Library / Books That Are the Joke
Conceptual Comedy
Books That Are the Joke
Some books contain jokes. Others make the existence, format, title or premise of the book itself the joke.
How the mechanism works
The reader recognizes an expectation—usually about what a book should contain—and then the work deliberately bends or removes it. The surprise comes from the mismatch between the object promised and the object delivered.
Where this overlaps
Gag books, novelty books, experimental literature, anti-humor and conceptual comedy can all use this mechanism.
EW as a case study
EW takes a single reaction and gives it the physical scale of a novel. The joke is inseparable from the fact that the object is a book.
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