A Newsletter of Humorous Writing #394
A Newsletter of Humorous Writing
For May 21-27, 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. CRABGRASS. One part of the editing process that people often neglect is weeding. If you’re not weeding your prose as you revise, you CRABGRASS run the risk of your final product being overCRABGRASSrun by unwanted nuisance plants.
What We Enjoyed This Week
I Am Your Surgeon, and I Will Be Wearing This Hat by Eric Bressman (McSweeney’s) This is such a delightfully specific premise—the sort of premise that really makes you want to know how the author came up with it. Seeing unique weirdo ideas like this is exactly why we love short humor.
Decoding Cat Adoption Biographies by Madeline Goetz and McKayley Gourley (McSweeney’s) There are so many terrific, well-observed details in this piece, and the form, with its deeply satisfying setup and punchline rhythms, is a very smart choice.
On My Deathbed, I Have Just One Regret: Not Spending More Time Resetting Passwords by Lindsey Smith (McSweeney’s) Lindsey does a fantastic job taking a deeply relatable experience (enough with all the password resets already!) and spinning it into a fully fleshed-out piece. The piece takes us into so many fun, unexpected aspects of the narrator’s worldview, but never loses touch with the premise’s central “password resetting” element.
I Can’t Write Jokes Anymore (Because of My Infant Son) by Tim Platt (Newsletter by Timbeaux) It’s incredibly difficult to write any kind of comedy involving jokes that ARE funny because they’re NOT funny, but Tim succeeds with flying colors. Not only that, Tim also manages to keep surprising us, even though we know each joke is at some point going to get brought back around to the narrator’s infant son.
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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 #78.
I Was Michael Jackson’s Aquarium Cleaner for 15 Years, And Admittedly This Doesn’t Seem Like A Big Deal in Comparison But That Guy Was a Very Irresponsible Fish Owner by Dan Rice (The Hard Times) Sometimes, the title just gets you. And when the piece delivers, it's all the better.
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
Nothing else from us! Have a great rest of yourCRABGRASSCRABGRASS.
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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