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Funny: The Book: Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Comedy
The Book is an entertaining look at the art of comedy, from its historical roots to the latest scientific findings, with diversions into the worlds of movies (Buster Keaton and the Marx Brothers), television ( The Office ), prose (Woody Allen, Robert Benchley), theater ( The Front Page ), jokes and stand-up comedy (Richard Pryor, Steve Martin), as well as personal reminiscences from the author's experiences on such TV programs as Mork and Mindy .
With allusions to the not-always-funny Carl Jung, George Orwell, and Arthur Koestler, The Book explores the evolution, theories, principles, and practice of comedy, as well as the psychological, philosophical, and even theological underpinnings of humor, coming to the conclusion that (Spoiler Alert!) Comedy is God.
With allusions to the not-always-funny Carl Jung, George Orwell, and Arthur Koestler, The Book explores the evolution, theories, principles, and practice of comedy, as well as the psychological, philosophical, and even theological underpinnings of humor, coming to the conclusion that (Spoiler Alert!) Comedy is God.
- GenresNonfictionComedyHumor
204 pages, Paperback
First published April 1, 2012
2 people are currently reading
120 people want to read
About the author
David Misch
14 books13 followersDavid Misch is a screenwriter (“Mork & Mindy”, “The Muppets Take Manhattan”, “Saturday Night Live”) and playwright ("Pretty Naked People"). His latest book is "A Beginner's Guide To Corruption" ("David Misch is one funny mother" – Penn Jillette); his less latest is "Funny: The Book" ("Brilliant" – The Chicago Reader). More Misch at www.davidmisch.com.
Become a fan of my author page – I'll be glad you did!
Become a fan of my author page – I'll be glad you did!
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Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews
January 1, 2013
First of all, I received the book through Goodreads First Reads.
Secondly, to all those out there interested in this book -
1. If you're only looking for a book full of jokes
and/or
2. If you're only looking for a theoretical analysis on humor/comedy
....
you're wrong!
I didn't know what to expect when I got my hands on it. I had no special expectations (well, I did want it to make me wittier!). Mr Misch has accomplished something unique - his book is organised, in the sense that he covers his topic based on theories: psychology, history, even philosophy to name a few categories. I know, I know...you're asking "how is that unique? It sounds rather boring". Well, Mr Misch is an anarchist! (I beg this comment be omitted from his FBI file). Never in my life have I read anything remotely anarchic. I mean it as a compliment of course. The chapters are short, to the point, providing serious information, funny anecdotes, jokes and links (to help those not familiar with the paradigms stated - luckily for me, I was familiar with most of them....thank you globalization and westernisation!), focusing for the most part on famous comedians and attempting to reach some conclusions and shed some light on what comedy is (the sequence of assumptions found in chapter 28, p.169 had me in giggles and simultaneously in some serious thought). But what I found exciting and liberating was the author's tendency to self-sarcasm. Stripped by all unnecessary "baggage" and reconciled with what he's come to be, Mr Misch ends up being hilarious (in a non-ridiculous way). His sole disadvantage is his handwriting which sucks, but luckily, the book was done by keyboard (his words, not mine). So, do I recommend this book?.....hell, yeah!
P.S. Buster Keaton is my favorite too!
Secondly, to all those out there interested in this book -
1. If you're only looking for a book full of jokes
and/or
2. If you're only looking for a theoretical analysis on humor/comedy
....
you're wrong!
I didn't know what to expect when I got my hands on it. I had no special expectations (well, I did want it to make me wittier!). Mr Misch has accomplished something unique - his book is organised, in the sense that he covers his topic based on theories: psychology, history, even philosophy to name a few categories. I know, I know...you're asking "how is that unique? It sounds rather boring". Well, Mr Misch is an anarchist! (I beg this comment be omitted from his FBI file). Never in my life have I read anything remotely anarchic. I mean it as a compliment of course. The chapters are short, to the point, providing serious information, funny anecdotes, jokes and links (to help those not familiar with the paradigms stated - luckily for me, I was familiar with most of them....thank you globalization and westernisation!), focusing for the most part on famous comedians and attempting to reach some conclusions and shed some light on what comedy is (the sequence of assumptions found in chapter 28, p.169 had me in giggles and simultaneously in some serious thought). But what I found exciting and liberating was the author's tendency to self-sarcasm. Stripped by all unnecessary "baggage" and reconciled with what he's come to be, Mr Misch ends up being hilarious (in a non-ridiculous way). His sole disadvantage is his handwriting which sucks, but luckily, the book was done by keyboard (his words, not mine). So, do I recommend this book?.....hell, yeah!
P.S. Buster Keaton is my favorite too!
January 24, 2013
I enjoyed this book. The author wanted a mutli-media guide to comedy, so in the book are places to find movies and scenes he discusses. If you go to his website, he actually links to the funny scenes.
One of the things I enjoyed about this book is how the author likes his subject. He gives a lot of space to Buster Keaton and Harold Lloyd. Most people today only know Charlie Chaplin from that era, while there were other talented silent performers. He breaks down why a scene was funny. A few times his description of the scene was funnier than the actual scene. He gets into Monty Python skits. There's is even a section on the history of jokes going back to Plato. He offers a discussion on what was funny where and when. British humor vs. American humor. When was slapstick funny?
It may sound like a dry history of a good topic, but it’s really difficult to talk about humor without doing a funny book and the book is funny. I’m happy for the links and the chance to learn so much about this subject and have a good time doing it.
One of the things I enjoyed about this book is how the author likes his subject. He gives a lot of space to Buster Keaton and Harold Lloyd. Most people today only know Charlie Chaplin from that era, while there were other talented silent performers. He breaks down why a scene was funny. A few times his description of the scene was funnier than the actual scene. He gets into Monty Python skits. There's is even a section on the history of jokes going back to Plato. He offers a discussion on what was funny where and when. British humor vs. American humor. When was slapstick funny?
It may sound like a dry history of a good topic, but it’s really difficult to talk about humor without doing a funny book and the book is funny. I’m happy for the links and the chance to learn so much about this subject and have a good time doing it.
March 19, 2017
Good information but lacks a clear organization
October 22, 2023
I really enjoyed reading this book. It was well written and constructed and full of a lot of information that I did not know. Well worth a read!
June 3, 2017
It takes a spoonful of dopamine to make the medicine go down. Such is the case anyway with comedy writer and professor David Misch's new tome Funny, The Book: Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Comedy. As much a work of humor itself as it is a non-fiction explication of the comedian's art, the book alternates jokes and factual tidbits side by side, more often than not within a single sentence.
A former writer for such television shows as Mork and Mindy, Police Squad, SNL and Duck Man, Misch knows his way around a joke. The cover art employs good psychological strategy I think in terms of expectations in that regard. The author doesn't have to be as funny as Groucho we think as we look at it, just as funny as a pair of Groucho Glasses. Misch hits that bar early and often! The tone throughout is light, despite the inclusion of erudite references and scholarly research. Some of it seems almost calculated to please me, such as mentions of my favorite modern philosopher Herbert Spencer (see my article on that unjustly obscure man here), and the oft-cited Henri Bergson, who was among many other distinctions a theorist on comedy and laughter. References this obscure are rare, however, and I would say for the most part the target audience for this book should be the newbie, someone not already steeped in show biz, pop culture and theatre lore -- for most of the contents here will be old hat. Young people, for example, tabula rasae for whom the Marx Brothers, Woody Allen and Richard Pryor are uncharted territory would be an ideal target readership.
Organizationally, it's a bit of a succotash, giving us a bit of history, a bit of science, a bit of lit crit, and a lot of anecdote all laid out on the principle of the ipod shuffle, neither chronologically nor thematically structured, just pure stream of consciousness. For this reason, it's difficult to sit and read from begging to end. Grazing a chapter at a time is best, in no particular order, or at least none required. This bead-like structure of self-contained modular units leads me to think that he may have developed the book out of a course syllabus from his work as a teacher. Read a chapter a day as opposed to several at once and the effect will not be as disorienting.
It will be worth the effort. Buried inside, like raisins in a fruitcake, are all sorts of cool factoids. Did you know that John Byner was originally cast as Mork on Mork and Mindy? He apparently worked on the role for a couple of a days, then walked off the set in a huff, declaring the part too stupid. (A shame, I think he would have been great). Here's another one: in 1960, Billy Wilder was cooking up A Day at the United Nations for the Marx Brothers. Unfortunately, Chico died the following year. A pity, because this would have been a particularly good setting for his comedy, with his phony Italian accent. here's ANOTHER: Joseph Heller wrote a couple of episodes of McHale's Navy!!!! There's a lot more like this, but I won't give them all away....
A former writer for such television shows as Mork and Mindy, Police Squad, SNL and Duck Man, Misch knows his way around a joke. The cover art employs good psychological strategy I think in terms of expectations in that regard. The author doesn't have to be as funny as Groucho we think as we look at it, just as funny as a pair of Groucho Glasses. Misch hits that bar early and often! The tone throughout is light, despite the inclusion of erudite references and scholarly research. Some of it seems almost calculated to please me, such as mentions of my favorite modern philosopher Herbert Spencer (see my article on that unjustly obscure man here), and the oft-cited Henri Bergson, who was among many other distinctions a theorist on comedy and laughter. References this obscure are rare, however, and I would say for the most part the target audience for this book should be the newbie, someone not already steeped in show biz, pop culture and theatre lore -- for most of the contents here will be old hat. Young people, for example, tabula rasae for whom the Marx Brothers, Woody Allen and Richard Pryor are uncharted territory would be an ideal target readership.
Organizationally, it's a bit of a succotash, giving us a bit of history, a bit of science, a bit of lit crit, and a lot of anecdote all laid out on the principle of the ipod shuffle, neither chronologically nor thematically structured, just pure stream of consciousness. For this reason, it's difficult to sit and read from begging to end. Grazing a chapter at a time is best, in no particular order, or at least none required. This bead-like structure of self-contained modular units leads me to think that he may have developed the book out of a course syllabus from his work as a teacher. Read a chapter a day as opposed to several at once and the effect will not be as disorienting.
It will be worth the effort. Buried inside, like raisins in a fruitcake, are all sorts of cool factoids. Did you know that John Byner was originally cast as Mork on Mork and Mindy? He apparently worked on the role for a couple of a days, then walked off the set in a huff, declaring the part too stupid. (A shame, I think he would have been great). Here's another one: in 1960, Billy Wilder was cooking up A Day at the United Nations for the Marx Brothers. Unfortunately, Chico died the following year. A pity, because this would have been a particularly good setting for his comedy, with his phony Italian accent. here's ANOTHER: Joseph Heller wrote a couple of episodes of McHale's Navy!!!! There's a lot more like this, but I won't give them all away....
December 26, 2015
Longtime television comedy writer David Misch (How longtime? He worked on Mork and Mindy, which went off the air in 1982) turns his attention, here, to comedy in general. Among the book’s many short chapters, there are discussions of the history of comedy (from the ancient Greeks to modern stand-up), profiles of significant comedians, and explorations of comedy’s intersections with mythology, biology, philosophy and even theology.
Misch is a clear, fluid writer—and, as you’d imagine, a funny—one, so all this goes down easily, but the book lacks a sense of purpose or even of organization. The chapters seem to come in random order and, despite periodic cross-references in the text, the they feel very loosely knit together. There’s no sense of a larger point being made, or of any rationale for why Misch chose some subjects and not others to write about. Even the individual chapters on specific comedians (Steve Martin, the Marx Brothers, Richard Pryor) don’t feel like comprehensive overviews so much as brief dips into their lives and work.
Trying to get around the problem of including video clips of performances in an ink-on-paper book, Misch inserts numbered call-outs in the text that direct the reader to a list of links in the back of the book. Paste the link into your web browser, and you’ll see the routine that Misch is talking about in the text. It’s a brave attempt at innovation, but ultimately it doesn’t work: Having to find the relevant link and type the string of nonsense characters that make up its address into your web browser breaks concentration too much, and what would feel natural on the electronic page fails miserably on the printed one.
Funny could easily have been subtitled: “A bunch of random cool stuff I found out about comedy—with added jokes.” Adjust your expectations accordingly and enjoy.
Misch is a clear, fluid writer—and, as you’d imagine, a funny—one, so all this goes down easily, but the book lacks a sense of purpose or even of organization. The chapters seem to come in random order and, despite periodic cross-references in the text, the they feel very loosely knit together. There’s no sense of a larger point being made, or of any rationale for why Misch chose some subjects and not others to write about. Even the individual chapters on specific comedians (Steve Martin, the Marx Brothers, Richard Pryor) don’t feel like comprehensive overviews so much as brief dips into their lives and work.
Trying to get around the problem of including video clips of performances in an ink-on-paper book, Misch inserts numbered call-outs in the text that direct the reader to a list of links in the back of the book. Paste the link into your web browser, and you’ll see the routine that Misch is talking about in the text. It’s a brave attempt at innovation, but ultimately it doesn’t work: Having to find the relevant link and type the string of nonsense characters that make up its address into your web browser breaks concentration too much, and what would feel natural on the electronic page fails miserably on the printed one.
Funny could easily have been subtitled: “A bunch of random cool stuff I found out about comedy—with added jokes.” Adjust your expectations accordingly and enjoy.
September 20, 2015
David Misch asks a number of questions that on the surface seem ludicrously simple and yet turn out to be incredibly complex - What is humor? Why do we laugh at some things and not others? What is the evolutionary purpose of laughter? And perhaps most importantly - why are farts funny? Misch gives us a brief history of comedy, starting with the Sumerians and the first recorded joke and moving through the Greeks, Romans, Medeivalians, and into the modern era. He also takes side trips into the biology of laughter and evolutionary science. Moreover, he stops and gives us profiles of some of the men (reality of the world of comedy - almost all men) who truly defined comedy today such as Mort Sahl, Bob Hope, Richard Pryor and Steve Martin. Most importantly, the book is extremely funny (it would be a hard sell if a book called Funny wasn't funny). Well worth reading and an interesting take on a well-worn subject.
December 20, 2014
I enjoyed reading this book, quite a deep examination of what is humor and comedy. Misch is a scholar and creator of comedy and has a comic mind. I enjoyed reading about the history of comedy, wasn't that familiar with the older forms or comics. This book gets into the physiological, psychological,philosophical and even spiritual aspects of comedy, in addition to personal experience and stories from the author. Some other serious analysis of comedy can be found in "Only Joking: What's So Funny About Making People Laugh?" by Jimmy Carr and Lucy Greeves as well as "The Legacy of The Wisecrack: Stand-Up Comedy as the Great American Literary Form" by Eddie Tafoya. These book delve into what comedy and humor are, what their purpose is, and their origins and history. Comedy is serious business folks and these books give comedy the attention and respect it deserves!
December 29, 2013
I enjoyed 'Funny, The Book' by David Misch. The book is an interesting study of the roots, history and evolution of comedy throughout the ages. The philosophy of comedy is examined from the viewpoints of traditional philosophers as well as famous comedians. Excerpts from comedy routines are quoted for illustration purposes. Many of these illustrations involve routines of Buster Keaton, the Marx Brothers and Woody Allen. The writing is clear but bogs down in a few places, where the elements of comedy are dissected. If you are looking for a joke book, this would not be your choice, but if you are hoping to understand how comedy works, I recommended it.
March 6, 2013
Interesting book that explores all facets of comedy without making it feel like "dissecting a frog." The author maintains a humorous tone throughout, and provides links to relevant comedy clips. I wish this book had been around when I wrote my thesis about political comedy. I know a lot about the subject, but still managed to pick up a lot of interesting ideas from this book. The best part about this book was that it exposed me to many different books, movies, and shows that I plan to check out as soon as possible. Also, the author is a fellow Sagehen. CHIRP!
April 18, 2014
I received a review copy of this book for my classic movie column and blog, and I was really delighted by how funny and interesting it is. Misch covers a lot of territory, including the history and physiological aspects of humor, but he handles heavy subjects with a light touch. Classic movie fans will particularly appreciate discussions of The Marx Brothers, Buster Keaton, Charlie Chaplin, and other Golden Age comedians who worked in radio, film, and live comedy.
If you are interested in the inner workings of comedy, this is a very readable and entertaining introduction.
If you are interested in the inner workings of comedy, this is a very readable and entertaining introduction.
August 3, 2014
A quick but delightful look at what's funny and some of the reasons why. It also properly mentions as one of the funniest jokes of all the one with the punchline: "At least I don't have cancer." Come on, don't pretend you don't know it.
January 7, 2014
Very nice discussion of comedy from the beginning to present day. The author has written for many well known comedy shows and is quite funny himself. An enjoyable & informative read.
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February 25, 2015Funny!:) David Misch knows comedy, and here you get some Old Hollywood history along with the jokes. Ba dum bum!
Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews