A Newsletter of Humorous Writing #367
A Newsletter of Humorous Writing
For November 13-19, 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. A quick question for our readers: Which is funnier, rewriting Van Morrison’s “Moondance” so it’s about Space Jam? (“Well, it's a marvelous night for a Space Jam/With the hoop up above in your eyes” etc.) Or rewriting Quad City DJ's “Space Jam” so it’s about moondancing? (“Welcome to the moondance/Here's your chance, do your dance at the moondance” etc.) Let us know!
What We Enjoyed This Week
Rules for Our Cranberry Bog by Madeline Goetz and Bobbie Armstrong (McSweeney’s) Madeline and Bobbie do a great job revealing more and more funny details about the bog via some great sentence-level joke writing. For example: “No flash photography in the bog. It startles the bats. And we need the bats to eat the spiders.” Also, “bog”? Very funny word.
Study Finds 100,000 Drummers Are Lost A Year In Stage Fog by Brisa Sylvestre (The Hard Times) One of the most surprisingly difficult things in comedy is picking the right number for a joke. Take the title of this piece: If the number of lost drummers was too low, the piece would feel too low-stakes; if the number was too high, the piece would immediately lose any semblance of grounding. 100,000 feels like just the right level of absurdity for this joke. (Oh and of course the rest of the piece beyond the title is also very funny!)
I Am Eating Everything on IHOP’s ‘Indiana Jones’ Menu by Matt Singer (ScreenCrush) Another delightful chapter in the years-long saga of Matt trying every single movie-themed menu item offered by a major chain restaurant. In this installment, Matt tries to answer the extremely funny question, “Does IHOP’s menu in any way capture the spirit of Indiana Jones?”
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An Old Favorite
Yes, Of Course I Know What Escrow Is by Andrew Humphries (McSweeney’s) Pieces can often quickly start to feel repetitive when they’re based on a character denying something, but Andrew avoids this pitfall by going beyond escrow to explore the character’s point of view on other home-related topics. It’s really funny to hear this narrator explain different aspects of owning a home in their simplistic, tentative way: “Your routing number comes from the bank and has to do with those big tubes that suck up the money capsules at the drive-through.”
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 Editors and Friends of the Newsletter
If you’re one of the many people who has made their way to Bluesky over the past few weeks, don’t forget to check out Luke’s short humor writer starter pack. It’s an easy way to follow a bunch of great funny writers all at once.
And if you want to connect with the humor writing community offline as well, don’t forget: Our next Hangout of Humorous Writing is coming up on Wednesday, December 11 at 6 PM! Stop by Peculier Pub and say hi to other short humor writers and fans of short humor writing.
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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