153 episodes
Fire the Canon Rachel, Jackie, Bekah
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- Comedy
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4.9 • 41 Ratings
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Prefer your books in comedy form, but still want to sound smart at parties? We got you. Discover the hilarity hidden in the classics with new episodes every other Thursday.
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Ranking Every Trope, with Jess Owens (Patreon Bonus)
This is a preview for our special Patreon bonus in which Rachel, Bekah, and returning guest Jess Owens (@saidbyjess) get together and talk tropes, baby. Which ones win? Which ones lose? Which ones have you never ever heard of before and maybe wish you could forget? We've got the deets.
Join us on patreon.com/firethecanon to access full bonus episodes, get a shoutout, a sticker, and more! Also, follow Jess @saidbyjess on instagram, twitter (X or whatever?) and the like. She's funny!
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Mrs. Dalloway Ends: I Don't Care What Some Brooklynite Says About Love and God and Vomit
Well, well, well! We're back after a long hiatus in the middle of a pretty short book due to vacations of various sorts. For example, Jackie took a vacation to Italy (listen for an amazing story of being a dumb American), AND a vacation from being healthy by immediately getting Covid upon her return! But now we're all healthy and thriving, and Mrs. Dalloway's FTC arc is complete. Like life itself, this episode in turns both gross and beautiful! Tune in to find out if the second half of the book sucks.
NOTE: This episode discusses suicide. See chapters below if you wanna skip that part!
Bekah reveals a very specific requirement she has for storytellers. Rachel murders God. Jackie shares a tidbit of Williamsburg wisdom that no one likes.
Topics include: special vinegar in a special dish, the ultimate state of Zen, a diet of nothing but milk and ice cream, spending years in bed for money, a divisive blue envelope, Petrarch, a snowboarding pickle, how to hide a zit like a pro, Oscar Pistorius, William Faulkner, Hemingway and Fitzgerald's Ye Olde Dick-Measuring Event, IcinGUH, Ada Palmer's recommendations, Walshheads, speaking English like an Italian, Shrek, Butt Stuff, the now-straight Tower of Pisa, Nebuchadnezzar, and Nebuchadlizard.
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Mrs. Dalloway Begins: Let’s All Crack a Cold One On the Road, Together
Please join us as we read the first half of Virginia Woolf’s modernist masterpiece, Mrs. Dalloway! Taking place on a single day in mid-June 1923, the book takes us in and out of the minds of our two main characters, society housewife Clarissa Dalloway (who is throwing a party), and World War One veteran Septimus Warren Smith (who is having some extremely concerning psychological issues), as well as basically everyone around them. It’s extremely good! Jackie regrets becoming a slug; Rachel tells a tale of betraying a dear friend at the club (or was it????); Bekah describes her ultimate dental destiny.
Topics include: Ernest Hemingway, Lord of the Rings, Sylvia Plath and her fig tree, slugging, skincare advice corner, dog psychologists, Tamagotchis, jelly sandals, Monkey Beach, the Big Bean, Belle & Sebastian, Malört, sippin’ on that thang, Mary Karr, catcalling, explicit undertones, That’s So Raven, gold-digging advice, Celine Dion, and riches to rags to riches/revenge.
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The Life and Times of Virginia Woolf: I Love How Women Are Like A Mommy
Join us as we delve into the life of Virginia Woolf, a woman who was many things, chiefly among them a writer! Despite Jackie promising to make this the most depressing author bio episode of all time, Rachel and Bekah refuse to let it happen. There's a lot of laughter, but also some almost-tears, and some hard topics, but it's worth it. Rachel reveals the third, heretofore unknown Charlie and the Chocolate Factory sequel. Bekah thinks Modernism was a mistake. Jackie horrifies the others with her puppet-like countenance.
Topics include: Firehouse Subs, Jesus, German vermin, big heads vs grape heads, building a time machine to go kill two dudes. breaking down Victorian social norms with a single word, the parable of the Fig Man, inexplicable group chat names, recurring sausage dreams, sister-to-sister matchups, and ceremonial lashings of buttocks.
Content warnings: child abuse, sexual abuse, mental illness, suicide, racism, antisemitism, and about every -ism you can imagine
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A Fun Chat About Racism (Patreon Bonus)
Stop! We see your eyeballs getting ready to dart away to something more fun. Dart 'em back here. This is the most fun you'll have hearing about race and racism since... ever, maybe! We know the bar is low, but still. Listen along to the original opening to our first Charlie and the Chocolate Factory episode, which immediately derailed into racial topics thanks to Ol' Roodle Doodle's antics, and then was cut out and made into its own episode.
Jackie says something the other two consider truly wild, accidentally kicking the whole thing off. Rachel suggests we come up with a new word to describe a racist, because 'racist' has a lot of baggage. Bekah wants you to go get one of two doctors, but there's only one noticeable difference between them and everyone must pretend not to notice it. The ensuing dilemma is fun for the whole family! To hear the whole conversation and support our podcast, sign up to be a patron at Patreon.com/firethecanon.
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Charlie and the Chocolate Factory Finale: Give Me a Squirrel, Daddy
The gang finishes out the tale of ol' C-Bucks and the maniacal chocolate man in spectacular fashion - late, but not that late! Thanks for the endless patience of our many adoring fans. We would never turn you into marshmallows, even if that tube DID go to the marshmallow room.
Jackie f***s up her audio, but doesn't know it yet (don't worry, she fixes it in post). Rachel flexes secret first-edition knowledge. Bekah is really good at pogo sticking.
Topics include: dating as a one-inch tall woman, grad school application mistakes, CV tips from Jackie, square treats that look round, High School Musical, cockroach longevity, the rhinoceros at the end of the stampede in Jumanji, Emphysema Salt, wart puns, Oompa Loompa race wars, Everybody Hates Mike Teevee, the horror of Frontier Airlines*, finger-toes, and hiring a starving child to run a global corporation.
*not a sponsor
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Customer Reviews
Literary love
What a great podcast! Theo’s hilarious jokes, Jackie’s bold opinions, and Rachel’s awesome overviews of great literature throughout history have kicked off several great conversations with my sister-in-law. Now, I know that the insect in Metamorphosis blew her eyes open to the wide world of literature. (Euf, really? that insect did it?) That she finds Catcher in the Rye hilarious. (What?!) That while she picked Jane as her English name after Jane Austen, the Bronte sisters, and especially Wuthering Heights, are her favorite. (I’ve never read Wuthering Heights. Should I just listen to the Fire the Canon podcast on it? 😉)
Hmm, so this turned into a love fest for my sister-in-law… haha, well, it’s all thanks to the Fire the Canon crew for spreading their love of literature. Thank you, crew!!
SO,
You know that one group of friends that everyone thinks is funny and they let that go to their heads and say to themselves, they say, "obviously, everyone else will think we are also hilarious" and then they hear about "podcasts" and how much money is made by exploiting some rural town murder or whatever that J. R. cockalorum is doing and consider stepping over the low, low bar of "yeah we can be classier than that"?
Well, that's Fire the Canon. And you know what? They pull it off. They take that bar, put it in their titular can(n)on, and fire it into space.
They examine books only a literature nerd would love and treat them simultaneously with the reverence and facetiousness they deserve. Everything from Odysseus to Dune comes with jokes, historical context, and personal anecdotes. They even make the human centipede (not a classic work of literature covered on the pod) fun.
I want these three to be my friends because they're my friends in my ears. They're my ear friends. Who wouldn't want that? I started listening to learn about books I'm "supposed to know about" but am "too lazy to read". I stayed because these are three long-time companions, with obvious, real-life chemistry doing something they enjoy. Today and everyday, that's something everyone can enjoy.
Oily Boys, ragged claws, and shrubberies… oh my.
Jackie, Rachel, and Theo, the hosts (and producer) do such a good job of finding a way to laugh, analyze, and explain the fantastic books in the western canon. I was tipped to this show by one of my good friends and I’m so glad they introduced me. The hosts provide a much needed breath of fresh air in relation to the (sometimes) stuffy conversation that tends to surround “classic” literature. It’s ok to laugh, it’s ok to question, and it’s ok to ask taxi drivers where the ducks go. Honestly. Those wily ducks. Thanks to all three of you. This show has really made my work-day go by a little faster.