You Can't Joke About That

I love Kat, but her writing style made this a start-stop read. Better luck next time.

Cringy and not funny.

Great job! Been in some of similar situations you helped make me smile about them! Love the book and you! Great insight into life!

The author might be a political commentator, or at least on a political show, but I was pleasantly surprised that this very personal, funny and helpful book was not political, really at all. Other than mentioning where she worked or where she went to school (mentioned as background, rather than content ) I wouldn’t have any idea that she was related to politics in anyway, and if I did, I suspect that she was (and she might be for all I know) more liberal than conservative. OK, I got my political misgivings out of the way, so how about the book? This book is a book about the importance of humor, as its title implies, humor in things, that seem hard to be humorous about. Our family, thankfully, is fond of a little bit of gallows humor. I, father of three and married for 38 years have had three kidney transplants a bunch other stuff (related to, and resulting from those transplants) 50 cancer. (I’ll be at skin cancer) surgeries, and I’m now on disability for health issues. It was great to be reminded of the grace and gift that is our families humor. I could not recommend this book more, especially to people who are suffering or struggling in anyway, but also to those who know such people, and that likely is all of us.

Book Report: “You Can’t Joke About That: Why Everything Is Funny, Nothing Is Sacred, and We’re All In This Together” by Kat Timpf. I have seen this author/reporter/news commentator on various streaming news shows and have heard her on a few podcasts and radio shows. I always found her to be hilarious in an endearingly self-deprecating way. I heard about her new book and was curious. It was worth my time and I loved it. It was a belly laugh every second or third page, and the rest of the time she made excellent points about the beauty and perfection of our Constitution where it comes to free speech. Her premise from her early experience as a standup comedian is that laughter is medicine and that jokes are health food. She argues strongly that a bad joke is not violence and can never cause harm, and of course is never intentionally bad. Comedians are trying to funny. They don’t always hit the mark. There is no appropriate punishment for a bad joke other than the comedian who gets the word of mouth treatment that her jokes are not funny. Therefore, she doesn’t get audiences again and is not hired. In a free market, this makes perfect sense. This is such common sense to me, that it strikes me funny that someone felt compelled to write a book about it. We are in a crazy world though that has shrunk horrifically in this digital and social media universe. If we could all take a step back and stop taking everything, especially ourselves, so seriously, we’d all be a lot happier, healthier, and more productive. If we weren’t so busy nitpicking each other’s comments, it’d be a much better world. If you don’t like the comments, tune out, change the channel, unfollow, or simply keep scrolling on by. Mom’s advice when kids were picking on me was, “Ignore them and they’ll quit it.” It always worked. Calling them no-good poo-poo heads was like pouring gas on the fire - negative help. I thought this book was food for thought and held good advice. We should all consider the power we have to listen, not listen and tune out, to stop taking everything so personally, and to figure out how to find our own happy place or safe space without infringing on anyone else and their space, peace, and happiness. Mom also said, “You can’t make other people behave.” Dear ol’ Dad’s corollary to this was, “Don’t try to teach a pig to sing. It’s a waste of time and annoys the pig.” Good book. I highly recommend it. If you don’t laugh at her jokes, you need to assess your attitude. It’s not always all about you and everything is better with laughter.

Timpf lists the best arguments in favor of telling jokes, a free society needs them, seriously! Read this book to get over yourself and laugh at all the absurdity, it is cathartic. Well written, witty and not too long, would read it again many times and recommend it, especially to grouchy folks.

A wonderful wit. Smart, intuitive and funny. Love her, love the show. She is the real thing.

It reminds me of my mom. Even though we were polar in our political convictions, we could always tell a joke and laugh. I have my grandpa and uncles (mom’s side) to thank for that. I loved and enjoyed this book. It reminds me that not only it’s ok to laugh at life, but also a necessity. Thanks for sharing your stories.

Love this book. It’s so true, its better to laugh about life then to go through it with a frown!!!

I really enjoyed this book. It combines opinions with research and really is a timely topic. If you like Kat on Gutfeld, you will enjoy this book. Even if you don’t watch Gutfeld or never have, you will love Kat’s perspective and delivery. Raw, honest and transparent. Pleased all the way around