Klabaukiades

Beverly Rasporich is a professor in the Faculty of Communication and
Culture at the University of Calgary. She is the author of Dance of the
Sexes: Art and Gender in the Fiction of Alice Munro and Magic Off Main:
The Art of Esther Warkov.

On the inside cover of this handwritten book of humorous verse is the following:

My impression is that Klabs Klabauke, the persona who is behind this book of humour and whose behind is the “optic” signature throughout, is a persona non grata; at least, the humorous country he purports to inhabit is an unknown one to me. The Klabauke refrain, for example, may have been meant as a fanciful tongue-in-cheek beginning, but what it really establishes is obsessive Klabaukiness and the self-indulgent spirit permeating this text. Similarly, the misspellings and word inventions (introduktions, instrauktion, horroscopic, barkllads, cunneries, brainfilings, cheekeries) may be meant as phonetic and nonsensical fun; but without satirical intention or double-layered wit (like that, for example, embedded in the grotesque misspellings of the Great Canadian Misspeller, Charlie Farquharson) the Klabauke “wordacrobatics” seem eccentric and trivial.

The review guide for the Klabaukiades indicates that they “are for gourmets who appreciate esprit, hidden irony, puzzling craziness — for sophisticated readers with sense for fine tuned mockeries, farcical rhymes, puns, quips, ambiguities, satires.” Unfortunately, I definitely fail the Humour-Test given by star-jester Klaus on page 35. I did occasionally smile at “fooleries,” such as Walk/balk.

However, since I was unable to “chuckle, where nothing is to chuckle about” (p.36), I can never call myself a “Super-Klabaukian”; you, on the other hand, may have better humour and better luck.