{"product_id":"planet-funny-ken-jennings-9781501100604","title":"Planet Funny: How Comedy Ruined Everything","description":"\u003cb\u003eA \u003ci\u003eKirkus\u003c\/i\u003e \u003ci\u003eReviews\u003c\/i\u003e Best Book of the Year\u003c\/b\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cb\u003eThe witty and exuberant \u003ci\u003eNew York Times \u003c\/i\u003ebestselling author \u003cb\u003eand record-setting \u003ci\u003eJeopardy \u003c\/i\u003e champion\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003cb\u003e \u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/b\u003eKen Jennings relays the history of humor in \"lively, insightful, and crawling with goofy factlings,\" (Maria Semple, author of \u003ci\u003eWhere'd You Go Bernadette\u003c\/i\u003e)--from fart jokes on clay Sumerian tablets to the latest Twitter gags and Facebook memes.\u003c\/b\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eWhere once society's most coveted trait might have been strength or intelligence or honor, today, in a clear sign of evolution sliding off the trails, it is being funny. Yes, funniness. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eConsider: Super Bowl commercials don't try to sell you anymore; they try to make you laugh. Airline safety tutorials--those terrifying laminated cards about the possibilities of fire, explosion, depressurization, and drowning--have been replaced by joke-filled videos with multimillion-dollar budgets and dance routines. Thanks to social media, we now have a whole Twitterverse of amateur comedians riffing around the world at all hours of the day--and many of them even get popular enough online to go pro and take over TV. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eIn his \"smartly structured, soundly argued, and yes--pretty darn funny\" (\u003ci\u003eBooklist\u003c\/i\u003e, starred review) \u003ci\u003ePlanet Funny\u003c\/i\u003e, Ken Jennings explores this brave new comedic world and what it means--or doesn't--to be funny in it now. Tracing the evolution of humor from the caveman days to the bawdy middle-class antics of Chaucer to Monty Python's game-changing silliness to the fast-paced meta-humor of \u003ci\u003eThe Simpsons\u003c\/i\u003e, Jennings explains how we built our humor-saturated modern age, where lots of us get our news from comedy shows and a comic figure can even be elected President of the United States purely on showmanship. \"Fascinating, entertaining and--I'm being dead serious here--important\" (A.J. Jacobs, author of \u003ci\u003eThe Year of Living Biblically\u003c\/i\u003e), \u003ci\u003ePlanet Funny\u003c\/i\u003e is a full taxonomy of what spawned and defines the modern sense of humor.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAuthor:\u003c\/b\u003e Ken Jennings\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-10:\u003c\/b\u003e 1501100602\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-13:\u003c\/b\u003e 9781501100604\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e Scribner Book Company\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eLanguage:\u003c\/b\u003e English\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 07\/09\/2019\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 320\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eFormat:\u003c\/b\u003e Paperback\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eWeight:\u003c\/b\u003e 0.55lbs\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eSize:\u003c\/b\u003e 8.30h x 5.40w x 0.80d","brand":"Ken Jennings","offers":[{"title":"Paperback","offer_id":44051754123519,"sku":"9781501100604","price":17.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0662\/2982\/9887\/files\/img_f63eab6d-e95c-48c1-bdd9-54138211429f.jpg?v=1685014972","url":"https:\/\/www.whiterainbookhouse.com\/products\/planet-funny-ken-jennings-9781501100604","provider":"WR Book House","version":"1.0","type":"link"}