A Newsletter of Humorous Writing: End of 2018 Edition
A Newsletter of Humorous Writing
A Newsletter of Humorous Writing
For 2018, a roundup of the year's finest prose humor.
Hello and welcome to A Newsletter of Humorous Writing, the email propaganda arm of the acclaimed humorous readings show, An Evening of Humorous Readings. And so, another year of humor writing comes to a close. As we reflect on 2018 (see below) we also look ahead to 2019. What sort of humor do you plan to write and/or consume? What news, people, and cultural trends will you satirize/would you like to see satirized? How are you so confident in your answers? Do you have some sort of time machine? If so, what are you doing reading this newsletter? Go kill Hitler!
What We Enjoyed This Past Year
After a lot of deliberation around the End of the Year List Decision Table at the Humorous Readings Headquarters, we've decided on twenty of our favorite pieces this year. It was naturally a tough task to winnow the year's writing down to just this crop, but we looked far and wide, not just in the usual spots, to find our favorite humor of the year. A lot of wonderful pieces didn't make the cut (don't worry, it's all in our archived vault of humor) We hope you enjoyed these as much as we did.
The Winter Olympics Abridged by Alexandra Petri (The Washington Post)
Billy Joel Plays "Piano Man" for the First Time at the Bar He Based the Song On by Tom Smyth (McSweeney's)
Help! I Fell Into A Bottomless Pit by Sam Weiner (GoFundMe)
My Wedding Vow by Jen Spyra (New Yorker)
Please Let Me Join Your Heist by Karen Chee (New York Times)
Thank You For Coming to My Baby's Gender Reveal Party by Megan Amram (Tumblr)
Lunch, Explained by Alison Leiby (Eater)
How I Talk About My Small Pennsylvania Home Town with Friends from Big Cities vs. How I Talk About It with People from My Home Town by Shannon Reed (The New Yorker)
A Resolution by the Philadelphia City Council by Helen Gym, Councilmember At Large (Philadelphia City Council Website)
My Latest Findings in Brain Research by David Guzman (Points In Case)
Problems Only Guys Who Have Tarantulas Instead of Hands Can Understand by Brian Boone (Robot Butt)
If You Want My Blueberry-Muffin Recipe, You Must Read This Crazy-Long Preamble First by Rekha Shankar (The New Yorker)
What I Assume the Eighteen-Eighties Were Like by Seth Reiss (The New Yorker)
Movies I Have Not Seen And What I Assume Happens In Them by Ariel Dumas (The New Yorker)
How I Imagine it Is To Be Rich by Megan Downey and Bizzy Coy (Points in Case)
I'm a Disruptor by Evan Waite and River Clegg (The New Yorker)
The Only Kitchen Knife in Your Airbnb by Sarah Aswell (The New Yorker)
An Unemployed Person (Who Is Not Bitter At All) Writes A Job Recruiter's Job Description by Ysabel Yates (McSweeney's)
The Complete "Skeleton" Film Franchise by Joe Scott (Points in Case)
How to Beat LinkedIn: The Game by Joe Veix (The Outline)
A Piece Of Writing By Your Hosts That They Are Proud Of
There are No More Good Things by Brian Agler (The New Yorker)
‘Our House Is Having a Nervous Breakdown!’: A Survey of Smart Homes in Film by Luke Burns (New York Magazine)
The People Who I Imagine Live in the New High-Rise in My Neighborhood by James Folta (The New Yorker)
News About The Next Show
Our next show is: January 7th at The Gallery at (Le) Poisson Rouge. Doors at 7PM, Show at 8PM. Featuring these wonderful guests:
- Evan Waite (Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, The President Show, Clickhole, The Onion, MAD Magazine, A Newsletter of Humorous Readings Best of the Year Writer)
See you next year!
@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!