Hello and welcome to my monthly highlights post for March! This month has once again been hectic. My teaching job has been busy, and I took a couple of trips (including to the Erma Bombeck conference, which I will report more on soon).
Luckily, I did not run into any long TSA-related lines, and I’m wishing the rest of you spring break air travelers similarly good travel vibes.
April is both National Poetry Month and National Humor Month, so hopefully you will take advantage by enjoying and/or writing in those forms. I am planning to participate in a 30-day joke writing challenge, for which I’ve got more details below.
-JV
Some things that made me laugh this month:
The TV show Bob’s Burgers. My kids started watching it, and I had never seen it, but I like the humor and characters. Fun fact: Kristen Schaal, who voices Louise, is from my hometown in Colorado, but I will always first think of her as Mel on Flight of the Conchords, which I have been meaning to re-watch.
This comprehensive list of Mitch Hedberg jokes. Lots of great ones, including this one:
“I use the word ‘totally’ way too much. I need to change it to something that's different, but means the same thing. ‘Mitch, do you like submarine sandwiches?’ ‘All encompassingly.’’
Tina Neidlein’s newsletter. Several items on her list made me laugh, but I am particularly intrigued by the concept of an airport divorce that she mentions.
Joke writing challenge: In April, Gold Comedy is running a free 30-day joke writing challenge, which I’m planning to participate in. (One more fun fact: Lynn Harris, who founded Gold Comedy, taught the first-ever humor writing class that I took in NYC in 2004.)
Behind the scenes on New Yorker cartoons: I enjoyed this behind-the-scenes look at co-creating New Yorker cartoons from Bizzy Coy.
Short satire technique: This piece on using movies to write humor from Carlos Greaves also spoke to me.
Comedy opportunities newsletter: Laurel Cummings has also been sharing a lot of great comedy opportunities and news in her Free Puppies Newsletter.
Funny award nomination: Janine Annett and I were excited to learn we had been nominated for one of the first annual Funny Awards in the Funniest Article category for this McSweeney’s piece.
Podcast: I talked to Claudine Wolk for her podcast Get Your Book Seen and Sold about submitting freelance pieces and this paid subscriber pitching guide I have. You can listen to it here.
Short video chat: I was happy to get a chance to talk to Heidi Fiedler about humor writing for her newsletter Nebula Notebook.
Newsletter Q&A: I also enjoyed completing the Curious George questionnaire this month. It’s a creative Q&A newsletter led by Sheila Moeschen.
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.
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Good recommendations Julie! My fiancee sent me one of your earlier posts and I’ve taken inspiration from your writing style. I love self deprecating humor and whatever the opposite of self importance in writing is. It seems to bring people together
Julie! Dang! That’s very kind. Any luck with your airport-custody agreement?