Joke Book

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Date
2016-09-26Author
McFarlane, Brent R
Type
ThesisDegree Level
MastersMetadata
Show full item recordAbstract
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.
Degree
Master of Fine Arts (M.F.A.)Department
Interdisciplinary Centre for Culture and CreativityProgram
WritingCommittee
Findlay, Leonard; Parkinson, David; Surtees, Doug; Lynes, JeanetteCopyright Date
September 2016Subject
humour
numbers
math in comedy
fibonacci
saskatchewan
rural saskatchewan
memoir
autobiography
repetition
repetition in comedy
comedy
jokes
joke
joke book