Books: The Naked Jape

I’ll be the first to admit, I haven’t read as many books as I’d like to at all over the past few years. But this week I made myself go down to Waterstones and pick up whatever took my eye on the shelf and made a pledge to read the bloody thing. Luckily, on the “Reccomended” this week was a book by one of my favourite comedians, Jimmy Carr. Co-written with Lucy Greeves, the book is called The Naked Jape, and I’ve just this minute finished reading it.

And I’m really glad I made myself do this, because I would have seriously kicked myself for missing this book and some freak accident occured whereupon every copy of the book exploded never to be read again by anyone. And thus I can only implore you to do the same, just in case. Because it really is a fantastic book. I know I’m usually one to fawn more over games, and stuff blowing up – but this book is truly fascinating to read. The nature of jokes and why we laugh, stand up comedy and even laughing at inappropriate jokes are all covered in this book – Carr and Greeves don’t tell us scientifically why, but through personal experience and anecdotal stuff they manage to really explore the many facets of jokes and funnies, and I found it a really interesting experience. It really is well worth reading it, I can honestly say it is such a brilliant book. And as much as I hate to paraphrase a quote from the back of anything to try and sum up what I thought in a setence, this one’s main one – from Jonathan Ross – pretty much sums it up: “A joke book that makes you think about why you’re laughing.”

It really does, and it’s charming, funny and such an unexpectedly intellectutally stimulating book all at once. I heartily reccomend.