Asimov Laughs Again: For the many fans of Isaac Asimov, for anyone who loves to laugh, and for the thousands who have told a joke only to wish they could have told it better, this book is filled with a wealth of hysterical material, both old and new, plus the tools for successful delivery. The master of the science fiction genre makes a humorous detour through the realm of humor, presenting more than seven hundred jokes, riddles, limericks, and anecdotes.

Milton Berle's Private Joke File: Alimony, baseball, death, in-laws, lawyers, rabbis, Washington, zebras -- some 10,000 jokes collected during the course of a lifetime working in vaudeville, radio, film, and television, arranged by subject in about 500 categories.

A Treasury of Police Humor: If you are looking for a perfect gift that is sure to put a smile on someone's face, look no further than Oliver Gaspirtz's latest book, A Treasury of Police Humor. In light of all the negative press police officers had to endure over the past few years it is a pleasure to find a book that does not focus on a few bad cops, but shows the human side of the many good cops. A Treasury of Police Humor is a tribute to all the hard working men and women in law enforcement, who risk their lives every day for an often less than grateful public. The book contains over 100 cartoons, strange but true police reports, weird news from around the world, stupid criminals, and funny top ten lists.

The Joys of Yiddish: Leo Rosten left a great legacy of Jewish culture with his classic informal lexicon of Yiddish. Rosten defines (by synonym, anecdote, and joke) the words that have made it into common parlance (like chutzpah, schlep, and schmooze) as well as a choice collection of less integrated but equally rich vocabulary such as schmatte (a rag, i.e. what a schmatte you're wearing), chozzerai (literally "pig food," now denoting crap or junk food), and hundreds more. First published in 1968, Rosten's aptly named compendium still sings with humorous erudition.

Jewish Humor: Rabbi Telushkin, rooted in the tradition of reverence for past learning, has gathered lots of hoary jokes and aged wisecracks, together with a few more recent japes, that make Jews laugh. To coreligionists, they'll seem like old friends; to others, the gags and their elucidation may be more in the nature of revelation. True to his calling, he uses the funny stuff to instruct. In this collection, everything stands for something else -- but all of it carries explanations. The exegesis of the jokes becomes a little primer on a religion and a way of life mystifying to strangers and sometimes just as puzzling to nominal adherents. It's a truism that Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle applies to humor -- observing and analyzing it alters it. That effect can be seen here as Telushkin trots out Jackie Mason and Sigmund Freud, as well as Leo Rosten and a host of Unknown Comics for a higher purpose. The tales of the wise rabbis, the fabled fools of Chelm, the anti-Semites, the schnorrers, and the big shots all serve to illustrate his lessons.

Message board		Send comments
Books		Search