When E. B. White said "analyzing humor is like dissecting a frog; few people are interested and the frog dies," he hadn't seen Al Gini's hilarious, incisive, and informative take on jokes, joke-telling, and the jokers who tell jokes. For Gini, humor is more than just foolish fun: it serves as a safety valve for dealing with reality that gives us the courage to endure that which we cannot understand or avoid. Not everyone tells jokes. Not everyone gets a joke, even a good one. But, Gini argues, joke-telling can act as both a sword and a shield to defend us from reality. As the late, great stand-up comic Joan Rivers put it: 'If you can laugh at it, you can live with it!' This book is for anyone who enjoys a good laugh, but also wants to know why.
- ISBN10 1442281766
- ISBN13 9781442281769
- Publish Date 1 October 2017 (first published 25 July 2017)
- Publish Status Active
- Publish Country US
- Imprint Rowman & Littlefield
- Format Hardcover
- Pages 168
- Language English