Let Me Tell You a Joke: a First Joke Book with Funny Pictures

Everyone knows how difficult it can be to tell jokes to children. Even the most obvious of word-plays can fly straight over their heads. The effect is similarly frustrating when young children try to tell jokes themselves. Often they understand the rhythm or structure of a classic gag, but fill it with nonsensical words and phrases that have no business being together. Punchlines bear zero connection with their setup yet the child sharing the joke finds it hilarious anyway. This new joke book for early readers attempts to tap into this hidden world of young children’s sense of humour.

A celebrated stand-up comedian in Ireland, Hegarty clearly knows what it takes to make people laugh, and he experiments with original ideas in this new take on the joke book. Though the combination of illustrations with jokes is not a new concept, Hegarty and Field’s collaboration has a fresh and exciting feel. Field delivers fantastic characterisation in his pictures: everything from fish to dragons are drawn with hilariously over-the-top facial expressions, and a rich, generous colour palette makes every page stand out.

As well as their impressive visual effect, Field’s illustrations serve a functional purpose, too.  They help children to understand the joke and explain the wordplay behind them. Hegarty also helps his young readers by reducing the cognitive difficulty of his jokes.

Why was the superhero running alongside the car? Because his cape was stuck in the door! 

Why did the referee take a parrot to a football match? Because it bit his ear and wouldn’t let go.

Sadly, this effort to make jokes understandable and manageable for children comes at a substantial cost: the jokes are hit-and-miss and too many of them simply aren’t funny. With only a few exceptions, the book’s gags fail when told without their illustrations. In fact, many of the jokes are, arguably, not jokes at all, but merely a description of a funny picture:

Why was the nine-eyed monster crying? Because it couldn’t find any glasses that fit. 

Let Me Tell You a Joke is a bold and ambitious project and children will certainly find things that tickle their funny bone in some of the jokes and lots of the pictures, but, ultimately, it doesn’t deliver enough comedy to sustain interest for long.