One of my Christmas books was The Naked Jape by Jimmy Carr and Lucy Greeves. It's a fairly serious look at jokes and why they make us laugh. As I've had a lifelong interest in the subject I enjoyed it. What keeps it in on a light note is the inclusion of hundreds of jokes - many of which I bored my family with. Specimen - Throwing acid is wrong, in some people's eyes (Carr). I was relieved to read the suggestion that most people can only remember three jokes at any one time - that's me.
Some of the territory trodden was not to my liking and one would need to warn against certain passages. Carr has a Roman Catholic background, Greeves a Methodist one. Carr is more atheistic, Greeves more nominal but a vague sometimes determined liberalism predominates. Evolution is assumed (they not only refuse to believe every word of Genesis but think Phil Collins is a bad drummer!) and Freud is countenanced. There are interesting discussions of the Jerry Springer Opera, Lenny Bruce, the anti-Muslim cartoons, sexism, racism, etc, and info about Navajo laughing ceremonies, Eastern bloc jokes and ancient humour, etc.
In the last chapter they helpfully distinguish seriousness and solemnity. I agreed with this statement (p 292) 'There is indeed a time to weep and a time to laugh, and all of us should cultivate a healthy understanding of when that is.' I also liked G K Chesterton 'The reason that angels can fly is they take themselves lightly' (p xiv). Fascinating stuff.
No comments:
Post a Comment