Book Report on PLANET FUNNY by Ken Jennings (yep, JEOPARDY host)

 

I just finished the Kindle book PLANET FUNNY by Ken Jennings (Yep, the Jeopardy host).

Before getting into what I read I would first like to explain that as I age I am getting a short attention span.  It is very hard for me to read a whole page without a paragraph indent to give me a pause or break.  Ken’s PLANET FUNNY goes pages after pages of not having a paragraph break.  I drove me nuts.

As we know from JEOPARDY Ken Jennings is very easy going and knowledgeable.  Have you ever heard that if you have to explain a joke it is not funny anymore?  Ken proved that over and over.  He did in-depth detail of his research on all kinds of jokesters from Late Night TV Talk Show, Stand up comedians.  Pairs of funny people such as Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis, Bud Abbott and Lou Costello, etc.  Groups too like the Marx Brothers; Stand up comedians such as Lenny Bruce, Trends, sitcoms, and so on.  It is all a very well researched report.  He really liked the MYSTERY SCIENCE THEATER and WEIRD AL YANKOVIC.

I enjoyed the book.  It was well written, even if it did have paragraphs pages long.

What I did not like was mostly excluding MAD and MAD-like comics books and magazines and their creators, such as editor Harvey Kurtzman (MAD).  They thrive on humor, even if it is anti-establishment humor.