A Newsletter of Humorous Writing #395
A Newsletter of Humorous Writing
For May 28-June 3, 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. We’ve been dealing with a major ant problem at Humorous Readings Headquarters (HRHQ) — but not in the kitchen, in our comedy library. It seems the ants have gotten hooked on humor writing and now they’re trying to carry our short humor books back to their queen. It’s more sad than a nuisance, really: The poor ants have no idea that there’s no way they’re going to be able to squeeze The Thurber Carnival out under our front door, much less get it into the ant hill.
What We Enjoyed This Week
Why Do You Want to Be a Knight? by Roland High (The New Yorker) This piece is filled with great joke writing, and the humor is infused with a certain type of sweet silliness (or silly sweetness?) that we deeply appreciate: “If the king falls off his horse, it’s my job to dismount my own horse, climb onto his, then fall off and loudly proclaim, ‘Yep, there’s something wrong with this horse.’”
The Blockbuster Manifesto: How to Stop Writing Boring Poems by Tom Halford (McSweeney’s) A high-energy piece narrated by an extremely wacky character that also manages to prompt some interesting reflections about the nature of poetry. It hits poignant notes without selling out the comedy, and there’s an extra-kooky bit at the very end that comes completely out of left field but feels totally earned.
Five Places You Will Definitely Drive This SUV, According to the Commercials by R.J. Cross (Points in Case) A very funny takedown of the tropes and clichés of SUV commercials. It heightens nicely, with the commercials taking place in increasingly environmentally precarious locations. The running thread of an intense rivalry over who can post the best weekend pictures on Slack is fun and satisfying too: “They won’t even notice Waffles wearing its stupid little hiking pack. What are you even carrying in there Waffles? A single granola bar? Call us when you can drive.”
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An Old Favorite
The Ontology of Circus Peanuts by Jane Stern (The Paris Review) We particularly enjoyed the different theories about how Circus Peanut candy came to be, but we also just love the different descriptions of this, the strangest of all sugary treats. “The most amazing thing about Circus Peanuts is they are always stale. Not rock-hard but weirdly deflated and tough.”
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
James wrote a humor piece for Lit Hub about how the reading recommendations you give always seem to be better than the ones you receive, called ”My book recommendations versus your book recommendations.”
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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