For July 29-August 4, 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. We’re running out to the grocery store real quick! Let us know if we can pick anything up for you!

What We Enjoyed This Week

Robin Hood, Prince of Compulsive and Pointless Theft by Luís Leal Miranda (McSweeney’s) The runs of all the different items this version of Robin Hood steals are just terrific. This is packed full of great details. We were also particularly impressed by the pacing, and the way Luís compresses time, moving briskly from scene to scene and dropping us in at the funniest possible moment with some choice bits of dialogue:

Every few days, Robin bursts into the village grinning like a man who just dug up a treasure.

“Good news!” he announces, carefully setting down a ceramic owl. “She’s heavy, so she must be worth something.”

“We are starving, Robin,” the villagers reply.

There’s a lot of laughs packed into fewer than 400 words!

What I Think Will Happen When I’m Public Speaking by Emily Bressler (McSweeney’s) The shift between an extremely relatable situation (being nervous about speaking in public) and a completely off-the-walls, ungrounded situation (no spoilers!) drives some great jokes here. Emily also takes this one to some extremely heightened places. (Again, no spoilers, but you’ll see what we mean!)

How to Master the Art of Passive-Aggressive Cleaning by Jason Beaubien (Points in Case) Jason’s portrait of passive-aggressive cleaning behavior is comprehensive, painfully accurate, and also very funny: “Turn down any offers of help. This is your pièce de résistance. Don’t allow anyone else to undermine it. ‘I’m good. No. No. No. You sit.’” We’ve all been this person and/or have been around this person at one time or another. The “how to guide” tone is also very satisfying—a really nice choice.

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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 #115.

My Vagina has Closed for Business to Make Way for an Artisinal Deli by Giulia De Vita (McSweeney’s) Sometimes, in writing a piece, you come up with an A+ title--one that's big, bold, and will absolutely kill the second anyone sees or hears it. And then, a couple of paragraphs in, you realize that it was just a title, and not a conceit for a whole piece. Lucky for us readers, that's not the case here. This piece starts strong right off the bat, and then keeps on going strong. It's a great, creative idea, that's fantastically executed.

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

Friend of the Newsletter Lucas Adams has written and illustrated a delightful new project: It’s an issue of a fictional magazine called Blimp Monthly, and it will soon be available at the new and improved newsstand at the West 4th St Station in New York City. The newsstand is run by fellow humor writer Al Mullen, and it looks like he’s doing a whole bunch of neat stuff, so there’s no shortage of reasons to hop on the subway and check it out.

Nothing else from us! We are, unfortunately already back from the grocery store, and we forgot whatever it was that you wanted us to snag for you. Sorry!