For August 26-September 1, 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 pretty vexed this week: Someone keeps leaving flaming bags of dog poop at the font door of Humorous Readings Headquarters (HRHQ), completely ignoring our many signs which specifically state that all pranks should be conducted at the SERVICE ENTRANCE.

What We Enjoyed This Week

Seven Steps to Financial Success, According to a Guy Who Won a Multimillion-Dollar Lawsuit Against the Circus by Graeme Carey (The New Yorker) This piece has a great long title and a wonderfully specific premise. The contrast between the narrator’s confident tone and the details of how he actually made his money is hilarious—there’s also some nice surprising heightening in here as well.

My Annual Performance, as Reviewed by My Dog by Erica Lies (McSweeney’s) We love the juxtaposition of corporate jargon and dog specifics: “Many times I want neither ‘potty’ nor ‘outside,’ but to share unbroken eye contact until she has met her daily Milk-Bone treat goals.” There are some really great runs of dog details in this piece as well: “Our mission-critical KPIs of barking at wild rabbits, anyone in a uniform, men in hats, men in general, men who are Generals, garbage trucks, visitors I normally like, the neighbor cats Tinkerbell and Moonshine, unseen forces, odd shapes in the dark, odd shapes in broad daylight, babies, and television doorbells.”

Les Nobélisables: Haruki Murakami by Ricardo Frasso Jaramillo (The Believer) We always enjoy humorous coverage of the Nobel Prize in Literature (see also the long-running Alex Shephard series on the subject). Ricardo’s thoughts on Murakami are engaging and his description of a crowd of disappointed “Harukists” is great—but we particularly enjoyed the very funny personal anecdote that opens this column.

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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 #33.

So You’ve Forgotten Someone’s Name at a Party by Glenn Boozan (The New Yorker) Glenn is a rock star; always has been, always will. Well, ok, we don't know if she always has been. Presumably, she was, at a time, an infant. But, we'll never know. We don't exactly have a "fact-checking department" here at the Newsletter of Humorous Writing.

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 new translation of Jean Pleyers’ graphic novel The Children of Light is currently backordered on Bookshop, but you can still buy it directly from the NYRB website (and your local bookstore, etc)!

And Luke’s also got just ONE spot left in his intro to short humor workshop starting next week! He’s also got a few spots left in his other classes starting next week as well!