The Funny Pages: 1,473 Jokes from Today's Funniest Comedians

There are Joke Books,and there are Joke Books.All in all this one is pretty good.It is, however, somewhat different in a few ways.It has 1,473 jokes by 330 different comedians.One thing good about the book is that the author has included a brief note about each comedian at the end of the book.This is good,since many of the names were obscure or unknown to me.The jokes are arranged by subject,which is good and common in most joke books.It does not,however, give an index by comedian.This is not so good;and would be a good idea to note beside the comedians name in the appendix,the pages on which their jokes appear;this is normally provided. The jokes selected seem to come mainly from recent TV shows and Sitcoms;though not exclusively.They are almost all one-line statement jokes as opposed to story jokes like,"Did you hear the one about..?" I get the impression that most of the jokes are written by writers and there is little or no personality associated with the comedian who tells it.Roger Dangerfield's are an exception as his material "belongs"to him.This is also true of Twain and Skelton.It seems that today ,most entertainment is written by someone for someone else and thus lacks the personal touch or individuality that you get when material is self-created. Bunker,Gleason Myron Cohen,Lewis and Martin were not included;but Fields,Paulson,Skelton ,Twain and Hope were;I wonder why. At least the author ignored the foul-mouthed stuff that is so common with stand-up comics today on the Comedy Networks ,and the book is better for it.It doesn't take bad language to make good humor;Twain,Gleason,Skelton,Dangerfield,Bunker and Mark Russell are proof of that. Like I said,the jokes chosen seem to be mainly West Coast, Late Night Show ,TV Sitcom type and little or no Hillbilly,Country Bumpkin,Irish or Jewish Humor,Military,Insults,Dumb Blondes,etc. I sure hope this is not an indication of how far wacky ideas of Political Correctness has gone. I doubt that Mark Twain,Hal Roach,Myron Cohen ever told tales to hurt anyone.They put forth humor ;not agendas.

Painstakingly compiled by Judy Brown (contributing writer and comedy critic for LA Weekley), The Funny Pages is an impressive and hilarious collection of 1,473 jokes gathered from the funniest modern-day comedians around, ranging from Robin Williams to Bill Cosby, George Burns, Conan O'Brien, and many, many more. The individual jokes are arranged by topic underneath dictionary-style headings. From Alcohol to Yoga and Zoos; each gag is short but sweet, and packs a punch in this chuckle-inducing, highly recommended anthology of wit, gags, and humor both classic and cutting edge.