Guilty Pleasures: Comedy and Law in America

by Laura Little

Few people associate law books with humor. Yet the legal world--in particular the American legal system--is itself frequently funny. Indeed, jokes about the profession are staples of American comedy. And there is actually humor within the world of law too: both lawyers and judges occasionally strive to be funny to deal with the drudgery of their duties. Just as importantly, though, our legal system is a strong regulator of humor. It encourages some types of humor while muzzling or punishing others. In a sense, law and humor engage a two-way feedback loop: humor provides the raw material for legal regulation and legal regulation inspires humor. In Guilty Pleasures, legal scholar Laura Little provides a multi-faceted account of American law and humor, looking at constraints on humor (and humor's effect on law), humor about law, and humor in law. In addition to interspersing amusing episodes from the legal world throughout the book, the book contains 75 New Yorker cartoons about lawyers and a preface by Bob Mankoff, the cartoon editor for the New Yorker.

Genres: Law

230 pages, Kindle Edition

Published November 12, 2018

Reviews

[Graham Barrett · Rating 5 out of 5]

"Guilty Pleasures" examines the many myriad ways that the American legal system influences and is influenced by humor and laughter. Lawyer jokes, funny legal cases/trials, when the law is allowed to censor comedy, etc. are all addressed in the book. While the first chapter of the book has been described by the author as a bit dense on legal processes, the book is pretty accessible to non-lawyers like myself, and probably more so to those in the legal profession. What helps is that the book contains a good mix of New Yorker cartoons, jokes, and real-world examples to help keep a reader engaged and interested when the legal terminology may have otherwise isolated readers.

Considering the seriousness and reverence often surrounding the legal system, it's always good to poke fun at these institutions and their absurdities in order to remind us they are designed by the people and for the people and all the imperfectness (humorous or otherwise) that comes with that. As an examination of the funny side of the law, "Guilty Pleasures" is definitely an engaging book for anyone interested in the law or humor.

[Chris Lund · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a really fun book. I'm not sure how much appeal it would have to a general audience, but as a former lawyer and general lover of humor this hit all the right buttons for me. And it was impeccably formatted and organized (clearly written by a law professor!). I particularly appreciated the heavy usage of real world examples, which did an excellent job highlighting all of the main points. I've always been a fan of injecting at least a little bit of humor into the law (sometimes that's the only way to keep from falling asleep). Great analysis of on an original and fun topic.