Philosophy Humor

Comic novelist and critic Paul McDonald explores the philosophy of humour in a book that will appeal to both philosophers and creative writers alike. There are numerous competing theories of humour and laughter, and the absence of a single theory implies the importance of assessing them all. One aim of this book is to do exactly that. It concentrates mainly on philosophical approaches to humour— including those of Plato, Aristotle, Cicero, Descartes, Hobbes, Bergson, Kant, Schopenhauer, Kierkegaard, Freud and Bakhtin. But the discussion explores other fields such as cultural studies, ...

Bill Bryson has been an enormously popular author both for his travel books and for his books on the English language. Now, this beloved comic genius turns his attention to science. Although he doesn't know anything about the subject (at first), he is eager to learn, and takes information that he gets from the world's leading experts and explains it to us in a way that makes it exciting and relevant.

Written by an acknowledged master of comedy, this study reflects on the nature of humor and the functions it serves. Why do we laugh? What are we to make of the sheer variety of laughter, from braying and cackling to sniggering and chortling? Is humor subversive, or can it defuse dissent? Can we define wit?

Everyone's favorite houseguest who never left, Leon Black (played by award-winning comedian JB Smoove from HBO's Curb Your Enthusiasm), drops his wisdom and good-bad advice for the masses. Learn the secrets Larry David has gleaned from the Falstaff of television. Be forewarned: in opening this audiobook and Leon's mind, you need to be prepared for straight talk. The kind of unfiltered blunt straight talk that pounds on your door, invites itself in, makes itself at home, and helps itself to your food, your security pass code, and your expensive organic beet juice.

Guns, germs, and steel might have transformed us from hunter-gatherers into modern man, but booze, sex, trash talk, and tripping built our civilization. Cracked editor Robert Evans brings his signature dogged research and lively insight to uncover the many and magnificent ways vice has influenced history, from the prostitute-turned-empress who scored a major victory for women's rights to the beer that helped create - and destroy - South America's first empire.

Our narrator produces a sound from the piano no one else at the Conservatory can. She employs a technique she learned from her parents—also talented musicians—who fled China in the wake of the Cultural Revolution. But when an accident leaves her parents debilitated, she abandons her future for a job at a high-end beauty and wellness store in New York City.

Who needs philosophy? Ayn Rand's answer: Everyone. This collection of essays was the last work planned by Ayn Rand before her death in 1982. In it, she summarizes her view of philosophy and deals with a broad spectrum of topics. According to Ayn Rand, the choice we make is not whether to have a philosophy, but which one to have: a rational, conscious, and therefore practical one, or a contradictory, unidentified, and ultimately lethal one.

These books will make you laugh out loud while coming to terms with reality. The American Exile Trilogy contains 3 non-fiction novels authored by Max Meeks from 2012 until 2024. They describe Max’s actual living conditions shared with the American under-class during the last decade following what had been a pleasant middle-class experience. Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn wrote about the horrors of Communist Russia. Max Meeks has lived through shocking realities 100 years later. America fell from grace and it’s time to address the actual situation where it’s at. Once consciousness of ugly ...

A world without laughter is no laughing matter. On Planet Stone the Fat Professors have banned laughter. But during one of Professor Walton Flowers’ pompous sermons, Elvis, the rebel genius, and brightest star of the Stone Academy, gets the biggest laugh ever when he accidentally breaks wind. Exiled to Earth, Elvis contrives to take Flowers with him. But in no time the Professor is implementing his evil philosophy. Elvis sets up secret Laughter Dens to keep the gift alive, and save Earth from becoming as humourless as Stone. Then one day a message arrives. Theodore Dee, a Fat Professor ...

We live in a universe of endless potential futures. In this collection of stories, characters confront the unique dilemmas posed by the version of the future they inhabit. They struggle with dangerous technology, mysterious alien entities, gods, artificial intelligence, utopias, dystopias, and life itself. General issue science fiction stuff, in other words.

Uns alle treibt die Suche nach dem Sinn des Lebens um. Dabei ist es leicht, sich im Labyrinth der Realitäten zu verlieren. Fest steht: Das Leben ist eine Reise. Und ein Reiseführer dringend nötig. Auf gewohnt humorvolle Weise stellt sich Dieter Nuhr unerschrocken den Hürden unserer Existenz und liefert alle relevanten Antworten auf die wichtigen Fragen des Lebens: Was ist hier los, wo geht es lang? Wo ist die Lösung? Und wer kennt das Problem?

The What Every Catholic Should Know series is intended for the average faithful Catholic who wants to know more about Catholic faith and culture. The authors in this series take a panoramic approach to the topic of each book aimed at a non-specialist but enthusiastic listenership. Already published titles in this series include: literature, salvation, mercy, being Catholic, God, and philosophy.

An entertaining and insightful examination of the Emmy-award winning American satirical news show, broadcast on Comedy Central in the US, and (in an edited edition) on More4 in the UK and CNN International around the world.

What's so special about Ted? Nobody knows...and certainly not Ted! This certainly isn't what Ted pictured as far as alien abductions! Well, he's not really in a position to complain, because his new home is a space ship crewed by over six thousand gorgeous females with bodies drawn from his own memories and desires... Ted isn't going anywhere anytime soon. With his trusted allies, the gorgeous blonde Gwen and the Earth-obsessed hottie, Hayden, Ted tries to unravel the breeding program he's been embroiled in, fight the mysterious and totally desirable Council, and maybe even find a decent ...

What if Buddha was a Zen hippie? Buddhi isn’t your typical spiritual guide. Named “Buddha” by his free-spirited, hippie parents, he tweaked the name to something that felt a little more down-to-earth. After trading his Ferrari for a beat-up 1968 VW bus and swapping the chaos of Wall Street for a quiet lotus pond, he’s searching for enlightenment. With a dragonfly named Miles as his muse, Buddhi has turned the pond into the epicenter of his journey toward mindfulness. Armed with a ukulele, truly terrible coffee, and an irreverent sense of humor, he blogs his way through life’s big ...

That Donald Trump is an asshole is a fact widely agreed upon - even by his supporters, who actually like that about him. But his startling political rise makes the question of just what sort of asshole he is, and how his assholedom may help to explain his success, one not just of philosophical interest but of almost existential urgency. Enter the philosopher Aaron James, author of the foundational text in the burgeoning field of Asshole Studies: the best-selling Assholes: A Theory.

Award Winner! "Honorable Mention," Contemporary Fiction, 2021 Writers Digest Self-Published E-Book Awards If you like stories told in unusual ways, enter the emotional, funny, and scary world of Backstory—a single mom’s search for new love and Hollywood fame. But wait: Is a serial killer stalking her and her daughter? Told with a series of letters and brief screenplay scenes, this story's dynamic format will make you laugh, cry, and cheer for Merry Mayfield, a mid-life Columbia University film school grad, who relocates to Austin, Texas, after a devastating divorce. Through her diary-...

“Everybody has got to die, but I have always believed an exception would be made in my case. Now what?” - Last words of William Saroyan But there are no exceptions. Now what? James Scott Bell spent a good chunk of 2015 thinking and writing about that. Some famous people died that year. So did others not so famous. It doesn't matter, because each life is a story. And if we look deeply enough they all have something to say. In Some People Are Dead, Bell weaves his musings on the departed into a form of essay combining memoir and reflection, thoughts on how to live and how to die, and an ...

This book is a collection of several months of written meditations concerning the conditions over which the author has no control, the few phenomena that author can control, and sporadic rumination about the author’s bouts of confusion, alienation, and a gradual, meandering progress toward something vaguely like equanimity (or at least something vaguely less like despair).

Special Illumination is a term used by the great poet and mystic, Jalaluddin Rumi, to stress the importance of humor in metaphysical experience. Of it, Idries Shah says, "Rumi directly contradicts such numerous sour-faced religionists as, in all persuasions, find that humor disturbs the indoctrination which is all that they usually have to offer."