EXCERPT
Howl Introduction
“A dog walks into a bar …”
Cats are enigmatic. Horses have a noble air. Pigs gregarious.
But dogs are by nature funny—they make us laugh. As
any comedian will tell you, timing is everything, and have
there ever been creatures with better timing than dogs? They
always seem to be there at just the right moment, or just
the wrong moment, depending upon whom the joke is on. A pot
roast left unguarded. An open bedroom door. An ill-timed
squat. How quickly tragedy turns into comedy with a dog.
A comedy of manners, fish out of water, parody, slapstick—all
genres of humor are fair game with a dog.
If indeed timing is everything, then the time seems right
to bring out this collection of canine-inspired humor. Heaven
knows we could use a little laughter. And, a book of wit
and humor seemed like an excellent follow-up to our first
book, Dog Is My Co-Pilot: Great Writers on the World’s
Oldest Friendship, an anthology of essays that explored the
bonds between human and canine. As founders and editors of
Bark magazine, we take our role of reporting on canine culture
seriously, but not so seriously that we can’t poke
fun at the dog world we’ve chronicled and helped create
over the last decade. Admit it, even the most devoted dog
lover will occasionally pause and think, This is crazy! Or,
at least, uncommonly funny.
“A Democrat, a Republican and a dog are waiting in
line to vote …”
Do animals smile? Do they laugh? Both science and literature
have taken on these age-old questions, and evidence shows
that, indeed, animals do have a sense of humor. In a paper
titled “Do Dogs Laugh? A Cross-Cultural Approach to
Body Symbolism,” noted anthropologist Mary Douglas
sets out to prove that we can divide human from animal along
the fault line of laughter. She cites Konrad Lorenz’s
Man Meets Dog and Thomas Mann’s A Man
and His Dog to
show how the panting, slightly opened jaws of man’s
best friend “look like a human smile” and can
give “a stronger impression of laughing.” (We
have daily evidence of this as we sort through the many submissions
to our ongoing “Smiling Dog” contest, a Bark
reader favorite.) Scientists, such as Dr. Jaak Panksepp,
have also shown that rats respond with laughterlike sounds
when tickled, and cite studies performed by Patricia Simonet,
which note that the breathy exhalations of dogs at play are
evidence of a level of joy biologically similar to laughter.
It seems that dogs do have a sense of humor, or at the very
least, playfulness. This may explain why your dog can make
you look like a fool several times a day.
“Two dogs are sitting in a vet’s office. One
says to the other …”
When we began planning this anthology, we thought we’d
include a few older pieces, but were surprised to discover
how much our sense of humor has changed with regard to dogs.
In many of the venerable examples of dog-related humor—over
the past century—the dog was the butt of the joke;
even worse, humor was found in cruel treatment inflicted
upon dogs. Is this any way to treat a trusted friend? It’s
an indication of how far we have come that we no longer find
amusement in their suffering or laugh at inhumane acts perpetrated
upon them. As with all cherished friends, we prefer to laugh
with our dogs, rather than at them.
Thus, we were inspired to start fresh, to look for what is
funny in today’s dog world. We also made it a point
to gather work from a variety of sources—acclaimed
humorists (Merle Markoe, Roy Blount Jr., Kinky Friedman),
popular performing comedians (Al Franken, Margaret Cho, Marga
Gomez), noted literary authors (Haven Kimmel, Pam Houston,
Alice Elliot Dark), and accomplished “behind the scenes” comedy
writers whose work has provided the backbone for the likes
of The Late Show with David Letterman, Late
Night with Conan O’Brien and Saturday Night
Live. We’ve also made
a it point to include a number of younger authors who have
a certain generational edge to their work, as well as writers
who have often appeared in Bark magazine (Lee Harrington,
Alysia Gray Painter, Greg Edmont). We also tapped into noted “fidospher” Michael
J. Rosen’s wellspring of humor. In the end, we assembled
nearly 70 pieces ranging from personal essays and parodies
to satires and aphorisms. Like the dogs we love, no two are
alike. We’re very pleased with the mix.
Despite the mirth-provoking stories included in this book,
we realize that far too many dogs face an uncertain—and
definitely not amusing—future. In the fall of 2005,
following Hurricane Katrina, we ran a special section in
the magazine covering the storm and its aftermath, not only
for dogs and their families but also for Gulf Coast humane
and animal rescue organizations. The magnitude of the disaster
was almost too much to take in, and it inspired us to look
for a long-term way to help with the rebuilding efforts,
which are ongoing as we write this, nearly two years later.
With the support of our publisher and contributors, we have
made a commitment to donate all royalties from the sale of
this book to these organizations. Your purchase of this book
assists with this effort.
We hope the pieces herein bring a smile or chuckle, or even
a guffaw. In sharing a laugh, you’re also helping some
hounds find a way home.
—Cameron Woo and Claudia Kawczynska
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