A Newsletter of Humorous Writing #40
A Newsletter of Humorous Writing
A Newsletter of Humorous Writing
For June 21-27, 2018, a roundup of the week's finest prose humor and prose humor-related news.
Hello and welcome to A Newsletter of Humorous Writing, the email propaganda arm of the acclaimed humorous readings show, An Evening of Humorous Readings. Here in NYC, the subways seem to be having more and more issues: slow service, overcrowding, and too-frequent delays and breakdowns. Now seems like the perfect time to remind you that a stalled train is a great opportunity to bring the joy of short humor into peoples' lives! Keep a printout of one of your favorite pieces ready at hand to read aloud to your captive audience. You'll be the toast of the car as people laugh softly, shake their heads happily, and mutter, "Too true, ha, too true."
And maybe toss in a plug for this Newsletter while you're at it. If you get someone to sign up for the newsletter on your busted subway car, we'll reward you by keeping an eye out for the fuzz while you hop the turnstile. That's the Humorous Writing Promise!
What We Enjoyed This Week
Oh My Fucking Gotti by Dave Holmes (Esquire) I spent a good portion of my evening last night (James here) being regaled by friends about how hilarious this movie is. Looks like we'll all have to watch it and make it part of our first Film Appreciation Society Discussion Group.
You're Meditating Wrong by Evan Waite and River Clegg (McSweeney's) Two of our favorites and Friends of the Show, Evan and River, have another killer piece. And hey, one of these authors is reading at our next show. You'll have to stick around until the end of the newsletter to find out who! No cheating, unless you're a scamp or a scoundrel. In which case: please don't give us swirlies.
I will not take my husband's name by Alexandra Petri (The Washington Post) For the second time this month, a real-life wedding gives us great humor writing. Who said that love was a loathsome trick our synapses play on us? We did, in college. Sorry, we were a little insufferable back then.
An Old Favorite
If you hear the phrase "online multimedia speculative fiction," you might think you hit your head and woke up in an undergraduate creative writing course. But in this case, your noggin is safe and we're only describing one of our favorite projects, 17776, or What Football Will Look Like in the Future. This ambitious narrative follows three sentient satellites as they watch the humans below them play a futuristic version of football. It's weird and funny and takes full advantage of the multimedia potential of the internet to heighten and enhance humorous writing.
Updates From Your Hosts and Friends of the Show
James has another installment of Hulk Hogan erasure poems that are sure to make you think, "more of these? Surely the demand can't be that high," and if you're a publisher, "wow, these would make for quite the handsome chapbook!" To which we say, yes to both!
Other Humorous Writing News
After a year of behind-the-scenes work, Milly Tamarez and a crew of talented writers debuted a new satire site called Flexx Magazine. The magazine's still brand new, but they've already got a bunch of great pieces up including, "Can You Match The Abuelo In The Neighborhood To His Favorite Domino?" "Our Boy Gets It: Slenderman Only Terrorizing White Men" and "These Are The 8 Hottest Guys On The Rez Who Are Actually All Your Cousins."
We got in touch with Milly and she told us a little bit about the site and its origins:
"I am one of the co-founders of the Diverse as Fuck Festival and through the festival we provide professional development courses for People of color, women, LGBT, and people over 35+ interested in pursing a career in comedy. I worked in a partnership with the Onion and Clickhole and through DaF's efforts were able to put over 300 people through our free satire writing course. But once this pool of people had the tools to write satire where were they all going to go? Satire writing is an art form that is meant to challenge institutions so why was the art form majorly comprised of the some of the least oppressed people in our society (straight, white, cis men in their 20's). Many people floated the idea of a satire publication for people of color but there was nothing out there yet. The Onion satirizes the New York Times, Clickhole - Buzzfeed, Reductress - Cosmo, but who is satirizing Complex? Worldstar? Mediatakeout? Bossip? (those last two publications are so ridiculous I would dare to say satirizing them is equal to if not more challenging than satirizing Donald Trump).
And so Flexx was born. We have spent the past year coming up with our voice and tone, branding and also writing and editing the over 40 articles you see on the site today. We want to add a tinge of absurdity to the "urban" internet space. My long term goals for Flexx is of course to have funding, but also for our pitch room to be as popular as black twitter but better than black twitter because people can get paid and get credit for their shit. Social media is great because it provides a low barrier of entry for marginalized voices to create comedy but the problem is that Buzzfeed or Mashable will do tweet roundups, often do not credit these people and they literally profit off of the free labor of these people."
We're excited to see where the site is headed! Be sure to add it to your reading list and follow them on Twitter. And if you're interested in contributing, fill out the form here: https://www.flexxmag.com/contribute/
News About The Next Show
Have you noticed a twinkle in the eye of New Yorkers? That they're quick with a smile and have a newfound skip in their step? Why that's because next week is our show! Come out on July 5th at le Poisson Rouge to see Taylor Garron, Seth Reiss, Ysabel Yates, and Evan Waite (the newsletter-long mystery is solved!). Doors are at 7 and the show starts at 8! RSVP on Facebook and invite your crush -- they'll be wowed by how cool and cultured you are to know about this show.
See you next week!
@brianagler, @lukevburns, & @jamesfolta
Did we miss a piece you loved? Did you love a piece we mentioned? Let us know! This is an experiment and we're hoping to continue to make it better and better. If you have any thoughts, notes, wishes, or dreams for this newsletter, please email us or respond to this email and tell us what the score is.
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.
This newsletter is free, but if you enjoy it and want to support the work we do putting it together, you can subscribe to our paid tier, or you can send us a tip here. Any amount is greatly appreciated, and 1/3rd of each donation will go to Stand Up To Cancer.
If you'd like to place an ad in the Newsletter, please fill out this form.
If you have any thoughts, notes, wishes, or dreams for this newsletter, please email us or respond to this email and tell us what the score is!