A new book by local author Ryan Nusbickel is focusing on a tradition exclusive to St. Louis—telling jokes while trick-or-treating. Lou-centric jokes in tow, The Funniest Halloween Joke in St. Louis follows a boy on a quest to retrieve the funniest Halloween joke ever written. Right after he wrote it down, the paper blew away, forcing him to chase through the St. Louis area after it.
The book includes illustrations of two girls dressed in conjoined costumes shaped like Missouri, stamped with the state’s differing pronunciations: “Missourah and Missouree.” Another child wears a pork steak costume (STL’s beloved cuisine). A Magic House costume also makes an appearance.
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Nusbickel, who grew up in Georgia and moved to St. Louis in 2000, says that because he is a “St. Louis transplant,” he picks up on a lot of the city’s quirks that locals don’t notice, like the tradition of telling Halloween jokes.
“A lot of times people are shocked, like they don’t realize that no one else does Halloween jokes,” the author says. “When I tell my family down in Georgia about the Halloween joke tradition, they think that is the coolest thing ever. They’re like, ‘We should do that here.’”
Nusbickel, a former TV reporter, has written other St. Louis–centric books including My Pet Arch, Cloudy With a Chance of Toasted Rav, The St. Louis Night Before Christmas, The St. Louis 12 Days of Christmas, and “Who Moved My Gooey Butter Cake?!”
