Funny, You Don't Look Funny: Judaism and Humor from the Silent Generation to Millennials Paperback – 30 Mar. 2023

This slim volume takes the reader through the history of Jewish humor through the 20th and early 21st centuries. Caplan expertly sketches the sociopolitical background of each generation of comics, clearly laying out the impetus for each tectonic shift in how performers and writers have grappled with their Jewishness in America. The example jokes sprinkled throughout do a great job of, um, leavening the material while illustrating her points.I found Funny, You Don't Look Funny highly accessible and enjoyable -- and a remarkably quick read. It really gave me a new perspective on Jewish humor, something I thought I knew a lot about already. I'm now watching comedy through a new lens. (And I now know what it means to Thingify something.)Having finished the book, I totally understand why Caplan didn't include Mel Brooks, but I'd love to read her take on History of the World: Part 2. Maybe in a future edition!