<strong>On Humour</strong> is a fascinating beautifully written and funny book on what humourcan tell us about being human. Simon Critchley skilfully probes som... » 

On Humour is a fascinating beautifully written and funny book on what humourcan tell us about being human. Simon Critchley skilfully probes some of themost perennial but least understood aspects of humour why is that we mockdeath with laughter? If humour is uniquely human why do we laugh at animals somuch? Is joking a private matter or do we share humour? Throughout On Humouruses arresting examples from antiquity to modernity and from laughing at ourbodies to the darker side of humour in racism and sexism. Critchley also drawson writers who have used humour including Swift Sterne Bergson Beckett andFreud turning the comical inside out to reveal some delectable insights aboutwhat we find funny. Above all he reveals that the humanity of humour is inbeing able to laugh at oneself. «