History of Joke Books
Joke book history goes back much further than most people realize. Collections of jokes, gags and riddles were surprisingly common all the way back to Classical Greek and Roman times and likely even earlier. According to A History of Laughter from “The Guardian,” Rome’s Marcus Tulles Cicero was an early joke book writer from over 2,000 years ago. (His name even has a comical ring to it.) He compiled three volumes of wit and wisdom where he even poked fun at his son-in-law’s diminutive stature. He described his daughter’s husband as “… a short chap, kitted out with a long sword.” Some of Cicero’s contemporaries described him as “far too funny for his own good…” whatever that means. Joke books of one type or another have been with us ever since. In addition to the history of joke books, this article will explore famous joke book authors, popular joke book series and different types of jokes such as targeted jokes and joke cycles.
Different Types of Jokes
There are likely as many different types of jokes as there are genres of literature… maybe even more. And for each type of joke, there is at least one, and potentially dozens, of corresponding joke book themes. You’re probably familiar with many of the most common joke and joke book types including riddles, knock knock jokes, adult jokes, kids jokes and sports jokes. A broad category of jokes is known as targeted jokes. These are also known as joke cycles and will be explained in the next section. In the early 19th Century, scholars and bibliophiles began to classify literature into distinct categories, Then, in 1910 the Aarne-Thompson classification system included anecdotes and jokes as an official literary type. Jokes have been around for a long time, and now we even have an International Joke Day on July 1 each year.
Targeted Jokes
As noted above, targeted jokes are also known as joke cycles. These are jokes that are aimed at a specific demographic. Some examples of joke cycles include Dad jokes, bar jokes, ethnic jokes, animal jokes (elephant, chicken, etc.), blonde jokes. These jokes could even target specific events such as holiday jokes or specific topics such as math jokes or sports jokes. They might even include jokes about bodily functions such as fart jokes. Before you get all indignant about that particular joke topic, the oldest known joke is actually a Sumerian proverb about whether or not a young woman farted in her husband’s lap. Toilet humor seems to be as old as the hills and twice as filthy. And finally some joke cycles could even be aimed at specific people or ethnic groups such as Helen Keller jokes, Russian jokes, Irish jokes, Yo Mama jokes and Polish jokes.
Over the years, a handful of famous joke book authors have published well over a handful of hilarious books. As mentioned above, Marcus Tulles Cicero was publishing volumes of witty riddles a couple millennia ago. In fact, some authors you may not even associate with joke books have written just such laugh-inducing publications. One example of this is a fella named William Shakespeare. That’s right, there is a jest book supposedly penned by the bard himself. Another joke book author you associate more with teen horror books is RL Stine. In addition to his Goosebumps and Fear Street books he once published a set of jocular books, too. A more recent joke book author is Ralph Lane who has written Dad joke books, holiday joke books and gift books with jokes.
Popular Joke Book Series
Once you find an author you like, you’ll probably want to read more books by that author. This is why joke book series are popular with readers of all ages. As mentioned above, authors such as RL Stine and Ralph Lane have published joke book series. Check out some of the popular holiday joke book series in the pages below:
