A Newsletter of Humorous Writing #389
A Newsletter of Humorous Writing
For April 16-22, 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. Thank you to everyone who came out to the show at Francis Kite Club last night! And a very big thanks to our guest readers, and McSweeney’s, and Jason Roeder — we’re asking all of our readers to make a pact with whatever diety you believe in to ensure that Jason’s Griefstrike! wins the Thurber Prize. (It would be cool if Jason won, but the Thurber people also said that if we help Jason win, they’ll give us a coupon for half-off chicken wings at a place near the Thurber House!)
What We Enjoyed This Week
Personal Ads from the One Horse in This One-Horse Town by Anika Burgess (The New Yorker) A fun and unexpected take on a common phrase: Anika makes the smart choice of imagining what it would be like to be the only horse in a town, identifying one funny, emotional aspect of that experience, and then finding a great format to use to investigate.
We Regret to Inform You That You’ve Reached Your Lifetime Limit on Self-Help Books by Caiti Quatmann (The Belladonna) This is another piece that finds a unique frame with which to explore an idea. Caiti’s imagined institution that monitors how much you’re self-helping yourself is a really fun entry point that adds just enough of an extra layer to the premise. Sometimes an additional dallop of complexity can open up a new avenue of exploration, like Caiti’s bit of invention here.
Taxi Driver If Travis Bickle Really Got into Birdwatching by Dave Anderson (McSweeney’s) Dave’s mastery of the Bickle’s voice sells this piece, but what really sets it apart is the more subtle observation that he implicitly makes and explores by juxtaposing two archetypes of obsessive New Yorkers.
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An Old Favorite
A Few Notes About My Play by Tamara Federici (The New Yorker) This is one that is worth returning to for inspiration, since it does so many things with such a simple idea. The idea is straightforward — this is a lot of play going on here — and all the jokes and specifics are building this overwrought and rich world around this extravagant play. The implied narrator and their expansive vision is just as fun as anything on the page.
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
James wrote a piece for Lit Hub imagining that if the Vice President killed the Pope in a Dan Brown novel, what would happen next? James ended up with basically an entire treatment for a Brown-style thriller set in Rome, including nefarious tech clones, spilled Aperol spritzes, and lots of word puzzles.
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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