For June 10-16, 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.

One of the pieces we featured in last week’s newsletter was I’m Jessica Fletcher, and I Don’t Even Feel Anything Anymore When I Find a Dead Body. We were emailing with Tony Delgado, the author, and he very kindly agreed to share a little bit about his relationship with Murder, She Wrote and what inspired the piece.

Tony writes: “I've always liked the show since I was little. However, [the piece] was prompted by a small binge. I had some downtime while visiting my elderly father since everyone went to bed at 8pm. He has a channel on his television that only shows episodes of ‘Murder, She Wrote’ for some reason. From there, it was just inspired by the absurdity of seeing one cozy murder after another. The anecdotes about the friend found in the drain pipe (Jessica Walter) and the trip to Hong Kong are actually from the show.”

Thanks so much for the info, Tony! We’re always on the lookout for these kinds of behind-the-scenes anecdotes, so if you wrote a piece that’s been featured in the newsletter and you have a story about it that you’d like to share, please write in and let us know.

What We Enjoyed This Week

I Am Your Dad’s Nest Camera and I Am Ready for Shit to Go Down by Carrie McCrossen (The New Yorker) The contrast between the aggro camera and the secretly milquetoast dad is delightful: “He’s not as confrontational as I am. He thinks of things he could say to the guy who tossed an empty Sonic cup by the front hedge. But he doesn’t actually press the Talk button. He goes out and quietly picks up the cup, crushing it in his fist, as he wonders why a lifetime of being a nice guy, a good husband, and a devoted father wasn’t enough to earn him any respect.” A very fun study of two characters.

Notes from a Tired Egyptian Guy Whose Job Is Explaining That Humans Built the Pyramids by Aman Alam (McSweeney’s) The dry, quietly exasperated tone is just great. And Aman brings up some excellent points as well, should you ever need to refute the arguments of one of those ancient aliens people: “Why would intergalactic civilizations travel unimaginable distances only to help stack triangles?”

A Question For The Escape Room Receptionist by Samyu Comandur (HAD) What’s worse: Your partner is lying to you because they’re cheating on you, or because they’re trying to hide the fact that they are absolutely terrible at escape rooms? That’s the very funny dilemma at the heart of this piece, which is cleverly constructed as a single sentence addressed to an escape room attendant.

Woman Thinks Hot Dogs Are Disgusting Except for Any Time She’s Offered One by Lisa Corn (Reductress) This is just a headline, not a full article, but as we’ve mentioned many times before, we’re suckers for jokes about hot dogs here at the newsletter, and so we simply had to share.

- AD -

On The Watchlist with Jay Servedio is a brand-new live late-night comedy series that blends biting satire with investigative curiosity. Inspired by The Daily Show but rooted in its own chaotic, absurdist voice, we dive headfirst into the week’s headlines, media manipulation, and political theater. 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. This Month's topic: THE MANOSPHERE!

---

Do you have an ad you'd like to place in the Newsletter? Fill out this form!

An Old Favorite

Beach Rules by John Howell Harris (The New Yorker) As you get ready to hit the beach this summer, you’ll surely want to keep in mind these helpful tips from John. The way the character of the beach is built out and heightened is very funny, and we’re always impressed when an author successfully writes a piece in all caps.

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

Regular Books is a cool new platform for punchy ebooks, built on 100% creator ownership, simple revenue sharing, and zero AI. They just launched with a handful of projects, including an old comedy zine by James called The Thunder in Paradise, a collection of erasure poems composed from old Hulk Hogan interviews. It’s free!

Luke’s got an intro to short humor workshop starting in July! Learn the essentials of writing short humor pieces and write a draft of your very own piece in just four weeks. (Luke’s also got three advanced classes coming up in July as well.)