A Dose of Laughter

by R.K. Laxman

Cartoons and jokes.

Genres: Humor, India, Nonfiction, Graphic Novels, Medical, Cartoon, Politics

208 pages, Paperback

First published September 11, 2002

About the author

'''Rasipuram Krishnaswamy Iyer Laxman''' (born October 23 1924, Mysore, India) is an Indian cartoonist, illustrator and humorist. He is widely regarded as India's greatest-ever cartoonist and is best known for his creation ''The Common Man".

R. K. Laxman was awarded the prestigious Padma Bhushan by the Government of India. He has won many awards for his cartoons, including Asia's top journalism award, the Ramon Magsaysay Award, in 1984.

Reviews

[Reading_ Tamishly]

Medical jokes and comics?!

And this well done?!

Give me more!!!

A collection of 100 of the best cartoons about doctors, the medical world and their interaction with the general people, this book is full of jokes and cartoons alternating one another.

Such a fun read, more so because I can relate to the jokes and the scenarios presented.

I find the jokes and the cartoons still relevant. Damn, some jokes made me laughed out...a bit too loud!

I would say this collection is so damn precious. It's like a rare collectible I have because such collections aren't available anymore.

Lucky us, the book is still available but I don't know until when this book is going to be in print as the collection is quite a classic now.

A must have I say! Forget graphic novels, forget comic books for now. This is the fun collection which our grandparents enjoyed everyday reading the newspapers. I do believe when they told me they read the cartoons in the newspapers first before they get to the actual news content ☺️

[Jerecho]

Some of the jokes are funny and some are not. Most are doctor humor that's why some jokes are not applicable to an ordinary human being like me. It's a brand of humor only doctors or in the medical profession can get. But anyway, it's still a nice pastime.

[Sagar]

Just like Stan Lee does little cameo's in Marvel movies, Laxman includes himself in the illustrations, gives the perspective of a common man in a witty way.

It would have been better if the book didn't have too many doctor jokes.

[Ravi Prakash]

A good time-pass. Cartoons and jokes.

[Gorab]

Another coffee table book which did not gel along well with me.
Laxman cartoons are legendary! Around a social cause, or current affair, and generally too the point.
Intelligent, subtle sarcasm, gentleman jokes, never getting nasty, stuff which could be pleasant to one and all!
Great consistent sketches, with the author appearing in quite a few of them.

However, its not a good idea to read them back to back as a book.

[Kaustubh Dudhane]

Although The Times of India was and is still dumb at its best, it was R.K. Laxman's satirical cartoons which had brought smile despite the sad state of the current affairs for the past fifteen years. The above image of a common man was perfectly depicted in them. R.K. Laxman was the younger brother of R.K. Narayan who is the author of Malgudi Days. He began to illustrate the stories by his elder brother and then started drawing political cartoons at The Hindu. Eventually, he moved to The Times of India in 1951 and ended an illustrious career spanning more than fifty years when he was affected by a stroke in 2003. Anthropologist Ritu G. Khanduri notes - "R. K. Laxman structures his cartoon-news through a plot about corruption and a set of characters. This news is visualized and circulates through the recurring figures of the mantri (minister), the Common Man and the trope of modernity symbolized by the airplane.

Now, coming back to the book, it is divided yet amalgamated in two parts. First part on the right or odd-numbered pages, the best I believe, is a satirical collection of cartoons based on medical profession's topics like overcrowded hospitals (front cover page), laboratory research, immigration of doctors to North America and Europe, ailments, maladies, and politicians and criminals feigning illness. The collection is simply brilliant.

Now, moving to the next part, the publishers thought that adding lame jokes to this book would enhance the size quality of the book. How wrong could they be! Most of the jokes are pathetic and one could not even smile wile reading them.

Finally, I am enclosing with a famous cartoon of R.K. Laxman on elections and promises -

[Aruna Kumar Gadepalli]

This collection of cartoons related to healthcare in general by RK Laxman. Some of them contain his famous common man. Along with cartoons the publisher included jokes as well.

[Deepak Rao]

This book is full of satirical cartoons of RK Laxman interspersed with jokes on doctors. In the tragic times of Covid, it indeed provided a dose of laughter, much needed by me.

[Shikha]

Amazing caricatures! Indeed a deserving Padma Bhushan. :)

[Debalina]

A great book fully comprised of funny cartoons and some really witty jokes.

You would have heard a lot jokes like this but that doesn't make the book boring.

The caricatures, expressions and RK Laxman's perspective eyes give you an amazing time with many incredibly witty, intelligent and funny doses of Laughter.

For more detailed reviews visit : http://dbthetablesareturned.blogspot.in/

[Madhulika Liddle]

A Dose of Laughter brings together a hundred cartoons by India’s best-loved cartoonist, RK Laxman, on medicine and related topics. Health, sanitation, pollution, adulterated foodstuffs and drugs—all of these become the butt of Laxman’s jokes. Along with the hundred cartoons are a hundred jokes, nearly all of them specifically related to doctors.

This book is a very quick, very easy read. Laxman’s cartoons, barring the occasional one (a lab coat-clad gentleman, shaking hands with a monkey in a forest and telling a friend who’s standing alongside that the monkey had once been in their lab but has now retired), are mostly pretty funny. They run the gamut from comments on staff strikes in hospitals, pollution, drought, the heavy schoolbags children bear, and more—but the cartoons that connect to politics are the best. A pair of stick-thin, decrepit villagers happily assure a visiting politician that the drought hasn’t affected them at all, because they’ve always starved here. A sweeper, bearing a broom and dustpan, standing expectantly outside a top minister’s office, is informed by a minor official that all that isn’t needed now; it was only for the launching of the sanitation drive.

For me, the accompanying jokes take away somewhat from the joy of Laxman’s cartoons. Some of the jokes are poorly chosen (in this day and age, Sardarji jokes are hardly considered ‘correct’), and a sequence of poor two-line PJs around the halfway mark is tedious. I’d have preferred this, even if it meant a substantially slimmer book (or a book divided into two parts, with the other devoted to another topic?), to be devoted exclusively to RK Laxman.

Despite that, an enjoyable read.

[Vignesh]

Although I already knew some of the jokes, the manner in which the R K Lakshman illustrates it with his crazy sketches evokes good laughter.

[Tulika Jain]

A perfect book to cheer us in these troubled times, where politicians, police, and doctors are the only people who the common man is interacting with. It reminds us of our days of the newspaper cartoon clippings. Each joke has a deeper meaning filled with sarcasm and wit. I loved every bit of the book.

[Swakkhar]

Professional jokes are often inconsiderate. Cartoons are fine. The cartoons are mostly politics realted. Majority mocking the politicians and criminals who fall sick time to time, create drama or political injuries that make them to be hospitalized. Could be better. I was planning to read the novel by RK laxman. Now it will be delayed.

[Virajdatt Kohir]

Made me laugh on every sitting while reading this book.
Funny, intriguing, and eternally relevant for sure (even in 2021).

Listing some of my favorites (as per the page numbers on the book):-

1. Cartoons: - 63, 67, 81, 87, 101, 117, 125, 147, 151, 163, 171, 199

2. Jokes:- 78, 82, 88, 92, 116, 132, 134, 172, 184

[thqueenofnothing]

My most favourite cartoonist.
These are so thoughtfully created. Like the meaning they hold.
Some of the Best satire to come out of India.
Damn, that's some clever illustrations.
Sir is the only reason CBSE High School Political Science is interesting.

[Guttu]

The rating is for the R.K.Laxman cartoons. Most of the other jokes are pretty lame. Quite a few of them were familiar. Go fo it if you have nothing else to read

[Ashok Rao]

As always Laxman is witty and amazing

[Anil Dhingra]

Laxmans cartoons are good but the hundred jokes are just average.

[Kandachamy Vijayakumaran]

The cartoons are classy as ever. The jokes are of a different genre. Enjoyed reading very much.

[Purvi]

A laughter a day, keeps doctor away 😄

[Harleen Kaur]

It's astonishing how everything changes yet nothing changes. This is quick and simple, light read to just browse through.

[Sasi]

best book to carry along a short voyage.

[Manish Jadhav]

A quick read with a dose of laughter... Can go through the book at once or take it daily....i will surely make you laugh...

[Kanchan Mandanekar]

A perfectly light hearted quick read for a leisurely Saturday afternoon. Enjoyed it!

[Venkatraman Ramachandran]

A good dose of laughter indeed - Some really nice ones included in the list that will be fun to read

[Arsh Kumar]

Satirical and light humour illustrated book

[Rohit]

Good light hearted book. Good for small breaks between tasks.

[Mihir Damniwala]

Just one word "Fabulous".
One place where the collection of all RK Laxman cartoons on medical, politics.
I am still laughing remembering some of the cartoon.

[Manish Jadhav]

A quick read with a dose of laughter... Can go through the book at once or take it daily....i will surely make you laugh...