A Newsletter of Humorous Writing #357
A Newsletter of Humorous Writing
For September 4-10, 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’s getting cooler out here in NYC, but don’t forget, before you put away your AC unit, you have to drink all the water in there!
What We Enjoyed This Week
What I Imagine TV’s “Mature Audiences” Are Like by Sarah Garfinkel (The New Yorker) This is a really smart and fun premise! Exploring a concept like “Mature Audiences,” that is in common usage but not clearly defined, gives Sarah a lot of angles to explore and build out—and imagining what these viewers might be like is a lot of fun.
A Reminder to Submit Your First Week Attendance to the Registrar, in the Style of Cormac McCarthy’s All the Pretty Horses by Ben Steere (McSweeney’s) This is a short and sweet piece, leaning more heavily on the literary parody than mapped specifics from academia. Ben’s McCarthy parody is very well done, and rendering an everyday academic meeting in that style is very satisfying.
Things People Have Yelled Down to Me, a Person Trapped Alone at the Bottom of a Well by Amanda Goble (McSweeney’s) Poking fun at depression risks punching down, but Amanda situates the target of her satire clearly and squarely on the people who are making bizarre comments about depression. And the heightened scenario in the premise gives it a great level of nearly-grounded wackiness.
-- AD --
Starting October 6th, Heidi Lux (Reductress, McSweeney’s, Nickelodeon, Tubi) is teaching Writing the Satirical Screenplay through Writing Workshops! Dive into the world of satirical screenwriting and transform your sharp, comedic ideas into polished, cinematic scripts in this 8-week Zoom workshop. This course is designed for writers who want to create thought-provoking comedies that resonate with audiences. Spots are limited so we can focus on workshopping work - snag your spot here!
(Do you have an ad you'd like to place in the Newsletter? Fill out this form!)
An Old Favorite
Addressing the Allegations that I Left the Sleepover Early Because I Was Scared of the Movie by Ryan Ciecwisz (Points in Case) These days Ryan has turned his focus to performing in NYC (and you should check out his shows sometime) — but he remains the master of the overly-specific, twisted-POV monologue. He has a great eye for jokes and oddball specifics, but never neglects the basics: his pieces have strong, clear premises with specific justifications. That solid groundwork is key for pieces that spiral off into wackiness the way Ryan’s stuff does. This piece is also a nice parody of a politician’s cagey, studied explanation — with Ryan’s specificity, the parody takes on an I-Think-You-Should-Leave-style, weird guy defensiveness.
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
James wrote a piece for Lit Hub imagining if characters from novels sent spammy, fundraising texts like politicians.
Today is the six month anniversary of the publication of MASTERS OF THE NEFARIOUS, the hilarious cult classic French graphic novel that Luke translated. If you haven’t picked it up yet, what are you waiting for? The reviews have been great! And if you have picked it up (thank you so much) but haven’t left a rating or review for it somewhere, that would be hugely appreciated!
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!