I Can't Escape Fake History
For the last several months, I've been endeavouring to chronicle the history of my sketch group, Dan and Jay's Comedy Hour (danandjay.com) using an interactive timeline I found. This history, found at history.danandjay.com, is almost entirely bullshit, pulling in elements from past fake histories (going back to 2001 we have created innumerable impossible backstories) and all of the new elements that get pulled in on our weekly podcast, usually through time travel or interdimensional travel.
It got so that, by this last Christmas, as I recovered from COVID, I realized that I'd written nearly 6,000 words of fake history for this website experiment that I hadn't yet publicized. That doesn't sound like a lot of writing, but when you consider that this is essentially a conglomeration of what should be one-off bits, it's not bad. In fact, if it reaches over 50,000 words (it will) I'm going to be forced to self-publish it.
I've talked about this on numerous podcasts, but whether it was All You Need is Cash (the Rutles mockumentary) or The Three Musketeers, I've always loved a piece of art that does the footwork of insisting the truth of the piece in question. My first two books are that format, I've directed two mockumentaries, and some of my earliest writings, ever, at least took a small cue from the fake history genre.
Attached to this post are a few photos I've put together for various eras of Dan and Jay's Comedy Hour, who are, according to the history, Dan and my fathers, grandfathers, great-grandfathers, etc. This whole project is just another experiment, though a photoshop-heavy one, to see what people will question and what they won't, with the full knowledge (hopefully) that it's all bullshit. I say "hopefully" because I've had more than a few people question my dry satirical style in the past, so you can never be sure.
Talk Soon,
Jason Klamm
linktre.ee/jasonklamm
