What's So Funny? Making Sense of Humor

by Donna M. Jackson, Ted Stearn (Illustrator)

—A Junior Library Guild Selection

Q: What do you call a dinosaur that's scared to tell a joke?
A: A nervous rex.

Everyone loves to laugh, and to hear and see funny things-but what makes something funny in the first place? What is humor? This book explains why our brains think something is funny, what happens to us physically when we laugh, why you can tickle your friend but not yourself, and so much more. Plenty of jokes and silly anecdotes are included, and hilarious drawings appear on almost every page.

Genres: Nonfiction, Juvenile

64 pages, Hardcover

First published June 9, 2011

Reviews

[Dov Zeller · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a strange combination of well-researched and sophisticated for a kid's book, broad-ranging (goes into physiological, evolutionary and cultural facets of humor) and frustratingly sketchy. Or, as the Kirkus reviewer puts it: "A light introduction to the appealing, complicated subject of humor lacks the depth to do it justice."

https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-re...

I am giving it a four because it's a decent introduction to a great topic. It's fairly well written, and there are some fun facts in here. But it focuses on theory with a chapter at the end encouraging kids to do stand-up (it touches upon the anatomy of a joke). Then why not go a little deeper into the history of stand-up? It's hard to believe we learn about the great laughter epidemic of 1962 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tangany... but don't hear anything about jesters or clowns; the history of circus comedy, early traveling comedians or film comedians; the first gag-a-day comic strips; oral storytelling traditions; Shakespeare, Chaplin, the Marx Brothers or the Borscht Belt, sit-coms...

An interesting question arrives therefore in these pages: can you talk about the theory of humor without getting deeply into the art of practice? Though I appreciate what the author does do here, I think the "What's So Funny?" might have benefitted from a little more of both.

Perhaps this book would have been more successful as a picture book, or a substantially longer book with a lot more images (and not just cartoons, but actual comic strips, photographs and illustrations of famous comedy figures and folks, gags such as whoopie cushions, etc) (fyi I am pretty sure whoopie cushions are not mentioned once?!) At least, changing the format would resolve some of the issues that Kirkus raises. "The academic nature of the quotes, suitable to a more substantial study of humor, jars with the author’s otherwise conversational, entry-level approach to the subject, raising questions about the intended audience." So, it's not perfect. I'm still glad this one was published.

At some point in the book (but now I can't find it) I'm pretty sure the author says something about "it's more our attitude than a situation that makes us unhappy." I find it annoying when people say that. Why not a nice balance of both?

[Jessica · Rating 3 out of 5]

I received this book as a GoodReads Giveaway. Admittedly, if I saw the book in a store I probably would not have picked it up because the cover, size, and illustrations make it look like a children’s picture book. However, I thoroughly enjoy humor and I thought this book would be a refreshing read.

At just 55 pages, this book just skims the surface, yet the author gives the sense of having done her research. It seems that any one of the themes in this book could be expanded upon, but that she preferred to keep this readable for kids (there is enough substance here to interest adults as well).

The author begins by contextualizing and defining humor and quickly moves on to explaining different theories behind why people find certain things funny. Here she cites Freud and V.S. Ramachandran. The book then explores how gender, age, social context and culture influence the types of humor that are most popular – here her examination of European, British, American, Japanese, and Chinese humor is very interesting and could be a whole separate book. The rest of the book looks at humor from historical and scientific perspectives.

[Heidi · Rating 4 out of 5]

I found this book rather fascinating. I had no idea that people actually studied humor. It makes sense though, since laughter is such a big part of human existence. The author starts off by defining humor and explaining that, "Humor is highly personal." Which is very true. This made me think about the times when I've been reading to my students and they laugh at something that I don't see as funny, or I am trying to avoid bursting out into loud laughter and the kids are straight-faced.

Despite the fact that there is no one way to define what is funny, there are several theories that attempt to explain this phenomenon. First, the superiority theory, jokes that target stupidity and klutziness. When I read this I immediately thought, blond jokes, lawyer jokes,etc. There are many types of jokes that fit into this category. The second theory that Jackson presents is the relief theory. The idea being that we can address topics that scare us or stress us out through humor. The third theory is the incongruity theory, when one thing is expected but something else happens and surprises us.

The book easy to read and to follow organization wise. The author has clearly kept her audience in mind. The inclusion of jokes throughout is a nice touch. Jackson covers a lot of related topics, theories, anatomy (the physical act of laughing), animal laughter, and even how to tell a joke well. I plan to use this book with my older students as a precursor to storytelling. It would also combine beautifully with any joke book. Recommended.

[Edward Sullivan · Rating 3 out of 5]

The lowdown on humor. Informative and interesting.

[Bella · Rating 5 out of 5]

awesome