I have been doing a LOT of reading for my MA Question of Research project into subversion and humour, and tying into my main project proposal too…
Chavazine by Gemma Jung, and The Chap Manifesto by Gustav Temple & Vic Darkwood - I enjoyed these, but felt like the Chap Manifesto was too long, so the joke was wearing a bit thin before the end.
Discovering Scarfolk and Scarfolk Annual 197X by Richard Littler - I really enjoyed these. Parodying 70s public information posters, and more along the way, in the setting of a fictional and very strange town in England. While being longer than the Chap Manifesto, Discovering Scarfolk managed to avoid the law of diminishing returns by framing the “artefacts” around a narrative story (also presented as true events). For more information, please reread.
Living with a Houserabbit by Linda Dykes & Helen Flack, and The Private Life of the Rabbit by R.M. Lockley - I read these to look at the sort of thing I’d like to subvert with the Mashu for my major project. The houserabbit book is your standard introduction-to-a-pet information book, while the Private Life details observations of behaviours and societal structures in a study of a few animal groups. Currently I’m leaning towards something formatted more like the former, but maybe with the content a bit more like the latter…