It might seem like a less razzle-dazzle version of upscale provinces like British Columbia, a less boasty version of powerhouse provinces like Ontario. 

In fact, there are rumours — hotly denied and never openly spoken of — that some people refer to it as No Funswick. 

Shauna Chase and Alex Vietinghoff are not those people.

To this Fredericton couple, born and raised No Funswickers, New Brunswick is such a hotbed of hilarity, outrageous goings-on and bizarre political antics they had to create a website to hold it all.

That website is The Manatee, and if you've ever taken even a casual look at it, three things probably happened: 1) you laughed out loud, 2) you bookmarked it and 3) you realized New Brunswick might just be the Most Funswick province of them all.

Who needs onions when you have manatees?

It started in 2014.

Chase and Vietinghoff were just friends back then, with a mutual fondness for the sort of sass and sarcasm served up on The Onion, a U.S.-based satirical website.

"We'd send each other Onion articles" and muse about how New Brunswick sort of has an Onion flavour of its own, Chase said.

It was a fact few seemed to be aware of.

There were other Canadian satirical websites, but they rarely covered anything that happened in Atlantic Canada. 

"It was like they didn't know about the Maritimes," Chase said. 

She and Vietinghoff mused that maybe they should start their own website.

"And so we decided to do that."

Vietinghoff proposed to Chase in 2020, adhering to strict COVID-19 public health protocols, of course. In this re-enactment, he proffers her the engagement ring, taped to a stick, from a safe distance. (Facebook)

Together, they birthed the Manatee, writing posts about news events and local personalities and bringing on other writers who shared their vision.

It didn't take long before the Manatee got noticed.

One of their earliest stories, a satirical Halloween post warning New Brunswickers that the government had imposed a curfew on trick or treating, caused quite a kerfuffle.

"Anyone found going door to door past 4:30 p.m. on Friday, Oct. 31 will be fined a minimum of $100, up to a maximum of $500 depending on the number of children in their group and the amount of effort put into the costumes, with smaller fines for more creative families," the post warned.

• Satirical website The Manatee tricks New Brunswick for Halloween

New Brunswickers, who weren't yet accustomed to being Manatee'd, were outraged. They phoned their mayors, they phoned police, they phoned whoever they could think of who could do something to put a stop to this crackdown on Halloween fun.

"People freaked out," Chase said. "The Fredericton police had to issue a statement that it wasn't true [because] they got so many calls."

That put the Manatee on the map, and its writers haven't looked back since.

     A Manatee story titled 'New Brunswick's 10 most beautiful clear-cuts, ranked' featured this photo of an underrated tourism attraction, noting 'the juxtaposition of new growth struggling to reach beyond the dead trees creates a stark contrast that delights onlookers.' (The Manatee)

Seven years later, the website has perfected the art of snarkasm and has built a robust catalog of favourite targets.

Irving-owned everything is a favourite whipping boy. 

"People are obsessed with the Irvings," Chase said. "It's something that's controversial in New Brunswick, the Irving family and everything they do. So it's pretty easy to make fun of that."

Hence you'll find headlines like this one: "Irvings buy naming rights to every child born in 2020."

"If you're pregnant or planning to become pregnant in the next few months, your baby could be named by and after the Irving Group of Companies," the Manatee warned in that September 2019 story. 

Provincial and municipal politicians are treated to frequent snark baths.

Nuisance deer, sports and COVID-19 also come in for almost weekly roastings, and on a good day, the Manatee can take out two targets with one arrow, as it did in this story in November: "Omicron COVID comes from anti-mask N.B. deer, says Public Health."

New Brunswick's health-care struggles have spawned countless headlines. Take the government's desperate scramble to cope with hospital staff shortages by rotating emergency department closures at various hospitals.

The Manatee's take? "New Brunswickers shooting themselves in order to be admitted to ER," with quotes from fake patients who'd successfully busted in.

"Yeah, it's already starting to heal quite nicely," said patient David Oates, rubbing his fingers over his swollen bullet wound. "It was painful, I'm not going to lie to you, but when the nurses saw it, they ushered me right in."

Basically, Chase said, nothing is off-limits, and if it seems like it should be off-limits, then it's probably going to be one of the site's most popular posts.

The Irvings are favourite Manatee subjects. This 2019 post warned parents that baby-naming rights were being handed over to the Irving family. (The Manatee)