February 28, 2019

A Newsletter of Humorous Writing #75

A Newsletter of Humorous Writing

A Newsletter of Humorous Writing

For February 21-27, 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. "Don't talk to me until I've had my humor writing." That's funny, right? Maybe the kind of thing that could be on a mug? Or, maybe the punchline in a mid-90's sitcom. We think this one has a lot of potential, so feel free to start saying that around the office, or on Twitter. We're confident we can get this up to the level of, "It's 5 o'clock somewhere" (which, incidentally, we'd also like to make about humor writing--as if 5 o'clock is the best time to read humor--but, that's for another day.)

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What We Enjoyed This Week

My Daily Routine: Jasper Newman, 8 Months Old by Teddy Wayne and Greg Wayne (New York Times)  Recently, there have been a lot of takes on the "daily routine" format, but this one feels different because of how sharply it satirizes the "fully-optimized life" guy by showing that, literally, a baby could do it. Also, Teddy wrote this with his brother. That's neat!

Guys Who Will Definitely Hit On You When You Get Bangs by Lillian Stone (The Belladonna) Lillian approaches the subject--hipsters--with a clear, consistent, original point of view. Also, JGL makes a cameo! A two-fer!

Is Kirsten Gillibrand Likeable, Tough, Driven, Soapy, and Metallic Enough? Or Is She Too Glittering, Muscular, Serpentine, and Tangy? by Sean McGowan (Points in Case) What makes this piece stand out from the rest of the topical 2020 pieces is that, rather than wagging its finger, it gets right to the absurdity of everything that is American politics, and then it lives there. It's silly and refreshing, but also makes a point--which is a much tougher trick to land than you might imagine.
 

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An Old Favorite

Sorry For the Delayed Response by Susanna Wolff (The New Yorker)

Let's get one thing out of the way right now: I (Brian) have a bunch of emails in my inbox that I haven't responded to yet. In fact, some are from Luke and James! And while this piece is obviously funny on its own merits, that's what makes it really work--we've all been there. We've all had these feelings, even if we haven't necessarily articulated them this way (because we can't, or because we won't). So, now, we aren't just dealing with jokes (and the jokes are A+!), we're dealing with catharsis. 

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Updates From Your Hosts and Friends of the Show

Brian is hosting SpeakEasy--a show about speeches and speechwriting (but also, comedy!) at Caveat, on March 5 at 930p. Karen Chee will be there! Will you?
 

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

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!

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