Customer Reviews

Wit

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

 

 

Although I would take issue with the author's contention that this collection of quotes is devoid of filler, it is easily the most entertaining and original collection that I have ever read. I had heard perhaps only a quarter of the hundreds of quotes provided, a very good ratio! All in all, if you want a good, quick, hilarious read - this one is a sure thing. Even the ones you've heard before are worth hearing again.

This collection of witticisms is organized by subjects:Art, Business and Money, Drink, Education, Food, Lawyers, Literature,Living -Family and Relations, Love,Sex, Marriage, Men and Women, Media and Film, Medicine and Doctors, Music, Nationalities and Places Politics, Religion, Science and Technology, Social Behavior and Manners, Sport, Theatre and Criticism.
The aim is to amuse and the witticisms are usually light and clever, but very rarely profound.
This is one of those 'dip in here dip in there' kind of books.
Here is a sampling of a few I particularly liked.

"When a teacher calls a boy by his entire name it means trouble." Mark Twain
"Many thanks for your book - I shall lose no time in reading it." Benjamin Disraeli
"James, why don't you write books people can read?' Nora Joyce
"Never put off for tomorrow what can be put off until the day after tomorrow just as well."
"No one goes to that restaurant anymore. It's too crowded" .Yogi Berra
Light- stuff.

I used this book for my boyfriend who was in book camp and every letter that I sent I would send a line or two from this book to keep morale up on his end of the circuit. He loved it, and so did the guys that he was with. There's something in here for everyone. LITERALLY! You will laugh so hard.

I bought this book because I love dark humor. It has nice quotations about the beautiful world of sarcasm.
Great book for those would seek beyond conventional humor. It's like putting nasty tabasco sauce into your reading.

There are lots of collections of good quotes, edifying quotes, folk wisdom, etc. But even those devoted to humor rarely tickle both the brain and the funny bone. MacHale has put together the rare exception, with quips and observations that are sharp, funny and usually bitingly true. A joy to read. Recommended for those who liked the Portable Curmudgeon.

According to the author wit has to be funny, short and pithy,free- standing (independent of the context in which it originally appears).The author says Wilde was the greatest wit of the nineteenth century and Woody Allen of the twentieth, and the Irish and the Jews are the two wittiest peoples. It is doubtful that the British and the Arabs think so.

In any case here are a few examples of the kinds of things which on the one hand might make you laugh and on the other might make you guilty, because you feel there is something cheap and low about this form of humor.

'Nobody ever went broke underestimating the taste of the American public' Mencken

'Happiness is having a large caring family in another city' George Burns

"I saw Joe Dimaggio the other night and he wasn't wearing his baseball suit. This struck me as rather foolish.Suppose a ball game broke out in the middle of the night ? By the time he got into his suit the game would be over."

Groucho Marx

There are lots of funny sayings in this book, and lots of clever ones. But wit is essentially a lightweight art