Canadian Humor

If you can imagine it, somewhere there’s probably a law against it. Laugh out loud over some of Canada’s strangest laws - but not too loudly, or you might get a ticket: until 2002 in BC, you couldn’t stand up while having a drink in a restaurant; in Halifax, cabbies are required to wear socks; you’re not allowed to dogsled on the sidewalks in Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario; and much more.

Dutch-American storyteller Hilda Van Stockum provides us with another episode in the life of the Mitchell family, this time taking on life as it comes in a truly unforgettable Canadian summer.

Vietnamese refugees Debbie and Phil Tran have built a comfortable life for themselves in Toronto with their family nail salon. But when an ultra-glam chain salon opens across the street, their world is rocked. Complicating matters further, their landlord has jacked up the rent and it seems only a matter of time before they lose their business. They enlist the help of their daughter, Jessica, who has just returned home after a messy breakup and a messier firing. Together with their son, Dustin, and niece, Thuy, they devise some good old-fashioned sabotage.

Readers of Patrick Taylor's books know Mrs. Kinky Kincaid as the unflappable housekeeper who looks after two frequently frazzled doctors in the colourful Irish village of Ballybucklebo. She is a trusted fixture in the lives of those around her, and it often seems as though Kinky has always been there.Nothing could be farther from the truth.

Norris is clever, cynical, and quite possibly too smart for his own good. A Black French Canadian, he knows from watching American sitcoms that those three things don’t bode well when you are moving to Texas. Plunked into a new high school, Norris finds himself cataloging everyone he meets: the Cheerleaders, the Jocks, the Loners, and even the Manic Pixie Dream Girl. Making a ton of friends has never been a priority for him, and this way he can at least amuse himself until it’s time to go back to Canada, where he belongs. Yet those labels soon become actual people to Norris....

Amber Kivinen is moving to Mars. Or at least, she will be if she wins a chance to join MarsNow. She and 23 reality TV contestants from around the world—including attractive Israeli soldier Adam, endearing fellow Canadian Pichu, and an assortment of science nerds and wannabe influencers—are competing for two seats on the first human-led mission to Mars, sponsored by billionaire Geoff Task. Meanwhile Kevin, Amber’s boyfriend of 14 years, was content going nowhere until Amber left him—and their hydroponic weed business—behind.

The author of How to Do Everything and Red Green's Beginner's Guide to Women has never been afraid to take on jobs doomed to failure. This latest project is perhaps the nearest he has come to a triumph. In The Woulda Coulda Shoulda Guide to Canadian Inventions, Red surveys, analyzes, critiques, and in some cases tells you how to re-create at home the best Canadian inventions, from the Wonderbra to the hard-cup jockstrap, by way of insulin, the walkie-talkie, synchronized swimming, and more.

Otter Lake is a sleepy Anishnawbe community where little happens. Until the day a handsome stranger pulls up astride a 1953 Indian Chief motorcycle - and turns Otter Lake completely upside down. Maggie, the Reserve’s chief, is swept off her feet, but Virgil, her teenage son, is less than enchanted. Suspicious of the stranger’s intentions, he teams up with his uncle, Wayne - a master of aboriginal martial arts - to drive the stranger from the Reserve. And it turns out that the raccoons are willing to lend a hand.

Flat Stanley goes north! Stanley Lambchop and his family are in British Columbia, Canada, for some skiing and winter fun. But when Stanley and his new friend Nick go snowboarding - with Stanley as the snowboard, of course - they take a midair tumble just as the wind picks up...and find themselves floating in an amazing Canadian cross-country journey that might just be Stanley's wildest adventure yet!

Things aren't going Milo's way. His acting career is floundering, he got dumped, his miserable father vanished, and people keep moving into his house. He finally decides to take action - to help the only person he really likes, the autistic boy next door who's being bullied. But, well, that doesn't really go his way either.

Tout le monde m’a toujours dit que ma vie pourrait être adaptée en une série télévisée, tellement je me retrouve toujours dans des situations invraisemblables. Pour vrai, même en te les racontant, j’ai de la difficulté à croire que c’est de ma vie qu’il est question. Pas de bon sens, je te dis!

Quelle raison pousse un jeune enquêteur brillant mais irrévérencieux à seconder un inspecteur médiocre dont on cherche désespérément à se débarrasser? Et par quel calcul machiavélique a-t-on voulu les réunir? Ce duo parfaitement incongru se retrouve pourtant au milieu d’une affaire dont personne n’avait soupçonné l’importance.

For more than two decades, Gerry Dee has made audiences laugh, first as a hard-working stand-up comedian, and then as the star of his own CBC television program, Mr. D. Dee became a physical education teacher, thinking he would have it made: coaching, summers off and a good pension. But he found himself dreaming of a career in comedy, until one day, years later, he turned in his teaching certificate and picked up a microphone. He went on to become one of Canada’s top comics.

Mon nom est Samuel et, aujourd’hui, c’est ma fête. YI-PIIII! Non... ARK, plutôt... Parce que, dans ma famille, on ne donne pas des cadeaux qui fonctionnent avec des piles. Alors, tu comprends ce que ça veut dire, HEIN? Encore et encore des cadeaux FULL poches. Parmi les niaiseries sans intérêt que j’ai reçues, il y a ce journal. Ma mère m’a dit que ça va être l’fun d’y écrire ce que je vis et TOUT ce qui me passe par la tête.

Ever since his girlfriend ended things, Thomas’s life has been on a downward spiral. A gifted medical student, he has spent his entire adulthood struggling to escape the legacy of his father, an esteemed psychiatrist who used him as a test subject when he was a boy. Thomas lived his entire childhood watched over by researchers lurking behind one-way glass. But now the tables have turned. Thomas is the researcher, and he’s convinced an experiment he has concocted will cure three homeless men of their delusional claims. Then the experiment careens out of control....

Canadian sport is the brunt of many jokes, but Canucks take the jabs in stride and still find the humour in what’s laughable from the ice to the water to the field and the court.

An unforgettable tour de force in the voice of an ordinary-extraordinary woman who has simply had enough. Through the character of Bina, who is writing out her story on the backs of discarded envelopes, Anakana Schofield filters a complex moral universe filled with humour and sadness, love and rage, and the consolations, obligations and mysteries of lifelong friendship. A work of great power, skill, and transformative empathy from a unique and astonishing writer, whose previous book, Martin John, was shortlisted for the Giller Prize.

Demonstrating once again why he is one of Canada's most loved jokesters, Black masterfully captures the laughter that often bursts out of the seams of everyday life. From an unexpected drag race to a Google search for a picture of the illusive "Arthur the Meek", you just never know when a regular day is going to turn into comedic genius. Black provides uproarious insight into uses a matador might have for a teacup, mango, or simply some paper towel....

Red York has seen it all: the Maple Leafs’ 45 consecutive Stanley Cups, Toronto’s designation as a United Nations World Heritage Site, the emergence of the Toronto Telegram as the nation’s greatest newspaper. Now, in response to at least two readers’ requests, and with the aid of a ghostwriter whose name he can’t ever remember, the award-winning columnist has penned a definitive history of the city of Toronto in the back half of the 20th century.

Surveillante à la petite école, c'était bien, c'était faire œuvre utile : Diane a pu faire appel à des compétences en matière de résolution de conflits juvéniles, gestion de parents rois et autres tâches connexes (micro-onde non inclus). Mais force est d'admettre que ce n'est pas tellement moins stressant que la job qu'elle occupait au bureau... Qu'il est tentant, donc, d'accepter ce contrat—temporaire!—de « responsable de la synergie des équipes professionnelles et numériques », un rôle sur-mesure de déchicaneuse fraîchement inventé par cette chère Claudine.