Hello writing challenge participants,

Just a quick note this week to say it looks like the chat is working best for check-ins/accountability for this, so I’m going to pivot to checking in over there rather than the weekly email/comments on these posts.

Feel free to join in late/at any time, and here are more details on the challenge if you need them.

Here is the chat info:

And here is a little snapshot of how week 1 went for me:

Thanks for reading Humor Me, a newsletter featuring funny stuff and writing tips. In case you’re new here, I’m a humor writer and freelancer whose work has appeared in New Yorker Shouts, McSweeney’s, Real Simple, and more. Find out more about me at julievick.com.

Any typos in this newsletter are a result of the text being written by a human and not AI.

If you’d like to help support Humor Me, you can:

• Like or share this post to help others find it.

• Become a free or paid subscriber:

Subscribe now

Welcome to the January 2026 writing accountability challenge for Humor Me!

This week, we will set goals for the month and the first week of the challenge (Monday, January 5th to Sunday, January 11th).

Quick reminders about the challenge:

• Set your own goals for whatever writing you want to complete (it does not need to be humor writing-related, but can be). You can keep track of goals using the spreadsheet posted in the chat and/or by posting to this weekly accountability post.

• Feel free to jump in late/join at any time.

• Paid subscribers who complete the challenge by either filling out the challenge spreadsheet or posting in the comments of these weekly accountability posts will get a chance to get feedback from me on a short humor piece or pitch at the end of the challenge. I’ll hold a drawing at the end of the month for 3 winners for this.

• If you want to opt in or out of emails for the challenge, you’ll need to turn the section for “Writing Challenges” on or off here.

Editing to add: It seems like posting in the Chat is working best for most people — so if you want to jump into the challenge (feel free to join late), head over to the chat here:

If you want to post in the comments of this post to get started, you can add:

• Your monthly goal(s) for the challenge

• Your goal(s) for this week

I’ll send another email next week to check in on how the week went and set goals for the following week.

Thanks for reading Humor Me, a newsletter featuring funny stuff and writing tips. In case you’re new here, I’m a humor writer and freelancer whose work has appeared in New Yorker Shouts, McSweeney’s, Real Simple, and more. Find out more about me at julievick.com.

Any typos in this newsletter are a result of the text being written by a human and not AI.

If you’d like to help support Humor Me, you can:

• Like or share this post to help others find it.

• Become a free or paid subscriber:

Subscribe now

The past couple of years, I ran a One Funny Line Challenge via this Substack, and this year I’m going to mix things up by running a set-your-own-accountability challenge in January 2026.

Since January can be a good time to get going on a variety of writing goals, this will be a chance to use the challenge’s accountability to motivate you. This time around, there won’t be prompts or a specific joke writing focus.

Also, feel free to join the challenge later in the month if you need to or find out about it once it has started.

Challenge overview:

• Timeline: The challenge will run most of the month of January (January 5-31).

• Goals: You are responsible for setting your own goals for the month based on what you think is feasible. For example, you might set a word count goal, a goal to write a certain number of jokes or drafts in the month, or pitch a certain number of times. The goals don’t have to be humor writing-related, but can be — basically, adapt this to whatever will be most helpful for you.

• Goal tracking: I set up a shared Google sheet, which you can find in the chat here, for anyone in the challenge to keep track of their goals. Or you can just keep track of them on your own and/or post in the comments of the weekly accountability email that will go out. I put some goals on the sheet to start, although I may end up tweaking them a bit before January (and you can too).

• Challenge post emails: I’ll plan to send out an accountability email once a week during January as a reminder to set your goals for the next week/reflect on how the previous week went. We can post in the comments for accountability

• Paid member perk: Any paying subscribers to my Substack who complete the challenge by filling out the Google sheet throughout the month or posting weekly in the comments of the challenge emails will get a chance to get feedback from me on a short (1000 words or less) pitch or humor piece. I’ll hold a drawing at the end of the month to select three paying members for this.

I think that is the gist of it.

If you want to opt in or out of receiving the weekly emails during the challenge, then you can do so by clicking on the button below and scrolling down to the “Notifications” section on the page and selecting the button next to “Writing Challenges” (If you received emails in the past for previous challenges you shouldn’t need to do this again).

Opt in to the challenge emails

Hopefully, this will be a flexible way for us all to chip away at some writing goals in the new year!

Thanks for reading Humor Me, a newsletter featuring funny stuff and writing tips. In case you’re new here, I’m a humor writer and freelancer whose work has appeared in New Yorker Shouts, McSweeney’s, Real Simple, and more. Find out more about me at julievick.com.

Any typos in this newsletter are a result of the text being written by a human and not AI.

If you’d like to help support Humor Me, you can:

• Like or share this post to help others find it.

• Become a free or paid subscriber:

Subscribe now

Welcome to day 5, the final day of the challenge (and happy season 2 release day for Severance to those who celebrate).

Today, you have two potential options for prompts:

Prompt 1:

Write a funny line about an animal. Some ideas:

• Write about something funny your pet does.

• Describe an animal with a funny metaphor.

• Make up a fake fact about an animal (like these ones for birds or possums)

• Think of a fake collective noun for a group of animals (e.g. A group of squirrels is called a …)

Prompt 2:

Think of a funny line for this week’s New Yorker Caption contest. Some tips in this piece might help.

And if you win the contest with your entry, don’t forget to mention me in your acceptance speech.

And that’s a wrap on this edition of the One Funny Line challenge. Hope you got some good lines or ideas.

If you are looking for more resources on writing humor, you can find some here and if you are looking for a list of places to submit humor writing, I’ve got one here.

I am currently thinking of doing another (slightly different) humor writing challenge in April for National Humor Month, so look out for more details on that in the future.

Otherwise, hope you all have a good weekend, and thanks for joining in.

Once you write at least one line, feel free to comment on this post or in the chat.

Please just keep any comments/jokes shared in the comments or the Humor Me chat appropriate for the general audience doing the challenge. I reserve the right to delete anything offensive or skeevy.

Otherwise, have fun!

Thanks for participating in the challenge, if you want to help keep the lights on at Humor Me you could upgrade to a paid subscription or offer one-time support here.

Welcome to day 4!

Today I have two prompt options for you—if you are having trouble coming up with an idea right away it may be helpful to give it a little time to marinate. Thinking about where I might find the humor in something throughout the day can sometimes help me come up with something later in the day.

And if your week has been busy and you are falling behind on the prompts, you can always come back and catch up later.

Now, onto today’s options…

Option 1: Write an “I am [insert joke] years old” line

I keep a file in my phone’s notes app for when I get ideas for things that might be good for a joke or humor piece. A lot of times they are just random thoughts that feel like they could be something funny.

When it comes time to form them into a joke, it sometimes helps me to put them into an existing joke format. One such format is the “I am [insert joke] years old” line.

You’ve probably seen jokes like this on social media and Janine Annett and Ali Solomon wrote a popular illustrated McSweeney’s piece that turned into a book in this format.

These types of jokes are usually relatable comments on something you currently do at your age. Some things that may help to generate this type of joke:

1. What is something that you used to do that you no longer do?

2. What is something that you used to be able to eat or drink that you no longer can?

3. What is something funny you consumed/watched/did as a kid that others would relate to?

I thought of this joke after realizing my husband and I have a running joke about whether or not we will recognize the host and musical guest on SNL:

Option 2: Use dialogue as part of a joke

Your second option is to write a funny line (or two) involving dialogue. If this is going to be a standalone joke you may need to write more than one line for context, but if you’ve got a longer work in progress (story, book, screenplay, etc.) you could just try writing one funny line for it.

This could be something made up or something funny your friend/spouse/kid/a stranger in a coffee shop said. It can be something that has stuck in your head or something you just heard today.

Here are some examples of funny lines with dialogue:

Another example—there is a grocery store clerk who I have seen frequently at the store for the past 10 years and every time I ask how his day is going he always responds, “Oh you know, it’s just another day.” Every. Single. Time. I could work with that for a dialogue joke.

If you are drawing a blank, maybe just go to a public place and start eavesdropping on people?

And if you aren’t already, definitely start keeping notes of funny things you overhear in a notebook or notes app.

Once you write at least one line, feel free to comment on this post or in the chat.

Please just keep any comments/jokes shared in the comments or the Humor Me chat appropriate for the general audience doing the challenge. I reserve the right to delete anything offensive or skeevy.

Otherwise, have fun!

Thanks for reading Humor Me, a newsletter featuring funny stuff and writing tips. In case you’re new here — I’m a humor writer and freelancer whose work has appeared in New Yorker Shouts, McSweeney’s, Real Simple, and more. I’m the author of a humorous advice book for introverted parents that would make a great gift for the new or expecting parent in your life. Find out more about me at julievick.com.

Today’s prompt involves writing a visual chart joke (so I’m officially declaring that one visual equates to one funny line).

You’ve probably seen some of these funny charts on social media on accounts like Liz and Mollie’s:

Or Matt Shirley’s:

Your prompt today is to create a funny chart.

You can hand-draw it or create it in a program like Microsoft Word or Canva. (But try not to do what I always do and spend too much time formatting it!)

Here are some ideas you could try:

• Take an existing joke you’ve written and convert it to chart form.

• Scroll through some funny chart accounts like the ones above and try to create a chart in the same format as one of theirs (e.g. a bar chart or pie chart like the ones above).

• Draw a simple Venn diagram and label two different things for each circle and then find the joke where the things overlap in the middle.

Here are some some examples of simple Venn diagram jokes:

I believe that you can’t share visuals in comments on Substack but you should be able to share them in the chat.

So if you want to share your visuals, head over to the chat.

Please just keep any comments/jokes shared in the comments or the Humor Me chat appropriate for the general audience doing the challenge. I reserve the right to delete anything offensive or skeevy.

Otherwise, have fun!

Thanks for reading Humor Me, a newsletter featuring funny stuff and writing tips. In case you’re new here — I’m a humor writer and freelancer whose work has appeared in New Yorker Shouts, McSweeney’s, Real Simple, and more. I’m the author of a humorous advice book for introverted parents that would make a great gift for the new or expecting parent in your life. Find out more about me at julievick.com.

Welcome to day 2 of the One Funny Line challenge. Friendly reminder: if you have not received emails for the challenge and want to, you might need to turn on notifications for the humor challenge section (click the button under “Notifications” next to the humor challenge section here).

For today’s prompt, I want you to take an existing phrase or sentence (like a common saying or something from a movie, book, or song) and turn it into a funny line.

This type of funny line has the satisfying mashup of something familiar with something unexpected.

Here are some examples that riff on familiar phrases:

And some that use songs as a starting point for a joke:

To come up with jokes in this format, you might:

• Think about song lyrics that are funny or don’t make sense.

• Look at your bookshelf and see if any book titles are a good jumping-off point for a joke. (I know I’ve seen a joke riffing on Interview with a Vampire, but am now having trouble locating it!).

• Think about (or search for a list of) common idioms and see if any of those give you ideas for a funny line.

Once you write at least one line, feel free to comment on this post or in the chat to tell us how it went or share your funny line. It’s okay to post more than one line too.

Please just keep any comments/jokes shared in the comments or the Humor Me chat appropriate for the general audience doing the challenge. I reserve the right to delete anything offensive or skeevy.

Otherwise, have fun!

Thanks for reading Humor Me, a newsletter featuring funny stuff and writing tips. In case you’re new here — I’m a humor writer and freelancer whose work has appeared in New Yorker Shouts, McSweeney’s, Real Simple, and more. I’m the author of a humorous advice book for introverted parents that would make a great gift for the new or expecting parent in your life. Find out more about me at julievick.com.

Welcome to day 1 of the second annual One Funny Line challenge where we will write at least one funny line for 5 days. I know with the LA fires and other things going on right now things may feel more bleak than funny, but hopefully, this challenge will offer some brief comic relief.

Some housekeeping

Each day this week you’ll get a prompt to help you formulate your funny line. This can be a quick writing warm-up for the day, something to post on social media, or the start of an idea for a longer piece. If you are looking for more details on why the challenge began, you can find them here.

One housekeeping note, if you want to get the daily emails for the challenge you’ll need to opt in the “Humor Challenge” section of the newsletter if you haven’t yet. You can do that from a desktop computer by clicking this link and adjusting the “Notifications” settings. I’ll also post the prompts in Substack Notes and on Blue Sky if you prefer to read them that way.

Okay onto the first prompt

Today I want you to write one funny line in the format of a fake news headline — the type that you have likely seen in pubs like The Onion, Reductress, and The Hard Times.

These types of jokes are typically written in the present tense and usually comment on something going on in the news, something seasonal (like a holiday), or a relatable feeling or thought that many people have.

If you are new to writing in this style, it may help to use one of the common formats for jokes like this. Here are some ideas:

1. Man/Woman/Person does X thing.

The basic format for this involves naming a person [Man/Woman/Child/30-year-old, etc.] and then the relatable funny thing they do. Think about funny and relatable quirks that you or others have that can be poked fun at.

For example, do you do something for “self-care” that is not really a normal form of self-care? If so, you can format it into a joke like this one:

2. A joke about something a business or organization does

One variation on number 1 can also be a comment on an organization or business. This can be something they actually do or something that is played for more of a joke like this one:

3. The quiz or study format

Another format you could follow is the funny quiz format. Reductress sets up funny questions as a quiz (like this relatable one on aging).

Fake news headlines also take on “Study finds” formats like this one. Coming up with a joke that has a percentage (e.g Study finds that X% of [parenting, owning a dog, working, etc.] is just X) can also help construct something in this format.

Still stuck for ideas? Browse headlines

If you are still stuck for ideas, browsing some of the sites that frequently run these types of headlines (The Onion, Reductress, The Hard Times, End of Bench Sports, The Needling, etc.) may help kickstart some ideas.

And if you want even more guidance, this resource may be helpful.

If you come up with several good headline ideas, you could gather them into a batch to submit or you might be able to turn your headline idea into a full satire piece.

Once you write at least one funny fake news joke, feel free to comment on this post or in the chat to tell us how it went or share your funny line. Have experience with this type of joke writing and tips for others? Feel free to share that too.

Please just keep any comments/jokes shared in the comments or the Humor Me chat appropriate for the general audience doing the challenge. I reserve the right to delete anything offensive or skeevy.

Otherwise, have fun!

Thanks for reading Humor Me, a newsletter featuring funny stuff and writing tips. In case you’re new here — I’m a humor writer and freelancer whose work has appeared in New Yorker Shouts, McSweeney’s, Real Simple, and more. I’m the author of a humorous advice book for introverted parents that would make a great gift for the new or expecting parent in your life. Find out more about me at julievick.com.

Just a quick note to let you know that I am going to be running the second annual One Funny Line writing challenge from January 13th through 17th, 2025.

If you are new to the challenge, it is designed to be an easy-to-accomplish humor writing challenge where you just need to write one funny line a day. The line might lead to something longer or might just be a quick writing exercise — the idea is to just get a little writing in and perhaps spark some new ideas or jokes.

You can read more about the first one here.

In 2025 I’m going to try to do a quick and easy version of the challenge which will include:

• A shorter 5-day long challenge

• Prompts provided by me rather than guest writers this time around.

More details:

• How it works: If you are signed up for the challenge, each day on Monday, January 13th through Friday, January 17th you will receive a prompt for writing one funny line. I will also post the prompts to the Humor Me chat and in Substack Notes since that seemed to work well last year.

• Sharing your lines: During the challenge, you can share what you write in the comments, chat, Substack Notes, or on social media (feel free to use the hashtag #OneFunnyLine). Or you can just write the lines in your computer or diary. Sharing is not required.

• Humor writers of all levels are welcome. The challenge is designed to be easy to accomplish and will hopefully help us all write a little more humor in January. You need not be an experienced humor writer to join and I want this to be a supportive environment for writers of all levels.

• You can opt in or out of receiving more messages on the challenge: If you received this message, then you are currently signed up for the challenge-related emails and don’t need to do anything if you want to continue receiving them. If you want to stop receiving challenge emails or want to opt in for the first time, you’ll need to adjust your preferences (I believe you need to be on a computer rather than mobile/the app for this):

  Opt In or Out of the Challenge

  When you click the above link you should be sent to a “Manage Your Subscription” page. On that page, you should see a “Notifications” section that looks like this:

Click on the button next to your desired section to either opt in or out of the sections you want to receive.

That’s it! Looking forward to writing some jokes with you in January.

Thanks for reading Humor Me, a newsletter featuring funny stuff and writing tips. In case you’re new here — I’m a humor writer and freelancer whose work has appeared in New Yorker Shouts, McSweeney’s, Real Simple, and more. I’m the author of a humorous advice book for introverted parents that would make a great gift for the new or expecting parent in your life. Find out more about me at julievick.com.

Thanks to everyone who participated in the first annual One Funny Line challenge (be it for one day or all 14 days). I got some good lines in, got back into more of a joke-writing habit, and even worked on a short humor piece that had been on the back burner for several months.

If you didn’t have time to participate you can always go back and check out all the prompts when you do have time or just use one when you are looking for some humor writing inspiration. Thank you to all the writers who contributed prompts!

I feel like it was a bit of a learning curve to figure out the best way to run the challenge and so I’m pondering what I might change if we do it in the future. If you participated and have a few minutes to answer the polls at the end of this post I would appreciate it.

Here are just *some* of the jokes that people shared during the challenge:

“Things that count as working from home: putting on my business sweats.”

“Parents driving through my kids’ school drop-off are like toddlers learning to share: no one listens, they only think about themselves, and sometimes there’s an accident.” John Sucich on Threads

“Academia: where you can write like no one’s reading.”

Mary Flannery

“Things that count as a cold plunge: Dipping my pinky in a martini.”

“While I never forget a face, I have zero recall for names and my family is used to my tendency to refer to people by their attributes, such as "monobrow dude", or "McSpitty", or "Mr Garlic". Turns out it's a little problematic for my job in HR.”

“I’m not good at gardening. It makes me feel like a bad parent. Once the initial pride of planting my progeny subsides, I become far too comfortable with watching it die.”

“Stepping out into freezing temperatures in Phoenix is like eating exotic fruit – you have no idea where it came from but it can be quite refreshing once you get past the weird, bumpy skin.”

“COVID is like ‘American Idol’: we may not talk about it as much now, but it's never going away.”

“Sometimes, I wish there was a manual for being a parent. Something like the pamphlet that comes with IKEA furniture. Something I could thumb through, think I understand, and get frustrated with because I skipped a step on page 2.”

(who also rounded up all the jokes he wrote here

“Things that count as being social: I charged my phone.”

“Sleep experts: Dark room, avoid caffeine, listen to white noise, no screens an hour before sleep

Me sitting in my bed with the light on, eating dark chocolate, hearing my 3yo roar like a dinosaur over the baby monitor, reading a 4000-reply Twitter argument: Sounds good”

on Twitter.

“Uggs are coming wayyy back in this year. I bought 3 pairs to wear during nuclear winter!” — Amos in the chat.

“Things that Count as Being Financially Responsible:

Taking Dry January to its limits—No alcohol, no humidifier, no water bottle, no moisturizing cream. Just your wilted corpse clinging to the $5.45 in your Venmo account.”

And you can still check out many more funny lines in the chat.

There were so many I did not manage to keep track of them all, and sharing jokes was not required, so I know there are many more good ones out there!

If you have a few minutes to spare, please take the below polls to weigh in on future challenges:

How did the challenge go for you? Feel free to chime in in the comments with thoughts or to elaborate on a poll response on what might work well in the future.

We have reached the last day of the challenge! As I mentioned, if you are completely behind, feel free to catch up today by writing 14 funny lines. And the chat is open for accountability/funny lines/catching up.

We are closing out with an excellent prompt from Kerry Elson, who has probably made you laugh via one of her humor pieces.

Do you have a folder of old drafts or rejected pieces that are sitting around? My folder like that is called "Old Stuff." Try rereading one of those old pieces and finding the funniest part. Can you write a whole piece about that idea instead? If you think that might work, what would the title of that piece be? 

Here's an example of how I did this one time. I had a piece about ways that I might respond to kindergarteners asking me questions about my body and personal life -- like they would ask, "What's that red dot on your face?" and "Are you married?" The title was, "Ways that I, a kindergarten teacher, respond to students' questions about my body and relationship status." 

When I was revising the piece, I realized the most interesting part was, to me, was when I was trying to explain why I wasn't married. So I decided to make that the whole piece. New title: "A kindergarten teacher tries to answer students' questions about her marital status." The piece worked much better!

So that is my suggestion for today -- read an old draft, zero in on the funniest part, and think of a title for a new piece based just around that. Thanks for trying it out! 

Kerry Elson is a teacher and writer in New York City. See more of her work at kerryelson.org.

Welcome to day 11 of One Funny Line.

If you have gotten behind, perhaps this weekend is a chance to catch up?

Today the prompt comes from humor writer and teacher Sarah Garfinkel.

My twelfth birthday party was going to be perfect: ice skating, hot chocolate, and a wordplay game. Every tween’s dream.

While planning, I had the brilliant idea to include “Funny Money” as part of the festivities. Each person got a few bucks of pretend cash, and instead of presidents, each bill had a set of five words/phrases: Happy birthday, Sarah, ice skating, cake, and [something else I can’t remember]. I was giddy with excitement for this game.

Here’s how Funny Money works: The words on the bills are the words you can’t say. If you slip up and say one of the words, the person who catches you gets to take one of your Funny Money bucks. The person who collects the highest number of Funny Money bucks wins.

Here’s what I didn’t consider while I created the Not-So-Funny Money words: It was my birthday…and nobody could wish me a happy birthday, address me by name, or talk about the activity we were doing. And I had nobody to blame but myself.

When it came time to blow out the candles on the cake, everyone seemed unsure what to do. How to sing the Happy Birthday song without, well, the main lyrics? Defeated, I ended the game early. Lesson learned: In the future, I would get my wordplay kicks with the game Taboo, puns, and eventually…humor writing.

But I don’t share this story as a cautionary tale—mostly because I don’t think caution is warranted as I’ve never met any other kid who would ban “happy birthday” at their own party. Funny Money, when applied to humor writing, can be an excellent way to play with diction and avoid repetition. Replacing common words in your writing can lead to extremely funny opportunities for silly synonyms and figurative language.

Today’s challenge is to apply the Funny Money mentality to your writing. And because I’m pro-choice, I’ll provide options!

1.      Select a draft from your Google Drive/Notes app/notebook. Find a word that repeats throughout the piece, perhaps one that is central to the theme of your work. For example, if you are writing an essay about squirrels (one of the most common essay topics), then try to replace each mention of “squirrel” with a new word or phrase that describes the bushy-tailed nudniks.

2.      If you’d rather play outside of a draft, feel free to borrow any of the Funny Money words above and make a list. How many words/phrases can you list in place of “birthday”?

Have fun! And feel free to share your brilliant/silly/funny results.

Sarah Garfinkel is a writer, educator, and reformed party planner. She lives in San Francisco and also Google Docs. Sarah contributes humor writing to The New Yorker, McSweeney's Internet Tendency, Electric Literature, The Rumpus, and other fun publications. At Harvard and Columbia University, she teaches creative nonfiction, opinion writing, academic writing, and more. She offers editing and coaching services, and you can learn more/read her writing at sarahgarfinkelwriting.com.

If you want to share your silly synonyms or check-in, jump into the chat

Welcome to day 12! Only a couple of days left to go.

Friendly reminder that if you have not been receiving emails for the challenge and you want to, you might need to turn on notifications for the humor challenge section (click the button next to the humor challenge section under “Notifications” here).

Today you have an option between two prompts from humor writer Sally Miller. Choose one or do both!

Option 1:

Think of a famous writer, actor, or celebrity and write a one-sentence out of the office reply in the voice of that person.  

OR

Option 2:

Write an email subject line asking for a customer satisfaction survey on an event that would not normally receive feedback (a child’s birthday party, funeral, anniversary etc). 

Sally Miller is a PDX-based writer. She lives with her husband, two children, and a huge Lab mix who refuses to pick up after himself. You can read her work on McSweeney’s, The Belladonna Comedy, The Rumpus, Slackjaw, and more.

Head over to the chat to check-in with how things are going!

Welcome to day 11 of One Funny Line. Friendly reminder that if you have not been receiving emails for the challenge and you want to, you might need to turn on notifications for the humor challenge section (click the button next to the humor challenge section here).

Today’s prompt comes from humor writer, editor, and Substacker.

It’s apocalypse now! Or soon? It kind of feels like son, doesn’t it?

With wars, climate change, and a seemingly endless stream of calamities constantly bombarding us, existing in the world can feel very heavy. And since most of us don’t have the power to fix the big things, literally the least we can do is make fun of our situation. (Of course, if you do know how to fix war or climate change please do that instead of writing jokes!)

Your assignment for today: Write a funny one-liner or title that pokes fun at the current state of the world highlighting the incongruity of the trivialities we all still deal with while big, important, and terrible things are happening all around us.

My example: 

I’ll escape this raging wildfire once I finish replying to Brody’s question in Slack about how many Taylor Swift songs are too many on the company’s Valentine’s Day party playlist. 

Andrew Knott is a writer of essays, humor, and fiction based in the Orlando area. He is the author of the book Fatherhood: Dispatches from the Early Years, and the forthcoming novel Love's a Disaster (Bayou Wolf Press, Spring 2024). He is also the founding editor of Frazzled, a parenting humor publication on Medium (if you write parenting humor, submit!). Subscribe to his newsletter for original essays and humor pieces about parenting and domestic life in the slow lane. You can find him on almost all the social media platforms (@aknott21) or reach him by email (aknott21@yahoo.com). 

Head over to the chat to check-in.

Welcome to day 10 of One Funny Line. Friendly reminder that if you have not been receiving emails for the challenge and you want to, you might need to turn on notifications for the humor challenge section (click the button next to the humor challenge section here).

Today’s prompt comes from author and Substacker, who writes both thrillers and humor (something we discussed a while back).

Self-deprecating humor is my favorite brand. But I also love when a line veers off in an unexpected direction and catches you by surprise. 

A funny one-liner I adore, which I think brings these two elements together nicely, is this: “One more drink and I’d have been under the host.” (This zinger is often attributed to American writer and critic Dorothy Parker though others debate the veracity of that claim.)

When someone is able to laugh at themselves and isn’t afraid to point out their foibles or quirks in an entertaining way, I find them infinitely more likable. And chances are, whatever they’re poking fun at about themselves is probably pretty relatable. 

Many of my humor pieces begin with me feeling awkward about something and wondering, “Is it weird that I…”

For example, I once hurt my neck by holding a phone to my ear for what didn’t seem like too long a stretch. I started making fun of the fact that since turning 40, I’d started to injure myself in bizarre ways, like simply having a phone conversation. I mean, it’s embarrassing when you’ve let yourself go to the point that holding your six-ounce device for 30 minutes brings on tendonitis. 

I thought that concept might be a good jumping off point for a funny listicle. Based on readers’ social media comments, it turned out I wasn’t alone in my strangely-acquired, midlife ailments.

Also from the “Is it weird that I…” files, I once wrote a humorous essay about wanting to ask my employer for family leave after adopting a cat. 

Combining the quirky with the unexpected: This summer, my husband and I celebrated our anniversary with a trip to Italy. As I was packing up to return to New Jersey, I thought to myself: When most people leave Rome, they want to bring back wine, leather handbags, maybe even olive oil. Me? I want to smuggle home the hotel’s bidet. 

Embarrassing? Maybe. Unexpected? Yes. Funny? I hope so. The more people I told, the more responded, “I’d kill for a bidet!”

For today’s prompt, write a funny one-liner about something that you feel weird or embarrassed about that’s also probably pretty relatable and hilarious. If you can phrase it in a way that’s surprising and unexpected, even better!

I can't wait to see what you come up with! 

Liz Alterman is the author of a domestic suspense novel, The Perfect Neighborhood, a young adult thriller, He’ll Be Waiting, and a memoir, Sad Sacked. Her work has appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, McSweeney’s, and other outlets. She spends most days microwaving the same cup of coffee and looking up synonyms.

Did you get your one funny line in? Feel free to check in in the chat.

Welcome to day 9 of the One Funny Line challenge.

Today’s prompt comes from humor writer Danielle Kraese, whose latest humor book Deep-sea Creeps: A field guide to terrible ex-boyfriends (as sea creatures comes out today!

Hi there!

Congrats on taking the first step of completing today’s writing prompt, which is opening Julie’s wonderful newsletter (see, you’re already doing so great!). 

Humor is frequently found in the specifics (it’s the difference between “I ate a snack” and “I ate a box of Trader Joe’s Shrimp Pouches Of Many Colors”). That’s why coming up with fictional names for things—a book, a startup, a reality TV show—can be a powerful comedy tool. With that in mind… 

The prompt: 

Pick a celebrity, a fictional character, or someone in your life. Then, come up with a name for one or more of the following: 

• Their memoir

• Their self-help book

• Their biopic

• Their experimental solo album

• Their off-Broadway play

• Their Wi-Fi network

I started doing a variation of this as a way to make my husband laugh when one or both of us are in a funk (my latest gem/atrocity: Ruff Draft: A Memoir by Mark Ruffalo). But the more I did it, the “better” (subjective) I got at it, and now I am cursed with thinking up celebrity podcast names at all hours of the day. Still, I do believe that this is essentially like doing little comedy crunches, strengthening your “naming stuff” muscles in the process.

At best, you will come up with a sparkling detail to tuck into something you’re writing, or it may inspire a bigger idea of its own. At worst, it might make whoever you share an electricity bill with say, “Weren’t you supposed to leave for the dentist 20 minutes ago?”

Danielle Kraese is a humor writer, editor, and freelance dog petter. She's the author of Deep-sea Creeps: A field guide to terrible ex-boyfriends (as sea creatures), coming January 16, and the coauthor of Jokes to Offend Men, out now. Find her on Substack and Instagram @daniellekayyyy. 

Keeping up or catching up with the challenge? If you are just discovering it or got behind you can always come up with more than one line today. And as always, you can head over to the chat to check-in.

Welcome to day 8 of One Funny Line!

Today’s prompt comes from comedy writer and performer Laurel Bacon who writes the.

Think of the last time you felt insecure. Chances are, other people have felt this way too (spoiler alert: everyone has). For me, it was last night at an open house for a private preschool because they kept mentioning types of “play” (associative play, parallel play, nap play?) and I had no idea what they were talking about. 

My first thought was, “Wow, am I a bad new mom because these people seem to be into early childhood development real deep, and my son and I mostly dance to Last Christmas by Wham!?”

Then I got defensive and thought, “I’m sorry, Rebekah Keith (see: We Crashed), my son/alarm clock wakes me up at 5 am, I have a full-time job, a dog to walk, Christmas cards to write, presents to buy, and oh yeah, the gym to hit so maybe I can keep my sanity and my size 25” jeans – I got things to do, you Vegan-Brooklyn-helicopter parents-subjects to King Baby (see: excellent non-fiction kids book, King Baby), so you can just eff off  and let us get back to dancing to 80’s pop.” 

Like that. Get mad. 

Get yourself all worked up and then spew out whatever you wish you could say to the boss/MIL/roommate/dog next door. Take ten minutes; I doubt you’ll even need it. Then read through what you wrote and I bet you’ll find something funny. The best humor (in my, entirely subjective opinion) lives in the space between polite society and Gilbert Godfrey.  

Laurel Bacon is a comedy writer in New York City. She has worked at Saturday Night Live, Late Night with Jimmy Fallon, and Bravo. Her writing has appeared on Comedy Central, The Onion News Network, Reductress, McSweeneys, and her live comedy show, “Free Puppies Comedy Hour.” Follow her on Instagram and her Substack, The Bacon Beacon. 

Head over to the chat to check in on how things are going.

We are one week into the challenge! Hopefully, you have at least seven funny lines and potentially many more.

Today’s prompt comes from humorist and humor editor Sue D. Gelber.

Uncovering the Unexpected

Sometimes it’s hard to sharpen a piece without feeling like you’re hitting the same notes repeatedly. To get a little variety, I try to think of something that is the opposite of what the topic is. If the piece is about family dynamics (a personal favorite of mine!), I might use language from, say, an air traffic controller to describe the situation (“We have a ground hold here until someone apologizes.”).

For this prompt, think of an industry (real estate, insurance, accounting, local government, etc). How could the language from that industry be used to describe something totally different (a romantic interlude, a funeral, a high school reunion)?

Write the first line of a piece combining these two unexpected things. Possible ideas: a real estate agent’s listing for my sad mac ‘n cheese dinner last night; an evangelical preacher’s description of the Trader Joe’s parking lot on a Saturday morning; an election security expert narrating a good-night kiss at the end of a first date.  

Sue D. Gelber is a writer and editor specializing in fiction, humor, and grocery lists. Her work has appeared in various publications including The New Yorker, McSweeney’s, and The Rumpus. She’s humor editor at the literary magazine the museum of americana and a judge for the NYC Midnight series of writing contests. You can track her down at suedgelber.com and follow her on Medium, Bluesky, or Twitter if that’s still a thing. 

Head to the chat to check in on your progress or share a line.

Welcome to day 6! We have made it to the weekend and it is forecast to be in single digits (Fahrenheit) all weekend where I live. Hopefully, this will help with my funny line production.

I think you can also take some time to watch some standup before doing today’s prompt and it will 100% count as writing.

Now let’s get on to author, humor writer, and Substacker’s prompt…

Most of us who write humor, watch a decent amount of stand-up comedy (or is that just me?) At any rate, we all are familiar with at least a few of the greats and probably have a favorite or two from the current crop of comics as well. Comic styles range from insult (Rickles) to self-deprecating (Dangerfield), from Seinfeld's sharp observations to Bamford's personal revelations to Hedberg's surreal comedy.

Your prompt: Choose a favorite comedian, and write an original, funny one-liner in their unique style. Make sure you include the comedian's name (in parentheses).

Elise Seyfried is the author of five books of humorous essays. Her essays have also appeared in The Belladonna Comedy, Slackjaw, Little Old Lady Comedy, Greener Pastures, Jane Austen's Wastebasket and others. Her website: www/eliseseyfried.com, Her blog "Working Title": www.eliseseyfried.blogspot.com, Her newsletter "E-Musings: Things I've Been Thinking About": www.eliseseyfgmailcom.substack.com

Join us over on the chat for sharing, accountability, or to recommend standup specials to stream.

Welcome to Day 5 of the One Funny Line challenge.

Today’s prompt comes from Substacker, humorist, and author.

Greetings, Humor Me readers!

I’m Lillian, and I love freaky jokes. When I say “freaky,” I mean surprising, visceral, intensely specific and often absurd humor. Colin Nissan is the king of this; I also dabble. (See my piece “Just What About the Phrase “Don’t Leave Cameron Alone With the Goddamn Cured Meats” Do You Not Understand?” for more info.)

Don’t get me wrong: Freaky jokes don’t have to be gross, nor must they be related to deli meats in any way. At their core, freaky jokes are about highly specific world-building. I’m a firm believer that even the most grounded humor pieces can benefit from a dash of Freak.

Take Susanna Wolff’s recent Shouts & Murmurs piece, Thanksgiving Itinerary Suggestions From Your Mom. The tone is grounded throughout, but Susanna cranks up the Freak in a few spots that make me laugh out loud. (“The church consignment sale where I found those great snow pants” is so good. She could’ve stuck with “the church consignment sale,” but she took that setting and ran with it to nail one extremely specific joke.)

Whether you’re punching up a script or digging into a grounded humor concept, try these three HOT, SPICY, BEEFY TRICKS to embrace your inner FREAK.

3 steps to embrace your inner freak for joke heightening

Step 1: Write your joke on a literal piece of literal paper.

We’re going analog, baby! When I want to heighten a joke, I write it out on my trusty legal pad. I don’t write full humor pieces in analog mode—but, for whatever reason, physically writing out a joke helps my brain imagine other possibilities. The act of writing it out tells my brain: Alright, time to tinker. Time to do surgery. (Sorry, did I not mention I’m a MEDICAL DOCTOR?)

Step 2: Blow it up 20 times.

The joke, not the paper.

Number your page 1 through 20. Then, reconfigure one element of your joke 20 times. 20 isn’t a magic number, per se, but it’ll get your brain unstuck.

Example: “The billionaire died of pneumonia.”

For this example, I want to freakify the billionaire’s cause of death to get maximum laughs. So I’ll number my page 1 through 20, and brainstorm 20 other, freakier causes of death. They might look like:

1. The billionaire died from Weird Acupuncture.

2. The billionaire died after catching a glimpse of the sexy ghoul haunting his Ferrari.

3. The billionaire died of pneumonia, then came back to life with the help of an arcane ritual, then died again via possum attack.

And so on. Challenge yourself to make each rep freakier than the last.

Step 3:  Go nuts on Thesaurus.com.

This might be controversial, but it’s 2023, and my brain is full of global despair and cat pics. I’m not always gonna have the best synonym close at hand. 

Once you’ve heightened your joke, comb through the language to see if you can freakify any of the individual words. 

Example: “The billionaire died after catching a glimpse of the sexy ghoul haunting his Ferrari.”

Post-thesaurus example: “The billionaire died after catching a glimpse of the voluptuous wraith haunting his Ferrari.”

Nice!

Lillian Stone is the author of EVERYBODY’S FAVORITE, a humorous essay collection praised by Glamour, Vulture, Publisher’s Weekly and, weirdly, Bob Odenkirk. She also writes THE BIG ONE, a weekly Substack about the annoying practicalities of publishing and creative living. (Read: taxes.) Find her on Instagram at @originalspinstr.

If you want to check in for accountability or share a line you wrote today, head over to the chat!