A Newsletter of Humorous Writing #392
A Newsletter of Humorous Writing
For May 7-13, 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 the LBJ presidential library in Austin has a rubbery animatronic Lyndon that delivers a bunch of his jokes and funny stories on a loop? And a follow-up: would you be interested in purchasing animatronics of us that reads our newsletters aloud?
What We Enjoyed This Week
Deathbed Wisdom by Colin Nissan (McSweeney’s) We’re big fans of Colin here at the Newsletter, and this piece is a great showcase of his strengths: A clear character voice that is well balanced between self-aware and oblivious. Some really wonderful repetition and runs here, too: Colin’s got a great command of rhythm.
The Rules of Fight Club Book Club by Zach Zajac (Points in Case) We’ve said it before, but the key to pop culture references is making sure you’re not getting lost in the inside jokes or falling into fan fiction. Zach’s take is really fun here: by stacking a few meta ideas from the movie and adding some fun character runners, he’s written something fresh.
I Never Thought the Trolley Problem Would Happen to Me
By Allegra Leal (The New Yorker) A nice blow-by-blow of the famous thought experiment, with some fun asides and specifics (“child-safe P.V.C. inflatable Marge Simpson”) along the way. And if you can’t get enough trolley problem humor, check out Tyler Gooch’s “A Passenger’s One-Star Review of the Trolley Ride from the Trolley Problem”, which we featured in a previous newsletter.
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Do you want to write funny in 750 words or less? In this two-hour online class Caitlin Kunkel will teach a repeatable process for writing a short humor piece in the style of McSweeney’s Internet Tendency. You’ll learn how to brainstorm, find a structure, craft a strong comedic premise and title, and use the two-list system of joke writing to fast draft a humor piece. If you can’t attend live, the class recording and slides will be sent via email afterward.
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An Old Favorite
This week's Old Favorite is a Brian Agler Selection (TM)--a piece whose accompanying note was written by Brian--from Newsletter #121.
My Layoff Letter Ground Up with Text From Meat Processing Trade Magazines by Tina Gross (McSweeney's) We talk a lot about specifics, and how they can make a piece. This piece is proof. It's also, maybe, the most specific piece we've ever read. In a similar vein, it's also the most horrifying piece we've ever read.
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: we’re busy in our animatronics lab making sure the bots are getting our mannerisms right.
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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