Strayapedia: The 100% Fair Dinkum Guide to the World's Least Un-Australian Country

by Dominic Knight

Strayapedia is the certified fair dinkum, 100% Australian made, 100% foreign owned answer to Wikipedia.

Patriotically basted in the goon trough of Australian values, this book is as fundamentally Strayan as bowling your final over underarm, not asking awkward questions about what's in your meat pie, and naming a swimming pool after Harold Holt.

Conveniently omitting all areas not relating to Australia, Strayapedia provides definitive alternative facts about Tony Abbott, AC/DC, Canberra, Kylie Minogue, the Hills hoist, Bob Hawke, Hey Hey It's Saturday , Ned Kelly, koalas, Akubras and Shane Warne - among many other certified dinky-di topics.

If you want to pass a citizenship test, or win a trivia night hosted by Cory Bernardi, Strayapedia is as valuable as a tiny apartment in Sydney.

What they said about Strayapedia *
*These quotes are as factual as the rest of this book.

'Sorry, I cannot recall reading it.'
Cardinal George Pell

'This is a disgusting, defamatory book which unfortunately doesn't mention me.'
Rebel Wilson

'I wanted to endorse Strayapedia , but my backbench thought otherwise.'
Malcolm Turnbull

'Buy this book, unless CBS buys it first.'
Lachlan Murdoch

'This book contains wrecking, undermining and sniping.'
Tony Abbott

'This book should be covered up at all times.'
Pauline Hanson

'This book made me wish I'd renounced my Australian citizenship instead.' Barnaby Joyce

'I have empirical evidence that this book does not exist.'
Senator* Malcolm Roberts
*at the time of writing

Genres: Nonfiction, Humor, Australia

237 pages, Kindle Edition

Published December 1, 2017

About the author

Dominic Knight was one of the founders of The Chaser satirical newspaper in 1999, and also one of its destroyers in 2004 after the group finally acknowledged that it would never turn a profit. Since then he’s worked on the team’s various projects in print, stage, radio, television and online. Most recently he wrote for ABC-TV’sThe Hamster Wheel, Yes We Canberra! and The Chaser’s War On Everything.
In recent years, Dominic has begun writing fiction in an attempt to spend less time with his Chaser compatriots. His first novel Disco Boy (2009) portrayed the career travails of a disaffected law graduate suspiciously like himself, and its successor Comrades (2010) delved into the grubby world of student politics. He’s working on a third novel, which may appear in 2013 in the unlikely event that he gets his act together. Dominic regularly appears at various writers’ festivals whether he’s invited to speak or not, and is currently on the board of the National Young Writers’ Festival.

In 2012, Dominic began hosting Evenings on ABC Local Radio in NSW and the ACT. He can be heard from 7-10pm Monday to Friday on 702 ABC Sydney, 666 ABC Canberra, 1233 ABC Newcastle and ABC stations across NSW.

Dominic has lived in Sydney nearly all of his life and plays the bass reasonably well and tennis appallingly. He is overly fond of karaoke.

Reviews

[emma · Rating 3 out of 5]

Read this for educational purposes. Most of the jokes are harmless and sometimes even progressive, with some exceptions; I do wish it made less jokes about fat people.

[Kristy · Rating 4 out of 5]

I laughed out loud quite a few times. Great if you need something light and a chuckle.

[Belinda · Rating 1 out of 5]

1/2 Star. Very unfunny and boring. The Chaser satirical style “humour” is getting really old I think. Thankfully this was just a library book and I didn’t hand over any hard earned money for it!

[Rukmini · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars. Frequently funny and useful for visitors to Australia.

[Tara van Beurden · Rating 3 out of 5]

Written by one of the people behind The Chaser, I expected this to be much funnier than it was. Basically exactly as it describes itself to be: a rip-off of Wikipedia with jokes thrown in. Covering a variety of topics with regards to Australian geography, culture, society, politics, food etc, this book never quite hits a high enough water mark for its humour, and would be absolutely useless to the average non-Australian (unless it was written along the lines of the old Drop Bear myth, i.e. perpetuating myths about Australia - the downside being that there is no entry on Drop Bears). A quick read, a light read, entertaining but never quite as good as it could have been. I might also be a little upset about the entry ripping off my home state of Queensland, but Knight would probably say that's because I'm a Queenslander!

[Emma Gerts · Rating 4 out of 5]

Super funny, irreverant fun that takes on the grand Australian tradition of taking the piss out of oursevles. Unfortunately a noticable degree of fatphobia made some of the jokes fall a little flat in places, but otherwise this was a quick, enjoyable read.

[Caroline · Rating 3 out of 5]

Quite funny view of everything Aussie. Biased towards Sydneysiders, has a go at the other states and territories, but then that's a fairly Australian thing to do.

[Ayami · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fun and informative. Enjoyed it a lot.

[Infamous Sphere · Rating 3 out of 5]

Silly, but a light, entertaining summer read.

[Laura · Rating 4 out of 5]

interesting read, loses a star because of its negative opinions about Victoria/Melbourne but that's cool.

[Tee Pegg · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very well written, and my kind of humour.