Funny: The Book - Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Comedy

202 Pages·2012·3.75 MB·English

by  David Misch

Copyright © 2012 by David Misch All rights reserved. No part of this book may
be reproduced in any form, without written permission, except by a newspaper
or magazine reviewer who wishes to quote brief passages in connection with a
review.
Published in 2012 by Applause Theater & Cinema Books An Imprint of Hal
Leonard Corporation 7777 West Bluemound Road Milwaukee, WI 53213
Trade Book Division Editorial Offices 33 Plymouth St., Montclair, NJ 07042
Book design by Mark Lerner
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Misch, David.
Funny the book: everything you always wanted to know about comedy /
David Misch.
p. cm.
1. Wit and humor--History and criticism. 2. Comedy--History and
criticism. 3. Comic, The. I. Title.
PN6147.M527 2012
809.7
2012002359
www.applausebooks.com
For Amy and Emily, whose laughter makes me happy
Contents Acknowledgments
Introduction
1. The History of Ha!: Trickster
2. Not in 3-D: Movies
3. Leonard, Adolph, Herbert, and Julius: The Marx Brothers
4. More History of Ha!: The Ancient World
5. Live from Giggles: Standup
6. “That Nigger’s Crazy!”: Richard Pryor
7. Even More History of Ha!: Aristotle to Restoration
8. Theatuh: The Front Page
9. Nights of the Round Table: Prose
10. Invisible Rabbits and Fresh Fruit: Harvey/A Thousand Clowns
11. More Even More History of Ha!: Music Halls to Vaudeville
12. The Jewish Question
13. The Immortal Allan Stewart Konigsberg: Woody Allen
14. There Is No Chapter 14
15. Why We Laugh…Or Do We?: The Evolution of Ha!
16. That Wacky Existentialism: Steve Martin
17. Me and My Dopamine: The Science of Ha!
18. Betty Lou Zombax: Mork and Mindy
19. Addition by Subtraction: The Theories of Ha!
20. Heard Any Good Jokes?
21. Love and Theft: Plagiarism
22. Saying It Worse: The Philosophy of Ha!
23. When Did You Break Your Collarbone?: Buster Keaton
24. Kosmik Komedy: The Purpose of Ha!
25. Suffering Is Funny: The Office
26. Evolution Is Irritating: Sitcoms
27. America the Hilarious
28. Kosmik Komedy 2: The Theology of Ha!
29. That’s All, Folks!
Links
Mediagraphy
Sources
Photo Credits
About the Author
Acknowledgments
In order of height and vocal timbre; beginning with 5'11", light tenor…
Bob Weide—for “From which direction?”
Julia Lord—for selling me
Andrew Post—for Edshu
Adele Lander Burke—for legitimizing me
Gordon Mitchell—for “It Worked on Cheers”
Lily Bergman—for the title
Buddy Morra—for managing me
Peggy Sarlin—for suggesting I write a book
Nora Glasner—for indexing
John Cerullo—for buying the first copy
Marybeth Keating—for shepherding
Monique Thomas—for the Penis Festival
Jill Jonnes—for helping with being an author
Tom Lehrer—for “Vatican Rag”
For Being Good People
Lee Kalcheim
Ellis Weiner
Jeff Reno
Ron Osborn
Victoria Zackheim
David Leaf
Larry Cutler
David Sonne
Michael Silverblatt
Jason Alexander
Danny Klein
Maryedith Burrell
For USC
Elizabeth Daley
Jack Epps Jr.
Barnet Kellman
David Isaacs
Hedwin Naimark
For Photos
Cheryl Van Grunsven—finding
Kate Coe—getting
Bob Carlsen—fixing
Bernard Kane—helping