Enjoyment of Laughter
By: Max Eastman
Edition: First edition.
Publisher: Taylor and Francis
Published: 2017
Place of publication: London
Language: eng
Number of pages: 405
ISBN-13: 9781351311724
Subjects: Wit and humor; History and criticism; The Comic; Laughter; Comique; Rire
Description: "Humor at its best is a somewhat fluid and transitory element, but most books about it are illustrated with hardened old jokes from the comic papers, or classic witticisms jerked out of their context. Max Eastman, in this work, avoids this catastrophe by quoting mainly from contemporary American humor. This is not an anthology in that selections have been made with a view to making a point rather than covering the field. The purpose of Eastman's fabled work is to make the reader laugh. Since his early school days, it has seemed to him that textbooks are wrongly written in that they are conducted in a way which ignores the natural operation of the mind. As a result, the opinion is universal, and under the circumstances a fact, that in order to learn anything you have to study. Since this introduction to humor is itself near to writing a textbook, Eastman uses the very text he constructs to illustrate the manner in which textbooks should be written. Examination and classification of the kinds of humorous experience upon the basis of a theory is a science. As such, this work offers a fair chance to illustrate a method of instruction. However, the distinction between a good joke and a bad one will not prevent the reader from making bad jokes nor enable one to make good ones. There is an artistic and playful element that simply cannot be taught. Enjoyment of Laughter presents a total view of the science of laughter and draws upon some of the great American humorists to do so."--Provided by publisher.
Table of contents: title: Part, 1 Fun and Funny  -- Max Eastman William F. Fry; title: part, 2 Babies and Grown-Ups  -- Max Eastman William F. Fry; title: part, 3 Why We Laugh Like Human Beings --; title: chapter 1 The Importance of Not Being Earnest  -- Max Eastman William F. Fry; title: chapter 2 The Gift of Being Tickled  -- Max Eastman William F. Fry; title: chapter 3 Infant Laughter  -- Max Eastman William F. Fry; title: chapter 4 Do Babies Feel Derisive?  -- Max Eastman William F. Fry; title: chapter 5 Adult Laughter  -- Max Eastman William F. Fry; title: chapter 6 Eddie Cantor on the Auction Block  -- Max Eastman William F. Fry; title: part, 4 Varieties of Humorous Experience --; title: chapter 11 Witty Jokes and Ludicrous Perceptions  -- Max Eastman William F. Fry; title: chapter 12 The Definition of Wit  -- Max Eastman William F. Fry; title: chapter 13 That Nonsense Must Be Plausible  -- Max Eastman William F. Fry; title: chapter 14 Funny Things and People  -- Max Eastman William F. Fry; title: chapter 15 Funny Pictures  -- Max Eastman William F. Fry; title: chapter 16 Poetic Humor  -- Max Eastman William F. Fry; title: chapter 17 Comical Figures of Speech  -- Max Eastman William F. Fry; title: chapter 18 Two Kinds of Comic Action  -- Max Eastman William F. Fry; title: chapter 19 A Mote on Comic Styles  -- Max Eastman William F. Fry; title: chapter 20 Poetic and Pictorial Humor with a Point: Cartoons  -- Max Eastman William F. Fry; title: chapter 21 That Rich Jokes Are Both Witty and Ludicrous  -- Max Eastman William F. Fry; title: part, 5 Having Fun With Language --; title: chapter 22 Atrocious Puns  -- Max Eastman William F. Fry; title: chapter 23 Witty Puns  -- Max Eastman William F. Fry; title: chapter 24 Poetic Puns  -- Max Eastman William F. Fry; title: chapter 25 The Fun of Distorted Words  -- Max Eastman William F. Fry; title: chapter 26 That Bad Grammar Is Good Fun  -- Max Eastman William F. Fry; title: part, 6 Laughing at Too-Much and Not-Enough --; title: chapter 27 Exaggeration  -- Max Eastman William F. Fry; title: chapter 28 Exaggeration as a Weapon: Caricature, Burlesque and Parody  -- Max Eastman William F. Fry; title: chapter 29 The American Blend of Humor--A Digression  -- Max Eastman William F. Fry; title: chapter 30 Understatement  -- Max Eastman William F. Fry; title: chapter 31 Understatement as a Weapon; Irony  -- Max Eastman William F. Fry; title: chapter 32 Sarcasm and the Irony of Fate  -- Max Eastman William F. Fry; title: part, 7 The Prevailing Topics of Laughter --; title: chapter 33 Playthings of the Moment  -- Max Eastman William F. Fry; title: chapter 34 Matrimony and Other Painful Pleasures  -- Max Eastman William F. Fry; title: chapter 35 Satire and Sympathetic Humor  -- Max Eastman William F. Fry; title: chapter 36 Degrees of Biting  -- Max Eastman William F. Fry; title: chapter 37 Slapstick and Aggressive Humor  -- Max Eastman William F. Fry; title: chapter 38 Risqué and Ribald Jokes: Freud's Theory  -- Max Eastman William F. Fry; title: chapter 39 About Nonsense and about Children: Freud's Theory Some More  -- Max Eastman William F. Fry; title: chapter 40 That Comicality Is Mot Release: Freud's Theory Still  -- Max Eastman William F. Fry; title: chapter 41 The Furtive Snicker and the Rabelaisian Laugh  -- Max Eastman William F. Fry; title: chapter 42 Why Truth Is Humorous  -- Max Eastman William F. Fry; title: part, 8 How to Tell Good Jokes from Bad --; title: chapter 43 To Diagram a Joke  -- Max Eastman William F. Fry; title: chapter 44 The Ten Commandments of the Comic Arts  -- Max Eastman William F. Fry; title: part, Supplementary --; title: chapter Some Humorists on Humor  -- Max Eastman William F. Fry; title: chapter Notes -- Max Eastman William F. Fry.