Joke Soup: 1,217 of the Funniest Jokes from the Best Comedians
The big feast has been consumed and now you're all sitting around the living room, feeling bloated and a bit comatose. You could drag out your favorite resentments and have the traditional family fight, or lighten up and tell a joke. Problem is you don't remember any. That's where a joke compendium comes in. Organized alphabetically in topical categories from Abortion to Work, Brown's humor digest is a collection of hundreds of jokes and one-liners by more than 200 of today's best contemporary comedians. There's no index, so you're forced to browse. Skim randomly and you might happen upon Mitch Hedberg's astute animal commentary ("I find that ducks' opinion of me is greatly influenced by whether or not I have bread"), Betsy Salklind on psychology ("I'm not codependent myself, but aren't they great to have around?"), Woody Allen's classic on college ("I was thrown out of NYU. On my metaphysics final I looked into the soul of the boy sitting next to me"). Lisa Goich reflects on dating ("I'm dating a guy who's twenty-one.  That's seven in boy years"), Drew Carey reflects on himself ("I'm not a good lover, but at least I'm fast") and Johnny Carson's quoted as saying "If life was fair, Elvis would be alive and all the impersonators would be dead." A vastly entertaining collection of contemporary humor, Brown's collection was tailor-made for the annual family get-together, the six-hour cross-continental flight, and the bathroom library.--Stephanie Gold