---
title: "A Book About Comedy That's No Joke"
date: 2023-12-05T05:30:00-05:00
author: University of Maryland
canonical_url: "https://today.umd.edu/a-book-about-comedy-thats-no-joke"
section: Articles
---
# A Book About Comedy That's No Joke

*December 5, 2023* — by [Sala Levin ’10](/author/sala-levin-10)


> Alum Chronicles 30 Years of an Underexamined Art Form

*Comedy 1920x1080 — Ali Wong, Chris Rock and Jerry Seinfeld (left to right) are among the comedians whose work Jesse David Fox '07 examines in "Comedy Book: How Comedy Conquered Culture—and the Magic That Makes It Work."*

In 1993, when writer Jesse David Fox ’07 was 7 years old, his mother died, leaving the young Fox feeling like he was “flipping and flipping through space, floating away from my ship and Earth.” Outside of his family, one of his few tethers to reality was “The Simpsons,” which went into widespread syndication that year.

“Jokes offered a state I could stay in that made life seem more manageable,” Fox writes in his new book, “[Comedy Book: How Comedy Conquered Culture—and the Magic That Makes It Work](https://www.amazon.com/s?k=comedy+book+jesse+david+fox&hvadid=661099759615&hvdev=c&hvlocphy=9060031&hvnetw=g&hvqmt=e&hvrand=8988596209485300351&hvtargid=kwd-2085873610700&hydadcr=22347_13324010&tag=googhydr-20&ref=pd_sl_6v7gczidcx_e).” “No matter how bad or how nothing I felt … I wasn’t not going to laugh when Sideshow Bob stepped on yet another rake.”

That was the beginning of a lifelong obsession with humor that eventually led the Vulture senior editor and comedy critic and host of “Good One: A Podcast About Jokes” to write “Comedy Book,” which analyzes how and why comedy has exploded in popularity and esteem over the last 35 or so years. (In 1989, the year “Seinfeld” premiered, no comedian had ever headlined Madison Square Garden, Fox notes. By 2023, 18 had.)


*Comedy Book: How Comedy Conquered Culture—and the Magic That Makes It Work*




**Topics:** [People](https://today.umd.edu/tags/people)


**Tags:** [Psychology](https://today.umd.edu/topic/psychology), [Arts](https://today.umd.edu/topic/arts)


**Units:** [College of Behavioral and Social Sciences](https://today.umd.edu/topic/college-behavioral-and-social-sciences)