Download or read book The Game of Humor written by Charles R. Gruner and published by Transaction Publishers. This book was released on 2011-12-31 with total page 205 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Humor, wit, and laughter surround each person. From everyday quips to the carefully contrived comedy of literature, newspapers, and television we experience humor in many forms, yet the impetus for our laughter is far from innocuous. Misfortune, stupidity, and moral or cultural defects, however faintly revealed in others and ourselves, seem to make us laugh. Although discomforting, such negative terms as superiority, aggression, hostility, ridicule, or degradation can be applied to instances of humor. According to scholars, Thomas Hobbes's "superiority theory"—that humor arises from mischances, infirmities, and indecencies, where there is no wit at all—applies to most humor. With the exception of good-natured play, Charles R. Gruner claims that humor is rarely as innocent as it first appears. Gruner's proposed superiority theory of humor is all-encompassing. In The Game of Humor, he expands the scope of Hobbes's theory to include and explore the contest aspect of "good-natured" play. As such, the author believes all instances of humor can be examined as games, in terms of competition and keeping score—winners and losers. Gruner draws on a broad spectrum of thought-provoking examples. Holocaust jokes, sexual humor, the racialist dialogue of such comic characters as Stepin Fetchit and Archie Bunker, simple puns, and many of the author's own encounters with everyday humor. Gruner challenges the reader to offer a single example of humor that cannot be "de-humorized" by its agonistic nature. The Game of Humor makes intriguing and enjoyable reading for people interested in humor and the aspects of human motivation. This book will also be valuable to professionals in communication and information studies, sociologists, literary critics and linguists, and psychologists concerned with the conflicts and tensions of everyday life.
Download or read book The Game of Humor written by Charles R. Gruner and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2017-07-05 with total page 217 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Humor, wit, and laughter surround each person. From everyday quips to the carefully contrived comedy of literature, newspapers, and television we experience humor in many forms, yet the impetus for our laughter is far from innocuous. Misfortune, stupidity, and moral or cultural defects, however faintly revealed in others and ourselves, seem to make us laugh. Although discomforting, such negative terms as superiority, aggression, hostility, ridicule, or degradation can be applied to instances of humor. According to scholars, Thomas Hobbes's "superiority theory"?that humor arises from mischances, infirmities, and indecencies, where there is no wit at all?applies to most humor. With the exception of good-natured play, Charles R. Gruner claims that humor is rarely as innocent as it first appears.Gruner's proposed superiority theory of humor is all-encompassing. In The Game of Humor, he expands the scope of Hobbes's theory to include and explore the contest aspect of "good-natured" play. As such, the author believes all instances of humor can be examined as games, in terms of competition and keeping score?winners and losers. Gruner draws on a broad spectrum of thought-provoking examples. Holocaust jokes, sexual humor, the racialist dialogue of such comic characters as Stepin Fetchit and Archie Bunker, simple puns, and many of the author's own encounters with everyday humor. Gruner challenges the reader to offer a single example of humor that cannot be "de-humorized" by its agonistic nature.The Game of Humor makes intriguing and enjoyable reading for people interested in humor and the aspects of human motivation. This book will also be valuable to professionals in communication and information studies, sociologists, literary critics and linguists, and psychologists concerned with the conflicts and tensions of everyday life.
Download or read book The Mammoth Book of Humor written by Geoff Tibballs and published by Running Press. This book was released on 2000-09-12 with total page 512 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: More than 10,000 stories and jokes, limericks and one-liners, put-downs and puns in the ultimate, most comprehensive compendium of humor ever compiled. From boners and groaners to classic shaggy-dog stories and jokes for roasts and toasts, virtually every form of verbal humor on a whole raft of topics is represented in this not totally politically correct but always devilishly diverting collection of ticklers and howlers for any occasion. Humorous quotations, epigrams and epitaphs, newspaper misprints, misleading headlines ("MAGISTRATES MAY ACT ON INDECENT SHOWS"), limericks, puns, and the darnedest things said by kids ("a fjord is a Scandinavian car") also appear among the volume's ten thousand entries, which are arranged by category and fully indexed by subject. This format makes the book an easily accessible as well as invaluable companion to speech-makers for events great and small. So it is that The Mammoth Book of Humor meets the needs of both the maiden aunt looking for a wholesome joke to relate at a golden wedding anniversary and the best man who needs a blue one for the bachelor party. The volume even offers would-be wolves on the prowl pick-up lines-at the same time that it provides some snappy comebacks and a few ribald ripostes for the reluctant or disinterested prey. Waggish, witty, wisecracking, or whimsical, the humor is as various as it is vigorous on every page of this endlessly entertaining collection.
Download or read book Humor Me written by Barbara Johnson and published by HarperChristian + ORM. This book was released on 2009-03-15 with total page 95 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Join the Queen of Encouragement for a lap around the laugh track! Laughing is Barbara Johnson's favorite aerobic exercise, and Humor Me is a zany collection of her heartiest laugh-filled workouts. Its pages bubble over with fun poked at some of the most laughable things in God's creation: the wonders of womanhood, the thrill and terror of child rearing, the Catch-22 of aging, the mirthful mysteries of men, and that hilarious show-stopper: death. This little book is a big gift for anyone who loves to laugh?or needs to laugh. If you've hit a pothole that has knocked the joy right out of your life, Barbara's favorite gigglers can realign your sense of humor, energize your joy level, and shine a beam of fun-light into your heart.
Download or read book The Healing Power of Humor written by Allen Klein and published by Penguin. This book was released on 1989-02-01 with total page 241 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “Provides practical advice as to the fundamental importance of humor and laughter.” —Steve Allen Science has proved, although we knew it all along, that humor is our best medicine. It reduces stress, promotes physical healing, is essential for mental health and can add years to one’s life. But how do we learn to lighten up and take the first step toward finding the humorous side to our troubles when what we really feel like doing is crying? Allen Klein, who has successfully taught thousands to find the humor and consolations in life’s tribulations, shows us how. Brimming with pointed, humorous anecdotes and learn-to-laugh techniques, The Healing Power of Humor combines the wisdom of the world’s great spiritual teachers with the insights of famed humorists, comedians, and others to help you turn life’s negatives into positives. It is the ideal book for anyone going through troubled times—whether it’s the loss of a wallet, the loss of a job, a spat with one’s spouse, or a stay in the hospital.
Download or read book The Humor Games written by Dean O'Carroll and published by . This book was released on 2014-04-09 with total page 50 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: When Katskills Wintergreen takes a pie in the face for her little sister Dim, she enters herself into the Humor Games, a comedy battle to the death. Her knack for impressions is all that stands between her and failure -- that and her faithful co-competitor Tweeta Mellish, who ropes her into a romcom, and her childhood friend Gable Sevenhouse, a member of the collective resistance against evil President Nobiz L. Shobiz. In this slapstick parody of The Hunger Games, who will have the last laugh?
Download or read book The Tattooed Potato and Other Clues written by Ellen Raskin and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2011-01-06 with total page 192 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From the Newbery Award-winning author of THE WESTING GAME, more clever riddles and wordplay, clues to be found, and mysteries to be solved! Wanted: Assistant to a painter (and a secret sleuth) Dickory Dock has come to 12 Cobble Lane to take the job as painter's assistant to the artist Garson. The townhouse looks charming and quaint, but inside its redbrick walls lurk suspicious characters, multiple mysteries, and one very eccentric portrait artist. Clues abound; and suddenly Dickory finds herself assisting Garson not in art but in crime solving. Can Dickory untangle the web of mysteries within mysteries and discover the true secret hiding on Cobble Lane?
Download or read book A Dragon Walks Into a Bar written by Jef Aldrich and published by Adams Media. This book was released on 2019-12-03 with total page 208 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This hilarious collection of over 300 puns, one-liners, and classic jokes dedicated to the fun of RPGs is perfect for you share with your fellow gaming compatriots! Why don’t dragons like to eat paladins? They taste lawful. Laugh out loud at over 300 zingy one-liners and eye-rolling puns with this collection of tabletop-based humor, dedicated to the fun of RPGs like Dungeons and Dragons, Pathfinder, and more! A Dragon Walks into a Bar gives you hours of funny content that will keep you smiling. Whether you use them as inspiration for your level 20 comedian bard to crack wise during battle or if you just want a giggle in between turns, this book has everything you’ve been looking for.
Download or read book The Humor Code written by Peter McGraw and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2015-04-28 with total page 256 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Part road-trip comedy and part social science experiment, a scientist and a journalist travel the globe to discover the secret behind what makes things funny, questioning countless experts, including Louis C.K., along the way.
Download or read book The Ugly Cry written by Danielle Henderson and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2022-06-07 with total page 305 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “They say comedy equals tragedy plus time: This very funny account of an often miserable childhood is proof.” --People “What a strong, funny, heartbreaking memoir, with a voice that is completely its own (written by a woman who very much seems to be completely her own, as well.) I loved it.”--Elizabeth Gilbert, New York Times bestselling author of Big Magic and Eat, Pray, Love An uproarious, moving memoir about a grandmother’s ferocious love and redefining what it means to be family “If you fight that motherf**ker and you don’t win, you’re going to come home and fight me.” Not the advice you’d normally expect from your grandmother—but Danielle Henderson would be the first to tell you her childhood was anything but conventional. Abandoned at ten years old by a mother who chose her drug-addicted, abusive boyfriend, Danielle was raised by grandparents who thought their child-rearing days had ended in the 1960s. She grew up Black, weird, and overwhelmingly uncool in a mostly white neighborhood in upstate New York, which created its own identity crises. Under the eye-rolling, foul-mouthed, loving tutelage of her uncompromising grandmother—and the horror movies she obsessively watched—Danielle grew into a tall, awkward, Sassy-loving teenager who wore black eyeliner as lipstick and was struggling with the aftermath of her mother’s choices. But she also learned that she had the strength and smarts to save herself, her grandmother gifting her a faith in her own capabilities that the world would not have most Black girls possess. With humor, wit, and deep insight, Danielle shares how she grew up and grew wise—and the lessons she’s carried from those days to these. In the process, she upends our conventional understanding of family and redefines its boundaries to include the millions of people who share her story.
Download or read book Grave Humor written by R.J. Blain and published by Pen & Page Publishing. This book was released on 2020-05-12 with total page 293 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Most days, Anwen regrets working at a funeral home despite the good pay. With the residents no longer inclined to stay in their coffins where they belong, she’s got her hands full making sure everyone follows the rules: In the funeral home, there is no screaming, no murdering, no mutilation, no possessions, no kidnappings, no resurrections, and no cursing of any type. Be quiet and stay polite. The day Old Man McGregor decides to take a walk and disturbs her peace, Anwen learns there’s a lot more to the basement in the funeral home than a vampire and a handsome gentleman on ice. If she’s not careful, she’ll learn first-hand why ‘eternally yours’ is the most potent of threats. Warning: this novel contains romance, humor, bodies, shenanigans, and mythological puppies. Proceed with caution.
Download or read book Dad Jokes for Kids written by Jimmy Niro and published by Sourcebooks, Inc.. This book was released on 2020-05-05 with total page 84 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Turn the bad jokes back on dad with this seriously silly joke book, the perfect funny Halloween gift for kids and families to laugh and celebrate together! Dads have been embarrassing their kids for decades with goofy and groan-worthy jokes, and now it's their children's turn! In this hilarious new joke book from USA Today bestselling author Jimmy Niro, kids can out-dad-joke their dads and even learn how to write some of their own. Filled with over 350 silly jokes about school, sports, animals, and more, Dad Jokes for Kids will have young readers rolling on the floor with laughter! Plus, children can learn to write their own dad jokes with fun activities in the back! This book is perfect for: The whole family - perfect for kids ages 7 to 12, but offers fun for the entire family! Reluctant readers - fun jokes help engage reluctant kids, helping them gain confidence and build reading comprehension and vocabulary Screen-free time - Endless laughs for road trips, vacations, sleepovers, game nights, and more! Gifts - makes a great holiday stocking stuffer, white elephant gag gift for kids, or Father's Day gift to share with dads Includes jokes like: Q: What did the carrot say to the broccoli? A: Nothing. Vegetables can't talk. You can't play hide-and-seek with mountains. They're always peaking.
Download or read book The Westing Game written by Ellen Raskin and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2020-10-13 with total page 242 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A Newbery Medal Winner For over thirty-five years, Ellen Raskin's Newbery Medal-winning The Westing Game has been an enduring favorite. This highly inventive mystery involves sixteen people who are invited to the reading of Samuel W. Westing's will. They could become millionaires-it all depends on how they play the tricky and dangerous Westing game, a game involving blizzards, burglaries, and bombings! Ellen Raskin has created a remarkable cast of characters in a puzzle-knotted, word-twisting plot filled with humor, intrigue, and suspense. Winner of the Newbery Medal Winner of the Boston Globe/Horn Book Award An ALA Notable Book A School Library Journal One Hundred Books That Shaped the Century "A supersharp mystery...confoundingly clever, and very funny." —Booklist, starred review "Great fun for those who enjoy illusion, word play, or sleight of hand." —The New York Times Book Review "A fascinating medley of word games, disguises, multiple aliases, and subterfuges—a demanding but rewarding book." —The Horn Book
Download or read book Doodle Through the Bible for Kids written by and published by Harvest House Publishers. This book was released on 2016-04-01 with total page 146 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Inspire kids to doodle and dawdle in God's Word, and you open the door to a refreshing and clever new way for them to experience the Bible. When kids ages 8 to 12 years doodle their way through the Old and New Testaments, they will better remember God's Word, visualize spiritual truth, and put it all into practice when a life moment calls for it. With loads of humor and a big dose of fun, cartoonist Jonny Hawkins encourages kids to add their creative touches to his sketches as they explore Bible verses that speak into their lives.
Download or read book The Game Culture Reader written by Jason Thompson and published by Cambridge Scholars Publishing. This book was released on 2014-07-18 with total page 285 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In The Game Culture Reader, editors Jason C. Thompson and Marc A. Ouellette propose that Game Studies—that peculiar multi-, inter-, and trans-disciplinary field wherein international researchers from such diverse areas as rhetoric, computer science, literary studies, culture studies, psychology, media studies and so on come together to study the production, distribution, and consumption of games—has reached an unproductive stasis. Its scholarship remains either divided (as in the narratologists versus ludologists debate) or indecisive (as in its frequently apolitical stances on play and fandom). Thompson and Ouellette firmly hold that scholarship should be distinguished from the repetitively reductive commonplaces of violence, sexism, and addiction. In other words, beyond the headline-friendly modern topoi that now dominate the discourse of Game Studies, what issues, approaches, and insights are being, if not erased, then displaced? This volume gathers together a host of scholars from different countries, institutions, disciplines, departments, and ranks, in order to present original and evocative scholarship on digital game culture. Collectively, the contributors reject the commonplaces that have come to define digital games as apolitical or as somehow outside of the imbricated processes of cultural production that govern the medium itself. As an alternative, they offer essays that explore video game theory, ludic spaces and temporalities, and video game rhetorics. Importantly, the authors emphasize throughout that digital games should be understood on their own terms: literally, this assertion necessitates the serious reconsideration of terms borrowed from other academic disciplines; figuratively, the claim embeds the embrace of game play in the continuing investigation of digital games as cultural forms. Put another way, by questioning the received wisdom that would consign digital games to irrelevant spheres of harmless child’s play or of invidious mass entertainment, the authors productively engage with ludic ambiguities.
Download or read book The Sense of Humor written by Willibald Ruch and published by Walter de Gruyter. This book was released on 2010-12-14 with total page 509 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book How I Paid for College written by Marc Acito and published by Crown. This book was released on 2004-09-07 with total page 290 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A deliciously funny romp of a novel about one overly theatrical and sexually confused New Jersey teenager’s larcenous quest for his acting school tuition It’s 1983 in Wallingford, New Jersey, a sleepy bedroom community outside of Manhattan. Seventeen-year-old Edward Zanni, a feckless Ferris Bueller–type, is Peter Panning his way through a carefree summer of magic and mischief. The fun comes to a halt, however, when Edward’s father remarries and refuses to pay for Edward to study acting at Juilliard. Edward’s truly in a bind. He’s ineligible for scholarships because his father earns too much. He’s unable to contact his mother because she’s somewhere in Peru trying to commune with Incan spirits. And, as a sure sign he’s destined for a life in the arts, Edward’s incapable of holding down a job. So he turns to his loyal (but immoral) misfit friends to help him steal the tuition money from his father, all the while practicing for his high school performance of Grease. Disguising themselves as nuns and priests, they merrily scheme their way through embezzlement, money laundering, identity theft, forgery, and blackmail. But, along the way, Edward also learns the value of friendship, hard work, and how you’re not really a man until you can beat up your father—metaphorically, that is. How I Paid for College is a farcical coming-of-age story that combines the first-person tone of David Sedaris with the byzantine plot twists of Armistead Maupin. It is a novel for anyone who has ever had a dream or a scheme, and it marks the introduction to an original and audacious talent.
