There was a recent article riffing on The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas, I think it was called "why don't we just kill the load bearing child" or something similar.
Otherwise, if you haven't read Discworld, you've got Terry Pratchett dropping bombs like this:
"“The only thing known to go faster than ordinary light is monarchy, according to the philosopher Ly Tin Wheedle. He reasoned like this: you can't have more than one king, and tradition demands that there is no gap between kings, so when a king dies the succession must therefore pass to the heir instantaneously. Presumably, he said, there must be some elementary particles -- kingons, or possibly queons -- that do this job, but of course succession sometimes fails if, in mid-flight, they strike an anti-particle, or republicon. His ambitious plans to use his discovery to send messages, involving the careful torturing of a small king in order to modulate the signal, were never fully expanded because, at that point, the bar closed.”
Also pratchet.. there’s a leopard that outruns the (admittedly lazy) light on the disc. Scientists theorize it’s only natural way to exist is drilled 10 feet deep into a mountainside because they can’t see where they’re going.
And of course dark must be slower than the light. Because it’s always there when the light goes away.
Pratchet is full of treasures like this
Not quite what we're talking about, but N K Jemisin took a different perspective on the Omelas story at https://www.lightspeedmagazine.com/fiction/the-ones-who-stay-and-fight/
Charles Stross has an older collection called Toast. In the introduction he talks about the difficulty of predicting the future and to illustrate thus writes an imaginary conversation with HG Wells, who comes to all sorts of amusingly wrong conclusions about our world.
Also, for all sorts of fun logical arguements, theres What If? by Randall Monroe, where he answers bizarre questions in a Mythbusters fashion. For example, [what if a pitcher threw a baseball at 90% the speed of light?](https://what-if.xkcd.com/1/)
OMG “The Endochronic Properties….” ! I remember reading this from my Dad’s mouldering collection of pulp _Analogs_ and _Amazing Science Fictions_ as a teenager. With line drawing illustrations.
As I recall, the “letters from our readers” section for the following month published some extremely confused comments, people as Asimov was also a _highly_ respected scientist, and Campbell the editor included genuine scientific-speculation articles.
Back in the forties John Campbell published an essay in *Astounding* by the pseudonymous Dalton Edwards titled "Meihem in Ce Klasrum" which proposes (and adopts) a new orthography (spelling system) for English. Over the decades I've seen it reprinted in both genre and English anthologies. And it's on the internet.
Not exactly what you are asking for but also a delightful mashup is Gary Snyder's poem "Smokey the Bear Sutra" which reimagines the beloved Interior Department icon as a Buddhist Arhat. It is also on-line.
> "Meihem in Ce Klasrum" [snip] reprinted in both genre and English anthologies.
It was included in [A Stress Analysis of a Strapless Evening Gown](https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pl.cgi?609633) (1963), an anthology of similarly absurd articles, stories and poems.
If you can find it there's 1966's "A Singular Case of Extreme Electrolyte Balance Associated with Folie a Deux" by Robert D. Tschirgi. Another one is "MS Fnd in a Lbry" by Hal Draper.
You might like the [legendary blog post](https://hradzka.livejournal.com/194753.html) that spawned the *"Oh John Ringo, no!"* meme. It's a wall of text circa 2008 but it's well worth reading even if you're not familiar with Ringo's books.
There was superhero short story book published in the late 90s or early 00s that had a series of stories looking at the sorts of things heroes might have to deal with if the actually existed.
Stuff like being sued for property damage, constantly being summoned to deal with minor issues rather than real emergencies, having unscrupulous marketing/pr people, etc.
I think it was simply called *Heroes* but I am not 100% sure now.
You would very much like the Superheroes anthology edited by John Varley and Ricia Mainhardt. The story by the pediatrician who's constantly handling superheroes and their children, Mike Resnick and Lawrence Schmel's "Super Acorns," is right up your alley.
_Night of the Cooters_ by Howard Waldrop sort of fits the bill. Turns out there’s a (low rated) film of it, too as well as the superb _Cowboys and Aliens_ which may be based on it.
Hot damn I've been looking for this story for 15 years or so. I had given up reading anything that wasn't a comic book at the time but I remember this and telling my friends about it but then forgetting where I heard the story. Thanks!
“They’re Made Out of Meat” by Terry Bisson. https://www.mit.edu/people/dpolicar/writing/prose/text/thinkingMeat.html
Singing meat!
Wait, they can’t be all meat can they?
[The short film is really good, too.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T6JFTmQCFHg)
I gripe that the interlocutors in that video are *also* made out of meat.
There was a recent article riffing on The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas, I think it was called "why don't we just kill the load bearing child" or something similar. Otherwise, if you haven't read Discworld, you've got Terry Pratchett dropping bombs like this: "“The only thing known to go faster than ordinary light is monarchy, according to the philosopher Ly Tin Wheedle. He reasoned like this: you can't have more than one king, and tradition demands that there is no gap between kings, so when a king dies the succession must therefore pass to the heir instantaneously. Presumably, he said, there must be some elementary particles -- kingons, or possibly queons -- that do this job, but of course succession sometimes fails if, in mid-flight, they strike an anti-particle, or republicon. His ambitious plans to use his discovery to send messages, involving the careful torturing of a small king in order to modulate the signal, were never fully expanded because, at that point, the bar closed.”
[Why Don't We Just Kill the Kid in the Omelas Hole](https://clarkesworldmagazine.com/kim_02_24/) by Isabel J. Kim. It's very good. 👌
Only shit it’s good. 👍
Also pratchet.. there’s a leopard that outruns the (admittedly lazy) light on the disc. Scientists theorize it’s only natural way to exist is drilled 10 feet deep into a mountainside because they can’t see where they’re going. And of course dark must be slower than the light. Because it’s always there when the light goes away. Pratchet is full of treasures like this
Yes I read that short story, it’s so good!!
Not quite what we're talking about, but N K Jemisin took a different perspective on the Omelas story at https://www.lightspeedmagazine.com/fiction/the-ones-who-stay-and-fight/
Charles Stross has an older collection called Toast. In the introduction he talks about the difficulty of predicting the future and to illustrate thus writes an imaginary conversation with HG Wells, who comes to all sorts of amusingly wrong conclusions about our world. Also, for all sorts of fun logical arguements, theres What If? by Randall Monroe, where he answers bizarre questions in a Mythbusters fashion. For example, [what if a pitcher threw a baseball at 90% the speed of light?](https://what-if.xkcd.com/1/)
Yeah, What If? by Randall Monroe came to mind immediately. There's a second book now too.
You would likely enjoy RA Lafferty, specifically his two Cameroi short stories.
Ah, nice! I was trying to track down last week what anthology I read *Polity and Custom* in, it looks like it was in Dark Stars.
You might enjoy Randall Monroe’s What If series and books: https://what-if.xkcd.com/
"The Endochronic Properties of Resublimated Thiotimoline" by Isaac Asimov "Light of Other Days" by Bob Shaw, although the ending is not humorous.
OMG “The Endochronic Properties….” ! I remember reading this from my Dad’s mouldering collection of pulp _Analogs_ and _Amazing Science Fictions_ as a teenager. With line drawing illustrations. As I recall, the “letters from our readers” section for the following month published some extremely confused comments, people as Asimov was also a _highly_ respected scientist, and Campbell the editor included genuine scientific-speculation articles.
Back in the forties John Campbell published an essay in *Astounding* by the pseudonymous Dalton Edwards titled "Meihem in Ce Klasrum" which proposes (and adopts) a new orthography (spelling system) for English. Over the decades I've seen it reprinted in both genre and English anthologies. And it's on the internet. Not exactly what you are asking for but also a delightful mashup is Gary Snyder's poem "Smokey the Bear Sutra" which reimagines the beloved Interior Department icon as a Buddhist Arhat. It is also on-line.
> "Meihem in Ce Klasrum" [snip] reprinted in both genre and English anthologies. It was included in [A Stress Analysis of a Strapless Evening Gown](https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pl.cgi?609633) (1963), an anthology of similarly absurd articles, stories and poems.
If you can find it there's 1966's "A Singular Case of Extreme Electrolyte Balance Associated with Folie a Deux" by Robert D. Tschirgi. Another one is "MS Fnd in a Lbry" by Hal Draper.
You might like the [legendary blog post](https://hradzka.livejournal.com/194753.html) that spawned the *"Oh John Ringo, no!"* meme. It's a wall of text circa 2008 but it's well worth reading even if you're not familiar with Ringo's books.
There was superhero short story book published in the late 90s or early 00s that had a series of stories looking at the sorts of things heroes might have to deal with if the actually existed. Stuff like being sued for property damage, constantly being summoned to deal with minor issues rather than real emergencies, having unscrupulous marketing/pr people, etc. I think it was simply called *Heroes* but I am not 100% sure now.
You would very much like the Superheroes anthology edited by John Varley and Ricia Mainhardt. The story by the pediatrician who's constantly handling superheroes and their children, Mike Resnick and Lawrence Schmel's "Super Acorns," is right up your alley.
Spider Robinson’s short story collections have some wonderfully wry, witty writing.
Try /r/AskScienceFiction.
_Night of the Cooters_ by Howard Waldrop sort of fits the bill. Turns out there’s a (low rated) film of it, too as well as the superb _Cowboys and Aliens_ which may be based on it.
Hot damn I've been looking for this story for 15 years or so. I had given up reading anything that wasn't a comic book at the time but I remember this and telling my friends about it but then forgetting where I heard the story. Thanks!