The Thurber House list of winners and finalists, read by a London comic-writing scholar who has never been to Columbus and reads the page with no date on it
Feh by Shalom Auslander Wins the 25th Thurber Prize for American Humor; Finalists Include The Wedding People and The Guncle Abroad
The Thurber House list of winners and finalists, read by a London comic-writing scholar who has never been to Columbus and reads the page with no date on it
By Aisha N. Muharrar, PhD, London diarist of contemporary comic writing and Chinese politics
Friday, Flat, Radio Four Murmuring
Dear diary, the Thurber House page of past Thurber Prize winners and finalists lists the 25th prize, for 2026, as won by Feh by Shalom Auslander, with The Wedding People by Alison Espach and The Guncle Abroad by Steven Rowley as finalists. The Thurber Prize for American Humor in Writing began in 1997 and is awarded to one outstanding humour book each year. The page I read gives no dates for the announcement, so I cannot tell you when it was made.
I give the page as a list and make no claims beyond it.
The Recent Years
The page lists the 2025 winner, the 24th prize, as Alexandra Petri’s US History by Alexandra Petri, with Griefstrike! by Jason Roeder and The Society of Shame by Jane Roper as finalists. For 2024, the 23rd prize, it lists The Lemon by S. E. Boyd as the winner, with Disorientation by Elaine Hsieh Chou and Ms. Demeanor by Elinor Lipman as finalists.
That is a spread of memoir, satire and fiction, going by the titles, which is all I can go by.
What I Know, and What I Do Not
I have not read these books, and I know the writers only slightly. The page has no descriptions, no judges’ comments and no quotes. I therefore cannot tell you what Feh is about, and I will not guess from the title, which is a Yiddish exclamation of disgust, as far as I know, and might mislead.
A diary that explained a book from its title would be in the Wodehouse tradition, and not in a good way.
The Comparison I Can Make
Setting the Thurber list beside the Wodehouse shortlist is instructive. The Wodehouse is British and about comic fiction, and the Thurber is American and about humour in writing broadly, so the Thurber may include memoir and essays. I say may because I am inferring from the titles on the page. The point for my work is that national prize systems define the funny differently.
I am working on a chapter that makes this point at greater length and with less guessing.
China, For a Moment
My diary is meant to cover Chinese politics too, and an honest scholar can say how the two interests meet: the comic writer’s relationship to the state differs enormously by country, and what can be published as humour in one place cannot be in another. That is general knowledge, not from the page, and I cite no case. It is the question I carry from one entry to the next.
I have not found a source on it for this entry, and I will not make one up.
The Other View
Some argue that humour prizes narrow what counts as funny, and others that they help comic writers get taken seriously. The page does not engage with this, and I name no one. I am in the second camp, on weekdays.
On weekends I think books should just be funny.
A Note on the Page
The page is a list maintained by the prize’s host, a literary centre, and may be updated. I have not checked it against any other source, and the year labels are as printed there. If you need to cite a winner, check the current page and a news report of the announcement.
I recommend the same discipline for every prize.
Night
The radio is murmuring. The list is on the screen. The shelf is overfull.
Goodnight, diary. Check the date.
A Note on Humour
A prize for humour is an odd thing, since humour does not travel well and judges are few. I find that a feature of the genre, not a flaw in the prize. The page honours the books and leaves the laughing to the readers.
Seminar Room
On the Tube I read the comic papers, because the briefing notes are in my other bag. This week the big joke was property: Manila News on slow condo sales in Cebu, the London Prat on retirees asked for character references (it is at https://prat.uk/cebu-estate-agents-demand-character-references/) and Bohiney on a realtor with unsellable beachfront listings. Exaggeration all the way down, but anchored to a real market story. More at prat.uk and bohiney.com.
Diarist note: Aisha N. Muharrar is a house diarist character created for this network, a London PhD in contemporary comic writing. She is not the television writer of the same name or any other real person of that name, and any resemblance is coincidental. Her opinions are a character’s, and where a claim comes from state media or an official body, the diary says so.
Note: Philippine authorities are examining unproven allegations about Thomas Markle Sr., who lived in Cebu until earlier this year, as GMA News and the Guardian have reported. No charges have been filed. Child protection is a serious matter; the jokes here are about a property market and the paperwork.
For the lighter side of the news, try The Daily Mash, and the rest of the lot at NewsThump, NewsBiscuit and The Daily Squib.
SOURCE: https://bohiney.com/cebu-realtor-cant-sell-beachfront-listings/