21st-century absurd absurdism absurdist absurdity addiction adult-education adult-humor adulthood american-culture american-expat american-expatriate american-humor american-literature anecdotes autobiographical autobiography belgium black-comedy black-humor canada canadian-author canadian-literature childhood comedic-storytelling comedic-timing comedic-writing comedy comedy-memoir comedy-of-errors comedy-writing coming-of-age communication computer-programming computers consumerism contemporary contemporary-fiction contemporary-literature corporate-culture corporate-life corporate-world counterculture coupland creativity cultural cultural-commentary cultural-differences cultural-experiences cultural-misunderstandings cultural-observations culture culture-shock dark-comedy dark-humor david-sedaris digital-age douglas douglas-coupland drugs dysfunction dysfunctional dysfunctional-families dysfunctional-family education entertaining entertainment essay essay-collection essays existential existentialism expat expat-life expatriate experiences family family-dynamics family-relationships fiction foreign-language france french french-language friendship funny gaming geek-culture gen-x generation-x generational-divide growing-up hilarious humor humor-writing humorist humorous humorous-anecdotes humorous-essays identity identity-crisis immigrant-experience internet internet-culture irony jpod language language-acquisition language-barrier language-barriers language-classes language-humor language-learning laugh-out-loud laughter learning learning-disabilities learning-french lgbtq+ life-experiences linguistic linguistic-misunderstandings linguistics literary-fiction media memoir memoirist memoirs metafiction millennial millennial-generation misadventures miscommunication misfit misunderstandings nerd-culture nerds new-york-times-bestseller non-fiction nonfiction novel observational-humor office-culture office-life office-politics paris personal-essays personal-experiences personal-growth personal-narrative personal-stories pop-culture pop-culture-references postmodern postmodernism programming quirky quirky-characters relationships sarcasm satire satirical sedaris-family self-awareness self-deprecating self-deprecating-humor self-deprecation self-discovery self-expression self-improvement self-referential self-reflection social-commentary speech-therapy storytelling subversion subversive surreal surrealism teacher teacher-student-dynamics teaching tech-industry technology travel unconventional vancouver video-game-industry video-games wit witty witty-observations workplace workplace-culture workplace-dynamics workplace-humor workplace-satire writing writing-style