Only Joking: What's So Funny about Making People Laugh? [Hardcover]
Jimmy Carr (Author), Lucy Greeves (Author)
Very funny 24 April 2007
By Jed Pokojowiec - Published on Amazon.com
This is one of the few library books that I managed to finish reading before I had to return it. Not only did I learn a fair bit about humor (did you know that some animals laugh?) but the book appealed to my warped sense of humor. There's a quote at the beginning of each chapter -- "God is a comedian, performing for an audience that is too afaid to laugh. Nietzsche". There's a joke at the bottom of almost every page -- "What do I think of Western civilisation? I think it would be a very good idea.--Mahatma Gandhi". Each chapter ends with a couple of pages of jokes -- "Remember: it takes forty-two muscles to frown and only four to pull the trigger of a decent sniper rifle.--Mitch Henderson". And the text itself can be very funny -- "In Rome there was a special fool market, a sort of boutique adjunct to the main slave market, where you could buy a genuine idiot. These days you can't give them away, but in the first century A.D. they were reassuringly expensive." And, by the way, some of the jokes are definitely NOT G rated.
Not Just for Laughs 21 Mar 2007
By bronx book nerd - Published on Amazon.com
This book is both an entertaining and informative treatise on humor, laughter, joking and comedy. Authors Carr and Greeve craftily combine serious research with genuine humor and comedy. The best feature of the book are the hundreds of jokes that are included in the book - one joke at the bottom of each page and a series of jokes to conclude each chapter. There are interesting and insightful discussions about the place of humor in the human psyche, cultural development, and politics, among others. The authors give proper due to appropriate sources, both scholarly and other. At times, however, they segue into their own theories without clearly stating so, while giving the impression that their conlcusions are supported by all that preceded them. The two final chapters were a letdown, with an unnecessarily long review of the place of offensive humor, and a somewhat anticlimatic concluding chapter. The only other criticism I have is that a disproportionate number of Carr's jokes appear among those at the bottom of the pages, presumably objectivelty selected from a very large number of candidates. Seems like a bit of nepotism by the father of these one liners (though they are very funny). Nevertheless, I highly recommend this book for the sheer enjoyment of the humor and the well-covered history and role of comedy.
Product details
Hardcover: 300 pages
Publisher: Gotham Books (21 Sep 2006)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1592402356
ISBN-13: 978-1592402359
Product Dimensions: 21.6 x 14.8 x 2.9 cm
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