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Title: Jokes: Philosophical Thoughts on Joking Matters by Ted Cohen ISBN: 0-226-11231-4 Publisher: University of Chicago Press (Trd) Pub. Date: May, 2001 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $9.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.83 (6 reviews)
Rating: 4
Summary: Very good intro to humor studies
Comment: 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
Rating: 5
Summary: maybe i'm biased, i dunno...
Comment: ted cohen is bleeding hilarious. he's even funnier in person than on paper. he happens to be my philosophy professor - ain't i lucky?
buy that book!!
Rating: 5
Summary: I Wish I Had Bought It!
Comment: 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!
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Title: Two Jews on a Train by Adam Biro ISBN: 0226052168 Publisher: University of Chicago Press (Trd) Pub. Date: April, 2002 List Price(USD): $11.00 |
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Title: On Humour (Thinking in Action) by Simon Critchley ISBN: 0415251214 Publisher: Routledge Pub. Date: July, 2002 List Price(USD): $14.95 |
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Title: Laughter: A Scientific Investigation by Robert R. Provine ISBN: 0141002255 Publisher: Penguin USA (Paper) Pub. Date: 27 November, 2001 List Price(USD): $14.00 |
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Title: Comedy: An Essay on Comedy by George Meredith, Wylie Sypher, Henri Bergson ISBN: 0801823277 Publisher: Johns Hopkins Univ Pr Pub. Date: April, 1980 List Price(USD): $19.95 |
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Title: Sudden Glory : Laughter as Subversive History by Barry Sanders ISBN: 0807062057 Publisher: Beacon Press Pub. Date: 30 October, 1996 List Price(USD): $15.00 |
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