If you wish to be funnier, if you're working on telling better jokes, and telling them better, if you like to keep a nice database of good riffs in your head for the following party, you may want to buy
joke book or two. Whether you're a writer, a painter or just a guy who wants to tell some good jokes on occasion, it can never hurt to study the classics. You might want to consider studying the following.
The Classic Stand Ups
The classic stand up comics have put out some interesting work, both as biographers and in simply collecting their favorite jokes. Recommended would be How to Tell Dirty Jokes and Influence People by Lennie Bruce in terms of non-fiction goes, while anything with jokes by Rodney Dangerfield or Don Rickles is great for humor's sake. Anything by Steven Wright is gold, too.
General Joke Books
The goal here is to find those diamonds in the rough. Most joke books are three hundred recycled yuks that were barely funny initially you heard them, but there are several good niche joke books out there.
100% Blond Jokes is like an encyclopedia of jokes that you could rephrase and make use of to have a laugh at the expense of the foolish people in your own life!
Stand Up DVDs
This is helpful for studying delivery. The golden rule is that: The joke is is what's funny, not you. A bad comic can ruin a good joke, but it's the rare comic who can save a bad one. Check out some of the works of Richard Pryor and Bill Cosby for some excellent delivery. Mitch Hedberg is another one who has mastered delivery and can maximize some pretty corny (but still quite funny) material. It's all in the delivery, so study up.
