Customer Reviews

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

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

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.

I bought this book thinking it would give me "the greatest hits" of several comedians. I thought I would find jokes that I would want to write down or retell to my friends but these jokes are mostly appropriate for the clean late night talk show audience. Most of the jokes are from Steven Wright, Jay Leno, Letterman, Conan, Bill Maher and the like. I imagine the author sat in front off her TV and wrote down as many jokes as she could to fill this 282 page book with 1,473 jokes. The jokes are categorized by topics such as "Age", "Marriage", "Military" but I would rather have broader categories such as one "Illness" instead of separate categories like "Disease" and "Humidifiers" (only one joke found here).

I give this book 1 star because most of the jokes are not usable among your friends, most are not funny and they don't express witty banter and how the jokes can be used in certain situations.

Some of my favorites:
"On my 16th birthday my parents tried to surprise me with a car, but they missed." - Tom Cotter
"I have a body of an 18 year old. I keep it in the fridge." - Spike Milligan
"I went to bed with a model. Not bragging or anything; it took me all night to glue it together." - Buzz Nutley

3 Random Jokes:
"I bought an ant farm. I don't know where I'm gonna find a tractor that small." - Steven Wright
"Someday I want to be rich. Some people get so rich they lose all respect for humanity. That's how rich I want to be." - Rita Rudner
"This is the 30th anniversary of Amtrak, whose motto is 'We treat every trip as though it's your last." - Jay Leno

Best way to break silence is either magic or jokes .As magic isn`t my cup of tea ( as i`m allergic to tea) so i am left with only one option of sharing jokes among friends and on internet and it is simply THE BEST book ever - Yeah none of joke is from author originally but that case is settled so don`t worry you are not buying law book but fun book and its kinda funny that author printed others jokes without their permission and made money out of it .Not any single author can be funny with all jokes he/she tells thats where this book steps in to choose or atleast try to choose best work of all the comedians so you can get the best out of it .

Fun value 5/5

The "author" of this book has been sued by Jay Leno, Rita Rudner, and a slew of other comics for stealing their material without any compensation. This book is theft, plain and simple, of the material written by talented comedians. Anyone who cares about intellectual property should avoid this book.

I was in the CD section so I'm not sure how I received a book. I am not interested in reading it and will just give it to the Goodwill. I want funny CD's for road trips.