Reader's Digest Treasury of Wit & Humor [antikvár]

By Wayof Introduction * *The human race has one really effective weaponand that is laughter.Mark Twaingentleman never heard a story before (Austin O'Malley) . On the other hand: When someone says, "Stop me if you'veheard this one/' we are always tempted to ask, "How?" (OlinMiller). Mixed company is what you are in when you thinkof a story you can't tell there (Richard Armour in The American LegionMagazine) When a fellow says, "Well, to make a long storyshort," it's too late (Don Herold) If you can't remember them,don't dismember them (Anthony J. Pettito)"Well, what is funny?" Ed Wynn's straight man used to ask(in a famous vaudeville skit) after vainly trying for a laugh onhis own. "Darned if I know," Wynn would say. Then, as thecomedian himself describes it, "I walk over and take his newstraw hat oif his head and say admiringly, 'Nice hat, do you likeit?' and he says, 'Certainly, very expensive.' And while I'm talk-ing to him I take a knife out of my pocket and slowly cut hugeslices off the hat until there is nothing left but the crown, whichI gravely put back on his head." 'Do you think that's funny?' I ask him, and he shouts indig-nantly, 'No!' Then I point to the audience which greeted eachslice with a roar of laughter and say, 'Look! They think it'sfunny.' "J. p. McEvoy