The Essential Wit of the World's Funniest People

This compendium of timeless wit includes jokes, aphorisms and observations from Dorothy Parker, George Carlin, Franz Kafka, Bill Murray, and many others.

We’ve all heard the saying, “Everyone’s a comedian.” While that may be true, let’s face it—not everyone is funny. And even fewer are truly witty. As Daniel Bukszpan puts it in his introduction to this volume, witty saying have the ability to relate “something truthful about mankind’s folly in a matter of just a few words.”

That truth-telling is the common factor that unites this collection of jokes, asides, aphorisms, and observations from some of the wittiest individuals in history. Here you’ll find everyone from W.C. Fields to H.L. Mencken, and from Margaret Cho to Ralph Waldo Emerson, offering pithy insights on subjects such as money, religion, romance, popular culture—and everything in between.