A Newsletter of Humorous Writing

For November 15-21, 2018, a roundup of the week's finest prose humor and prose humor-related news.

Hello and welcome to A Newsletter of Humorous Writing, the email propaganda arm of the acclaimed humorous readings show, An Evening of Humorous Readings. Happy Thanksgiving! This year, we're thankful for all the great writing we've read, for all the folks we've met at shows, readings, and hangouts, and for this little community of comedy writing fans. 

And hey, if you're thankful for this newsletter, why not share it over the holiday with friends or family who might enjoy it? Surely you have a funny uncle, or a high school pal, or a haunted family painting that would love a weekly digest of humor writing!
 

What We Enjoyed This Week

Our Friendship Is Transitioning to a Paid Subscription Model by Chandler Dean (McSweeney's) 

I Invented "Turn It Off And Then Turn It Back On" by Ginny Hogan (Little Old Lady Comedy)

How I Talk About My Small Pennsylvania Home Town with Friends from Big Cities vs. How I Talk About It with People from My Home Town by Shannon Reed (The New Yorker)

William Bradford's Thanksgiving Pyramid Scheme by Sam Suksiri (McSweeney's)
 

An Old Favorite

Thanksgiving Food Coma D.N.R. by Colin Nissan (The New Yorker)

Friend of the Show Colin Nissan is especially good at interrogating small, unexamined turns of phrases or parts of life that go unnoticed (the anonymous family portrait in a frame, decorative gourds, etc.) We're big fans of how this piece uses the structure of a medical document to get in lots of fun jokes about our favorite over-stuffed family holiday.
 

Updates From Your Hosts and Friends of the Show

Nothing from us this week but please enjoy this piece in The Paris Review about a 1950s, U.S. Department of Agriculture video on turkey carving, because it is both carving time and turkey time. Or perhaps this New Yorker piece on Tofurky that includes this very New Yorker description: "The sage-flecked roast is delicately autumnal, its texture more fluff than rubber—fine, and better when drenched in vegetarian porcini gravy." Enjoy!

See you next week!

@brianagler, @lukevburns, & @jamesfolta

Did we miss a piece you loved? Did you love a piece we mentioned? Let us know! This is an experiment and we're hoping to continue to make it better and better. If you have any thoughts, notes, wishes, or dreams for this newsletter, please email us or respond to this email and tell us what the score is.