Customer Reviews

TREASURY OF HUMOR PA

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Written in 1971, this collection of jokes show its age, but carries it well. Asimov has collected his favorite jokes that he has encountered over the years and written a few of his own. Many of them are true classics, such as the Jack Benny response to the question, "Your money or your life!" Some of the funniest were from Dorothy Parker, such as the time she was lonely in her tiny, out-of-the-way office and wrote MEN on the door. Her usage of the term horticulture in a joke

"You can lead a horticulture but you can't make her think"

is in the running for the best wordplay joke I have ever heard.
Although Asimov does include a few dirty jokes, they are at the end of the book and few involve curse words. Most of the off-color jokes involve sexual innuendo or wordplay. For example, when the young man takes his wife to the doctor, he is told "Your wife has acute angina", to which he replies with pride, "She certainly does."
Asimov also interjects his explanations of the jokes, sometimes where he heard it and specific details as to how to tell it. If you are someone who wants to be the life of a party without possibly offending anyone present, then most of these jokes will be appropriate. Some require a bit of explanation before you will understand the joke, so in those cases it is a good think that Asimov provided the commentary.
I enjoyed this book having recently reread it for the second time. The jokes are funny, generally not complex and don't have the hard edge that so many modern jokes are based on.

Asimov is one of the greatest writers ever. He is a biblical scholar, a Shakespearian scholar, a scientist, and of course, THE science fiction author. Of course he knows his humor.