week
Building Your Fantasy Philosophy Department Team by Steven Gimbel (McSweeney’s) Extremely specific — you won’t be surprised to see that Steven is a professor of philosophy. This one really tramps out into the weeds in such a fun way: it’s granular, well-defined, and full of great, hilariously meandering lines. Hopefully someone out there makes this draft a reality!
Finally, a Harmless Alternative to Jurassic Park by David Guzman (Points in Case) The number of Jurassic Park parodies that exist is a testament to how good the original movie is; it has such a specific vision, premise, and world. David’s piece is an excellent addition to that satirical canon. We love how he makes a strong choice for his version of Jurassic Park, and then aggressively plays out the implications, with a number of fun turns and reversals.
Against August by Haley Mlotek (The Paris Review) The rant is a common form in short humor. A piece that describes in dripping detail how an author feels can be cathartic to read, and oftentimes can be even more cathartic to write. Haley’s piece is a tapestry of late-summer memories, but it begins as an elevated diatribe against August, and is clever, sharp, and well-reasoned — though we’re two guys who don’t thrive in summer, so we’re easily convinced here. It’s wonderfully acerbic and full of satisfying jabs.
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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 #18.
No, I'm From New York by Susanna Wolff (The New Yorker) This newsletter is proudly made in NYC. We're New Yorkers through and through (Subways! Bagels!) So, it is for that reason that this piece speaks to us on a deeply personal level. But that's not why it's great. It's great because it does so much all at the same time. It has a simple, but perfect premise. The voice is unique. It builds so naturally. And, most importantly, it somehow turns the name/word "Ralphs" into an insult. Give it a read, unless you're from LA, at which point you can just unsubscribe because your kind aren't welcome here.
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
And let us know if you have any ideas for how we can get Short Humor Rat set up — though sharing the Newsletter with a friend works just as well, and it will save us from a lot of rat bites!
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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