Longlisted, 20188 Leacock Medal for Humour

A hilarious collection of Jack Knox's best-loved humour columns.

In this side-splitting follow-up to the bestseller Hard Knox: Musings from the Edge of Canada, Jack Knox presents his best writing, marking his twenty-year anniversary as a humour columnist at the Victoria Times Colonist, the newspaper that made him a household name. Revisiting his most—and least!—popular columns, Knox weighs the potential benefits of a marijuana-like drug that reduces anxiety in rats; reports on the “Bush Boys,” a pair of brothers who emerged from the forest near Vernon with a dubious story about being raised in the wilderness (they were actually from suburban California); and muses over fictional characters such as Barbie, Ken, Harry Potter, and Archie growing up and facing the grim realities of life. He also includes a hilarious collection of “nastygrams” (a.k.a. hate mail) that he’s received over the past two decades. Opportunity Knox goes to show that humour comes when you least expect it. From politics to weather, sports to entertainment, Knox finds the bizarre in everyday life and the ordinary in what should by all accounts be bizarre.

Jack Knox is the author of two bestselling humour books, Hard Knox: Musings from the Edge of Canada and Opportunity Knox: Twenty Years of Award-Losing Humour Writing, both based on his popular column at the Victoria Times Colonist and both long-listed finalists for the Leacock Medal for Humour. His latest book is On the Rocks with Jack Knox: Islanders I Will Never Forget. Knox’s career highlights include being blasted with blowhole spray by Luna the orca whale, interviewing a nude porn star, and getting a phone call from Barack Obama four days before the 2008 presidential election. In his spare time he performs in a rock ’n' roll band with members of his Tour de Rock cycling team.

Jack Knox's profile page

"Knox takes us on an honest, sometimes dizzy, and entertainingly unostentatious circuit of Knox’s off-the-wall west coast world."

Ormsby Review

“If Jack Knox is padding his latest book with his hate mail, too bad it won't include the unsent letters from other columnists like me-—who couldn't be as funny as he is even once, never mind regularly for 20 years.”

Vancouver Sun

[T]eachers may find this book a useful source of humorous writing. It is suitable for instructional purposes and library collections.

BC Books for BC Schools

“Knox is the most under-rated writer in Canada. If he moved to Toronto we’d lose him to fame. So we’re fortunate he’s on the no-fly list and isn’t allowed on the ferry.”

Times Colonist

“Jack Knox is the real deal. He’s one of the funniest writers in Canada.”

Ian Ferguson, Winner of the Stephen Leacock Medal for Humour for Village of Small Houses