Pretty Good Jokes

by Garrison Keillor (Contributor), Roy Blount (Performer), Paula Poundstone (Performer)

Fulfilling the flood of requests from enthused listeners, Pretty Good Jokes combines all the jokes from A Prairie Home Companion's first four joke shows (1996-1999). It is an entertaining mix of knock-knocks, one-liners, North Dakota, religious, animal, bar, and light bulb jokes, those famous "yo mama" insults and much more. This live recording features guests Roy Blount, Jr. and Paula Poundstone. Pretty Good Jokes is for A Prairie Home Companion fans and all fans unaffected good humor.

Genres: Humor, Nonfiction, Comedy, Reference

150 pages, Audio CD

First published March 1, 2000

About the author

Gary Edward "Garrison" Keillor is an American author, singer, humorist, voice actor, and radio personality. He created the Minnesota Public Radio (MPR) show A Prairie Home Companion (called Garrison Keillor's Radio Show in some international syndication), which he hosted from 1974 to 2016. Keillor created the fictional Minnesota town Lake Wobegon, the setting of many of his books, including Lake Wobegon Days and Leaving Home: A Collection of Lake Wobegon Stories. Other creations include Guy Noir, a detective voiced by Keillor who appeared in A Prairie Home Companion comic skits. Keillor is also the creator of the five-minute daily radio/podcast program The Writer's Almanac, which pairs poems of his choice with a script about important literary, historical, and scientific events that coincided with that date in history.
In November 2017, Minnesota Public Radio cut all business ties with Keillor after an allegation of inappropriate behavior with a freelance writer for A Prairie Home Companion. On April 13, 2018, MPR and Keillor announced a settlement that allows archives of A Prairie Home Companion and The Writer's Almanac to be publicly available again, and soon thereafter, Keillor began publishing new episodes of The Writer's Almanac on his website. He also continues to tour a stage version of A Prairie Home Companion, although these shows are not broadcast by MPR or American Public Media.

Reviews

[Greg · Rating 4 out of 5]

Garrison Keillor is one of the few bona fide American intellectuals today. From 1974 through last year, his weekly radio program A Prairie Home Companion has entertained and educated Americans by preserving and promoting the national culture through music, humor, nostalgia, and its mythologies. For the last 17 years or so of the program, there was an annual Pretty Good Jokes program filled with laughs. This book is a collection of some of the jokes featured on these episodes. They include old jokes, variations on them, jokes sent in by listeners, and many original ones.

Here are some hilarious examples:

questionable jokes
Yo Mama jokes
bad jokes
religion and sex jokes
lawyer jokes
lightbulb jokes
jokes about pain, suffering, doctors and age
Drill Sargent Jokes
Puns
knock knock jokes
lightbulbs and more jokes

[Elizabeth · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this book. I'm giving it five stars, but I really should add a disclaimer: the five stars are not to be taken as an endorsement of every joke. Some jokes are in poor taste, and some I just didn't get. That said, so many of the jokes that I *did* get were so side-splittingly funny that they were well worth the ones that fell flat. I can't remember when I had such an enjoyable time reading a book. I laughed out loud so often, reading by myself, that I was half afraid my family would hear me from the other room and have me committed.

[Gina · Rating 3 out of 5]

Exactly what it says on the tin. Some outdated, but overall pretty good.

[Mayda · Rating 5 out of 5]

Garrison Keillor’s collection of jokes from his radio show and compiled into this audio book is all the title says it is – pretty good. The jokes range from kid-friendly to mature adult, or maybe not quite so mature adult! At any rate, you will be highly entertained by not only the comedic delivery of the jokes but also the musical interludes. With a wide variety of jokes from a variety of comic story tellers, there is something here that will appeal to most everyone. Just a disclaimer, some of these jokes are in bad taste, as the chapter titles will tell you.

[Ken Shelton · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love Prairie Home Companion's Joke Night. This compilation is a fun distraction from so much drama :)

[Ananda · Rating 4 out of 5]

Some that I can remember:


Yo' mama is so old she owes Moses a quarter!

Did you hear about that guy who had sex with his canary? Got a bad case of chirpees - and what's worse, it's untweetable!

Did you hear about the blind skunk who fell in love with a fart?

Why are there so many Johnsons in the phone book? They all have phones!

Last words said at the Last Supper? Everyone who wants to get in the picture get on this side of the table!


A well organized source of funny jokes and a few groaners. Humor is subjective, but this book should have something for everyone.

[Dougdixon · Rating 5 out of 5]

As advertized

[Robert Spillman · Rating 5 out of 5]

I borrowed the book on CD version from the library and listened to it when I drove. OK, I must lead a sad life since I've been through all five disks at least three times and they are two weeks overdue. I enjoyed the jokes, the cadence, and the audience laughter. Many are puns, a low form of humor, but I love them. If you memorize enough of them, you can easily liven up a conversation that usually ends with a groan. Love it. They touch all areas: religion, sex, professions, Iowans, Swedes, New Jersey, and animals. The puns are great: What is the difference between Beer Nuts and Deer Nuts? Beer Nuts are a dollar sixty-nine, and Deer Nuts are under a buck.

Only one limerick, but I enjoyed it:

On the chest of a barmaid at Yale
Are tattooed the prices of ale
And on her behind
For the sake of the blind
Is the same information in Braille

Oh, and I learned why New Yorkers always look so sad: Because the light at the end of their tunnel is New Jersey.

[Stan Lambchop · Rating 1 out of 5]

I bought this book in the hope for an engaging and enveloping read. I was disappointed to find how the author must constantly link his jokes to a neo-Marxist regime, e.g. 'why did the chicken cross the road? To get to the other side!', with the 'Chicken' representing Lenin, the road being the Bolshevik revolution of 1917 and the 'other side' being the USSR.
The book also has a running undertone of anti Semitism through the constant fart jokes. The plot lacked any narrative structure and the characters were at the best of times, clichéd.

[Jenny · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you have any way of getting the sound recording of any of the Prairie Home Companion Joke Shows, do it. They are great for a road trip. I read some of these out loud to my husband as we drove along and we shared a good laugh. I think some of the mirth came from the fact that we heard the original delivery in the sound recording some years ago. It adds a lot. Still, they are worth the read and the kids enjoy the simpler jokes. Just a caution: some of the jokes are NOT child-appropriate.

[Nathan · Rating 3 out of 5]

All I have to say is that I employed this to annoy fellow bar-patrons for a good 18 months - which is probably a pretty good compliment for a joke book!

Some of these jokes I was already familiar with from listening to "Prairie Home Companion" as a kid, but many I thought were hilarious, but couldn't convey to my fellow humans. Eh, still fun to have on hand ;)

[Hrs9517 · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was super funny! I personally liked the death and heaven jokes. This book kept me laughing the entire time, some times I laughed for minutes at a time. The yo'mama jokes are always funny. For example yo'mama is so fat her year book picture is an aerial picture! All in all this book is super funny and a great gift.

[morninglightmama · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm fairly certain it's cheesy to count this as a book I've "read" this year, but it did keep me company while taking care of other business over the last couple weeks. I love A Prairie Home Companion, and I giggled plenty over many of these jokes. Amazingly, they were all voiced by Garrison Keillor in my head as I read them. Fun stuff.

[David · Rating 5 out of 5]

There are a handful of volumes of these Joke Books. Garrison Keillor would have a day each year on The Prairie Home Companion radio program where they told MANY jokes. Since these could be told on the radio, they are fairly 'clean'. We like to sit around a pit-fire in the back yard and read from these until we are doubled-over in laughter and have to close the book.

[Myrna · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you are looking for an icebreaker. Bring out this baby. It has yo momma jokes, knock knock jokes, and of course the how many irishmen does it take to screw in a light bulb.
Classics, every single one of them.

[David Ward · Rating 4 out of 5]

A Prairie Home Companion Pretty Good Joke Book by Garrison Keillor (Highbridge Co. 2000)(817). This is the companion book to the Prairie Home Companion Radio Show's “Annual Joke Show.” It's without a doubt one of the funniest joke books in print. My rating: 7.5/10, finished 2003.

[Victoria Heinecke · Rating 4 out of 5]

Hundreds of jokes organized by topic. Many of them made me laugh the second time I read them. Good book to keep as a reference for public speaking, when you might need a joke to set the tone or illustrate a point.

[Marilyn · Rating 5 out of 5]

If laughing is even half as therapeutic as it is reported to be, I just lengthened my life by at least 3 years. Great stuff. I've added a sign to my class store giving prices for the few things I peddle. At the bottom it says "Free Jokes". Thank heavens for this book.

[Marty Toren · Rating 5 out of 5]

Best assortment of laugh-out-loud humor, puns, and other clever word play that I have seen anywhere--so refreshing to see a collection that doesn't have to regularly stoop to vulgarity and play on the baser instincts to get a laugh--highly recommend.

[Sarah · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you like the humor of Prairie Home Companion, you will, like me, love this book. Funny funny jokes, something mostly clean for everyone. Some of it is a bit smutty - but you have to be of a certain intellectual capacity to even realize that - so its safe for work.

[Megan Chromik · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's very funny!

[Renée · Rating 4 out of 5]

A collection of jokes from the live annual joke show.Many worth memorizing.

[Steph · Rating 4 out of 5]

I loved this joke book. If you're looking for some good jokes, I definetly recommend this. Some of them are stupid and others are corny, but the majority of them are funny.

[Leila · Rating 4 out of 5]

ha ha ha ha ha... so funny i forgot to laugh

[Steve Shapiro · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is a must-have for any aficionado of jokes.

[Craig · Rating 5 out of 5]

Topically arranged, great variety...this joke book is pretty good. Pretty DANG good!

[Hans Dickes · Rating 4 out of 5]

Funny is what you make of it and who you share it with.

[Megan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Hilarious! Where I got a lot of my "best" material. :) Garrison Keillor is pretty funny.

[Cordero Vazquez · Rating 5 out of 5]

ahh jokes humour at it best. I read this book in one day and will be telling a few of the jokes the rest of my life. warning do not read with a full bladder.

[Tommyb]

Humor,jokes