Jokester: The Computer That Ended Comedy

Isaac Asimov’s Jokester begins innocently enough—with a scientist feeding jokes into Multivac, humanity’s most powerful computer, to uncover what makes people laugh. But what starts as curiosity turns into revelation when the machine traces the origin of humor itself—and exposes something far beyond human understanding.

Asimov transforms a simple question into a startling exploration of psychology, technology, and control. When the laughter fades, his vision leaves readers questioning the very nature of what it means to be human—and what might be observing us from the other side of the joke.

Born in 1920 and raised in Brooklyn, Isaac Asimov was one of the most prolific and influential science-fiction authors of all time. His Foundation and Robot series reshaped the genre with their mix of logic, wonder, and human insight. Asimov wrote or edited over 500 books, from fiction to science to history, and remained a master of both clarity and imagination until his death in 1992.

Jokester shows why Asimov’s mind—playful yet profound—still defines classic science fiction.