For June 17-23, 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. As the summer days get hotter and hotter, it’s important to stay hydrated—we recommend keeping a big trough of water next to your desk. Just stick your head in that trough and gulp as much as ya need!

What We Enjoyed This Week

Unsung Heroes of Fatherhood by Wendi Aarons and Johanna Gohmann (McSweeney’s) The details in this piece are all pitch-perfect, and the lovingly mocking tone is expertly calibrated. You get a real sense of who these characters are in just a few short lines: “Josh Mandler, who was tasked with chasing a bat out of the garage, even though he has zero wildlife-wrangling experience and was just as freaked out as everyone else.”

Nerding Day: Skunny by Merritt K (1-900-HOTDOG) A hilariously spicy overview of the (thankfully) all but forgotten Skunny video game franchise. Yes, that’s right, FRANCHISE. “Who was so hungry for Skunny — a phrase that might be the opposite of ‘cellar door’ — that Copysoft kept pumping these out? We may never know the motivation at work.”

I Drive By a Bunch of Teenagers With My Window Down While Listening to an Audiobook by Sir David Attenborough and Right as I Pass Them He Loudly Says “Then The Couple Mates” by Mitchell Nobis (HAD) We love pieces with long titles, like On the Inevitable Decline Into Mediocrity of the Popular Musician Who Attains a Comfortable Middle Age and Two Bugs on Display at the Montreal Insectarium, the First of Which I Thought Very Impressive Until I Saw the Second (one of Luke’s favorite pieces of all time). In this piece, Mitchell’s experimentation with form also extends to his bio—a very clever and original way to subvert our expectations.

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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 #99.

We Do Our Own Little Take on Ketchup by Seth Reiss (The New Yorker) You can always tell a Seth Reiss piece by how quickly it goes from "standard" to "absolutely bonkers." Other things to recognize: A hint of malice in the narrator's voice; expert pacing; and cultural references that you never would have thought of, but which, when you think about it, make perfect sense given the context. That all of these things, and more, exist in a piece that makes fun of something so mundane is what takes this to the next level.

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 got a whole mess of short humor workshops coming up in July! Whether you’re new to short humor writing or are an experienced pro who’s looking for helpful notes and deadlines, there’s a workshop for you!