Laugh Track

from the Whimsy Wing of the Merzbau

One of my favourite jokes is the one where the idiot of the shtetl of Frampol is offered the job of waiting at the village gates to greet the arrival of the Messiah. “The pay isn’t great,” he is told, “but the work is steady.”

It captures how I often feel, stationed at the gates of Unwell, waiting for the Messiah of Right-mindedness to arrive. The work is certainly steady.

“Jonah” inside Dunkleosteus, Royal Ontario Museum; photo by Segbingway, edited by Stacy Code

(Dunkleosteus was an undersea horror that flourished about 350 million years ago. Several metres long, it had bony armour plating that formed its head and jaws. Its blade-like jawbones worked as a self-sharpening guillotine, honing themselves as they snapped open and shut. They opened so swiftly that a small vacuum was created in front of them, sweeping prey inside. Fossil evidence indicates that its diet included others of its own kind.)