Download or read book The Joke Is on Us written by Julie A. Webber and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2018-12-11 with total page 345 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This edited volume brings together scholars of comedy to assess how political comedy encounters neoliberal themes in contemporary media. Central to this task is the notion of genre; under neoliberal conditions (where market logics motivate most actions) genre becomes “mixed.” Once stable, discreet categories such as comedy, horror, drama and news and entertainment have become blurred so as to be indistinguishable. The classic modern paradigm of comedy/tragedy no longer holds, if it ever did. Moreover, as politics becomes more economic and less moral or normative under neoliberalism, we are able to see new resistance to comedic genres that support neoliberal strategies to hide racial and gender injustice such as unlaughter, ambiguity, and anti-comedy. There is also an increasing interest with comedy as a form of entertainment on the political right following both Brexit in the UK and the election of Trump in the U.S. Several essays confront this conservative comedy and place it in context of the larger humor history of these debates over free speech and political correctness. For comedians too, entry into popular media now follows the familiar neoliberal script of the celebration of self-help with the increasing admonishment of those who fail to win in market terms. Laughter plays an important role in shaming and valorizing (often at the same time!) the precarious subject in the aftermath of global recession. Doubling down on austerity, self-help policies and equivocation in the face of extremist challenges (right and left), politics foils the critical comedian’s attempt to satirize and parody its object. Characterized by ambiguity, mixed genre and the increasing use of anti-humor, political comedy mirrors the social and political world it mocks, parodies and celebrates often with lackluster results suggesting that the joke might be on us, as audiences.

Download or read book The JOKE written by Milan Kundera and published by Harper Collins. This book was released on 1993-02-26 with total page 340 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: All too often, this brilliant novel of thwarted love and revenge miscarried has been read for its political implications. Now, a quarter century after The Joke was first published and several years after the collapse of the Soviet-imposed Czechoslovak regime, it becomes easier to put such implications into perspective in favor of valuing the book (and all Kundera 's work) as what it truly is: great, stirring literature that sheds new light on the eternal themes of human existence. The present edition provides English-language readers an important further means toward revaluation of The Joke. For reasons he describes in his Author's Note, Milan Kundera devoted much time to creating (with the assistance of his American publisher-editor) a completely revised translation that reflects his original as closely as any translation possibly can: reflects it in its fidelity not only to the words and syntax but also to the characteristic dictions and tonalities of the novel's narrators. The result is nothing less than the restoration of a classic.

Download or read book Only a Joke Can Save Us written by Todd McGowan and published by Northwestern University Press. This book was released on 2017-09-15 with total page 232 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Only a Joke Can Save Us presents an innovative and comprehensive theory of comedy. Using a wealth of examples from high and popular culture and with careful attention to the treatment of humor in philosophy, Todd McGowan locates the universal source of comedy in the interplay of the opposing concepts lack and excess. After reviewing the treatment of comedy in the work of philosophers as varied as Aristotle, G. W. F. Hegel, Sigmund Freud, Henri Bergson, and Alenka Zupancic, McGowan, working in a psychoanalytic framework, demonstrates that comedy results from the deployment of lack and excess, whether in contrast, juxtaposition, or interplay. Illustrating the power and flexibility of this framework with analyses of films ranging from Buster Keaton and Marx Brothers classics to Dr. Strangelove and Groundhog Day, McGowan shows how humor can reveal gaps in being and gaps in social order. Scholarly yet lively and readable, Only a Joke Can Save Us is a groundbreaking examination of the enigmatic yet endlessly fascinating experience of humor and comedy.

Download or read book Something Fishy at Macdonald Hall written by Gordon Korman and published by Apple. This book was released on 2000-09-01 with total page 198 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Just as the Headmaster of Macdonald Hall is on the verge of retirement, a wave of practical jokes hits the school, and roommates Bruno and Boots become prime suspects.

Download or read book The Gigantic Joke Book written by Joseph Rosenbloom and published by Sterling Publishing Company, Inc.. This book was released on 1978 with total page 260 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Over 1,000 jokes, 96 drawings. Index. "Gr.4-6. A gigantic compendium of rib-tickling, giggle-inspiring one liners, puns, funny stories, put-downs...Clever and witty."--SLJ. "True kid appeal."--Learning. 256 pages, b/w illus. throughout, 5 3/8 x 8 1/4.

Download or read book The McSweeney s Joke Book of Book Jokes written by McSweeney's and published by Vintage. This book was released on 2008-04-01 with total page 226 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: As John Hodgman says in this book's introduction, “We all know that books are funny. First, they are made of paste and cloth, which is funny, as is the fact that people still buy and read them.” With that in mind, the McSweeney's Joke Book of Book Jokes collects the best book-related humor from the humor-laden archives of McSweeney's Internet Tendency. Open it and be regaled by such sketches, lists, letters, and spoofs as: Postcards from James Joyce to his Brother Stan Winnie-the-Pooh is My Coworker Ikea Product or Lord of the Rings Character? Popular Children's Fairy Tales Reimagined Using Members of My Family The Very Unauthorized Biography of Steven Seagal Chuck Norris Erotica John Updike, Television Writer Jane Eyre Runs for President Cormac McCarthy Writes to the Editor of the Santa Fe New Mexican Holden Caulfield Gives the Commencement Speech to a High School Letters from Odysseus's College Roommate And many dozens more.

Download or read book The Joke s on Us written by Gordon Korman and published by Scholastic Canada. This book was released on 2004 with total page 179 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: There is nothing new about practical jokes at Macdonald Hall. The latest round includes water in the swimming pool being turnedblue, the statue of Sir John A. getting a snazzy new outfit, and extra soap being snuck into the dishwasher just for fun. Of course, all fingers point to the usual suspects – Bruno Walton and Boots O'Neal. The funny thing – they are not the ones pulling the pranks this time! But they are unsure just who the new prankster is, and they have to prove they're innocent before they get expelled.

Download or read book Pretty Good Joke Book written by Garrison Keillor and published by Blackstone Publishing. This book was released on 2021-08-10 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Over 2,200 Jokes from America’s favorite live radio show A treasury of hilarity from Garrison Keillor and the cast of public radio’s A Prairie Home Companion. A guy walks into a bar. Eight Canada Geese walk into a bar. A termite jumps up on the bar and asks, “Where is the bar tender?” Drum roll. The Sixth Edition of the perennially popular Pretty Good Joke Book is everything the first five were and more. More puns, one-liners, light bulb jokes, knock-knock jokes, and third-grader jokes (have you heard the one about Elvis Parsley?). More religion jokes, political jokes, lawyer jokes, blonde jokes, and jokes in questionable taste (Why did the urologist lose his license? He got in trouble with his peers). More jokes about chickens, relationships, and senior moments (the nice thing about Alzheimer’s is you can enjoy the same jokes again and again). It all started back in 1996, when A Prairie Home Companion fans laughed themselves silly during the first Joke Show. The broadcast was such a hit that it became an almost-annual gagfest. Then fans wanted to read the jokes, share them, and pass them around, and the first Pretty Good Joke Book was born. With over 200 new and updated jokes, the latest edition promises countless giggles, chortles, and guffaws anyone—fans of the radio show or not—will enjoy.

Download or read book In On the Joke written by Shawn Levy and published by Doubleday. This book was released on 2022-04-05 with total page 378 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “A sensitive and vivid study of early female stand-ups… [Levy is a] painstaking, knowledgeable guide.” —New York Times Book Review A hilarious and moving account of the trailblazing women of stand-up comedy who broke down walls so they could stand before the mic—perfect for fans of The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel and Hacks Today, women are ascendant in stand-up comedy, even preeminent. They make headlines, fill arenas, spawn blockbuster movies. But before Amy Schumer slayed, Tiffany Haddish killed, and Ali Wong drew roars, the very idea of a female comedian seemed, to most of America, like a punch line. And it took a special sort of woman—indeed, a parade of them—to break and remake the mold. In on the Joke is the story of a group of unforgettable women who knocked down the doors of stand-up comedy so other women could get a shot. It spans decades, from Moms Mabley’s rise in Black vaudeville between the world wars, to the roadhouse ribaldry of Belle Barth and Rusty Warren in the 1950s and '60s, to Elaine May's co-invention of improv comedy, to Joan Rivers's and Phyllis Diller’s ferocious ascent to mainstream stardom. These women refused to be defined by type and tradition, facing down indifference, puzzlement, nay-saying, and unvarnished hostility. They were discouraged by agents, managers, audiences, critics, fellow performers—even their families. And yet they persevered against the tired notion that women couldn’t be funny, making space not only for themselves, but for the women who followed them. Meticulously researched and irresistibly drawn, Shawn Levy's group portrait forms a new pantheon of comedy excellence. In on the Joke shows how women broke into the boys’ club, offered new ideas of womanhood, and had some laughs along the way.

Download or read book The Joke s on Me written by Laurie Boris and published by . This book was released on 2020-04-22 with total page 310 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: When a mudslide plummets her hopes, her home, and her entire collection of impractical footwear into the Pacific, former actress and stand-up comic Frankie Goldberg takes the only possession she has left - a cherry red Corvette convertible - and drives east to her family's bed and breakfast in Woodstock, New York. This begins a journey into the family she left behind, the family she joked about in her act. But the joke's on Frankie. While she was doing impressions of her slightly menopausal Jewish mother and her sister the serial divorcee, her family was slowly leaving her. And maybe that joke is just too new to be funny. Travel along with fearless Frankie as she puzzles through that eternal dilemma of coming back home to find that nothing is where you left it.

Download or read book Lincoln Tells a Joke written by Kathleen Krull and published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. This book was released on 2010-04-01 with total page 45 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Poor Abraham Lincoln! His life was hardly fun at all. A country torn in two by war, citizens who didn’t like him as president, a homely appearance—what could there possibly be to laugh about? And yet he did laugh. Lincoln wasn’t just one of our greatest presidents. He was a comic storyteller and a person who could lighten a grim situation with a clever quip. This unusual biography of Lincoln highlights his life and presidency, focusing on what made his sense of humor so distinctive—and so necessary to surviving his tough life and times.

Download or read book The Joke s on Us written by Morwenna Banks and published by . This book was released on 1987 with total page 312 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Coconut s Joke Book written by American Girl (Firm) and published by Amer Girl. This book was released on 2007-02-20 with total page 48 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Offers a collection of jokes from American Girl's best furry friend, Coconut, the lovable white Westie pup, and her best friend Licorice the cat.

Download or read book Macdonald Hall 7 The Joke s On Us written by Gordon Korman and published by Scholastic Canada. This book was released on 2013-11-01 with total page 192 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Gordon Korman's classic, bestselling series celebrates its 35th anniversary! Macdonald Hall's ivy-covered buildings have housed and educated many fine young Canadians. But Bruno Walton and Boots O'Neal are far from being fine young Canadians. The roommates and best friends are nothing but trouble! Together they've snuck out after lights-out, swapped flags, kidnapped mascots . . . and that's only the beginning. There is nothing new about practical jokes at Macdonald Hall. The latest round includes water in the swimming pool being turned blue, the statue of Sir John A. getting a snazzy new outfit, and extra soap being snuck into the dishwasher just for fun. Of course, all fingers point to the usual suspects — Bruno Walton and Boots O'Neal. The funny thing — they are not the ones pulling the pranks this time! But they are unsure just who the new prankster is, and they have to prove they're innocent before they get expelled. Join two of Gordon Korman's most memorable characters in seven side-splitting, rip-roaring adventures! Macdonald Hall is the series that started it all, and thirty-five years later it remains a must-read for old fans and new, the young — and the young at heart.

Download or read book In on the Great Joke written by Laura Broadbent and published by . This book was released on 2016 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In a blend of essayistic poetics, Broadbent wields alchemy, translation and necromancy to bring readers In on the Great Joke. What do you get when you cross Lao Tzu and an application for a university teaching application? What do you get when you give W. G. Sebald and Clarice Lispector the ability to speak from the afterlife? What happens if a girl is stopped at a red light for an entire year? In on the Great Joke is a palace of hybridity, where film structure informs poetry, poetry alters the essay, and the essay recalibrates the joke. Broadbent has lent her ear to the dead, the living, the voiceless, to give us the punchline of what it means to be intellectually alive. 'Then there's Laura Broadbent. She is, as are her poems, full of sultry verve and invective. Watch out. Her lines are dizzying and always on point.' - Michael Nardone, Hobo Magazine Praise for Oh There You Are I Can't See You Is It Raining?: 'Oh There You Are... succeeds because it is accessible. Intellectually rigorous and evasive, it also makes itself emotionally available.' - Justin F. Ridgeway, Broken Pencil

Download or read book The Cosmic Jest The Joke s On Us written by Mark Romel and published by Magus Books. This book was released on with total page 877 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Salman Rushdie wrote, "DC: Washington is being taken over by DC: Comics." The world is increasingly understood as a comic story, involving superheroes and supervillains. Confusingly, they are often one and the same. Donald Trump is the superhero for conservatives and the supervillain for liberals. Heroes and villains are now shapeshifters. They no longer reflect a common narrative. Their heroism or villainy depends on where you stand in the culture wars. Next time you go to watch a superhero movie, imagine what it would be like if the superhero kept "flickering" into his opposite – the supervillain. Would you be able to follow the story? Whom would you be rooting for? Wouldn't the plot be all over the place? You wouldn't understand anyone's motivation. The story would be pure chaos. Welcome to the Cosmic Jest. Read this book if you don't want the joke to be on you.

Download or read book The Great American Joke Book written by Victor H. Royer and published by America Star Books. This book was released on 2013-05-01 with total page 334 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Many years ago, I went looking for a Book of Jokes. There were none. Years later, I tried again-online, and everywhere else, and although I found many books about humor, containing humor, and written by famous people and comics, and even scholastic books analyzing humor-and what exactly it is-what I did not find was an actual Book of Jokes. So, I decided to write one. This one. The Great American Joke Book. A wise man once said: If we can't laugh at ourselves, at the way we live, or at our deepest and darkest convictions and secrets, then we are taking ourselves far too seriously and are denying to ourselves God's greatest gift-that gift being the uniquely human sense of humor. Divided into two parts. Part 1 is rated G, for general audiences-with true and amazing stories and great jokes for the whole family. Part 2 is Adult Humor, rated R, for those whose humorous tastes are a little more contemporary. Both sections are full of incredible laughter. Even now, as we are producing this book, I am still laughing at these stories, true tales, and great jokes. So take a few minutes-Laugh a few minutes-Let go of the rat race, and relax. It will lengthen your life. And remember the weighty words of that great Bard of Laughs, Ms. Lily Tomlin, as she so prophetically prognosticated some years ago: ""The trouble with the Rat Race is that even if you win, you're still a Rat."" So it's time for a piece of cheese, some wine, and some wit. Read on...