A new book on how to write jokes and master comic timing, that will be coming out October 2026. This page is where you can find the latest info.
On Jokes (or, why everything you know about comedy is wrong): The Secret Science of Making People Laugh
Authors
- Jimmy Carr – International comedian (stating the obvious, here)
- Amanda Baker – Comedy Director
- Abi Grant – Comedy Writer
Hardback release date: October 22nd 2026
- Cover not available yet
- 400 pages
- ISBN 10 – 1529454239
- ISBN 13 – 978-1529454239
What Is This About?
Back in 2023 Jimmy started talking about working on something that he said could be a book, could be a comedy course (see back ground here).
He referred to it with a kind of code name of the Rosetta Stone of Comedy and now the officially titled book, On Jokes, is due out in the autumn of 2026.
This is his 3rd book – the first been The Naked Jape / Only Joking in 2006 (here). For anyone that is even vaguely interested in comedy this is a history of the joke and joke telling, sprinkled with jokes throughout (both Jimmy’s and other peoples).
The second was Before and Laughter in 2021 (here) which is part autobiography and part self-help.
This third tome is for aspiring comedians, comedians that want to improve their style (or technique) or just those of us that love the art of comedy and would like to see under the hood. To learn about the different types of joke and how they are assembled. The equivalent of a magician showing you how the tricks work, so that you could have a go yourself.
Official Book blurb
The Big Bang
Natural Selection
E = mc2
All pretty decent theories, that beg one question: why has no-one discovered a fully unified theory for what makes jokes funny?
Well, comedy director Amanda Baker, comedy writer Abi Grant and stand-up comedian Jimmy Carr have done just that. In this book, in case that’s not obvious. From how to identify the families of jokes, to decoding the building blocks of comedy, to the real – and brand new – secret to comic timing, On Jokes does for comedy what decoding the genome did for designer babies.
The essential manual for any aspiring comedian, this book can make anyone funny. Even you.
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