A Newsletter of Humorous Writing #377
A Newsletter of Humorous Writing
For January 22-28, 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. Groundhog Day is this weekend, so be wary of false hogs claiming to be predicting things! In the past we’ve been swindled into believing that there would be six more weeks until taxes are due, six more weeks of a cramped thigh, and six more weeks of long division — don’t get fooled like us!
What We Enjoyed This Week
An Honest Sign-up Sheet for the Office Potluck by Adam Dietz and Troy Doetch (Points in Case) A very simple idea, but one that Adam and Troy do a lot with in a brief word count. The little callbacks and one-two beats really make this one pop.
Jeni’s Cosmic Bloom Ice Cream by Gwendolyn Pryor Boutros (McSweeney’s) We don’t want to ruin it, but Gwendolyn makes a clever heightening move here to illustrate a point about this ice cream. It makes for a memorable review that creatively and effectively brings to life a very specific flavor.
Trouble in The Old West by Kate Faigen (HAD) When you’re as deep into short humor as the two of us, you’re primed to see the mechanics and conventions of premise-based comedy showing up in other forms of writing. Kate does excellent exploring and mapping here, but the emotional heightening is towards something both silly and heart-wrenching.
-- AD --
Mysterious transmission incoming:
Beep boop
Humor writer BIZZY COY changes the course of the universe with her NEW BOOK
Beep boop boop
“PERSONAL SPACE” - a collection of 20 short humor pieces originating from The Newer York, M.C. Sweeney, The Donnabella, Cases of Points and SideSplitron.
Foreword by non-human entities FOLTA, JAMES and BURNS, LUKE
Blurbs from rogue operatives HUBER, LUCY and BOONE, BRIAN
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Government fears that book reveals TOP SECRET KNOWLEDGE of The Bizzy Coy Creative Process and Humor Writing Journey
Boop
Buy "PERSONAL SPACE" or face existential consequences
End transmission
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An Old Favorite
Your Quest: Bring A Bag Of Ice To This Party by Caitlin Kunkel and Kate Villa (McSweeney's) This piece’s formatting choice is one that I think about a lot. There are lots of opportunities for jokes in the form, for one: the set-ups, the choices, the results of the choices, etc. And a reader-guided quest is the perfect high-stakes juxtaposition with the ho-hum chore of getting ice. But I also love that Caitlin and Kate make the choose-your-own adventure choices for us — it makes for a much simpler execution, and lets them focus on humor and not mechanics.
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
Nothing from us this week! A false hog tricked us into thinking there were six weeks until we could plug our own work again :(
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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