2014 Book Goal: 52 (mostly non-fiction)
2014 Books Read: 25 (84% non-fiction)
George Cole’s book, That’s Funny: A Theory of Humor, is a quick read that I expected to be more than it was. I was expecting more of the theory of humor in layman’s terms. What I got was a series of definitions of different types of jokes, punch lines, sarcasms etc.
Cole did a fine job of delivering on what he set out to, I was just expecting something different.
Initially, I found after a few chapters that I was looking forward to the example jokes and ignoring a lot of the dry explanations. Then, I went back and reread most of the book…
The second time around, I wasn’t “chasing the candy” by reading the joke examples, I was actually paying closer attention to what Cole was explaining. It was a much better book this way.
While, I don’t think I learned a ton from the book, because I have studied humor ever since my childhood. I would watch spellbound as my father would sit at the bar entertaining his friends. They would hang on his every word, even if it was a story they had heard before. He held their attention because he was a good storyteller and yes, quite funny.
That’s Funny, is a good book if you want to understand humor and don’t have a master to sit and learn from.
Chris Doelle
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