A Newsletter of Humorous Writing #65
A Newsletter of Humorous Writing
The Newsletter of the Ghost of Humorous Writing Present
For December 13-19, 2018, a roundup of the week's finest prose humor and prose humor-related news.
Come in! Come in and know us better! Welcome! We're the Ghost of Humorous Writing Present, a spirit charged with taking you to see all the finest humor writing the present has to offer. (And also we're the hosts of An Evening of Humorous Readings.) We've laid out a veritable feast of humor writing for you. Look upon us! You have never seen the like of us before! Except last week at around the same time. Touch our robe and we'll be off!
What We Enjoyed This Week
‘Tis The Season For Eating Decorative Pine Cones And Falling On Ice by Mia Mercado (Weekly Humorist) A delightfully freewheeling look at the holiday season. We would have been happy to read a whole piece just about the fake Christmas carols.
Oprah’s Favorite Things, Unedited by Sam Weiner (McSweeney's) A simple, short piece that is well-paced, and filled with excellent specifics and wonderful turns of phrase.
It is I, Manuela — The Girl From Your Spanish-Language Textbook by Kate Schulman (The Belladonna) This piece does a wonderful job of building and sustaining a very specific tone, and gets a lot of laughs out of that alone. A lot of pieces don't do anything interesting with tone, or fall back on a generic "humor piece writer yuk yuk yuk" tone, so it's always great when you see someone doing something more unique.
Comments Gay People Receive at Family Gatherings and What They Really Mean by Colin Heasley (Slackjaw) A very fine example of the "_____ Translated" genre of humor piece, which can be more tricky to pull off than you might expect.
The Ghost of Humorous Writing Past (Friend of the Show)
A Visit from Saint Nicholas (In the Ernest Hemingway Manner) by James Thurber (The New Yorker)
"________ in the style of Ernest Hemingway" is a well-worn, near-ubiquitous premise, but did you know it's been around since 1927? If anyone has done the research and knows of an earlier example of a "________ in the style of Ernest Hemingway" piece, please let us know. Seriously, this is not a bit.
Updates From Your Hosts and Friends of the Show
Luke and James are going to see Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse today, and are very excited about it. Brian has to work, unfortunately :(
Other Humorous-Writing-Related News and Articles
The Boomer Humor Writers Warned Us About All of This by Mike Pearl (The Outline) Mike Pearl takes a look back at some of the popular humor writing of the 90s and 00s, and realizes that a lot of it was more political than he remembered. Much of the writing highlighted in this article does not hold up well, but ask yourself: Will the political satire of today fare any better in the future? The clock strikes midnight and a hooded figure (Friend of the Show, The Ghost of Humorous Writing Yet To Come) beckons you to follow him. The Phantom brings you to a futuristic monitor, on which is displayed an article, from the year 2030, that looks back on the political humor writing of the year 2018. The article mocks the political satire of our era, points out the way it often trivialized serious political issues, excoriates it for its lazy reliance on jokes about tiny hands and other shopworn references of that nature, and singles out one humor piece as being particularly deserving of scorn. You begin to tremble. The Ghost extends a finger to point at the byline of this much-derided humor piece from 2018. You cannot bear to look at the name written there. "Before I draw nearer to that byline to which you point," you say, "answer me one question. Are these the shadows of the things that Will be, or are they shadows of things that May be, only?" The Spirit speaks not a word, only points at the byline. You creep towards him, still trembling; and following the finger, see that the byline is yours! The article being totally roasted in the future is yours, humor writer! Just pray that you yet may change these shadows the spirit has shown you!
Another Message From Ghost of Humorous Writing Yet To Come
Our next show is going to be January 7th at The Gallery at (Le) Poisson Rouge (158 Bleecker St). Doors at 7:00PM, show at 8:00 PM! We're on THE CUSP of announcing the lineup, so keep an eye on this space for updates! And remember: Most of all beware this boy, Ignorance, for on his brow we see that written which is Doom, unless the writing be erased. Deny it!
See you next week!
Ghost of Humorous Writing Present
(AKA @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
We started this newsletter with our dear friend Brian Agler, and we want it to always honor his memory and his love of all things humorous. You can find our newsletter tribute to Brian here.
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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!