For February 5-11, 2025

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. Did you know that Greg Kinnear and Jerry Seinfeld appear in the final episodes of both “Curb Your Enthusiasm” and “The Larry Sanders Show”? Two finales of HBO shows starring comedians named Larry… What does it mean? If you can read these tea leaves, let us know.

What We Enjoyed This Week

A Field Guide to the Phrase “Dimly Lit” by Bobbie Armstrong (The New Yorker) A really great exploration of a familiar phrase that is more loaded with meaning than you might have realized. Bobbie fills the piece with nice mini-runs and repeated elements that give a satisfying feeling of cohesion and pull the reader through the piece.

Various Ways How I, a Gay Man, Use the Word “Mama” by Tulio Espinoza (McSweeney’s) Another piece that has a lot of fun exploring the different contexts and connotations around a particular word/phrase! (And, accordingly, also has a title that ends with a word/phrase in quotation marks.) Tulio takes us through a really nice variety of funny characters and situations, establishing each one impressively quickly.

Mr. Marathon Is a 26-Mile Tribute to Cheap Produce by Lauren Hakimi (Hell Gate) After completing Mr. Marathon, a 26-mile run during which participants stopped at every single Mr. Fruit location in Brooklyn and bought “a thematically appropriate product,” one of the runners/organizers says, “It's a weird thing to be proud of because it was so stupid.” It’s a statement that resonated with us, because here at the newsletter, we’re all about being proud of, and celebrating, all kinds of esoteric, weird, needlessly elaborate, and yes, even stupid, achievements.

YOUR AD HERE!

Do you have an ad you'd like to place in the Newsletter? Fill out this form!

And feel free to send us an email if you have questions.

An Old Favorite

These 6 Words Could Be Sabotaging You at Job Interviews, but They’re Pretty Obvious, Like the First One Is “Fuckpie” by Dan Rice (The Hard Times) One last piece that has a title that ends with a word/phrase in quotation marks! This is delightfully wacky, but also nicely satirizes how unhelpful and obvious job hunt advice can often be. Word #4 is particularly hilarious—a great, unexpected heightening move.

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 looking for some very last-minute Valentine’s Day date ideas, James wrote up some romantic ideas inspired by literature for Lit Hub.

Luke’s got just THREE spots left in his last intro to short humor workshop until September! Learn the essentials of short humor writing in just four sessions.