A Newsletter of Humorous Writing #82
A Newsletter of Humorous Writing
A Newsletter of Humorous Writing
For April 11-17, 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. As humor writers, we're often asked how we come up with our ideas for pieces. A lot of writers carry notebooks or an app to jot down thoughts and premises, or free-write to develop material. We have our own technique that you might find useful -- we've filled Humorous Readings Headquarters (HRHQ) with thousands of tiny slips of paper that each have one word printed on them. This way, the papers will accidentally combine in such a way to spark ideas for writing. This method can be irritating, as the word-papers are always getting stuck in our food and our mouths, or turning into wet sludge that makes us slip and fall. But it's a small price to pay for ideas that are (literally!) constantly underfoot! Happy writing.
What We Enjoyed This Week
Translations Of Your Boss's Meeting Invitations by Olivia Olson (McSweeney's) This piece ends up being so satisfying by using the translations to not only make jokes, but also to build a very specific portrait of a boss who is teetering on the edge.
Allen Ginsberg's "Who Let The Dogs Out” by Ada Wofford (McSweeney's) What's the sweet spot for resuscitating pop culture references for a laugh? We tend to think it's around 3-7 years, but at almost 20 years old, this reference to The Baha Men's 2000 hit is still very good.
New Literary Awards by Meg Mason (The New Yorker) Sometimes a piece feels like it's perfectly aimed at your specific insecurities. This piece comes close, but the most damning for us will always be "Everyone Immediately Trashes Your Weekly Humor Round-Up Newsletter" published last year in American Humor Newsletter-er.
Oh, We Don't Sell Food At The Restaurant -- We Purvey Provisions by Evan Allgood (McSweeney's) There are plenty of "weird restaurant" pieces out there, and all too often they lack specificity, or rely on shopworn references instead of actual jokes. This piece is great because it has a very clear focus, and there's nary an avocado reference to be found.
An Old Favorite
Loos, Lewdness, and Literature: Tales from the Boghouse by Maximillian Novak (The Public Domain Review)
Now here's an old favorite: a 1732 compilation of bathroom graffiti, which is as naughty and nasty as anything you read next to a toilet in middle school. Courtesy of The Public Domain Review -- a great publication that is well worth snooping around -- this essay gives context and picks some of the best lines. Hopefully, this'll inspire you next time you're in a bathroom! (Note from our lawyers: The Newsletter of Humorous Writing does not condone illegally defacing other property unless it is written in a good Georgian style.)
Updates From Your Hosts and Friends of the Show
Luke's sketch team's romantic comedy show went up on Monday, and it went great. It also sold out. So if you're planning on coming to the next performance, which is 5/30/19 at 9PM at the UCB Theatre in Hell's Kitchen, get your tickets now!
Friend of the Show Alex Gonzalez (Flexx Magazine, Michael Moore's TV Nation) wrote a new play, A Late Night Ordeal, that's debuting with a limited run soon. The play is "a dark satire about four of television’s most famous Late Night hosts, all tied together through controversy and betrayal, being forced to survive the night when a showbiz ghost starts haunting them." The show features a great cast and will be going up only twice, at the Actors Theatre Workshop on Saturday, April 27th, at 7 pm and 9 pm. More info and tickets here!
News About The Next Show
We're still plotting and planning for our May show, but in the interim keep an eye on this space for updates!
But make sure your calendar is marked for our next Hangout of Humorous Readings, which is coming up this Tuesday, April 23 at 7:00 pm at Peculier Pub. Join us for a casual get-together to mingle with like-minded comedy nerds and talk about what matters most: short-form humorous prose. Come along and bring a pal or two!
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!