Only Joking

July 24, 2006
Carr, a British standup comic and host of the game show Distraction
, and his friend Greeves, a freelance writer, deserve a round of applause for this entertaining and educational book about the history and practice of humor. In a delightfully roundabout way—leavened with a joke or witticism at the bottom of each page—the authors discuss theories of comedy, delving into trickster traditions, whether animals understand jokes, gender differences in joking, children's humor ("What's yellow and dangerous? Shark-infested custard"), ethnic and dirty jokes (e.g., the Aristocrats, made famous by the Penn Jillette/Paul Provenza movie), politically incorrect humor and the social role of antiestablishment humor. Tucked here and there are some delightful digressions, including a short bio of a dirty-joke collector, a history of joke books and the story of the development of television laugh tracks. In the end, Carr and Greeves remind readers not to confuse "seriousness of purpose" with a "solemn" attitude: just because people joke about something doesn't mean they're not taking it seriously. And that goes for the history of joking, too.

Starred review from September 1, 2006
It's hard to talk about comedy without sounding, at least part of the time, like a humorless pedant: see Freud's " Jokes and Their Relation to the Unconscious" . But it isn't impossible, as British comedians Carr (host of the Comedy Central game show " Distractions" ) and Greeves prove in their lively, intelligent, highly readable, often hilarious coverage of all aspects of what makes people laugh--at least, in the English-speaking world. (Carr and Greeves carefully point out that humor is culturally based, and what is hilarious to one culture may merely baffle another.) Specific topics include why we need to laugh, the role joking plays in society, what kind of people become professional comedians, and the ever-changing standards for what kind of jokes go too far. American readers, used to the knee-jerk anti-intellectualism of most U.S. comics, may be surprised and delighted by how comfortably Carr and Greeves, both graduates of Cambridge University, discuss the most high-flown theories of comedy. Then again, many of the best British comics of the last two generations, such as Peter Cook, Dudley Moore, and the Monty Python crew, have had strong academic credentials. And never fear, the book is packed with jokes, many of them by professional stand-ups, most of them absolute howlers, that illustrate Carr and Greeves' arguments. (Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2006, American Library Association.)