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April 2008
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But I do have some tidbits from the advance copy of a real book, "Stop Me If You've Heard This: A History and Philosophy of Jokes," by Jim Holt. Norton won't release the book until July, but, as even an amateur humor scholar knows -- timing is everything. So I'm talking about it today. "Stop Me If You've Heard This" is a delightful little treatise that probably owes its existence to the success of Harry G. Frankfurt's "On Bull----." Similarly, it takes a serious look at a lighthearted topic, and turns up some fascinating trivia, such as: -- The oldest surviving joke book is "Philogelos," from the fourth or fifth century A.D., which contains slightly-less-than-timeless gems such as, "An egghead was on a sea voyage when a big storm blew up, causing his slaves to weep in terror. 'Don't cry,' he consoled them, 'I have freed you all in my will.' " -- Sigmund Freud was an avid collector of jokes, particularly Jewish jokes. He argued that jokes and dreams share their same origin in the unconscious. -- "Skeleton walks into a bar and says, 'Give me a beer and a mop,' " is the best joke from Esquire's list of all-time favorites that can be printed here. You can practice that one until July, and then seem really topical and timely when the book comes out. |
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