Witcracks: Jokes and Jests from American Folklore

by Alvin Schwartz (Editor)

Outlandish exaggerations, puns, riddles, and tales provide a delightful introduction to American folk humor

Genres: Humor, Folklore

128 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1973

About the author

Alvin^Schwartz
Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.

Alvin Schwartz was the author of more than fifty books dedicated to and dealing with topics such as folklore and word play, many of which were intended for young readers. He is often confused with another Alvin_Schwartz, who wrote Superman and Batman daily comics strips and a novel titled The Blowtop.

For Batman - See: Alvin^^Schwartz https://www.goodreads.com/author/show...

Reviews

[Paul Hankins · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you can find this collection of jokes (broken down by type and purpose), I would recommend it. I found it for 15 cents at the Friends of the Library sale. For instance, Knock Knock jokes a product of Prohibition Era and entries into speakeasies? Wow.

[Emmy · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a delightful book! This is one of those Alvin Schwartz books that I meant to read as a kid, and just never got around to. The jokes are all pretty corny, but I had a lot of laughs, and best of all, Schwartz explains the different types of jokes to his readers. Conundrums, puns, noodle and numbskull tales, this little book has it all.

I also appreciated that while it's written for kids, Schwartz doesn't shy away from more serious topics. There was a section of the book where he deals with the very real and very serious topic of "hate" jokes (think Polish jokes, etc.). He provides a list of jokes (nationalities removed) and explains the history behind why these kinds of witticisms are a thing and why they can be hurtful. It's an age-appropriate approach to a surprisingly mature topic, and I thought that it was handled beautifully.

My favorite part of the entire book, however, had to be a bit with Mark Twain (pg. 98-99) about his brother. I won't go into any more detail, but that bit had me cracking up!

[Bryan · Rating 1 out of 5]

The only reason I finished this book was because of a morbid curiosity about whether I'd ever find a single genuinely funny thing in it.

I didn't.

[Liaken · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a fascinating and funny collection of humor from the older times.