Importance of Being Funny

Al Gini is a well-known Chicago radio personality, professor, and the author of a number of books that examine contemporary topics in American culture and other themes including: My Job My Self: Work and the Creation of the Modern Individual (Routledge, 2000); The Importance of Being Lazy: In Praise of Play, Leisure, and Vacations (Routledge, 2003) Why It’s Hard to Be Good (Routledge, 2006); and Seeking The Truth of Things (ACTA, 2010). Gini has been interviewed on several national and international media outlets including: “The Bob Edwards Show”, NPR’s “Morning Edition”, NBC’s “Nightly News”, CBS News, ABC News, CBC Canada, WTTW Chicago, WGN Chicago, Stanford University’s “Philosophy Talk”, South African National Radio, Wisconsin Public Radio, Massachusetts Public Radio, CBS Radio, and San Francisco Public Radio. For over twenty-eight years he has been the “Resident Philosopher” on National Public Radio’s Chicago affiliate, WBEZ-FM, and he regularly lectures to community and professional organizations on issues in popular culture, business and ethics.

• AcknowledgmentsPrologueChapter 1: A Brief, Highly Selective, And Somewhat Fallacious History of Humor and Joke TellingChapter 2: How Do You Make Funny? So, What’s a Joke?Chapter 3: Comedy and Coping with RealityChapter 4: Dirty Jokes, Tasteless Jokes, Ethnic JokesChapter 5: Conversations with a Colleague about Humor and EthicsChapter 6: Philogagging: Humor in the Classroom and BeyondEpilogueNotesSuggested Readings/Humor and ComedyIndexAbout the Author

I have been for decades searching for an answer, and recently I discovered a new one. It comes in the new book The Importance of Being Funny by local writer, professor and radio personality Al Gini…. Gini’s book is slender at 141 pages, but stunningly insightful (and, don’t get me wrong, a great deal of fun too).