How to Tell a Joke

How to Tell a Joke

Author: Marcus Tullius Cicero

Publisher: Princeton University Press

Published: 2021-03-30

Total Pages: 326

ISBN-13: 0691211078

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Timeless advice about how to use humor to win over any audience Can jokes win a hostile room, a hopeless argument, or even an election? You bet they can, according to Cicero, and he knew what he was talking about. One of Rome’s greatest politicians, speakers, and lawyers, Cicero was also reputedly one of antiquity’s funniest people. After he was elected commander-in-chief and head of state, his enemies even started calling him “the stand-up Consul.” How to Tell a Joke provides a lively new translation of Cicero’s essential writing on humor alongside that of the later Roman orator and educator Quintilian. The result is a timeless practical guide to how a well-timed joke can win over any audience. As powerful as jokes can be, they are also hugely risky. The line between a witty joke and an offensive one isn’t always clear. Cross it and you’ll look like a clown, or worse. Here, Cicero and Quintilian explore every aspect of telling jokes—while avoiding costly mistakes. Presenting the sections on humor in Cicero’s On the Ideal Orator and Quintilian’s The Education of the Orator, complete with an enlightening introduction and the original Latin on facing pages, How to Tell a Joke examines the risks and rewards of humor and analyzes basic types that readers can use to write their own jokes. Filled with insight, wit, and examples, including more than a few lawyer jokes, How to Tell a Joke will appeal to anyone interested in humor or the art of public speaking.


The JOKE

The JOKE

Author: Milan Kundera

Publisher: Harper Collins

Published: 1993-02-26

Total Pages: 340

ISBN-13: 006099505X

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All too often, this brilliant novel of thwarted love and revenge miscarried has been read for its political implications. Now, a quarter century after The Joke was first published and several years after the collapse of the Soviet-imposed Czechoslovak regime, it becomes easier to put such implications into perspective in favor of valuing the book (and all Kundera 's work) as what it truly is: great, stirring literature that sheds new light on the eternal themes of human existence. The present edition provides English-language readers an important further means toward revaluation of The Joke. For reasons he describes in his Author's Note, Milan Kundera devoted much time to creating (with the assistance of his American publisher-editor) a completely revised translation that reflects his original as closely as any translation possibly can: reflects it in its fidelity not only to the words and syntax but also to the characteristic dictions and tonalities of the novel's narrators. The result is nothing less than the restoration of a classic.


Life Is a Joke

Life Is a Joke

Author: Gordon & John Javna

Publisher: Workman Publishing

Published: 2017-10-31

Total Pages: 257

ISBN-13: 1523500077

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It’s the perfect marriage of wisdom and wit—here are 100 valuable lessons on how to live, drawn from 100 hilarious and unforgettable jokes. A really good joke, like a great poem, memorable song lyric, razor-sharp anecdote, or Zen koan, is a portal of discovery—it can get a meaningful message across in a way that’s clear, humorous, and practical. It’s the secret weapon of every great comedian—there’s the joke, and then there’s the subtext of the joke, and that can mean serious business. A funny, funny joke about a therapist and his patient conveys, for example, an important lesson on the power of communication. A surprising joke about a tribal shaman and the weather service turns into a necessary critique on how we should view experts.


A Joke Book for Kids

A Joke Book for Kids

Author: Jerry Harwood

Publisher:

Published: 2010

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13: 9780741459268

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A Joke Book for Kids consists of 96 picture filled pages of children inspired, corny jokes, riddles and word play for kids: ages 7 thru 11. The book is a large, 81/2 x 11 inches and can also be used as a coloring book. It makes a great Birthday Present or gift for any occasion. This book is not only fun, but it can also help children through tough times. It can even help poor readers become better students. Children love joke books, and this joke book passes the funny test.


Beyond a Joke

Beyond a Joke

Author: S. Lockyer

Publisher: Springer

Published: 2005-11-01

Total Pages: 221

ISBN-13: 0230236774

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Humour is pervasive in contemporary culture, and is generally celebrated as a public good. Yet there are times when it is felt to produce intolerance, misunderstanding or even hatred. This book brings together, for the first time, contributions that consider the ethics as well as the aesthetics of humour. The book focuses on the abuses and limits of humour, some of which excite considerable social tension and controversy. Beyond a Joke is an exciting intervention, full of challenging questions and issues.


What a Joke!

What a Joke!

Author: Patrice Newell

Publisher: Penguin Group Australia

Published: 1998-04-01

Total Pages: 115

ISBN-13: 1742530044

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Sick jokes, yucky jokes, crazy jokes, cool jokes – more than 400 hilarious gags and riddles collected from children all across Australia.


Planet Funny

Planet Funny

Author: Ken Jennings

Publisher: Scribner

Published: 2019-07-09

Total Pages: 336

ISBN-13: 1501100602

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A Kirkus Reviews Best Book of the Year The witty and exuberant New York Times bestselling author and record-setting Jeopardy! champion Ken Jennings relays the history of humor in “lively, insightful, and crawling with goofy factlings,” (Maria Semple, author of Where’d You Go Bernadette)—from fart jokes on clay Sumerian tablets to the latest Twitter gags and Facebook memes. Where once society’s most coveted trait might have been strength or intelligence or honor, today, in a clear sign of evolution sliding off the trails, it is being funny. Yes, funniness. Consider: Super Bowl commercials don’t try to sell you anymore; they try to make you laugh. Airline safety tutorials—those terrifying laminated cards about the possibilities of fire, explosion, depressurization, and drowning—have been replaced by joke-filled videos with multimillion-dollar budgets and dance routines. Thanks to social media, we now have a whole Twitterverse of amateur comedians riffing around the world at all hours of the day—and many of them even get popular enough online to go pro and take over TV. In his “smartly structured, soundly argued, and yes—pretty darn funny” (Booklist, starred review) Planet Funny, Ken Jennings explores this brave new comedic world and what it means—or doesn’t—to be funny in it now. Tracing the evolution of humor from the caveman days to the bawdy middle-class antics of Chaucer to Monty Python’s game-changing silliness to the fast-paced meta-humor of The Simpsons, Jennings explains how we built our humor-saturated modern age, where lots of us get our news from comedy shows and a comic figure can even be elected President of the United States purely on showmanship. “Fascinating, entertaining and—I’m being dead serious here—important” (A.J. Jacobs, author of The Year of Living Biblically), Planet Funny is a full taxonomy of what spawned and defines the modern sense of humor.


April Fools' Day: What a Joke!

April Fools' Day: What a Joke!

Author: Theodore Jones

Publisher: Gareth Stevens Publishing LLLP

Published: 2015-12-15

Total Pages: 26

ISBN-13: 1482438852

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“April Fools!” For anyone who’s even been the victim of an April Fools’ Day joke or who’s planning to pull the best prank yet, this fun book takes them inside the possible origins of an amusing holiday. Similar holidays have been practiced for centuries by several cultures, including the ancient Romans. Colorful photographs of celebrations around the world as well as snapshots of the funniest pranks will have readers laughing. No fooling!


Life's a Joke

Life's a Joke

Author: Dr. J. T. Dock Houk

Publisher: Dorrance Publishing

Published: 2015-12-17

Total Pages: 488

ISBN-13: 1480918199

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Sometimes life hands you lemons. In this collection of jokes, autobiography, and personal philosophy, author and businessman Dr. J. T. Dock Houk makes an ocean of lemonade. Life’s a Joke compiles four books – “It’s All About Me,” “My Life with a Girl,” “Kids and Pets,” and “Life Around Us” – recounting 1,162 jokes, funny anecdotes, and descriptions of Sunday morning comics, clippings of which Dock has been collecting for an incredible amount of decades. As the author writes, “What I mean to convey by saying ‘life is a joke’ is that humor has helped me over some of the rough spots by showing me a side of life that either explains what I am feeling, or gives me a glimpse of something I also see. Humor, whose visual expression is often a joke, makes me smile or even laugh out loud. And sometimes, if you don’t laugh, you might cry.” So crack open Life’s a Joke and crack a smile. You might learn a little wisdom – but if not, at least you’ll get a laugh


That Reminds Me of A Joke

That Reminds Me of A Joke

Author: Editors at Reader's Digest

Publisher: Simon and Schuster

Published: 2015-05-05

Total Pages: 172

ISBN-13: 1621452182

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A new, hilarious humor book that combines funny news stories with familiar jokes Sometimes items in the newspaper are so outrageous that it’s hard to believe they are true, but often they are equally funny. In the November 2012 issue of Reader’s Digest magazine, humor editor Andy Simmons wrote an article called “That Reminds Me of A Joke” in which he paired a brief, funny news story with a joke that was eerily familiar. The article was a hit with readers and since then it’s become a regular feature with the magazine’s humor sections. Whether it’s poking fun at typical relationship issues, or pointing out the inanity of local bureaucracy, That Reminds Me of a Joke will keep you laughing.