A Unified Joke Theory?

The Humor Code: A Global Search for What Makes Things Funny by Peter McGraw and Joel Warner attempts to do what many others have before: dissect jokes and thus explain how humor works. The main theory, provided by McGraw, who is the director of the Humor Research Lab at the University of Colorado, is called the benign-violation theory.

Jokes, once dissected, stop being funny. So without having read the book, it's impossible for us to weigh in with an opinion. Instead, we read Joel Epstein ruminations on the idea in his article for Commentary magazine, "Notes On What's So Damn Funny."

Epstein includes many jokes in his piece, so at the very least, you'll get some laughs. But seriously, read his article. And if you like it, try McGraw and Warner's book.

Thanks, you've been great! G'night!



[Thanks once more to Arts & Letters Daily]

Dirty Deeds & the Men Who Investigate Them

Two book reviews that make us want both books in our possession:

Matthew Walther enjoyed Wretched Writing: A Compendium of Crimes Against the English Language by Ross and Kathryn Petras. The volume collects examples of head-scratching sentences from famous, and sometimes even reputable, authors. See what Walther's on about here via The Spectator.

The other comes from Josephine Livingstone, who we've tagged before, so I guess that makes us fans of her work. In her review of Bran Nicol’s The Private Eye: Detectives in the Movies, Livingstone is genuinely pleased that Nicol touches on a pet theory of hers: That the Alfred Hitchcock film Vertigo is a retelling of the Sir Gawain and the Green Knight.

And you know what? She's right. But it's Nicol's book she's discussing, and Livingstone gives it a scholarly scrubbing -- the kind of gimlet-eyed critical writing that doesn't happen often enough in the usual crap we read. Either way, The Private Eye sounds like catnip to us.

Fred

February 2 marks the true start of spring. And instead of posting a music video or other light entertainment, The Typing Monkey instead encourages you to read AV Club writer Todd VanDerWerff's love letter to the television program Mister Rogers' Neighborhood.

VanDerWerff makes a strong case in response to the headline "Is Mister Rogers' Neighborhood the Greatest Television Show Ever Made?" It's up there, for sure. Either way, reading it will make you feel better, no matter what it's like outside.

Greta's Stacks of Wax

Writer/director/producer Allison Anders went to an auction where the items sold were once the personal belongings of legendary actor Greta Garbo. She bid on, and won, Garbo's record collection.

Anders did the smart thing: She started a blog about it. She plays a record and talks about the record. It's elegant and fun.

Go there now and read it.