A Newsletter of Humorous Writing

For January 24-30, 2019, 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. In order to keep warm this week at Humorous Readings Headquarters (HRHQ) we've been eating hot peppers until we turn red and steam shoots out our ears. We've got a nice sauna thing going on here, and the only downside is that our monitors have gotten a little fogged up. So any typos in this week's letter are because of that. (In past weeks they've been the fault of our IDIOT copyeditor/butler.)
 

What We Enjoyed This Week

Frequently Asked Questions Regarding Our Controversially Heavy Weighted Blankets by Adrienne Teeley (Points in Case) Honestly, being trapped under a 100-pound blanket doesn't sound too bad right now.

What Your Favorite Marvel Superhero Says About You (I Asked) by Lucas Gardner (The New Yorker) It's often difficult to sustain a piece when the premise is based on a twist on a turn of phrase, or a pun. Frequently, those pieces get bogged down in semantic flummery and empty wordplay, and quickly run out of steam. Here, the turn of phrase is used just as a jumping off point, and as a result, it's a much more satisfying reading experience.

How long could my murderer pretend to be me online? by Casey Johnston (The Outline) To avoid to read spoilers for the show You, just skip the first paragraph.
 

An Old Favorite

Layers of Deceit: Why do recipe writers lie and lie and lie about how long it takes to caramelize onions? by Tom Scocca (Slate) An article as informative as it is witty. Go caramelize some onions! The weather is perfect for it.
 

Updates From Your Hosts and Friends of the Show

Luke has a number of updates this week:

• First, a story he wrote for the podcast The Truth has just been released. It's a mystery that's a little bit spooky and a little bit funny, with some great performances by very talented actors. You can find it wherever you get your podcasts, or on The Truth's website.
• Second, he is going to be teaching a workshop on narrators and narration in humor writing as part of the upcoming Satire and Humor Festival. It will be fun and nerdy in equal measure, with a bit of theory, but plenty of practical advice and problem-solving tools as well. Spots are limited, so sign up now!
• Finally, a sketch show he directed is going up at The PIT (123 E 24th St) Friday night (2/1) at 9:30. It's gonna be a fun show, come check it out!

Brian is returning to combat in the always-delightful Punderdome on 2/5. It all goes down at 8PM at Littlefield in Brooklyn.

James is available wherever fine Jameses are sold.
 

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.