How to Be Funny on Purpose

by Edgar E. Willis

Book Overview

For centuries illustrious thinkers have speculated about what inspires the beguiling and uplifting sound of laughter. With their ideas in mind, Edgar Willis takes an innovative and sometimes startling... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0973754532
• ISBN13: 9780973754537
• Release Date: September 2005
• Publisher: And Then Some Publishing, LLC
• Length: 344 Pages
• Weight: 1.30 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 6.1" x 9.2"

Customer Reviews

This is a very funny book!

Thank you Professor Willis! How to Be Funny on Purpose is clearly a life-long labor of love by Edgar Willis, a Professsor Emeritus of Communication at the University of Michigan. Professor Willis, thoroughly enjoying his subject, has written a book both consistently funny and deeply thoughtful. He has combined, in counter-point, a great storyteller's skills with a keen analysis of the purposes, causes and structure of humor -- why and what makes us laugh -- and its most ubiquitous form: the joke. This is a fine exploration of one of the most enjoyable (and perhaps mysterious) aspects of life, humor, and the creation of humor (and jokes) out of whole cloth. Every page will make you smile, if not outright guffaw.

How To Be Funny On Purpose

The late Dr. Leo Buscaglia, author, educator, and renowened lecturer once said, "People don't laugh very much anymore...things are not funny." Good Lord, maybe we're so busy in our routines that we've forgotten how to laugh. Well, it's time to bring laughter back into our lives...and what better way to do it than to read HOW TO BE FUNNY ON PURPOSE. Authors Willis and Weaver II remind us of the importance of a good belly laugh and give us insight into how to master the art of being funny. An informative and side-tickling read!

Excellent Book

A Success Plan for Creating and Consuming Humor How to be Funny on Purpose, by Edgar E. Willis artfully blends content-rich information with an entertaining and motivating writing style. His is a success plan that tells readers how to be creators of humor who can make a difference and consumers who can add richness, joy, and pleasure to their lives. Willis shares a step-by-step program and confirms the fact that everyone can be an effective creator and consumer of humor. His practical guidance, focus on the reader, emphasis on communication skills, and rich personal experiences, make this a one-of-a-kind book. By using examples from daily life, professionals, politicians, and his own experience, Willis shows readers how to capitalize on resources that surround them, how to adapt and adopt those resources, and how to use them effectively. Willis is truly a special writer with a message that must be read not just by every professional speaker, but by anyone who gives public speeches of any kind. Sheila M. Bethel, PhD., Author, Speaker

A Book of Substance on How to Form and Tell Jokes

When I selected How to be Funny on Purpose, I was looking for a good book that would offer specific suggestions for telling jokes. Reading Willis's book was a terrific experience, not because he accomplishes exactly what he sets out to do (instruct you in how to put together and tell jokes) but because he puts all the instructions he offers into a meaningful, understandable, and useful framework with numerous examples to explain it all. To establish the foundation, Willis discusses how the delivery and reception of jokes involves three major elements: first, the conception of an idea or a group of ideas presented to an audience - the expressed idea. Second, prompted by the joke maker, the audience arrives at an idea of its own - the inferred idea. Third, the combination of the expressed idea and the inferred idea produces a feeling of self-satisfaction, the recognition of an incongruity, or surprise. It is only when this substructure is well established that Willis discusses how to find a starting point, determine the initial idea's role, develop a bridge to the inferred idea, select and arrange ideas, and evaluate the result. Just like an effective teacher, Willis guides readers carefully step-by-step. With just a little experience, the line between steps disappears and you quickly begin moving from a beginning idea to a polished expressed idea in one instantaneous flash. This book moves you to that point quickly and competently, and the process becomes glorious fun, as Willis, himself, proclaims. And when you start to struggle, Willis offers approaches and devices to get the wheels of invention moving. Effective joke telling is a craft, and it requires thoughtful preparation and sufficient knowledge. Willis offers the directions, background, expertise, and gentle guidance through the process. He moves joke telling from craft to art form. Books of substance on the topic of humor are a rare exception to the norm. This book is that rare exception. I am certain it will exceed your expectations, just as it did mine.

Four Features Make This a Five-Star Book!

How to be Funny on Purpose is an outstanding book. It is a fascinating, one-of-a-kind book on humor. There is so much more here than a book on how to construct jokes, even though that part of the book is excellent. The first thing that catches the reader's attention is the author's command of the whole history of humor in America-on the radio, on television, and on the Internet as well. Whether the jokes come from professional humorists, writers of humor, the author's personal life, politicians, or the humor found in everyday life, the range is broad, the selections entertaining, and the jokes are funny. The second feature that readers will notice is the author's accurate, sensitive, and thorough dissection of humor. Willis's description of the three main theories about the nature of funniness-the superiority theory, the incongruity theory, and the surprise theory-and the examples he uses to illustrate these theories, is fascinating as well as simply and clearly explained. Willis writes in a plain, direct, and vivid manner that is both engaging and captivating. Just reading about the forms of funniness helps one not just realize the world of humor in which we live, but understand and appreciate a whole new world of humor that we so often overlook or fail to be sensitive to. This book educates, instructs, and delightfully adds to your knowledge and understanding. The third feature of the book that helps make it outstanding is its main one: how to be funny on purpose, or, the construction and use of jokes. Willis's approach to developing jokes is clear, specific, well-illustrated and explained, and contagious. If his information doesn't make you want to try your hand at creating jokes-as you are reading the book-I would be surprised and shocked. This feature, alone, makes this book worth purchasing. The suggestions for using the Internet to find and create jokes are instructive and useful. I might add that once you are aware of how jokes are constructed, you will become a more knowledgeable consumer. You will know what makes certain jokes work and others fail. You will know, too, the circumstances when jokes should be told and when they should not. A final feature of the book is important as well, and this final feature could justify buying the book just as easily as the previous ones. This is a joke book. It is full of jokes; there are some on every page. Even the joke considered the best one in the world, as well as the runners-up, are included. The beauty of the book is in the scope, variety, and selection of jokes. Willis knows classic jokes, and he knows what jokes merit that label. By reading this book, you will become an expert judge as well. So, if you are interested in the history and background of humor, if you are looking for a thorough analysis of the topic, if the construction of jokes draws your attention, or if you just want a joke book, this is a well-written, expertly documented, serious look at hum