The 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.

Acknowledgments
Prologue

Chapter 1: A Brief, Highly Selective, And Somewhat Fallacious History of Humor and Joke Telling
Chapter 2: How Do You Make Funny? So, What’s a Joke?
Chapter 3: Comedy and Coping with Reality
Chapter 4: Dirty Jokes, Tasteless Jokes, Ethnic Jokes
Chapter 5: Conversations with a Colleague about Humor and Ethics
Chapter 6: Philogagging: Humor in the Classroom and Beyond

Epilogue
Notes
Suggested Readings/Humor and Comedy
Index
About the Author