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Canadian humour

Canadian humour is an integral part of the . There are several traditions in Canadian humour in both English and French. While these traditions are distinct and at times very different, there are common themes that relate to ' shared history and geopolitical situation in North America and the world.

Various trends can be noted in Canadian . One thread is the portrayal of a "typical" Canadian family in an on-going radio or series. Examples include La famille Plouffe, with its mix of drama, humour, politics and religion and such as King of Kensington and La Petite Vie. Another major thread tends to be political and cultural : television shows such as CODCO, , La Fin du monde est à 7 heures and , monologuists such as Yvon Deschamps and and writers, including , Will Ferguson and Eric Nicol draw their inspiration from Canadian and Québécois society and politics. Another trend revels in absurdity, demonstrated by television series like and The Frantics, and musician- such as The Arrogant Worms, Three Dead Trolls in a Baggie and Bowser and Blue. Satire is arguably the primary characteristic of Canadian humour, evident in each of these threads, and uniting various genres and regional cultural differences.

Humber College in and the École nationale de l'humour in offer post-secondary programmes in comedy writing and performance. Montreal is also home to the bilingual (English and French) festival and to the Just for Laughs museum, a bilingual, international museum of comedy.

Literature

From the first major work of Canadian humour, Thomas McCulloch’s Letters of Mephibosheth Stepsure (1821-23) in the Halifax weekly Acadian Recorder, Canadian humorous writing has tended more towards prose than poetry. McCulloch's satirical letters have been described by Northrop Frye as "quiet, observant, deeply conservative in a human sense…” McCulloch's satirical persona, the "conventional, old-fashioned, homespun" farmer, is part of a tradition that originates with Addison and Swift. Compared to McCulloch’s dry and understated style, Thomas Chandler Haliburton showed the same conservative social values in the brash, overstated character of Sam Slick, the Yankee Clockmaker. Haliburton’s Sam Slick persona in The Clockmaker (1836), as Arthur Scobie notes in The Canadian Encyclopedia, "proved immensely popular and, ironically, has influenced American humour as much as Canadian."[1]

Folk humour and satire were responses to the domination of 19th-century French Canadian culture by the Catholic Church. Napoléon Aubin satirized public life in his journals Le Fantasque (1837-45) and Le Castor (1843), and through his theatre troupe, Les Amateurs typographiques, established in 1839. He was imprisoned during that same year for his views. This cosmopolitan tradition is also seen in the journalism of Arthur Buies, editor of La Lanterne canadienne (1868-69), a highly satirical journal of that era.[2] Light comedy that mocked local customs, was typical of 19th-century theatre in Quebec. Examples include Joseph Quesnel's L'Anglomanie, ou le dîner à l'angloise (1803), which criticized the imitation of English customs, and Pierre Petitclair's Une partie de campagne (1865). More serious dramas attacked specific targets: the anonymous Les Comédies du status quo (1834) ridiculed local politics, and Le Défricheteur de langue (1859) by Isodore Mesplats, (pseudonym of Joseph LaRue and Joseph-Charles Taché), mocked Parisian manners. Other examples of theatrical satire were Félix-Gabriel Marchand's comedy, Les faux brillants (1885) and Louvigny de Montigny's Les Boules de neige (1903), which took aim at Montreal's bourgeoisie. [2]

By the early 20th century, the satirical tradition was well developed in English as exemplified in the writing of Stephen Leacock. In Sunshine Sketches of a Little Town (1912), Leacock, renowned for his satirical wit, used tragic irony and astute insight in examining day-to-day, small-town life. The book remains a classic of Canadian literature, and was followed by Arcadian Adventures with the Idle Rich in 1914. An annual Canadian literary award, the Stephen Leacock Memorial Medal for Humour, is named in his memory.[1] The award is presented to the year's best work of humorous literature by a Canadian. Donald Jack, three-time winner of the Leacock Medal, wrote a number of for the stage, radio, and television, but is best known for his nine-part series of novels about aviator Bartholomew Bandy.

Following the Révolution tranquille in Quebec, theatrical satire reappeared in 1968 with Michel Tremblay's play Les Belles sœurs, written in Québécois joual. The controversial play picked apart the myth of a stable bourgeois Quebec society with a mix of realistic comedy and allegorical satire. Following Tremblay’s lead, Jean Barbeau exposed Quebec popular culture in La Coupe stainless (1974). Tremblay and Barbeau set the stage for reviews such as Broue (1979), a collective production, which toured English-speaking Canada as Brew (1982).[2]

Humorous fiction in French Canada draws from the oral tradition of folk songs and folktales which were the common coin of humour in the 19th century. Only a few of these folk tales surfaced in writing prior to the 20th century. However, contemporary writers such as Jacques Ferron (Contes du pays incertain, 1962) in Quebec and Antonine Maillet in Acadian (La Sagouine, 1974, and Pélagie-la- Charette, 1979), rely extensively on folk humour and popular culture. Other Quebec writers noted for their humour include Roger Lemelin, Gérard Bessette, Jacques Godbout, Roch Carrier and Yves Beauchemin.[2] Beauchemin's picaresque novel Le Matou (1981) is the all-time best-selling novel in Quebec literature.

The plain talking alter-ego as an instrument of satire continued with Robertson Davies' series of Samuel Marchbanks books (1947-67) and John Metcalf's James Wells in General Ludd (1980).[1] Davies is one of many Canadian writers of "serious" literature who were also renowned for humour in their work. , Farley Mowat, , Mordecai Richler, Carol Shields, W. O. Mitchell, Pierre Berton and Miriam Toews are all acclaimed writers of mainstream literature who have also been acknowledged for using humour and wit in their writing. Many other writers of Canadian humour have been published as newspaper or magazine commentators, including Gary Lautens, Richard J. Needham, Eric Nicol, Joey Slinger, Will Ferguson and Linwood Barclay.

Humour is also central to the work of Canadian children's writers such as Gordon Korman, Dennis Lee and Robert Munsch.

Music

Particularly in recent years, Canada has produced a number of famous musical groups who have been described as "comedy rock". Bands such as Barenaked Ladies, Moxy Früvous, Odds, Crash Test Dummies, The Awkward Stage and Rheostatics are sometimes misunderstood as being strictly novelty bands, but in fact many of their songs use humour to illuminate more serious themes.

A number of other acts, such as Corky and the Juice Pigs, Arrogant Worms, Three Dead Trolls in a Baggie and Bowser and Blue write specifically comedic songs.

Nancy White is a noted Canadian musical satirist, whose comedic folk songs about Canadian culture and politics have regularly appeared on CBC Radio programs. In addition to more serious material on his primary albums, folk musician Geoff Berner — who has also run for political office as a candidate of the Rhinoceros Party — frequently releases pointedly satirical songs, such as "Official Theme Song for the 2010 / Whistler Olympic Games (The Dead Children Were Worth It!)", as free downloads from his website.

Jann Arden, a singer-songwriter renowned for writing sad love songs, is also paradoxically known as one of Canada's funniest live performers, whose witty, unpretentious stage patter about herself and her family is as much a part of her relationship with her audience as her music is.

Another noted Canadian musical is Mary Lou Fallis, an opera singer who performs both in classical opera roles and as the comedic character "Primadonna", a touring stage show in which she parodies popular stereotypes of opera divas.

Canadian heavy metal frontman Devin Townsend is known for using humour in his music. Projects such as Punky Bruster and Ziltoid the Omniscient are heavily comedy driven, and Devin's heavy metal band, Strapping Young Lad, use a fair bit of satire and sarcastic tongue in cheek lyrics as well.

Radio

Many of Canada's comedy acts and performers have started out on radio, primarily on the national Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) network.

While individual comedy show and segments have been around almost as long as the network, the focus has tended be more on specific shows featuring particular groups of comedians. The real beginnings of Canadian radio comedy began in the late 1930s with the debut of The Happy Gang, a long-running weekly variety show that was regularly sprinkled with corny jokes in between tunes. It debuted in 1938 and ran until 1959. The Wayne & Shuster show debuted on CBC radio in 1946, their more literate and classy humour regularly appearing on the airwaves well into the early 1960s.

The Royal Canadian Air Farce started as a radio show debuting in 1973 featuring mainly political and some character-based comedy sketches. It ran for 24 years before making a permanent transition to television. It started a tradition of topical and politically satirical radio shows that inspired such programs as Double Exposure, The Muckraker and What a Week.

A zanier, more surreal brand of radio comedy was unveiled in the early 1980s with the debut of The Frantics' Frantic Times radio show, which ran from 1981 to 1986. Its smart and surreal style fostered a new take on Canadian radio comedy that was followed by the likes of successor shows as The Norm and Radio Free Vestibule.

By the 1990s the satirical and zany elements merged into two of the more notable CBC radio comedy shows of the 1990s: The Dead Dog Cafe Comedy Hour, a show that offered bitingly satirical pieces from a perspective mixed in with general silliness; and Great Eastern, a show set in a fictitious Newfoundland "national" radio station featuring improbable news stories, fictitious archival recordings and unlikely archeological findings played straight.

CBC Radio continues to play an important part in developing comedy performers on radio. Madly Off In All Directions became a weekly national forum for regional sketch and stand-up comics, a practice that continues in the more recent series The Debaters.

Laugh Attack, a channel programmed by XM Radio Canada and broadcast by XM Satellite Radio to Canada and the , features predominantly Canadian comedy.

Television

Canadian television comedy begins with , a duo who performed as a comedy team during the Second World War, and moved their act to radio in 1946 before moving on to television. They became one of Canada's most enduring comedy teams, not just on Canadian television, but in the United States as well: they appeared on 67 times, a record for any performer. They were particularly famous for their sketch, Rinse the Blood off My Toga, with its legendary catch phrase, "I told him, Julie, don't go!"

Wayne and Shuster continued to appear on CBC Television until the late 1980s, with specials that mixed new sketches with their classic material.

La famille Plouffe, the first regularly scheduled television drama in Canada, was produced in 1953 by Radio-Canada, in French. The program was broadcast on both English and French networks of CBC TV from 1954 to 1959, (in English as The Plouffe Family). It was a mix of drama, humour and social commentary about a working-class Quebec family in the post-World War II era. Another of the CBC's earliest productions was a television adaptation of one of the enduring classics of Canadian humour writing, Stephen Leacock's Sunshine Sketches of a Little Town. Another pioneer in Canadian television comedy was, oddly, a news series. , which debuted in 1964, was primarily meant as a newsmagazine, but its segments included political satire as well as serious news reports. Later series such as Royal Canadian Air Farce, This Hour Has 22 Minutes and have all drawn on the tradition of political satire established by Seven Days, and have been among Canadian television's most popular comedy series in recent years.

Canadian born , who had moved from Toronto to in 1968 to work on Rowan and Martin's Laugh-In, launched the NBC comedy show in 1975. Over the years, several Canadians came to fame as part of the SNL cast, including Dan Aykroyd, Martin Short, and . Michaels also produced The Kids in the Hall for Canadian TV in the 1980s.

Many Canadian comedy shows, while not directly about politics per se, have made profound political statements by satirizing society and pop culture. This includes shows such as SCTV, Buzz and CODCO. CODCO, in particular, was intensely controversial at times for its use of comedy in tackling sensitive subjects; founding member Andy Jones quit CODCO in protest after the CBC refused to air a sketch that made a very explicit political statement about the Mount Cashel Orphanage child abuse scandal. The series History Bites was ostensibly a show presenting history in a sketch comedy, but frequently used the historic setting to satirize current political events and social trends.

Other shows, such as The Kids in the Hall, 4 on the Floor, Bizarre and Puppets Who Kill, revelled in absurdist humour, making household names out of characters such as Chicken Lady, Mr. Canoehead and Super Dave Osborne.

Other notable sketch series have included Zut!, The Show and The Holmes Show. Canadian television also frequently showcases stand-up comedians. The popular series Comics, based around one comedian each week, has been the first national television exposure for many of Canada's current comedy stars. Another series, Just for Laughs, has for many years presented comedians appearing at the Montreal International Comedy Festival. That series has also spawned the more recent Just For Laughs Gags, a practical joke show similar to .

Although several notable Canadian sitcoms have been produced, such as King of Kensington, Hangin' In, and Little Mosque on the Prairie. Other sitcoms, including Material World, Mosquito Lake, Snow Job, Check it Out!, Rideau Hall, Excuse My French and Not My Department, have generally fared poorly with critics and audiences as well. Critic Geoff Pevere has pointed out, however, that American television has produced a lot of bad sitcoms as well. The difference, according to Pevere, is that the economics of television production in Canada mean that whereas an unpopular American may be cancelled and largely forgotten after just a few weeks, Canadian television networks can rarely afford to lose their investment — meaning that a Canadian sitcom almost always airs every episode that was produced, regardless of its performance in the ratings.

On the other hand, Canadian television comedy fares much better when it breaks the sitcom form, especially with dramedy. Unconventional comedy series such as , , Made in Canada, Chilly Beach, The Newsroom, Primetime Glick, , La Petite Vie, Seeing Things, , Supertown Challenge, Les Bougon and have been much more successful than most of Canada's conventional sitcoms, both in Canada and as international exports.

Canada has a national television channel, The Comedy Network, devoted to comedy. Its programming includes some of the classic Canadian comedy series noted above, repeats of several hit American and British series such as , and Absolutely Fabulous, and original series such as Kevin Spencer, Odd Job Jack, The Devil's Advocates, Improv Heaven and Hell and Puppets Who Kill.

One of the most famous figures in Canadian television comedy in the 1990s and 2000s has been Rick Mercer. Mercer began his career in 1990 with a touring one-man show, Show Me the Button, I'll Push It, about Canadian life in the immediate aftermath of the failed Meech Lake Accord. That show was a sellout success; in 1993, he made his television debut as one of the writers and performers on This Hour Has 22 Minutes. Mercer's "rants", short op-ed pieces on Canadian politics and culture, quickly became the show's signature segment. When he published a collection of rants in 1998 as Streeters, the book quickly became a bestseller. Mercer left 22 Minutes in 2000 to devote more time to his other series, Made in Canada. When that series ended its run, he launched the new Rick Mercer Report.

Another famous comedic export in the same era was , whose surreal and sometimes grotesque humour on The Tom Green Show began as a community cable show in before becoming a momentary hit on MTV.

As with many other genres, Canadian television comedy also frequently plays with the topic of Canada's relationship with the United States. Mercer turned another 22 Minutes segment, , into a 2001 television special, which was a ratings smash. In Talking to Americans, Mercer, in his 22 Minutes guise as reporter "J.B. Dixon", visited American cities to ask people on the street for their opinion on a Canadian news story — the joke for Canadians was that the news story was always fabricated, and either inherently ridiculous (e.g. a border dispute between Quebec and Chechnya or an annual Toronto polar bear hunt) or blatantly out of context (e.g. wishing Canadians a "Happy ".)

Another notable show, the sitcom , reversed that formula, finding comedy in the culture shock of an American television reporter taking a job with a Canadian TV station. Tom Green once played with this staple of Canadian comedy as well, during a controversial segment in which he burned a Canadian flag.

Comedy clubs

Notable Canadian comedy clubs and showcases include The Second City branch in Toronto (originally housed at The Old Fire Hall), the Yuk Yuk's chain, and The ALTdot COMedy Lounge. The

The Canadian Comedy Awards were founded by Tim Progosh and Higher Ground Productions in 1999. Over the past eight years they have given out more than 160 awards in three categories - live comedy, film and television.

Personalities

Other famous Canadian humourists and comedy-professionals include:

• (Royal Canadian Air Farce) • Will Arnett (Arrested Development, Blades of Glory) • Dan Aykroyd (Saturday Night Live, The Blues Brothers, Ghostbusters) • Bob Bainborough (The Red Green Show, History Bites, Men With Brooms) • Samantha Bee () • Arthur Black (Basic Black) • Mark Breslin (stand-up; founder of the Yuk-Yuk's chain) • (Royal Canadian Air Farce, XPM, stand-up) • Pat Bullard (The Pat Bullard Show) • Mike Bullard (Open Mike with Mike Bullard, The Mike Bullard Show) • (Corner Gas, stand-up) • Craig Campbell • John Candy (SCTV, Uncle Buck, Spaceballs, Canadian Bacon) • (Corner Gas) • (Ace Ventura: Pet Detective, Man on the Moon, The Mask, Liar Liar, In Living Color) • Maggie Cassella (Because I Said So) • Michael Cera (Arrested Development, Superbad) • Tommy Chong (Cheech & Chong, That '70s Show) • Carla Collins (stand-up) • Michel Courtemanche (stand-up) • Gavin Crawford (The Gavin Crawford Show, This Hour Has 22 Minutes) • Sean Cullen (Corky & the Juice Pigs, The Sean Cullen Show, stand-up) • Roman Danylo (The Holmes Show, Comedy Inc.) • Yvon Deschamps (stand-up) • Filipe "Folopo" Dimas (stand-up, TheLaughTrack) • Harry Doupe (stand-up/comedy writer) • (Ed's Night Party) • Derek Edwards (stand-up, The Red Green Show) • Joey Elias (stand-up) • (Corner Gas, Robson Arms) • Mark Farrell (The Newsroom) • (Royal Canadian Air Farce, XPM) • Joe Flaherty (SCTV) • (The Kids in the Hall, News Radio) • Michael J. Fox (Family Ties, Back to the Future, Spin City) • Stewart Francis (An American in Canada, You Bet Your Ass) • Vicki Gabereau (Vicki Gabereau) • André-Philippe Gagnon (impressionist) • (Royal Canadian Air Farce, Bizarre) • Rick Green (The Frantics, The Red Green Show, History Bites) • Bowser and Blue • (The Red Green Show) • Kathy Greenwood (Whose Line is it Anyway?, XPM) • (Due South, Men With Brooms) • Ben Guyatt (Comedy at Club 54) • (aka Charlie Farquharson Spring Thaw, ) • Phil Hartman (Saturday Night Live, The Simpsons, NewsRadio) • (The Holmes Show, Royal Canadian Air Farce) • Jeremy Hotz (stand-up) • Donald Jack (author) • Ron James (Blackfly, stand-up) • Mario Jean (stand-up, actor) • Andy Jones (CODCO) • (CODCO, This Hour Has 22 Minutes) • (Buzz, Rick Mercer Report) • Jason Jones (The Daily Show) • Helene Joy (An American in Canada) • Peter Keleghan (The Newsroom, Made in Canada, The Red Green Show) • Tom King (The Dead Dog Cafe Comedy Hour) • Gordon Kirkland (humour author, syndicated columnist, entertainer) • Elvira Kurt (stand-up, PopCultured) • Greg Lawrance (Kevin Spencer, Butch Patterson: Private Dick) • (SCTV, American Pie) • Rich Little (impressionist) • Tim Long (Head-writer for The Simpsons) • Jeff Lumby (The Red Green Show) • Bette MacDonald (Rideau Hall) • Mike MacDonald (stand-up) • (Saturday Night Live, The Norm Show) • Shane MacDougall (stand-up/comedy writer) • Shaun Majumder (This Hour Has 22 Minutes, Just For Laughs) • (CODCO, The S&M Comic Book) • Howie Mandel (Bobby's World, Deal or No Deal, St. Elsewhere, ) • Andrea Martin (SCTV) • Rachel McAdams (The Hot Chick, ) • Eric McCormack (Will & Grace) • Bruce McCulloch (The Kids in the Hall) • Kevin McDonald (The Kids in the Hall) • Wade McElwain ("Gutter Ball Alley"), "Ultimate Destination", (stand-up) • Patrick McKenna (The Red Green Show) • Mark McKinney (The Kids in the Hall, Robson Arms) • Stuart McLean (The Vinyl Cafe) • Lorne Michaels (Saturday Night Live) • (Corner Gas, Robson Arms) • Mista Mo /Morgan Smith (Buzz) • (This Hour Has 22 Minutes, Supertown Challenge, Whose Line Is It Anyway?, Improv Heaven & Hell, Blackfly) • Rick Moranis (SCTV, Ghostbuster, Honey I Shrunk The Kids) • (Royal Canadian Air Farce) • Mike Myers (Saturday Night Live, Wayne's World, Austin Powers) • Leslie Nielsen (Liography, Zeroman, Men With Brooms, The Naked Gun) • Catherine O'Hara (SCTV, Best in Show, A Mighty Wind) • Peter Oldring (History Bites) • Ron Pardo (History Bites) • Jenny Parsons (Supertown Challenge) • Teresa Pavlinek (History Bites, Improv Heaven & Hell, The Jane Show) • (stand-up) • (This is Wonderland, Corner Gas) • (The Red Green Show) • Leah Pinsent (Made in Canada) • Dan Redican (Puppets Who Kill, The Frantics) • Ryan Reynolds (Two Guys and a Girl, National Lampoon's Van Wilder) • Caroline Rhea (Sabrina the Teenage Witch, The Caroline Rhea Show) • Rick Roberts (An American in Canada) • Kenny Robinson (stand-up, radio) • Nancy Robertson (Corner Gas) • Wayne Robson (The Red Green Show) • Seth Rogen (Knocked Up, Superbad) • Saul Rubinek (Frasier, Bizarre) • Will Sasso (Mad TV) • Mort Saul (stand-up) • Tommy Sexton (CODCO, The S&M Comic Book) • Sandra Shamas (stand-up) • William Shatner (Star Trek and various spoofs thereof, comedic commercials) • Martin Short (SCTV, Primetime Glick, Saturday Night Live) • Mike Smith (Trailer Park Boys) • (The Red Green Show, Smith & Smith's Comedy Mill) • Ron Sparks (writer, stand-up) • Winston Spear (stand-up, Comedy Inc.) • Tara Spencer-Nairn (Corner Gas) • (stand-up, The Second City, The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour, The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson) • (Whose Line Is It Anyway?, The Show) • (SCTV, The New Beachcombers) • (This Hour Has 22 Minutes) • Scott Thompson (The Kids in the Hall) • (Jonovision, Trailer Park Boys, Rideau Hall) • John Paul Tremblay (Trailer Park Boys) • Janet van de Graaf (History Bites, Improv Heaven & Hell) • Ron Vaudry (stand-up) • (CODCO, This Hour Has 22 Minutes) • Robb Wells (Trailer Park Boys) • Peter Wildman (The Red Green Show, The Frantics) • Harland Williams (Just for Laughs) • (Corner Gas) • List of Quebec comedians • Blame Canada (South Park) • British humour • American humour

PENGUIN ANTHOLOGY OF CANADIAN HUMOUR Will Ferguson - Author

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Book: Hardback | 235 x 159mm | 288 pages | ISBN 9780670064434 | 05 Mar 2006 | Viking Canada | Adult

Introduction by Will Ferguson

Analyzing humour, it’s been said, is an awful lot like dissecting a frog. You may learn something about anatomy, but the frog itself usually dies in the process.

Fortunately, I need not wield a scalpel here, for Stephen Leacock has already achieved the near impossible: he has defined the very essence of humour. And he did so without killing a single frog. The origins of humour, Leacock explained, “lie in the deeper contrasts offered by life itself; in the strange incongruity between our aspirations and our achievements.”

It’s there, in that gap—that gap between what we assume life will bring and how things actually turn out, between what we want and what we get, between our grand plans and high expectations and what is actually accomplished—it is there that humour is fostered, is born. Once you are aware of this principle, you recognize it everywhere. Certainly all of the pieces in this anthology—with the possible exception of James Martin, who’s in a category all his own—draw upon this “strange incongruity,” this discrepancy between the ideal world and the real.

Robertson Davies took it even further. A sense of humour, he noted, is more of a curse than a blessing. Life was easier, he felt, for those who went through their day-to-day existence without seeing the essential absurdity—the humour—underlying everything.

So. When perusing a collection such as this, it is important to take each author on his or her own terms, in his or her own voice. Whether you prefer folksy humour over urban grit (or vice versa), you should approach each selection for what it is: a distinct way of looking at the world, a distinct way of dealing with that gap.

From Ray Guy in St. John’s to Jack Knox in Victoria, I have tried to throw as wide a net as possible. Some of the pieces gathered here are homespun and endearing. Others have a definite edge. Some are silly. Some are quite profound. Some are culled from alternative arts magazines, others from major literary works. All are distinctly Canadian in ways I can’t quite put my finger on. It’s like pornography; you know it when you see it—even if you can’t come up with an exact definition. Sure, I have included hockey players and Mounties, and even a glimpse or two of the Rockies, but for the most part I have chosen pieces that resonate with me simply because they feel very Canadian.

I have included selections from some of our best-known authors: Mordecai Richler, Robertson Davies, Mavis Gallant, Douglas Coupland, Miriam Toews. But I’ve also included authors who, while perhaps not as well known, deserve to be much more widely read. Authors such as Ivan E. Coyote and Mariko Tamaki.

I tried to avoid obvious choices when I made my selections. As much as I love Roch Carrier’s “The Hockey Sweater,” it’s an often-anthologized story, so I went instead with translator Sheila Fischman’s delightful recommendation, “Titties Prayer.” Similarly, although I’m a great fan of Robert Service and will prattle off a recitation of “The Cremation of Sam McGee” at the slightest provocation (I’m something of a philanthropist that way), I nevertheless wanted to avoid the predictable choice of “Dan McGrew” or the aforementioned “McGee,” and went instead with a personal favourite, “The Ballad of Pious Pete.”

This anthology is arranged alphabetically, by author, rather than along thematic or regional lines. Two reasons: First, I think collections such as these should be easy to use. Second, and more importantly, the focus must remain squarely on the authors. It is their own distinct, often skewed world views that are being celebrated here, not any overarching thesis of Canadian identity. The soothing conversational stylings of Stuart McLean couldn’t be more unlike the wild exuberance of, say, Richard J. Needham. Yet both are assuredly Canadian. It’s a Big Tent, this country.

If you do decide to read this book from start to finish in the order it is presented, be prepared to change gears wildly—an effect that can be enlivening or jarring depending on your point of view. The shift from Gary Lauten’s gentle poke at married life to the sudden serrated edge of Dany Laferrière is particularly jolting, to name just one example. At other times, the alphabet throws out interesting rapports, such as the parallel between Thomas King’s view of Indians in Canadian society and that of W.P. Kinsella’s, both of which are oddly complementary.

But you aren’t going to read this book in alphabetical order, from Bidini to White, are you? I didn’t think so. So, to help you as you jump about, here are several through-lines you can follow. Sort of “mini-anthologies” embedded in the text:

• If you’re interested in travel writing, you should start with Dave Bidini’s hockey trip to and Paul Quarrington’s search for God in the Galapagos, with Jacques Poulin’s Volkswagen journey as a chaser. • For comedic verse, there’s the poetry of Bill Richardson and Robert Service, and the lyrics of Nancy White. (And for wonderfully bad comedic verse, there’s Paul Hiebert.)

• For folk tales and fables, see Jacques Ferron’s short stories and Antonine Maillet’s The Tale of Don L’Orignal, which is very much in the tradition of Jonathan Swift.

• For social satire, with a slightly surreal touch, turn to M.A.C. Farrant’s send-up of New Age “retreats,” Zsuzsi Gartner’s withering look at PowerPoint parents, and Erika Ritter’s oddly poignant encounter with Barbie’s bitter ex, Mr. Ken Doll.

• For parody—as opposed to satire—see Dan Needles’s wonderful spoof of local history books; Paul Hiebert’s devastating slam-dunk of literary criticism; Stephen Leacock’s incisive guide to Shakespeare; and Bob Edwards’s “transcript from a debate in the Canadian House of Commons.”

• For quick, lighter reads, I have included a healthy selection from Canadian humour columnists. The newspaper column is an exacting art form, one with strict word counts requiring an economy of language and a single strong focus. You’ll find Arthur Black on sailing, Chuck Brown on fixing a roof, Marsha Boulton on raising turkeys.

• Finally, there is a certain, unmistakably Canadian style of humour—playful, pithy, disarming, and at times touching—that can only be described as “Leacockian.” You can see it Joey Slinger’s advice on how to stay out of the gutter; in Brian O’Connell’s visit from an imaginary friend; in Eric Nicol’s experiences on Broadway; in all of Stuart Trueman’s selections; and, of course, in the work of Stephen Leacock (who would, I’m sure, get a kick out of having his writing described as “Leacockian”).

Regrets? Several. I was sorely limited in my choice of francophone writing. People would gush things like “What about Yvon Deschamps? You have to include Yvon Deschamps! He’s hilarious.” Deschamps, who famously described what Quebeckers really want as “Un Québec indépendent dans un Canada uni!” is indeed a sharp and witty fellow. I gladly would have included him if I could have found anything available in translation. (A good deal of French-Canadian literature is translated every year, but very little of it is humour. This may be part of the problem.)

The good news? The francophone writing that is included is very strong. Roch Carrier, Jacques Ferron, Dany Laferrière, Antonine Maillet, and Jacques Poulin provide some of the best pieces in this collection.

I desperately wanted to include a selection from Michel Tremblay’s play Les Belles Soeurs (where fourteen women in a working-class Quebec neighbourhood gather in a kitchen to paste trading stamps into booklets for a contest), which would have dovetailed nicely with Tomson Highway’s The Rez Sisters (a play about seven women from a -Ojibway reserve in who are determined to beat the odds by travelling to Toronto to take part in—and the term is always given in caps—the biggest bingo in the world). But something happens when you lay down a play onto the page. It just sits there. It loses its vitality. Plays are meant to be heard, to be seen. They are not meant to be read in the way one might read a novel. So, to the poor typesetter who stayed up late resetting pages of text into proper play format, adjusting the margins and changing the indents—only to have it all taken out—I give a sincere and heartfelt, “Sorry, eh?”

Two other selections were also typeset and formatted before being yanked, with much anguish on my part. Yves Beauchemin’s novel Le Matou (translated into English as The Alley Cat) and Edward Riche’s novel Rare Birds defeated me. Both are terrifically funny books. Both were impossible to excerpt. I spent weeks wrestling with them, to no avail.

Beauchemin’s The Alley Cat is a sprawling, satirical novel that has sold over one million copies worldwide and has been translated into fifteen languages. It’s a Dickensian tale with multiple characters and interwoven storylines, and I never could figure out how to do it justice.

Riche’s Rare Birds, set in Newfoundland and later adapted into a film, is the tale of a despondent chef, his relentlessly supportive neighbour, a mysterious and possibly sinister science experiment, a large bag of cocaine, and a grand hoax that quickly runs out of control. I tried again and again to excerpt this novel, isolating different aspects of the story, stringing disparate passages together with only a disingenuous ellipse between them—but no matter what I did, it ended up sounding like a thin-gruel Reader’s Digest summary. (In a strange coincidence, both Riche’s and Beauchemin’s novels revolve around the inner workings of restaurants. So perhaps it was a mental block from my own days slinging hash as a line cook that kept tripping me up.)

When I read the final typeset pages, I came to the sad realization that these selections had to go. So, to fans of Tomson Highway, Michel Tremblay, Yves Beauchemin, and Edward Riche: You’re right. They should have been included. But they weren’t.

In a different vein, two other authors were removed at the last minute solely because neither the publisher nor myself could track down the owners of their estates. Maggie Grant and Robert Thomas Allen were both in the final Table of Contents, their pieces proofread and ready to go, but in both cases we could not locate the copyright holder and were thus unable to arrange permissions. This was especially surprising in the case of Allen, who was a very well-known humorist. He passed away in 1990, having won the Leacock Medal for Humour twice. But, like Maggie Grant, he thwarted the best efforts of Google and our editorial sleuthing.

It was a long process. Oftentimes I would disappear behind towering stacks of books for days on end, reappearing only for air and the occasional Timbit tossed into my mouth from the top of the stairs by a worried spouse. “Why are you down there laughing like that? Alone?” I was dishevelled, unshaven—but happy. (Good therapy, that: editing humour books.) It’s been fun and, if not exhaustive, it has certainly been exhausting.

I do hope you enjoy this collection of Canadian humour. If you have any queries, concerns, or corrections, I really don’t want to hear about it. Errors and oversights should be ascribed to gremlins and late-night eye fatigue, not editorial intent. And please, please don’t send me emails demanding to know “Why wasn’t X or Y included? And what about Z? How can you possibly have an anthology that doesn’t include Z???” Listen. X wasn’t included because X isn’t funny. Y wasn’t included because I just plain don’t like Y—she breathes through her nose when she eats and always adds sideways smiley faces at the end of her emails no matter how inappropriate. I mean, really. “Our thoughts are with you in your time of loss :-)” Who the hell does something like that? And don’t even get me started about Z, that bastard.

Okay. So maybe editing a humour anthology is not the best form of therapy available. But reading one surely is. And that’s where I shall leave it, while there is still life in the ol’ amphibian yet. Happy reading!

—Will Ferguson, en route to a nap