Product Description

Is Man the only animal that laughs? Why are clowns so scary? Do jokes make children more intelligent? Are men funnier than women? Can God take a joke? What's brown and sticky? What do you get if you cross a joke book with a vivid, funny and fascinating look at what makes us laugh? Join top comedian Jimmy Carr and his best friend and fellow joke-lover, Lucy Greeves on a whistle-stop tour of the strange and wonderful world of jokes. From the mysterious pygmy jesters of Ancient Egypt to today's stars of stand-up comedy, via Shakespeare, Freud and Lenny Bruce, this journey is by turns thought-provoking and hilarious. And with a connoisseur's selection of over 400 of the best jokes ever told, "The Naked Jape" will be sure to find your funny bone.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #100058 in Books
• Published on: 2006-11-02
• Original language: English
• Binding: Hardcover
• 336 pages

David Baddiel, The Times
"The best book about jokes ever"

Scotland on Sunday
"An intelligent, sensitive and wide-ranging study of jokes that is
actually funny"

The Times, October 31, 2006
The Naked Jape...is four-fifths analysis of what a joke is and one fifth the only joke book you'll ever need.

Customer Reviews

A recipe for laughter
Some people are better joke tellers than others. In a hilarious book Jimmy Carr explores the art of joke telling, why stand-up comedy appears to be a male dominated profession,taboos on joke telling (with examination of Jerry Springer the Opera, the career of Lenny Bruce and faith adherents' sensitivities towards jokes).

Each page is laced with the jokes that Jimmy and his co author decided were their personal favourites so this book is both a joke book and an academic insight into the mechanics of humour.

I couldn't put this down. See what you think.

A brilliant book: hilarious and fascinating
This book is great. The Naked Jape is funny, interesting, and beautifully written. It made me laugh out loud and also think. It's full of jokes. It's full of interesting facts. Marvellous.

The only book about jokes you'll ever need
The quote from The Times on the back of the book is spot on: this book is four-fifths a book about the nature, history, and meaning of comedy, and one-fifth the only joke book you'll ever need.

A lot of the analysis in this book is very straight, and to make up for the fact that the main text, though very interesting, is not necessarily laugh-a-minute, they put a classic and relevant joke at the bottom of very page. Brilliantly thought out, witty, intelligent, and well worth reading.