A Newsletter of Humorous Writing #95
A Newsletter of Humorous Writing
A Newsletter of Humorous Writing
For JULY 18-24, 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. It's Christmas in July! Our gift to you: humor! Feel free to print these pieces out, and hang them on your tree or place them in your stockings. Or, use them to stuff your Christmas turkey! This is your newsletter.
What We Enjoyed This Week
List: Signs Your Bran May Be The Wrong Size Or A Snake by Sarah Lazarus (McSweeney's) All of us at Humor Writing HQ are big fans of snake-related pieces, this piece included. Everyone says snakes are so dangerous, but maybe they're just misunderstood. Lots of snakes are portrayed as harbingers of evil, but really, just have senses of humor that not everyone gets.
Metal Song Not Even Close To Being Over by Krissy Howard (The Hard Times) The Onion tends to own the "news parody" genre, but don't sleep on The Hard Times. Krissy Howard does a great job mimicking the Serious Journalism Voice for a topic that is, for so many reasons, so silly.
Please Consider My Application To Give You Labor So I Can Stay Alive by Chandler Dean (McSweeney's) For us, this piece works because it does a fantastic job of doing what satire is supposed to do at its purest level--offer a new perspective and critique on something we're all familiar with. In this case, it's jobs and capitalism writ large, so put on your Che Guevara T-shirt and buckle in.
Here It Is: The Exhaustive Breakdown of Every Shot In The CATS Trailer by Sarah James (Medium) This isn't a traditional piece, but it's definitely funny. And we're not so much about structural integrity over here; we're about those laughs! Also, horrifying cat-people hybrids. But mostly, laughs.
An Old Favorite
In The Locker Room at Halftime by Zhubin Parang (McSweeney's) Something fun to think about is how any professional sports team of today--even a bad one--could absolutely crush a team from the 1970s. There's just no question. Every player is so strong and so fast. BUT, and hear is out, what if there were robots involved? Zhubin Parang answers this question, and more germane to this newsletter, does so quite humorously. The jokes hit. The voice is clear. The whole piece is snappy. It's a joy/terror to read.
Updates From Your Hosts and Friends of the Show
Nothing from us this week! We were busy getting ready for...
News About The Next Show
...our first show at Caveat! Thanks to all who came out.
Our next show is at Caveat on August 27th. Hangout starts at 6:30, doors open at 7:30. We'll announce a full lineup soon, but we're excited to say that Friend of the Show, River Clegg (Late Show with Stephen Colbert, The Opposition with Jordan Klepper, The New Yorker), is on the bill. Hope to see you there!
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!