Stop Me If You`ve Heard This – A History and Philosophy of Jokes Paperback – 29 October 2013

I was curious about it, I suppose, so I bought it. I was expecting a more serious analysis on what is humour and why we find certain things funny. Predictably the book presents lots of jokes by way of illustration, but most aren't funny (OK, that's forgivable because it's not meant to be a joke book). Some history of jokes is covered, which is quite interesting. However, my overriding impression is that the book is rather depthless and sketchy, and it fails to deliver a reasonable instruction on the history and philosophy of jokes.

Jim Holt, the author of this book, writes wonderfully well The book is a very concise and thoughtful journey through jokes and the role they play in life. Thoughtful and critical.

One of my favourite books. Short and full of great jokes.

Very funny, very interesting. A small book that takes little times to get through, but is filled with interesting and homourous stuff

I've got many knowledge from this little but heavy book. Especially, to learn about Poggio Bracciolini! He was papal secretary in Vatican, collected/investigated all sorts of jokes and had numerous mistresses!

Not Jim Holt's best work. However, I totally enjoy his works on mathematics and science.

You like to have a joke to tell your friends well this is the book for you. It Is full of great jokes and other bets or information to keep you laughing for hours and hours on end.

Zu viele Witze. Was der Untertitel ankündigt, wird in einer Flut von Beispielen ertränkt. Klapprige, dürftige Bezugnahme auf Kant und Freud. Eine popelige Literatutliste. Ach ja : einige Bildchen.

First the caveats: This is not really an extensive history and philosophy of the joke. The subject is far too vast for that and, for many periods, the material is too sparse. A serious philosophy of the joke would require a very large volume. What Holt does is hit the high points. He offers a host of representative jokes and summarizes the chief collectors of and interpreters of the joke as a cultural phenomenon. Some of these individuals (Gershon Legman, Alan Dundes, Nat Schmulowitz) are as interesting and quirky as the material they studied.The book is tiny. Once you deduct the (clever, amusing) illustrations and account for the 175-or-so-words/page margins, you end up with approximately 17,000 words of text (plus brief bibliography and index). That’s more like two long magazine articles than an actual book. At the same time, you have a terrific stocking stuffer with solid production values.As you would expect from the author of Why Does the World Exist? this is a well-written, clever piece of work. Sometimes laugh-out-loud funny, it elicited constant smirks and titters. I loved his non sequitur use of Umberto Eco, where he began to make a point, using The Name of the Rose, but couldn’t complete it because he was forced to admit that he couldn’t finish reading the novel.Finally, this is a good read and we could all use more of those. It is not a scholarly book; it is not a naughty book (for the most part); it is a good read on an important and engaging subject. You couldn’t really read it in public because people would keep interrupting you and asking you why you were laughing. It’s a curl-up-in-a-quiet-corner-and-enjoy book. Johnson once said of Paradise Lost that ‘none ever wished it longer’, but everyone will wish that this book was longer, because it is a great delight in a small package.

Well done survey, but, in the end, not that engaging or enlightening. The only thing I really liked was the account of Gershon Leghorn, who has been a shadowy character to me in the past. This modest book has been over-hyped.

This is mildly amusing, but not worth a whole book. The joke voted "best joke" by comedians is great, however: (Spoiler alert).Patient: Doctor, my penis really burns when I go to the bathroom.Doctor: That's because someone is talking about it.

The discussion of the history of jokes is interesting and contains several amusing examples, but is limited to Europe and post-colonial America, beginning with Ancient Greece, not even touching on jokes in non-Western traditions. As for the philosophy of jokes, the author doesn't go much beyond introducing the relief theory, superiority theory, and incongruity theory.The book is definitely worth reading, but don't expect it to live up to the promises on its dust jacket.

It wasn't as funny as I was hoping for - but it's philosophy so why am I surprised. I found "Plato and a Platypus Stop Into a Bar" to be much more readable and funny.

Stop me is an interesting, light, entertaining read for those interested in more than simply laughing but some of the history of the jokes we tell today. Their origins can be traced back many centuries and Holt does an excellent job in the telling.

This comes as a stone tablet with ten jokes chiseled into it and wrapped in the cover you see in the picture.