A Newsletter of Humorous Writing #64
A Newsletter of Humorous Writing
A Newsletter of Humorous Writing
For December 6-12, 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. We've been overwhelmed by all the holiday cards you've sent us this year at the Humorous Readings Headquarters (HRHQ) and we're excited to announce that our top three so far are: The Anderson-Shipley Family (a lovely photo, dogs and humans all in matching sweaters, a "silly one" on the inside); Ron and Jon Greene (sun-drenched vacation photo, good font, personalized note), and Luke "The Neck" Franzis (sleeveless sweater, recipe enclosed, excellent update on workout gains). Great work everyone!
What We Enjoyed This Week
Holiday Shopping For The Man Who Knows Everything by Allison Breyer Everett (McSweeney's) As gift guides go, this is easily the most honest one. If you're sick of gift guides that simply feature a top-shelf version of ideas that have already occured to you, and you also like jokes about insufferable men, well, you'll love this.
A Selected Pathology Of People Who Ask Questions At “In Conversations With” Events by Austin Bernhart and Heesung Kim (McSweeney's) At HRHQ, we've made this into a little bingo card for all the readings we attend. The trick to not getting thrown out of readings, we've learned, is to not scoff-laugh and then loudly cross off your bingo boxes with a huge quill pen.
Classic Lit to Make Into Christmas Movies Besides Pride & Prejudice by Bethy Squires (The Belladonna) To our readers who are wealthy and powerful producers (an overwhelming majority of our subscribers, natch): you're welcome.
Report from the Front Lines of This Family Group Text by Seth Weitberg (The New Yorker) 'Tis the season for getting endless family updates.
How You Hope Your Extended Family Will React When You Explain Your Job To Them by Mike Lacher (McSweeney's) Friend of The Show Mike Lacher enters a dream state to bring us a report from the other side.
An Old Favorite
Ultimate Dreidel Fighting Rules by Jen Spyra (McSweeney's)
Though Channukah has passed, it's never the wrong time of year to revisit Friend of the Show Jen Spyra's classic holiday piece. Jen is especially nimble at pairing overwrought and intense language with pedestrian situations, which is a trope of short humor that many try but few can do this well.
Updates From Your Hosts and Friends of the Show
Clementine, the sketch team Luke has been directing, has another show coming up: this Friday, December 14th at 9:30PM at the PIT (123 E 24th St). It's gonna be the last show for three members of the team (they're being stolen away by Maude Night and a new job) so you should definitely come check it out.
It's James' birthday next Tuesday! Hey, why not drop him a line to say, "buddy, you gotta floss more. A post-it on the mirror's not going to cut it."
Other Humorous Writing News
Since we're in the throes of the holidays, we thought we'd put together a little Gift Guide for the humorously minded. Buy a book, why don't ya?
Deep Thoughts by Jack Handey — The perfect entry-level humor gift for someone who you are trying to pull into the world of humorous writing. It's also a master-class in joke writing.
New Erotica for Feminists by Caitlin Kunkel, Brooke Preston, Fiona Taylor, Carrie Wittmer — Friends of The Show wrote a book and frankly? It's great.
Naked Pictures of Famous People by Jon Stewart — A classic, and a nice reminder that in addition to being the de facto voice of a political identity, Jon Stewart is a tremendous writer.
The American Bystander — This magazine features some of the best writers and cartoonists in the biz, all in a lovely package.
Pendulous Breasts Quarterly — Hard to find, but a pleasure to have, PBQ is the absolute gold standard in infrequently published, handsomely bound compendia of truly strange and wonderful humor.
Muji A5 Ringed Notebook — For jotting down ideas and keeping the shopping lists for Humorous Readings Headquarters, there's nothing better than Muji stationary. This has a nice, solid cover that goes from bag to desk to pocket without getting too beat up, and the ring-binding allows it to lay flat.
Spy: The Funny Years — Spy magazine was a legendary publication that changed humor and magazines, and were the first to observe that Trump has tiny hands, a joke you are now tremendously sick of. This book is a great sampling of their writing, as well as a history of a strange publishing venture.
Paul Ryan Magazine — Edited by one HRHQ resident and featuring writing from both other residents, as well as many friends of the show, this satirical magazine will hopefully become irrelevant as Paul Ryan the man is scrapped for parts to build other generic GOP candidates.
News About The Next Show
Our next show will be on Monday January 7th, 2019, at (le) Poisson Rouge. We're still nailing down guests, but as always, keep an eye on this space for updates!
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.
See you next week!
@lukevburns & @jamesfolta
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