For February 25-March 3, 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. Daylight saving time is this weekend! Remember, starting on Sunday, you should mentally “spring forward” by one hour any time you see mentioned in a short humor piece.

What We Enjoyed This Week

The Solution to the Male Loneliness Epidemic Is for Men to Bust Science Myths with Each Other by Michelle Cohn (McSweeney’s) A great example of how you can use a pattern to give shape to your jokes, and shape to your piece. In this piece, many of the laughs come from the way Michelle pivots, within a paragraph or sentence, from male loneliness specifics to Mythbusters details. This joke structure is used throughout the piece to great effect. (For example, “Doing bizarre and often comical science experiments with your friends is a way to avoid that toxic environment, and instead introduce men to a different kind of toxic environment, where, for example, they measure how long it would take a balloon filled with poison to spread its noxious air.”) Of course the risk of using such a rigorous pattern in this way is that it might start to become predictable, but Michelle finds elegant and surprising ways to make those comedic shifts, ensuring that the reader never gets ahead of them.

Airport Arrival Times for Specific Travel Situations by Adam Dietz (Points in Case) Adam presents a really nice variety of airport scenarios in this piece, with arrival time recommendations that feel logical but never predictable. And if, like Luke, you’re someone who gets deeply stressed out about the prospect of missing a flight, just take all the times listed in the piece and add an extra two—actually better make it three, just to be safe—hours. (And don’t forget to spring these times forward starting Sunday, as we mentioned up top.)

I Am Dyeing My Hair Brown by Caroline Ulwick (McSweeney’s) This piece is full of great specifics: “Once a month, I will drag my rugs out onto the front yard and beat them with a gnarled wooden stick. If children see me do this, I will curse at them.” Caroline also avoids some potential pitfalls by making it clear that the jokes are not about people with brown hair, but rather the narrator’s over-the-top perception of what life would be like with brown hair.

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On The Watchlist with Jay Servedio is a live late-night comedy series that dives headfirst into the week’s headlines, media manipulation, and political theater.

Each episode features Jay’s incisive monologue, live sketches, field segments, and character interviews with comedians portraying public figures: plus conversations with real journalists, writers, and cultural critics. Smart, silly, and unapologetically weird, On The Watchlist is equal parts comedy show, social autopsy, and media exorcism. Join us for our exploration into the Age of Misinformation.

FEATURING: Creator and Showrunner of 'Abolish Everything,' Chandler Dean

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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

This week's Old Favorite is a Brian Agler Selection (TM)--a piece whose accompanying note was written by Brian--from Newsletter #90.

All the Things I Would Have Said to the Dentist Who Insulted My Wife's Teeth If I Wasn't Busy With My Jet Ski That Day by Ryan Ciecwisz (Points in Case) We at Humorous Writing HQ love a piece that 100% commits to how strange it is. This one goes from 0-60 in about two sentences, and never once slows down. It's hard, as a writer, to keep up that energy through the end, but when you can, you unearth such gems (GET IT???) as "I first realized large teeth were important to me, even horny-inducing, when I returned home from being stranded at sea for eleven years."

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

Luke’s down to just ONE spot left in his Tuesday afternoon advanced humor writing workshop starting on March 24th! But he’s got FOUR spots still available in his Wednesday afternoon workshop starting March 25th! And you can check out the schedules of his two other workshops starting at the end of the month here.