The Naked Jape: Uncovering the Hidden World of Jokes Hardcover – 2 November 2006

I am now the master of jokes I'm doing open mic and people are so flabbergasted by my jokes that they don't even laugh I've created a new kind of laugh. I wouldn't recommend because I did kinda kill my grandma with a anal joke.

Libro interessante e divertente. Sicuramente un libro che consiglierei a tutti .

The book doesn't directly teach the reader how to create jokes or how to improve his or her sense of humor. It doesn't contain any formulas. However, it delineates the history of humor. It discusses cross-cultural uses.The book also provides a plethora of examples in the form of actual jokes. It contains hundreds of them.The book would prove an enjoyable read to anyone who likes to chuckle at witty jokes or who strives to learn by assimilating historical examples to create jokes.

The Germans have the perfect word for Jimmy Carr's face. His is a Backpfeifengesicht. It's a face you could happily punch until the cows come home. Sadly though, after reading this wonderful book there's an audible lowing at the farmyard gates, and that over-exposed smugness suddenly seems almost tolerable. Almost.`The Naked Jape' is a warm, lucid and delightfully enlightening look at the history of The Joke, its mechanics, and its place in human culture. The authors deal with the entire spectrum of humour, from the childish to the bigoted. Where the humour is off-colour, the authors explain rather than revel in the shock, and they have a real knack for condensing academic and amateur studies of jokes and condensing them into an argument that's both cogent, readable and very human. They also get points for not resorting to hagiography when mentioning legends such as Bill Hicks and Lenny Bruce. Theirs is a very balanced view.After finishing this book I think I understand more clearly why we laugh, and why that's important. I'd like to think Lucy wrote all illuminating bits, but Jimmy and his face probably provided a fair share. His evocation of what it takes to be a standup - putting yourself up there in the hot glare of an audience's expectations and judgment - is especially vivid.If you're curious about comedy and its wider cultural resonances, put to one side that wave of nausea at seeing that name on the cover, read the book, and you may well change your view of the man and his - gulp - art. But just in case you don't I'll keep my foot on his neck `til you're finished...

The history of the joke, with some jokes. Because history isn’t funny!