The Friars Club Encyclopedia of Jokes: Over 2,000 One-Liners, Straight Lines, Stories, Gags, Roasts, Ribs, and Put-Downs (Hardcover)

by H. Aaron Cohl (Compiler), Alan King (Introduction) "Over the past ninety years, the Friars Club has seen itself grow from a meeting in 1904 of the Press Agents Association at Browne's Chop..." (more)
Key Phrases: voodoo dick, special pig, New York, Mother Superior, Beverly Hills (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description
Here is the most extensive collection of jokes ever compiled of Friars Club members and other comedians, covering every imaginable subject, from aging to dieting, fashion to fathers, birth control to male anatomy. Includes selections from nearly 400 of the best comic minds of this century. The perfect reference for toast-makers, speech-writers, or anyone looking for a good laugh.

About the Author
H. Aaron Cohl is the author of four books including Animal Wisecrackers and Are We Scaring Ourselves to Death?

Product Details

• Hardcover: 502 pages
• Publisher: Black Dog & Leventhal Publishers (January 12, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1884822630
• ISBN-13: 978-1884822636
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.5 x 1.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars See all reviews (17 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #112,191 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Reference tool for today's speaker., June 11, 2000

By	Pearce Tefft (North Dakota, land of the frozen ha ha.) - See all my reviews

If you speak at various functions or address groups from time to time, The Friars Club Encyclopaedia of Jokes is an excellant addition to your reference library. This book is organized better then most of the joke books I have come across.

This is an adult book, still most of the jokes may be easily cleaned up. Some of the jokes are also dated such as the one on Bill Gates having to "...worry about the Y2K bug." Still even that one could be changed to "...worry about that pesky federal break-up." Read the book, you can't help but become more witty yourself.

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Friars Club Encyclopeadia of Jokes, May 10, 2000

By A Customer

This is the best Joke book that I have ever read. It contains jokes from all of the worlds greatest comedians. Almost every joke is a real knee slapper. I have told most of the jokes to my friends and have never gotten a bad response. The only problem with the book is that it is too good. Ever since I read it I haven't heard a joke that wasn't in the book. I have given it as a gift to all of my friends. I sugest that you don't read it all at once because some of the brillant jokes may fall through the cracks. My only waring is that this book isn't sutable for children under the age of 13 because of graphic language and sexual humor. But if you are up for the task I highly recomend this book

15 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Ladies and Germs....., August 18, 2003

By	L. Shirley "Laurie's Boomer Views" (fountain valley, ca United States) - See all my reviews (TOP 100 REVIEWER)

If you have ever seen the Friar's Club in action, you already know that there is no safe haven from the one liners, roasts and put-downs. "The Friar's Club Encyclopedia of Jokes is no different. The book has over 2,000 jokes listed by subject from A-W, so unless you are a xenophobe, a yak, or a zebra, any person,idea, or subject is fair game.

This is not a book that you would read from cover to cover, Just leave it out on your coffee table, or pull it out from the bookshelves, open up to any page and start laughing. The only place I would not suggest to keep it,is on your night stand. You may wake the person next to you laughing out loud.

All the one liners and gags are grouped by subject. Actors, Baldness, Bankers, Divorce,Ethnic Jokes, Female Anatomy,Life, Politics,Television, Taxes, Weather, you name it, these big guns of comedy don't miss a trick.

This book may not be for everyone, as many of the jokes are crude,some may be considered R rated, and some being from a time when it was okay to laugh at yourself and life without being politically correct. Although none of the lines are intended to be mean spirited. I definately wouldn't keep it around children who can read!

You can almost hear, these legends spouting their stuff. Groucho Marx.."A hospital bed is a parked taxi with the meter running"...Mae West.."I like two kinds of men: domestic and foreign"...Jackie Gleason.."When you leave New York, you're camping out." Joe E. Lewis.."A man is never drunk if he can lay on the floor without holding on" (Those are some of the more tasteful quotes I could give without being edited or offending.)

It is quite a thick book at 496 pages of these priceless quotes and dialouges. There is an index of Humorists, making it easy to find your favorites, and an introduction by Alan King, listing it's most renowned memebers.

Many of the contributors(who some may consider as national treasures) are no longer with us, and this book is a treasure chest of their words. I would recommend it to anyone who needs a good laugh and can appreciate it for what it is.

"For the first year of marriage I had a basically bad attitude. I tended to place my wife underneath a pedestal."...Woody Allen

Badaboom.....enjoy...Laurie