Give and Get the Gift of Laughter for Hanukkah: The Best of the New Books on Jewish Humor

This has been a good year for new books on Jewish humor, so in the few days left before Hanukkah, we thought you'd be interested in some of the best ones, to enjoy for yourselves or to give as gifts. Here are the titles, authors, brief descriptions, and links to their Amazon pages.
 

Was Elvis Jewish? Plus Hundreds of Amazing and Amusing Anecdotes No Rabbi Ever Told You - by Paulette Cooper

Was Elvis Jewish? That’s not all this book will tell you. There’s something for everyone here, including the religious and the irreverent, the young and the not-so-young. Most of the information will be unknown to you. It’s been scattered and often lost in various and hard-to-find newspaper stories, websites, and books. But now these anecdotes, facts, jokes, lists, and pieces of history and commentary—both heavy and light—are in one very readable and riveting volume.

Die Laughing: Killer Jokes for Newly Old Folks  -by William Novak

From the co-creator of the celebrated Big Book of Jewish Humor comes a laugh-out-loud collection of jokes about growing older that makes fun of memory loss, marriages, medicine, sex, the afterlife, and much more, making this the perfect gift for almost anyone who was born before you were.

Growing older can be unsettling and surprising. (How on earth did this happen? Where did the years go?) So what better way to deal with this new stage of life than to laugh about your new reality? Die Laughing includes more than enough jokes (not to mention cartoons!) to let that laughter burst out. 

The Whole Spiel: Funny essays about digital nudniks, seder selfies and chicken soup memories -by Joyce Eisenberg , Ellen Scolnic, Terry LaBan

If you call it a mechayeh when you take off your Spanx,

Say, “Darn, I’ve got bubkes” when your checking account is empty,

And stock the refrigerator with all their favorites when the kids come home ...

... then you’ll recognize yourself, your bubbe, and the entire mishpuchah in "The Whole Spiel," a collection of funny essays that takes a heartfelt look at modern life as a member of the tribe.

Read about the great shnecken vs. rugelach battle, the newly discovered Jewish summer holiday of Simchat Squash, and why yesterday’s nebbish is today’s millionaire tech nerd.

Let There Be Laughter: A Treasury of Great Jewish Humor and What It All Means - by Michael Krasny

Michael Krasny has been telling Jewish jokes since his bar mitzvah, and it’s been said that he knows more of them than anyone on the planet. He certainly states his case in this wise, enlightening, and hilarious book that not only collects the best of Jewish humor passed down from generation to generation, but explains the cultural expressions and anxieties behind the laughs.

Oy - The Commentary Magazine Book of Jewish Jokes Kindle Edition - by John Podhoretz (Editor)

    

COMMENTARY brings you its collection of over sixty Jewish jokes.

What to Name Your Jewish Baby - by Bill Adler , Mort Drucker , Arnie Kogen 

  

Are you going to have a Jewish baby, and do you need a name... or just some laughs? Then this book is for you! New York Times best-selling book creator Bill Adler teams up with Mad Magazine's killer team of Arnie Kogen and Mort Drucker to deliver not only over 300 possible names for your little blessing, but also an explanation of what strange or interesting sort of person you'll get if you give them that name! Peppered with more than 50 of Drucker's great illustrations, this is perfect book to use as a gift, or to whomp spiders with.