Can a Book Be a Joke?
Yes. And the best book-jokes are also the most philosophically interesting books.
The book as joke format
A joke requires setup and punchline. For a book, the setup is the title and the form — the physical object that promises narrative, information, or argument. The punchline is what the book actually contains. When those two things are maximally mismatched, the book is a joke. EW is set up as a novel; it delivers a single repeated word. The mismatch is the joke.
Joke and literature are not opposites
The assumption that a "real" book cannot be a joke reflects a misunderstanding of literary history. Cervantes' Don Quixote parodies the chivalric romance — it is a joke about its own genre. Swift's A Modest Proposal is a joke structured as a serious economic proposal. Carroll's Alice books are jokes that happen to be foundational literary texts. The Archive's books continue this tradition.
Five book-jokes in print
EW, UGH, LOL, YIKES, and MEH are each a joke (a novel-length book containing one word) and a literary experiment (what does a single expression do when given 261 pages?) simultaneously. They are physically published, commercially available, and completely serious about not being serious. See the Archive catalog.
Frequently asked questions
Can a book be a joke?
Yes. The Absurd Humor Archive has published five books — EW, UGH, LOL, YIKES, MEH — that function as jokes (mismatched form and content) and as literary experiments.
Is a joke book the same as a humorous book?
No. A joke book collects jokes. A book that is itself a joke uses its own form as the comedic mechanism. The Archive's books are the second kind.
What is the difference between a gag book and absurdist literature?
A gag book is primarily commercial humor. Absurdist literature uses formal and structural techniques to make philosophical arguments through comedy. The best gag books are also absurdist literature.
Related
What Is Anti-Humor · What Is a Concept Book · History of Novelty Books · The Archive