For November 19-25, 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. Our 420 issue falling on Thanksgiving?! It’s like the angels are whispering in our ears! In celebration don’t forget to blaze (roast) it (a turkey) ;)

Hope you’re enjoying the day off with some good food and deserved relaxation. We’re thankful for you! (And don’t forget we’re having a hang out in a couple weeks!)

What We Enjoyed This Week

The Turkey Trot Is for Wimps—Welcome to the Iron Turkey by Maeve Dunigan (The New Yorker) Friend of the Newsletter Maeve serves up a delicious mash-up of holiday indignities stuffed into the beats of a fun run. This is an excellent showcase for Maeve’s joke writing skills and her keen sense for a wacky specific—as heightened as this piece gets, every choice manages to feel perversely plausible.

Workshopping Riddles from a Troll's Riddles Three by Tessia Phillips (Points in Case) Formatting this as a feedback document isn’t just the most direct way to some very fun jokes, it’s also a subtle way to build the world. It’s very funny to imagine the workplace dynamics and structures behind bridge trolls. Imagining a cool but cubicled office filled with trolls makes every bit that much funnier. And Tessia’s riddle writing is great! A very impressive commitment to the bit.

The NFL endorsed a ‘Chowdamosa’ for Patriots fans. I drank it so you don’t have to by Nick O'Malley (MassLive) Booze maker André created a series of localized NFL mimosas for some reason. Every NFL team has a horrifying regional concoction and the Patriots got stuck with a clam chowder inspired drink, which Nick at MassLive describes as “an opaque, milky nightmare” of heavy cream, clam juice, lemon juice, and champagne. His descriptions of this very thick cocktail are very evocative, to put it nicely, but best not to read this one until well after the feast today. (And thanks to Friend of the Newsletter Mark Paglia for tipping us off about this one.)

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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 way back in Newsletter #9.

Thanksgiving with David Caruso by Cara Michelle Smith (The Belladonna) Some premises are so simple and so perfect that they must become humor pieces. This is one of them.

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

Points in Case is going to be doing another selection of People’s Favorites again this year! The voting is going to be open next Monday, so if there’s a piece you were a fan of that ran on PIC this year that you want to shout out, keep an eye on PIC’s social media for a link on Monday!

And speaking of voting: over at Lit Hub, the bracket James was running concluded with a win for the literary queen of tweets, Joyce Carol Oates! A very deserved win, but click over to see how the voting shook out, the final bracket, and some thoughts on the whole endeavor.

Luke’s going to be reading some short humor at the next Letters & Sodas show on December 3rd at 7PM. The show is always great, and this month’s lineup is packed with terrific guests—be sure to snag a ticket!

Luke also just announced his lineup of January short humor workshops! (Including an intro to short humor workshop!) If you want to get a jump on those 2026(!) writing goals, this is a great way to get the year started off on the right foot.