A Newsletter of Humorous Writing #365
A Newsletter of Humorous Writing
For October 30 - November 5, 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 been an ugly few days, and we’re feeling an immense amount of fear, grief, and rage. We hope you’re taking the time you need, and getting organized to help the most vulnerable.
We’d love to share what’s helping you all: What is inspiring you? What organizations and communities are you working with? How are you practicing solidarity?
In the meantime, we hope that these humor pieces bring you a smile this week.
What We Enjoyed This Week
Theory and Craft of Poetry: A Drinking Game by Kenny Mitchell (HAD) This poem is a fun juxtaposition that sparks some excellent turns-of-phrase. A quick and satisfying piece. And if you aren’t clued in to HAD’s chaotic and breakneck submission sprints, be sure to sign up for their email alerts — their submission calls are always fun, and their blink-and-you-miss-it open and close speed are wild and fun.
Who (or What) Is the Rizzler? A Big Boom FAQ. by Jodi Walker (The Ringer) Maybe it’s just that we’re getting older, but we find ourselves increasingly in need of guides like this. Jodi’s explainer/take-down/riff on the Rizzler is funny, and full of great lines like “Then there were his shoes: neon green, in constant motion, jutting out horizontally from his body, without so much as a suggestion that they’d ever touch the floor.” If you have to learn about pop culture flashes in the pan, this is the way to do it.
QUIZ: Is He Into You or Is He Just Texting Because You Hit His Car? by Freddie Shanel (Reductress) Regular readers know we’re big fans of Freddie’s work — they’ve written hundreds of pieces for Reductress that are consistently sharp and specific. We love how Freddie’s excellent piece this week takes a silly but simple premise, and effortlessly elevates it with great writing — the word “angry about the fact that his trunk is concave” is excellent.
And an update: the “I’m Not a Passenger Princess. I’m a Trunk Troll.” piece we shared a few editions ago was written by McKayley Gourley, and Dylan Reynolds wrote the headline. Thanks for writing in to let us know, McKayley.
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Vocabaret — the show that makes language fun while making fun of language — is holding its fourth annual Word Championship on Friday, and this year it's part of the New York Comedy Festival! Vocabaret is hosted by five of the New York City's greatest and most-decorated wordsmiths; see which of them will survive the gauntlet of pun games and quip-thinking challenges to win the coveted Vocab Beret and be crowned this year's champion. Catch us IRL at Caveat or stream/VOD from anywhere in the world.
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On November 11th, Peabody and WGA Award-Winning Writer Felipe Torres Medina is doing his show "Choose Your Own Immigration Story" at UCB New York!
They say America is the land of endless possibilities, so let a real-life immigrant and help you live some of them. Will you brave the dystopian lottery system of the H1-B work visa? Will you try to become an artist and acquire the classification of Alien of Extraordinary Ability? or will you marry a real-estate magnate and somehow become First Lady? The choice is yours.*
*Pending approval of the United States Citizenship and Immigration Service.
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An Old Favorite
My Undoing by George Meyer (The New Yorker) This is an old one that we find ourselves returning to a lot — it’s a strange and cacophonous piece by one of the humor greats, and really delights in language. A great reminder that the fun of this form, both to read and to write, is in playing with words.
And while we’re here, here's an exchange from an interview Meyers did with The Believer about another great combination of words that he wrote for The Simpsons:
GM:...I’m pretty sure I wrote “Pray for Mojo.” Do you remember that line?
BLVR: Weren’t those the dying words of Homer’s helper monkey?
GM: Uh-huh. It’s almost like an epitaph for Western civilization.
BLVR: That seems about right.
GM: It’s this bloated, fucked-out corpse that washes up on the beach, burping up its final breath.
BLVR: What a lovely, pro-America message for the kids.
GM: [Laughs] I do what I can.
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
Take care of yourselves and take care of each other.
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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