For February 18-24, 2026

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. What the hell, that’s where he’s been?! This guy has owed us post-reading-show money since 2015!

What We Enjoyed This Week

New Protein Menus by Megan Amram (McSweeney’s) It’s always great to see a Megan piece! This heightens really nicely, and there’s a wonderful variety to the beats. This premise could have easily gotten stale, but Megan keeps finding ways to surprise us and makes sure we never get too far ahead of things.

An Old West Duel Narrated by the Guy That Named the Ten-Gallon Hat by Tyler Gooch (McSweeney’s) Tyler is really so good at these goofy premises. We especially like how this one is paced out, delivering on the premise in different ways, over and over, at a nice clip. And the turn at the end is such a great button.

Self Mythologizing by Matt Patrick (HAD) This is just one joke, but it’s very nicely done. It hits a little too close to home too, if we’re being honest. This is also a great occasion to share another of our favorite punchy poems, the Bible quote inversion and pop music lament by David Musgrave.

Enlightenment by Roz Chast (The New Yorker) And speaking of fun premises about names for sizes AND short, singular jokes, this Roz Chast piece is very well done. She manages to explore and justify the small misunderstanding in a remarkably brief word count. We also love the phrase “Just that he was, like, TWO SIZES DOWN.”

-- AD --

On March 22nd, Riane Konc (New Yorker, McSweeney’s, etc.) is teaching THAT ESCALATED QUICKLY, a virtual one-session humor writing class focused on heightening and escalation techniques. We’ll talk humorous premises, joke structure and rhythm, and think about new or unexpected ways we can approach heightening – plus, we’ll use some brainstorming and practice exercises to explore different entry points to a short humor piece.

Students will walk away with several strategies they can use immediately in their own drafts, plus recommended readings and sources they can turn to as they continue their own humor writing practice.

We'll have fun -- come through!

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An Old Favorite

Book of Lamentations by Sam Kriss (The New Inquiry) James here: up front, I’ll say that this piece is a high concept bit and the lede is nicely buried — if you would like to experience it for yourself, click away and come back! Promise you’ll come back, though.

Avoiding the big spoiler, the premise of this piece is writing a review of a nonfiction book as if that book were a piece of dystopian fiction. The forced misunderstanding opens a space for Sam to obliquely deliver his critique. By playing the premise so straight and with such commitment, his point lands much harder than it would otherwise. (And thanks to Friend of the Newsletter Siyu Song for the tip on this one!)

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

Luke just announced his lineup of short humor workshops starting at the end of March! He’s got four advanced classes available. And check out this (continually updated) thread to see some of the great writing that has come out of past workshops.

Thanks so much to those of you who donated for Brian’s birthday last week — it means a lot to Brian’s family and to us.