Bartholomew “Barty” Higgins, a twenty-first-century comedian with a wit as sharp as a guillotine and a knowledge of history gleaned entirely from questionable documentaries, dies in a freak accident involving a faulty microphone and a bottle of lukewarm kombucha. He awakens to find himself not in the great green room in the sky, but in the mud-caked boots of a court jester in the treacherous court of King Henry VIII.
Armed with a modern sense of irony and a complete lack of survival skills, Barty must navigate the political minefield of Tudor England, where a poorly timed joke can literally cost you your head. His only advantages are his uncanny ability to predict historical events (thanks, Wikipedia!) and a sarcasm so potent it might just be mistaken for wit.
As he dodges assassination attempts, navigates the King’s volatile moods, and tries desperately to avoid becoming another footnote in a history textbook, Barty discovers that being the funniest man in the room is a dangerous game when the King has a notoriously short temper and an even shorter attention span. Can a man whose greatest achievement was a moderately successful podcast survive in a world of backstabbing nobles, scheming queens, and a monarch who collects wives like trading cards? Or is he destined to be the punchline to a very bloody joke?
