Jim Holt had a serious assignment from The New Yorker: “Why does humor makes us laugh?” Along the way he learned that there have been non-laughers in history: Sir Isaac Newton was always serious, and Josef Stalin was no day at the beach (or the comedy club). The assignment grew into a life of its own, and now you have the book.

His book, “Stop Me If You’ve Heard This: The History and Philosophy of Jokes,” manages to be funny even as it helps explain the mechanisms allow humor to makes us laugh. Writes Very Short List:

“Freud’s take on jokes was interesting (he saw them as a release of inhibitions) but his delivery absurdly terrible (’An impoverished individual borrowed 25 florins from a prosperous acquaintance . . .’).”

http://www.veryshortlist.com/vsl/daily.cfm/review/512/Book/stop-me-if-youve-heard-this-a-history-and-philosophy-of-jokes/?tp