A Book By Its Cover

**"A Book By Its Cover"** is an original short made by Shipwrecked Comedy in 2019 as part of *The Bookfarters Saga*. It follows Jo, Monica, Devin, and Taylor attending a book club. The four friends try to enjoy snacks and discussion about Jane Austen's work. However, once they show their true selves, their friendship is threatened to explode.

## Plot

Jo calls upon Monica, Devin, and Taylor to join him in a book club for *Pride and Prejudice*(d). When Jo brings out cocktails for refreshments, he finds that Taylor has ordered some lentil soup from down the street. Taylor offers to share it with the rest of the group, but Devin has to decline because she is behind on her IBS medicine. After some more banter, Jo goes to start the meeting. He explains how since he broke up with his partner recently it is nice to have people around, and he asks Taylor to begin diving into the minutiae of the book.

Taylor starts to speak, but soon becomes inaudible because the three girls begin to fart very loudly. The girls continue to express their thoughts about the book and toot loudly. Jo continues to grow more disgusted and distressed because of this, however the girls seem to find no problem with it. He tries to share his thoughts about *Pride and Prejudice*(d), however, he is quickly stopped by the girls because they point out that Taylor had already shared that. Jo goes to speak again, but he is interrupted by more farts and a weird Postmates delivery of their lentil soup by the delivery guy. Once the bucket of soup is set down, Monica, Devin, and Taylor go to dig in with spoon fingers, a straw, and bare hands respectively. As the girls eat and fart, Jo's discomfort, disgust, concern, and confusion grow. Eventually the girls stop, so Jo tries to ignore what just happened and continues on with the book club.

This time when Jo tries to speak, he only says a few words before being interrupted by a sky-high fart from Devin due to the fact that she ate lentil soup without her medicine. At this point, Jo is fed up with the fart fest and grows angry, but the girls seem to be oblivious that any passing of gas is happening. They blame his breakup on the delusions he has similar to this situation. Jo is very hurt by this comment and goes to explain himself, but the girls just see it as him trying to distract from book club because they claim he hasn't read the book.To top it off, they also claim that Jo has just farted (and a really strong fart for that matter).

This causes Jo to essentially lose it; the book club was supposed to allow for healthy socialization and coping because of his breakup, but it has only backfired. He reverts to unhealthy coping by downing his whole cocktail before pulling out a cigarette to smoke. In the heat of the moment, Jo seems to forget what the room is currently filled with: very potent gas. The girls try to stop him, but they are too slow. He lights his cigarette, and the whole room explodes.

## Credits

### Cast

* Sinéad Persaud as Monica
* Sarah Grace Hart as Devin
* Mary Kate Wiles as Taylor
* Sean Persaud as Jo
* Daniel Strauss as Delivery Guy

### Crew

* Production Sound Mixer: William Kioultzopoulos
* Gaffer: Devin Hassan
* Key Grip: Sebastian Johnson
* Set PA: Serena Hohenstein
* Re-Recording Mixer: Christopher Marino
* Production Designer: Kim Brunner
* Assistant Director: Tia Workman
* Director of Photography: Adam Gundersheimer
* Editor: Raymond Fraser
* Composer: Dylan Glatthorn

## Development

There were several collaborative meetings between Shipwrecked Comedy and Tin Can Brothers (TCB) to flesh out the details of the short and similar aspects.

The short was filmed over the course of two days at a YouTube Space. The first day was used to film "A Book By Its Cover", and the second day was used to film "The Arbitration". Shipwrecked was able to cover the costs of production using their Patreon income.

"A Book By Its Cover" premiered at Buffer Festival on October 5, 2019 in Toronto, Canada. It was then released to YouTube on November 15, 2019.

## Extras

"A Book By Its Cover" was apart of the larger work, *The Bookfarters Saga*. Overall, it included "A Book By Its Cover", TCB's "Darn Tootin'" short, a livestream from each group, a feud at Buffer Festival and over *Twitter* between the two groups, and "The Arbitration"/"Taking Legal Action Against Traitors".

## Trivia

* The lentil soup was made gluten free so that all three girls could eat it, but Mary Kate Wiles was the only girl who ate the soup.
* The earrings Mary Kate wears are Sinéad Persaud's.
* The explosion at the end of "A Book By Its Cover" is an Adobe Stock image.

## References

1. ↑ A Book By Its Cover, Youtube description