'You Suck, Sir' is a Lesson on Tender Humour and Kids These Days

You Suck, Sir is funny—like, for real, laugh-out-loud funny—because of moments like this:

STUDENT: Sir, were there prostitutes in Shakespeare’s time?
ME: Yes. Why?
HIM: (Pointing to a line in his book) He’s looking for one or something.
ME: “What ho,” means “You there.”
HIM: Oh. Okay, that makes more sense.

The “ME” in the exchange is Paul Bae, the comedian and podcaster whose work includes the supernatural fiction podcasts The Black Tapes and The Big Loop. Bae also taught public school in Vancouver for eleven non-consecutive years, and while he was still a teaching student a faculty member recommended that he keep a teaching journal as a continuing education exercise. Said journal soon became a record of the funny exchanges he shared with his students during class, and Bae started sharing it as the You Suck, Sir blog (Bae’s students all call him Sir).

I wasn’t exaggerating when I said that You Suck, Sir is incredibly funny—Bae’s timing and delivery are top notch in recounting both humorous adolescent knowledge gaps (GRADE ELEVEN STUDENT: “Wait, Martin Luther was from Germany?” ME: “Yes.” HER: “But wasn’t he black?”) and moments where students call him on his outdated cultural references (“Sir, every time I come here while you’re playing your music, it makes me feel like I’m walking into an old eighties sitcom”). The balance works in the book’s favour by exposing both Bae’s humility in the face of a yawning generation gap and showing how much his students still have to learn—for instance, how could an eighth grader not know how to spell CPR?

Bae’s family moved from Korea to Canada when he was two, and rather than shying away from racial confrontations, he smartly recounts them verbatim, offering street-level insights into the intrusive and often clueless questions that Asian people deal with every day:

GRADE ELEVEN STUDENT: Sir, are you Chinese?
ME: I’m Korean.
HIM: North or South Korean?
ME: Yes, I’m North Korean. I escaped from a prison camp in my teens, made my way over to Seoul, where I worked on losing my accent before moving to North America.
HIM: Wow. You should write a book about that.

Jokes aside, what raises You Suck, Sir above the mass-market humour genre are its countless insights into teaching and mentoring: Bae’s teachable moments include how both teachers and students can deal with bullying, misogyny, peer pressure, problems at home, and that traumatic first nasty YouTube comment. Rather than feeling cheesy or sentimental, these moments paint Bae as an honest and open teacher who’s built a trusted rapport with his students and can serve as models for teachers everywhere.

Though most of these moments are interwoven with the book’s humour, one notable exception is Bae’s life-changing advice for a low-achieving student who’s not built for traditional schooling, but in whom Bae recognizes the spark of genuine curiosity. Moments like these will stick with readers long after they’ve forgotten most of the jokes, and exemplify how mentors of all kinds can make a difference for younger generations.

Thank you to Arsenal Pulp Press for providing Shrapnel with an advance reading copy.

You Suck, Sir is available now for purchase at Arsenal Pulp Press’ website and in bookstores across Canada.