A Newsletter of Humorous Writing: End of 2023 Edition
A Newsletter of Humorous Writing
A Newsletter of Humorous Writing
Hello and welcome to A Newsletter of Humorous Writing, End of 2023 Edition, a roundup of the year's finest short humor pieces and funny articles, and a celebration of the fantastic writers who wrote them. Have you seen our yearly survey yet? We'd love to hear your feedback on how we're driving here!
What We Enjoyed This Year (In Chronological Order)
We've spent many long nights around the End of Year List Decision Table (EoYLDT) here at Humorous Readings Headquarters (HRHQ), rereading the pieces we liked in 2023 and deciding on fifteen of our favorites. It's an impossible task. There was so much great writing this year, and you can still read all of our picks in our Vault of Humorous Writing (VoHW), which is teeming with great short humor. We hope you enjoyed these as much as we did, and thanks for reading.
Am I Smiling Correctly? by Ruyi Wen (McSweeney's)
Gonna Pop These Overripe Bananas in the Freezer Until I’m Ready to Take Them Out and Throw Them in the Garbage by Alexis Pooley (McSweeney's)
I’ve Had It With Stunt Ice Cream Flavors by Jesse Sparks (Eater)
Elliott from “E.T.” ’s College Essay by Rachel Kaplan (The New Yorker)
I Don’t Want To Brag, but I’m the Reason You Can’t Bring a Falcon to Disneyland Anymore by Nathan Kamal (Hard Times)
This Counterfeiting Ring Needs to Make Some Changes by Evan Waite and River Clegg (McSweeney's)
What Are All My Bones For? by Mia Mercado (The New Yorker)
How to Manage a Household Infestation of Artists from the Romantic Period by Lillie Franks (Points In Case)
My Lumbago Isn’t Acting Up: On Disney World by Molly Young (The Paris Review)
Common Proverbs as Video Game Tutorials by Matthew S. Burns (McSweeney's)
Who Made This Hummus? by Colin Nissan (McSweeney's)
Taking a Bubble Bath: Fantasy vs. Reality by Alissa King Peters and Gracie Beaver-Kairis (McSweeney's)
The All-Time Best Moments from America’s Got Lettuce by Jonathan Zeller (McSweeney's)
I’d Like to Have Kids, but I’m Not Sure It’s Ethical to Bring Children into a World Where Their Dad Would Be Me by Simon Henriques (Points In Case)
Oh! I Saw Geraint's Grave Goods. They Were Fine...? by Daniel Lavery (The Stopgap)
Some Writing That Luke and James Are Proud Of
This year we both worked on Scriptulated!, a comedy podcast we created, hosted, and took to this year's Tribeca Festival. The pilot episode stars the funny Peter Kim, Guillermo Martinez, Kelley Quinn, and Rehka Shankar, and we've got high hopes for the project in the new year.
James here! I didn't publish a ton this year -- my writing time was mostly spent on longer projects -- but, as managing editor, I've been so proud of all the work Points In Case published this year. Check out our best of list if you haven't already, but to all our writers and readers, thanks for a great 2023!
And now this is Luke! I'm proud of Yoda Botches Five Classic Jokes and Goofus and Goofus, my HAD debut, which contains one of my favorite sentences I've ever written. I'm also very proud of all the great writing that folks did in my workshops. Thanks to everyone who has taken a class with me for inspiring me to keep challenging myself in my own writing and for making me laugh a whole lot.
See you next year!
@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.
This newsletter is free, but if you enjoy it and want to support the work we do putting it together, you can send us a tip here. Any amount is greatly appreciated, and 1/3rd of each donation will go to Stand Up To Cancer.
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.
This newsletter is free, but if you enjoy it and want to support the work we do putting it together, you can subscribe to our paid tier, or you can send us a tip here. Any amount is greatly appreciated, and 1/3rd of each donation will go to Stand Up To Cancer.
If you'd like to place an ad in the Newsletter, please fill out this form.
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!