Joke Book
Date
2016-09-26
Authors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
ORCID
Type
Thesis
Degree Level
Masters
Abstract
Joke Book is a creative thesis, a collection of comic personal essays, somewhat in the spirit of Montaigne, in which I trace the impact of several pivotal jokes on my life. Among other digressions, I give a mathematical theory of comedy using the Fibonacci sequence, mostly fail to read Kierkegaard’s Repetition, try to blame lutefisk for the bitter character of Saskatchewan humour, reflect on my experiences in Skit Skit (a mildly successful local sketch comedy troupe in my city of 250,000), and tell of the time my father brought home his malfunctioning Wang (Laboratories Computer). In the process, I give an incomplete though still exhaustive account of my life and my surroundings (namely, rural Saskatchewan since 1985), and reflect on racism, class, sexism, television, memes, hip-hop, and, again, lutefisk. Sometimes bordering on the absurd, the work is more footnotes than actual prose, and more sizzle than steak. It also details the author’s complicity in the wrongful accusation and subsequent murder of a chicken in 1993, when the author was eight years old.
Description
Keywords
humour, numbers, math in comedy, fibonacci, saskatchewan, rural saskatchewan, memoir, autobiography, repetition, repetition in comedy, comedy, jokes, joke, joke book
Citation
Degree
Master of Fine Arts (M.F.A.)
Department
Interdisciplinary Centre for Culture and Creativity
Program
Writing