The World’s Best Jokes for Kids, Volumes 1 and 2. By Lisa Swerling and Ralph
Lazar. Andrews McMeel. $6.99 each.
“Knock, knock. Who’s there? Ill. Ill who?
Illustrated jokes are funnier!” And there you have the premise of The World’s Best Jokes for Kids, in
which both volumes bear the subtitle, “Every Single One Illustrated.” That
means these G-rated groaners, puns and corny retellings of mildly funny
amusements are accompanied, one and all, by small cartoon illustrations that
are supposed to make the books more fun to read than they would be if they
contained only words.
And you know what? It works! Oh, not all
the time: the picture of a worried-looking man holding a long, sharp object
does not add much to, “What do you call a nervous javelin thrower?
Shakespeare.” On the other hand, that particular joke is one of the funnier
ones here even without a picture. Other cartoons are better. One shows a
puzzled-looking person staring at two round-headed birds flying above water:
“Why do seagulls fly over the sea and not the bay? Because otherwise they’d be
bagels.” That’s pretty good! And one shows an impossibly happy-looking
character bouncing high above a bed: “What happens if you eat yeast and shoe
polish? You’ll rise and shine every morning!”
Most of the jokes are in traditional
question-and-answer format in these books – but not all. One, complete with ellipsis,
goes, “On the other hand…you have different fingers.” Another reads, “I really
must get rid of my vacuum cleaner. It’s just gathering dust.” And a third, with
a particularly cute illustration of the characters mentioned, goes, “Bacon and
eggs walk into a café and order some sodas. The waiter says, ‘Sorry, we don’t
serve breakfast.’”
It is unlikely that kids (or, for that
matter, adults) will enjoy everything in these books, but pretty much everyone
should be able to find some amusing
items. How about this one? “Where do you find a cow with no legs? Right where
you left it.” Or: “What do you call a cat with 8 legs that likes to swim? An
octopuss.” (And yes, the drawing is cute.) Or how about this variation on a
joke that is very old indeed? “Why did the chicken cross the Mobius strip? To
get to the same side.” That one will likely require some explanation, at least
for younger children. Adults can perhaps use another of these jokes to explain
it: “Why are riddles like pencils? They’re useless unless they’ve got a point.”
There is no particular theme to these
books, and no particular arrangement of the material – everything is just
thrown together helter-skelter. That means the books need not be read
sequentially and can be fun to look at a page or two at a time, going forward
or backward, or just skipping around. On one page you will find: “Why is it so
hard to fool a snake? Because you can’t pull its leg.” On another there is
this: “What type of cheese is made backward? Edam.” (That may be another item
requiring some adult explanation.) And then there is this: “What has four eyes
but can’t see? Mississippi.” (The joke isn’t much, but the illustration of a
four-eyed something-or-other is neat.) And speaking of eyes and letters: “What
do you call a fish with no eye? Fsh.” Or, to switch to one of the puns that
periodically make their appearance in these books: “I entered a joke-writing
competition ten times and hoped I’d win. Sadly, no pun in ten did.” That one actually needs a bit of thought
before the inevitable groan – and the illustration, simply showing a person
standing with eyes closed, helps not at all. But whether the pictures add to,
subtract from, or complement the words, kids will likely find The World’s Best Jokes for Kids enjoyable
to read, at least in small doses, and to look at, at least now and then and
here and there.
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