Amusing stories, though I believe my grandparents found it much more amusing than I did. A lot of the reference/ jokes to do with spouses was very much of the "I hate my wife, lol" sorry if humour that I think was very popular as a trope among boomers but that I personally find quite cringe. Still, if you can firmly keep this book in the context of its own tone and culture, it has many funny moments ( )

I found this one in a thrift store, pretty much like all the other joke books I have. It was an easy and light read but as with most old joke books, there are some collar tuggers, casual misogyny, and uncomfortable racial stereotyping. Fortunately, it is not a large portion of the book but it's there as it was published in the 1950s. The only really egregious bit of racism is in a single illustration of an African tribesman. It also does start the short section on Lady Drivers with a short statistical anecdote about how male drivers are more prone to accidents than their housewife counterparts before going into the typical lady driver jokes (I wonder if that's a joke in and of itself but anyway...).
I did enjoy some of the routines inside finding a few genuinely funny especially the too few retellings of old vaudeville schticks. However, the typical joke in this book is dry, somewhat tongue-in-cheek, and often safe. Sexual innuendo does show up here but in the expected 1950s way. As for an example of the average bit found in the book, there's this:

Wall Street was buzzing the other day with the story of a slaphappy hostess at a cocktail party who collared a bewildered author to tell him, " I read your book as a magazine serial, in book form, and as a condensation, and now I've seen it in the movies and on television. Frankly, Mr. Ingold, just what the hell are you trying to say?"

There are numerous references in here I definitely missed thereby many jokes I simply didn't get as I lacked the necessary frame of reference. Although I was able to make the majority out, I just didn't find many funny. A few others I did find funny only because they are the typical Dad-Joke through and through. So far, my favorite (non-dad-joke) is as follows:

McGregor lay breathing his last. He roused himself to whisper to the assemblage round his bedside, "Tannish owes me fifty pounds." "It's a great mind the man has," marveled his wife. "Clear as a bell to the very end." McGregor spoke again: "I believe I owe Sandy Mollinson a hundred pounds." "Ach, the poor mon," sobbed Mrs. McGregor. "Take no notice of his delirious meanderings!"

I did not like the pun section though. I should have taken what the title page illustration said to heart: "WARNING! Does punning send you into rages? Is wordplay less than funful? You'd better skip the next few pages - you'll find this chapter punful!" I didn't find the limerick section that much fun either even though I do like limericks. I guess with the number of routines in here there are bound to be more hits than misses but I think time also has blunted some of the humor, in particular the referential bits.
There are also some morbid yarns in here usually concerning animals getting dead but there's also a very gruesome anecdote about a Chinese immigrant named Loo Ching. He was a laundryman who violated a fundamental law of the Tong and thus was condemned to death. However, since American law prohibited any violence in carrying his sentence out they simply declared him dead. The entirety of Chinatown treated him as such and as he could not speak any other language besides Chinese and American ways were alien to him, he eventually starved and then froze to death in front of a teashop. I especially found the inclusion of this one strange, don't get me wrong, I'm as morbid as the next fellow, well... maybe a little more than usual. I liked it but it does stick out.
Overall, if any bit of my commentary seems interesting and you like joke books, then I'd recommend it otherwise, not at all. Will I continue to buy old joke books like this one from thrift stores and used book places? Yes. Yes, I will. ( )

Bennet Cerf never fails to amuse and entertain. True the jokes are sometimes corny, but on the other hand, they're timeless too. Indeed, reading these one can easily hear today's comics delievering the same material with the window-dressing updated enough to seem au courrant. ( )