Exploring Top Books of Shelfari

And Here's the Kicker: Conversations with 18 Top Humor Writers on their Craft and the Industry

And Here's the Kicker: Conversations with 18 Top Humor Writers on their Craft and the Industry

by Mike Sacks

DID YOU HEAR THE ONE ABOUT … Every great joke has a punch line, and every great humor writer has an arsenal of experiences, anecdotes, and obsessions that were the inspiration for that humor. In fact, those who make a career out of entertaining strangers with words are a notoriously intelligent and quirky lot. And boy, do they have some stories. In this entertaining and inspirational book, you'll hear from 21 top... (more)

Only Joking: What's So Funny About Making People Laugh?

Only Joking: What's So Funny About Making People Laugh?

by Jimmy Carr

Britain’s hottest young comedian presents a seriously funny, up-close look at joking matters—from the social origins of laughter, to the art and craft of humor, to why we can never remember the punch line—featuring over 300 jokes. As the host of the hit game show Distraction (now in its third season on Comedy Central) and one of the premier stand-up acts working today, award-winning comedian Jimmy... (more)

Rationale of the Dirty Joke: An Analysis of Sexual Humor

Rationale of the Dirty Joke: An Analysis of Sexual Humor

by G. Legman

Why do people tell dirty jokes? And what is it about a joke's dirtiness that makes it funny? G. Legman was perhaps the foremost scholar of the dirty joke, and as legions of humor writers and comedians know, his Rationale of the Dirty Joke remains the most exhaustive and authoritative study of the subject. More than two thousand jokes and folktales are presented, covering such topics as The Female Fool, The... (more)

Plato and a Platypus Walk into a Bar: Understanding Philosophy Through Jokes

Plato and a Platypus Walk into a Bar: Understanding Philosophy Through Jokes

by Daniel M. Klein, Thomas Cathcart

Here’s a lively, hilarious, not-so-reverent crash course through the great philosophical traditions, schools, concepts, and thinkers. It’s Philosophy 101 for everyone who knows not to take all this heavy stuff too seriously. Some of the Big Ideas are Existentialism (what do Hegel and Bette Midler have in common?), Philosophy of Language (how to express what it’s like being stranded on a desert island with Halle... (more)

Born Standing Up: A Comic's Life

by Steve Martin

The Emmy and Grammy Award-winner's candid, spectacularly amusing memoir of his years in stand-up In the mid-seventies, Steve Martin exploded onto the comedy scene. By 1978 he was the biggest concert draw in the history of stand-up. In 1981 he quit forever. Born Standing Up is, in his own words, the story of "why I did stand-up and why I walked away." At age ten Martin started his career at Disneyland, selling... (more)

Stop Me If You've Heard This: A History and Philosophy of Jokes

Stop Me If You've Heard This: A History and Philosophy of Jokes

by Jim Holt

In the fine tradition of On Bullshit comes this outrageous, uproarious compendium of absurdity, filth, racy paradox, and mature philosophical reflection. Stop Me If You've Heard This is the first book to trace the evolution of the joke from the stand-up comics of ancient Athens to the comedy-club Seinfelds of today. Cropping up en route are such unforgettable figures as Poggio, a Renaissance papal... (more)

Shelfari Book Activity

Tags: metatext of jokes