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Judging from the listings on the major online bookstores, the whole world is in love with jokes, and books of jokes to such an extent, well, almost as much as it loves Paris Hilton.
But what jokes exactly? We did a random search on several sites and came up with some interesting results.
Using the keyword “jokes”, it was an eye-opener when a single site found 54540 books involving jokes listed in its database. This was kind of strange in a way. When last did you check out a friend’s book shelf at their place? We are prepared to bet that books of jokes did not feature much, if at all. Most likely there were relationship books, car manuals, sports books, glossy novels, a gift books, unopened textbooks.
Perhaps there was a ragged cartoon book at the end of the shelf and one in the bathroom. So what are all these listed joke books exactly? At the bottom of the price range ($1) we found Spongebob, Rugrats, Dumb and Dumber Garfield and hundreds in the 101 Jokes series: 101 Vacation Jokes, 101 Telephone Jokes, 101 Pet Jokes – you get the picture. Some jovial publisher obviously figured out also that the entire world loves a good joke or more than a hundred preferably.
It is interesting too that so many of the books of jokes in this price range are aimed at kids. Books containing “Children’s good clean jokes” is a recurring theme here. At the $15 level the joke books are more adult (O’Brien and Fitzgerald Walk into a Bar: The World’s Best Irish Jokes) and edgy (the “Extremely Gross Jokes” series).
And here’s a joke for you. Our search threw up “The Joke” by Milan Kundera. Funny huh?
Then there is the fabulously interesting title “The Jokes of Sigmund Freud: A Study in Humor and Jewish Identity” by Elliot Oring. Not a joke book to take to the pub perhaps but you can feel the laughter well up even so.
Then I came across the title “I Give you Texas! 500 Jokes of the Lone Star State”. I have always had a yearning to live in Texas although I know very little about it. I reckon Texan jokes should tell me all I need to know. So I got sidetracked and ordered the book. Of course there is a dark side to the joke industry – the academics who Take It All Very Seriously. Consider the title “Rationale of the Dirty Joke: An Analysis of Sexual Humor”. This kind of title should not really be thrown out by a search for jokes. It’s not fair and it’s not funny.
At the top of the price range ($100 and more) there were interesting discoveries, such as an album of 50 saucy not blue postcards from World War II. My grandpa had some of those.
Published in Poland in 1931 was “I Laugh at You”, in Yiddish, by Joseph Tunkel. Mr Tunkel left Poland in 1939 when the laughter stopped.
For $300 you can have David Henry Thoreau’s “Cape Cod” in two volumes, reportedly Thoreau's sunniest, happiest book. It bubbles over with jokes, puns, tall tales, and genial good humor, the bookseller says.
If you are prepared to stump up $77 500 dollars for a laugh, you can have the complete autograph manuscript of Chapter 23 of “A Tramp Abroad” by Mark Twain. It was the most expensive that came up under the search term “jokes” on Abebooks. The bookseller supplies a painstaking description of the item (revisions, repairs, smudging, fingerprinting and all) and says: “The subject of the chapter is, in large part, reminiscence from Twain's days as a printer's apprentice. Nicodemus Dodge, a seeming yokel from out of town, is hired at the printer's shop where the young Sam Clemens is working. The locals hope to make Nicodemus the butt of their jokes only to find (as Twain notes in a phrase that was ultimately deleted), that they ‘had fished for a sardine and caught a whale’ “. The old jokes are often the best.
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ethnic /u.s./ joke of the Day |
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| Posted by Bob John on 14-Aug-2005 | one night david had a few geust over his boss and his wife. so
when they came over david introdused his son kenny. kenny said
hello and went to his spot at the table as they were eating
kenny burped and david said have you forgot your manners and
they kept eating on. kenny started to kick his feet and his dads
boss was on the other side of the table then he went to far and
kicked the boss then his dad said you stay still and eat your
dinner so kenny did. later kenny put his hand down and knoked
his juice over kenny's dad said"BOY YOU MAKE ONE GODDAMN THING
TO GET ME FROM LOSING MY FUCKIN RAISE I'LL KICK YOUR ASS TO
TIMBUKTWO YOU GOT THAT YOU PEICE OF SHIT" and kenny said fuckoff
with a reaction he didn't mean to say. then davids bos said hold
on you both need straiten out keep it up and i'll fire you and
send you to boot kamp for 20 years boy. so they settled down and
put the dishes away and cleaned up the mess. as davids boss went
to the living room david said if you go to your room and stay
there i'll act like this never happened so kenny did. they
turned on the t.v. and a chemerchial came up with jackie chan
talking about cherry condems and davids boss said me and my wife
have to go do some arrens goto the store and something at home
i'll talk to you about that raise toommorow youll be very
pleased tommorow. so david went up to kennys room and said you
try to piss me of in front oof a boss like that again youll hope
for more chemerchial of condems cherry flaverd.
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