Is This Anything?

A book that's an easy mood booster!
It made me snort and had me hiding my laugh in public, definitely worth the $24 I spent on this book.

It would be 5 stars but his jokes in the 00s and teens were too... “I'm old and don't understand young people things” and it got repetitive and i didn't like it lol

I wasn't sure what this would be when I bought it for my dad as a Christmas gift (yes, yes, sometimes I read books I give as gifts before I give them, but only because my dad takes years to read so give me a break, okay??). I thought it might be a memoir, or something, and that could be fun, as in my experience, comedians write pretty funny memoirs. Turns out, it's just every (or most of the?) jokes that's he's written/performed over his career. The way they're structured are almost like poems – the way they are broken up mimics the pacing of verbal delivery – which, indeed, does add to the comedic effect once you get used to it. Some of these I'd heard, some of them I hadn't, but the time reading: time laughing ratio made this a good time.

The book is exactly as advertised. It's a collection of Jerry Seinfeld's jokes from all of his notebooks, every joke he had written down somewhere. It's not much else. There are a couple small sections where he writes about his career, but for the most part it's just Jerry's jokes.

So you already know whether you think the book is funny. If you think Jerry's jokes are funny, it is. If you don't, it's not.

It's definitely not as funny reading Jerry's jokes as listening to him tell them. Jerry even admits that in the book, saying that the very book you're reading is not a good way to experience stand-up comedy.

But it's very interesting from a joke construction viewpoint. If you're interested in the craft of comedy, it's fascinating seeing how he crafts his jokes. In written form, you have the ability to slow down and look at exactly what he did with each bit to make it work (or in some cases, why it didn't work). So if you're into the art of comedy, it's worth reading for that.

This originally appeared at The Irresponsible Readeras part of a quick takes/catch up post —emphasizing pithiness, not thoroughness.
—
Jerry Seinfeld keeps the notebooks he writes his jokes in and has always done so. Which made compiling this collection possible. This is a collection of what Seinfeld considers his best material.

It's organized by decade, with a little narrative added to discuss his career/family. But it's primarily joke after joke after joke after joke. As I recall, SeinLanguage was essentially the same thing, but the last time I read that was in the 1990s, and my copy is in a box. So I can't verify that.

I'm not sure audio was the best method for me. It felt like listening to a comedy album recorded in a studio rather than in front of an audience. It just felt strange to hear it all without laughter or other audience reaction—or his reaction to the audience. Also, I think it'd work better taken in parts—not the whole 6 hours in a clump (I guess 2 clumps).

Still, it's material from one of the best around—it's an entertaining time.