Whoever wrote "Make 'em laugh!" knew that it's easier said than done. But people love to laugh, and good comedy will always sell. With the help of this complete and entertaining guide, writers and would-be writers for film and television can look forward to writing comedy that goes far beyond stereotypic jokes and characters. In Laughing Out Loud, award-winning screenwriter and author Andrew Horton blends history, theory, and analysis of comedy with invaluable advice. Using examples from Chaplin to Seinfeld, Aristophanes to Woody Allen, Horton describes comedy as a perspective rather than merely as a genre and then goes on to identify the essential elements of comedy. His lively overview of comedy's history traces its two main branches—anarchistic comedy and romantic comedy—from ancient Greece through contemporary Hollywood, by way of commedia dell'arte, vaudeville, and silent movies. Television and international cinema are included in Horton's analysis, which leads into an up-close review of the comedy chemistry in a number of specific films and television shows. The rest of the book is a practical guide to writing feature comedy and episodic TV comedy, complete with schedules and exercises designed to unblock any writer's comic potential. The appendices offer tips on networking, marketing, and even producing comedies, and are followed by a list of recommended comedies and a bibliography. This title is part of UC Press's Voices Revived program, which commemorates University of California Press's mission to seek out and cultivate the brightest minds and give them voice, reach, and impact. Drawing on a backlist dating to 1893, Voices Revived makes high-quality, peer-reviewed scholarship accessible once again using print-on-demand technology. This title was originally published in 2000. Whoever wrote "Make 'em laugh!" knew that it's easier said than done. But people love to laugh, and good comedy will always sell. With the help of this complete and entertaining guide, writers and would-be writers for film and television can look forward

Combining over 400 of the best hand-picked jokes, puns, and riddles from three of Rob Elliott's bestselling joke books, this collection is the antidote to boring car rides, hum-drum family dinners, and those moments when kids can't find anything to do (and don't appreciate your suggestions about cleaning their rooms or taking out the trash). Perfect for kids ages 9-12 (and, let's face it, those adults you know with that level sense of humor--maybe yourself?), this latest offering from Rob Elliott will have the whole family chuckling, guffawing, snorting milk out their noses, and making various other expressions of glee and merriment.

A humorous, anecdote-filled, behind-the-scenes look at the life of a television icon.

Willow Briars only has to glance at her identical twin sister, Holly?slim, happy, married with two beautiful children?to see how her life might have turned out differently. The divorced Willow, who works at a London talent agency, has all the outward trappings of success, yet her dissatisfaction is growing along with her dress size. Add in a long-term, fruitless crush on her friend Daniel, and Willow has started to feel invisible. Then she buys a mysterious pair of vintage shoes that make her feel sexy, daring, more confident. Since she?s also babysitting a disgraced starlet and caring for the ex-stepdaughter who just landed on her doorstep, her life is suddenly full. Willow must reevaluate everything she once believed about love, heartache, and her own worth. But can she learn how to stop running from her past and embrace whatever her future may hold?

Long Fei was a jobless youth who had coincidentally entered a game from the future. Long Fei raised his sword and roared towards the sky: "Good, I will not only rewrite history, but also live a wonderful life. "Let me tell you, I'm not playing the game, I'm playing the game!"

"A collection of 'real life' warm and humorous stories."

Laughing Histories breaks new ground by exploring moments of laughter in early modern Europe, showing how laughter was inflected by gender and social power. "I dearly love a laugh," declared Jane Austen's heroine Elizabeth Bennet, and her wit won the heart of the aristocratic Mr. Darcy. Yet the widely read Earl of Chesterfield asserted that only "the mob" would laugh out loud; the gentleman should merely smile. This literary contrast raises important historical questions: how did social rules constrain laughter? Did the highest elites really laugh less than others? How did laughter play out in relations between the sexes? Through fascinating case studies of individuals such as the Renaissance artist Benvenuto Cellini, the French aristocrat Madame de Sévigné, and the rising civil servant and diarist Samuel Pepys, Laughing Histories reveals the multiple meanings of laughter, from the court to the tavern and street, in a complex history that paved the way for modern laughter. ​ With its study of laughter in relation to power, aggression, gender, sex, class, and social bonding, Laughing Histories is perfect for readers interested in the history of emotions, cultural history, gender history, and literature.

The Diary of a Desperate Naija WomanTM in the Year 20-Ten is the second in the ‘The Diary’ series published by Bola Essien-Nelson. This book, just like the first – The Diary of a Desperate Naija Woman in the Year Two Thousand and 9—is a collection of daily blogs that capture, in a very random way, the thoughts, musings and sometimes the ‘mad rants’ of a Nigerian working woman, wife and mother who desperately wants to be like her Saviour-Brother-Friend, Jesus Christ. As you flip the pages, you will travel with Bola on a year long journey across 2010 during which she tries to keep all the balls of her life up in the air AND fulfill her most passionate goal – To be an authentic Christian. This book you hold in your hand is an open invitation to all who read it to join her on this truly life-changing quest.

Harper's informs a diverse body of readers of cultural, business, political, literary and scientific affairs.

Joe Irving, the oldest living ironworker, returns after his first book to tell us stories of not just his construction days, but from his entire life. Life of an Ironworker is a collection of stories, memories, opinions and events told from the hand of a 99-year-old man, now retired and living in the Kootenays of British Columbia, Canada. Born in 1911, Joe grew up in the pioneer days in rural B.C. and then joined the Local #97, International Union of Bridge, Structural and Ornamental Ironworkers, Machinery Movers, Derickmen and Riggers with whom he had a wonderfully successful career. He later retired and purchased the Rainbow Pines Ranch, in the Slocan Valley, with his wife Sylvia where they lived the better part of forty years farming, ranching, and milling. Joe has travelled the world, graduated high-school at 93 years old, lent a helping hand whenever he could and read and researched his way through thousands of books. His collected works span a lifetime of 99 years and truly show the amazing character that has allowed Joe to survive in the world for the past one hundred years, and still to be alive, healthy and strong, telling those stories today.