Stop Me If You've Heard This: A History and Philosophy of Jokes - Softcover

Jim Holt

3.33

449 ratings by Goodreads

9780393343991: Stop Me If You've Heard This: A History and Philosophy of Jokes

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0393343995 ISBN 13: 9780393343991

Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company, 2008

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In the fine tradition of On Bullshit comes this outrageous, uproarious compendium of absurdity, filth, racy paradox, and mature philosophical reflection.

Stop Me If You've Heard This is the first book to trace the evolution of the joke from the stand-up comics of ancient Athens to the comedy-club Seinfelds of today. Cropping up en route are such unforgettable figures as Poggio, a Renaissance papal secretary and sexual adventurer; and Gershon Legman, the FBI-hounded psychoanalyst of dirty jokes. Having explored humor's history in part one, Jim Holt then delves into philosophy in part two. Jewish jokes; Wall Street jokes; jokes about rednecks and atheists, bulimics and politicians; jokes that you missed if you didn't go to a Catholic girls' school; jokes about language and logic itself?all become fodder for the grand theories of Aristotle, Kant, Freud, and Wittgenstein. A heady mix of the high and the low, of the ribald and the profound, this handsomely illustrated volume demands to be read by anyone who has ever peered into the abyss and asked: What's so funny?

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About the Author:

Jim Holt is a longtime contributor to The New Yorker, The New York Review of Books and the New York Times Magazine, specializing in science and philosophy, as well as an erstwhile gossip columnist and an inveterate collector of jokes. His books include Stop Me If You've Heard This One and Why Does the World Exist? He lives in New York City.

Review:

Explodes the myth that the high and low brow are more than a couple of inches apart....Seriously funny stuff. -- Colin McGinn, author of The Making of a Philosopher

Fast-moving, idiosyncratic...a stocking-stuffer. -- The New York Times Book Review

Finally, I understand what it is I've been laughing at for all these years. -- Jimmy Kimmel

Holt...takes in so much about the history and philosophy of joke-telling in his concise and amiable conspectus of the subject. -- Joseph Epstein, The Wall Street Journal

Jim Holt manages here to be deadly serious and perfectly hilarious at the same time. -- Billy Collins, former Poet Laureate of the US

Jim Holt riffs in Stop Me If You've Heard This. -- Vanity Fair

Small, witty, and delightful...a worthy successor to Harry Frankfurt's brilliant On Bullshit. -- Simon Blackburn, The New York Sun

The truth behind the glamour. -- Fran Lebowitz

Viewed through Holt's complex, concise lens, the joke comes off as a contender for humankind's most profound mode of expression. -- Elle

Witty and engaging...This is a very funny tale and it produces some marvelous and unlikely heroes. -- The New York Review of Books

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