Preface

preface

The book, like the previous two (metabill and “I am bill?”), is a set of very small scenes. Each is inspired by a “dad joke” that has been put on various “best dad joke” websites. I did not curate the “dad jokes” beyond picking the website. I can say that most of the jokes are very bad and I seriously doubt any father would use any of these. The websites, if anyone is concerned about attribution and credit, were things like Men’s Health and Chortle. If someone wants to sue me over the use of this material, well, I’m sure the deposition will be entertaining and fuel for new chapters in my next book.

Each scene starts with the “setup”, then I write a scene that is inspired by the setup and honor the punchline. Here’s an example:

The book follows my typical typographic conventions which is somewhat similar to a script versus a novel:

[PERSON TALKING] some description of the person’s current state The person’s dialog is under their name and description ::SUBTITLE: A very mediocre translation of the text above.:: ((SOMETHING ELSE IS HAPPENING))

Also, I’ve imported several characters from Metabill. If you haven’t read Metabill, here’s a brief character sketch of each:

[BILL] is me, the author, representing my external presentation.

[Shakes] is me, the author, representing my internal life.

[Manyfeek] is also me — the crass and disrespectful side.

[KayCEE] is not me, but a completely fictional android. She is obsessed with passionate art and typography. She will comment on people by comparing them to digits or other glyphs. Notably, she’s fond of odd numbers over even.

[GAMS] is not me. [GAMS] is a steel plate with two legs attached below. She does not speak, but simply kicks. She represents a tool that someone asked me to use that wasn’t appropriate for my job. GAMS, in the real world, is software for mathematical optimization. I do no mathematical optimizations in anything I do at work. “Gams”, the word, also is very old slang for a woman’s legs; “Take a look at the gams on that babe” might be something you hear in an old gangster movie.

Also, I use the word “qua” often. This means “in the capacity of” and nothing more fancy than that. [Manyfeek] qua Superman is just “this person is acting in this capacity” and is more embodied than a simple costume change. [Manyfeek], in essence, is Superman in this context.

The book is organized into two sections: my writing starts the book, then the book repeats with what the Claude model felt was the best idea for each joke. In my chapters, I added my notes to help comprehension or any other comments I felt like making after writing the scene.

Thanks for reading this and I hope you enjoy the book.