- Paperback: 112 pages
- Publisher: University of Chicago Press; New edition edition (11 Jun 2001)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0226112314
- ISBN-13: 978-0226112312
- Product Dimensions: 20.3 x 12.5 x 0.9 cm
- Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (1 customer review)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 697,232 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- See Complete Table of Contents
Jokes: Philosophical Thoughts on Joking Matters
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Product Description
Product Description
A book of jokes and a book about them. Ted Cohen loves a good laugh, but as a philosopher, he is also interested in how jokes work, why they work and when they don't. The delight at the end of a joke is the result of a complex set of conditions and processes, and Cohen takes us through these conditions in a philosophical exploration of humour. He considers questions of audience, selection of joke topics, the ethnic character of jokes and their morality, all with plenty of examples that should make the reader either chuckle or wince.
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First Sentence
A PHILOSOPHER ONCE SAID, "Don't take it as a matter of course, but as a remarkable fact, that pictures and fictitious narratives give us pleasure, occupy our minds." Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
A PHILOSOPHER ONCE SAID, "Don't take it as a matter of course, but as a remarkable fact, that pictures and fictitious narratives give us pleasure, occupy our minds." Read the first page
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Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
5 of 7 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
What a wonderful surprise: at last a book on the philosophical grammar of jokes that has a heart and mind that perfectly matches the specific weight of its topic.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
10 reviews
11 of 13 people found the following review helpful
I Wish I Had Bought It!
27 Aug 2000
Format:Hardcover
I might as well admit up front that I didn't buy this book. In fact, Ted Cohen gave me a complementary inscribed copy so that I could reinvigorate my cocktail party repetoire of jokes (my wife says this book will add at least 5 years to our marriage). But for all of you who read this review, you should know that I intend to buy a few dozen copies to distribute to my best friends. And not because Ted needs the money, but because this book is both a scream and thought provoking. If only for laughs, it's well worth the price. And the publisher has considerately type-set the many jokes in bold so that you can easily skip the philosophy. But after you've read the jokes, I recommend you go back and read Ted's thoughts and commentary. You'll see jokes and joking in a new light. Thank you Ted!
6 of 7 people found the following review helpful
Very good intro to humor studies
6 May 2002
Format:Paperback
Cohen's pithy but enterprising volume is not only fun to read but he builds a suprisingly sound idea of the joke-work as an aesthetic bond between two or more. This was refreshing in itself as so many now seem to think of jokes as offensive before they begin, or at best as an offensive against political dullards and people with whom we don't agree.
Cohen doesn't fall into this standard academic rap, and so his arguments were a novelty.
I especially enjoyed the joke based on Niels Abel's commutative groups, as I didn't realize that mathematicians had a sense of humor that was parlayed into such odd and exquisite visions.
The ending was an attempt to take on the morality of joking in an age in which almost everyone is offended by everything from dust to sun-rises. While Cohen says go ahead and be offended, he also says to not try to outlaw other people's sense of humor. I felt he set up a Catch-22 that needed more work. On what basis is it reasonable to be offended?
Is it ever reasonable?
Unfortunately, the book ended in this snag of ook after seventy good pages building a model of the joke-work as a mode of appreciation. To end with the Maoist stalemate that has held culture in a quagmire of contention was less than cheering, not that I myself know any way out of that quagmire of ooky skook.
Thank heavens jokes live on. Some of these are really unusual, and Cohen's commentary is always scintillating. Bravo! I am tickled that this book was written and published. Everyone in America should have a heavily annotated copy under their pillow and we would begin to have a civilization worthy of the zig-zags and ziggurats of the star-bellied Sneetches.
-- Kirby Olson, Author
Comedy after Postmodernism
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Philosophy AND Jokes - What more could you want?
13 April 2000
Format:Hardcover
This is the first book I have read by Ted Cohen but it will not be my last. Do not be frightened away by the word "philosophy." Everyone seems to grasp the fact that some jokes work with some people and not with others. This book shows us how jokes depend on a "complex set of conditions" in order to work and that jokes are "conditional." The book has a wonderful cadence allowing room for the philosophy behind and the intimacy caused by good joke telling and -- great jokes too. Laughter is indeed the best medicine -- grab this book and have a laugh!
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