A Newsletter of Humorous Writing #37
A Newsletter of Humorous Writing
A Newsletter of Humorous Writing
For May 31-June 6, 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. Some personal news from the HQ: we've almost closed a deal with the Mayor's office to print the entirety of P.G. Wodehouse's Piccadilly Jim on the side of a series of buildings. If it goes through, it'll be one of the first print humor public art initiatives ever. The project is going to require a ton of buildings, so let us know if you have any ideas for places we can use -- the more we get, the larger and more legible the print can be!
What We Enjoyed This Week
Official Patch Notes For Chess's First Major Update in 1500 Years by Don Plattner (McSweeney's) As we've long been saying, it's about time that the Game of Kings gets knocked down a peg or two.
Woman Explains ‘Pretty Normal’ Shower To Houseguest by Miranda Kronfeld (Reductress)
Movies I Have Not Seen And What I Assume Happens In Them by Ariel Dumas (The New Yorker) Friend of the Show Ariel Dumas also sang a song at our last show about how she didn't know anything about "Game of Thrones." We should all aspire to be so funny while guessing at pop culture.
Minor Characters Who Would Have Ruined Classic Novels in a Major Way by Alex Watt (The New Yorker)
An Old Favorite
This week's old favorite comes from Friend of the Show Blythe Roberson, who is a contributor to The New Yorker and The Onion and hosts two shows at Union Hall: The Scientists and Book Club.
Henry Clay Frick, the Meanest Man in Pittsburgh by WCS (The Harvard Lampoon)
"Listen, everyone (rightfully) has very strong feelings about the Harvard Lampoon. I personally was not on the Lampoon, a fact that is literally on my resume. But I learned how to write comedy by reading old pieces, and this is one of my favorites. The first half is pure, distilled comedy gold -- I don't think I'll ever write a piece tighter and better. The no dice section?!?! "Frick was born for the job, in 1849?!" I think about that joke once a week. It's like that scene in Wet Hot where everyone gets off the truck after coming back from town and just runs into the background and puts their head against a wall: I didn't know comedy could be that. So hats off to WCS aka Charlie Schaub, who is probably a lawyer now or something."
Updates From Your Hosts and Friends of the Show
James published some more erasure poems created from Hulk Hogan interviews. Fans of poetry and wrestling will each find ample reason to complain about this project, but if their common disdain can bring those two communities together, we'll be happy.
Luke's UCB Theatre house sketch team, Lake Fire, has a show next Monday, June 11th at 9:30. Tickets are only $7, so that translates to, like, 10 cents per laugh, MAX.
News About The Next Show
Thanks to everyone who came out to our get-together last week! It was a blast to have so many of you all in one room. Jokes were made, shop was talked, shows were booked, and many variations on the phrase, "Oh right, I recognize you from Twitter," were uttered. Would you guys be into Humorous Readings meetups being a more regular thing? Let us know!
We're still sorting out dates for the next show but as always, keep an eye on this space for updates!
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!