Review: Stupid--Yes; Funny--Not Really
Rating: 2 out of 5
Date: 01 6, 2014
The full title of this book is Stupid Jokes, Short Funny Jokes and Funny One Liners (Jokes for All Occasions). Unfortunately, while part of the title is correct: there are indeed plenty of stupid jokes there, there are fairly few actual funny ones.Ricky Gravitas is the pen name of Australian author Martin Kerrigan, whose books, including another joke book, also appear under that name on Amazon. He has assembled a couple of hundred jokes of all sorts, from puns to Chuck Norris jokes, in this collection. To his credit, Gravitas avoids the sort of crude toilet, sex, and juvenile humor that fills most of the joke books I've seen on Amazon. Instead, a lot of his jokes aim for sophistication. Unfortunately, most of the jokes misfire badly; an example: "You are as useless as the 'ay' in 'Okay.'"Admittedly, much of the humor here apparently derives from its Australian origin (there are a number of references to "Emos," a word that is apparently used somewhat synonymously with Goth, but fails to convey anything to most Americans). These jokes don't travel well, eliciting more head scratching than grins. A more serious flaw in the book is the fact that Gravitas commits one of the cardinal sins of standup comedy. He actually attempts to explain some of the jokes ("Some people see the world differently" is his attempt to justify one lame joke). It's bad enough to read through line after line of lame humor; it's worse to read through line after line of even lamer explanations.Making a book of written jokes funny is tougher than merely telling funny jokes because a good comic can rely on mannerisms and speech patterns to add humor to just about anything, while the writer is stuck with words on the written page. As a result, I'm often inclined to give writers the benefit of the doubt if there's any amount of funny material in a book. Actually, there are a couple of jokes that made me laugh and three or four pages of somewhat clever quips. However, whatever good humor the book generates from time to time is quickly dissipated when Gravitas provides one of his frequent asides about the inspirations for his humor. As Queen Victoria would say at a time like this, "We are not amused."