A Newsletter of Humorous Writing #36
A Newsletter of Humorous Writing
A Newsletter of Humorous Writing
For May 24-30, 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. It's the finals of the Scripps National Spelling Bee tonight, and that leads us to an interesting question: Is it "humor" or "humour?" The Newsletter style guide makes it very clear that "humor" is to be preferred over "humor." But, can we let you on a secret? Sometimes, when our copy editor is on vacation, we go absolutely nuts. Not only do we use "humour," we put two spaces after periods, and we tell the Oxford comma to get the hell out of here! Marge isn't going on her trip to Florida for a few more weeks, so we'll stick with normal grammar now. But oh boy, when she boards that flight to Boca, all bets are off...
What We Enjoyed This Week
I Use 'They' Pronouns Because I'm Non-Binary and Also Because I'm Always Surrounded By My Bees by Jes Tom (Reductress) Bees are, objectively, the funniest animal. If you disagree, please find the unsubscribe link below.
How to Keep Your House Cool This Summer by Brian Boone (Weekly Humorist) Former Splitsider Humor Section (RIP) editor Brian Boone has a real gem here. Also, more importantly, you'll notice that both the Weekly Humorist and Splitsider, use the "or" construction, rather than "our" construction of humor. Just thought we'd point that out.
If You Ever Think "I Wish I Was Dead," Let Me Assure You: It's More Correct to Use "Were" by Brooks Oglesby (Points in Case) Brian, Luke, and James loved this piece, but it should come as no surprise that Marge actually made this selection.
Hiring: A Team of Rock-Star Entrepreneurs To Launch My Startup, Unless I Get a Real Job First by Lucas Gardner (The New Yorker) Friend of the newsletter, Lucas, does a bang-up job with this one. It's always good to see a fresh, funny take, on "entrepreneur" culture.
An Old Favorite
America: A Review by Megan Amram (McSweeney's) Megan Amram might be the actual funniest person. The Parks and Rec, and The Good Place writer takes crystal-clear premises and stuffs them full of jokes. There are so many jokes. So, so many. But the piece never feels weighed down. It zips right along. And while it's not specific to the piece, it's important to note that Megan is also amazing at puns, and is earnestly trying to win an Emmy in the Short Form Comedy or Drama Series competition.
Updates From Your Hosts and Friends of the Show
James was featured on the UCB Long-Form Conversations podcast. A humor writer and improviser? We've got a regular Bo Jackson over here.
Other Humorous Writing News
John Hodgman's wonderful book, Vacationland, is now available in paperback. We bought the hardcover, because we support writers, but you can do whatever.
News About The Next Show
We're still working on a date for the next show, but in the meantime, tonight is the Party of Humorous Readings. Come join us Peculier Pub at 7pm to talk humor and/or humour.
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!