It has often been said that one of the defining features of the Canadian character is our ability – and our willingness – to laugh at ourselves. What is often overlooked, however, is the fact that in a culture as regionally fragmented and diverse as Canada, we’re not actually laughing at ourselves: we’re laughing at each other. It’s a crucial distinction, one that’s at the heart of a new book from brothers Will and Ian Ferguson.

How to Be a Canadian is an exercise in getting Canadians to laugh at one another. The Fergusons have impeccable humour credentials. Will is the author of Bastards and Boneheads and other books blending curious Canadian culture and potent humour, while Ian is an award-winning playwright and director for Toronto’s Second City comedy troupe.

Which means this: How to Be a Canadian is a vapid, coarse, puerile, lowbrow, frequently stereotyping, adolescent piece of work riddled with clichés, invented historical facts, painful one-liners and jokes so old they make the Canadian Shield look young.

It is also very funny.

The Fergusons are masters of broad yet incisive humour. They blend keen social observation (“Twelve Ways to Say I’m Sorry” as a key to mastering Canadian identity is, frankly, inspired) with historical insight and a clever turn of phrase that elevates even the most pedestrian material. Jokes about the CBC and making love in a canoe? Yes, and very funny ones, too.

Certainly there are comedic misfires, but in any form of humour there always are. The Fergusons, seasoned veterans that they are, soldier gamely on. How to Be a Canadian won’t be adopted as a text by the Immigration Board anytime soon, but for those of us who already are citizens of the Great White North, Will and Ian Ferguson hold up a fine mirror.