Release Date: October 2026 – Presale available now

The Big Bang. Natural Selection. E = mc2

All pretty decent theories, that beg one question: why has no-one discovered a fully unified theory for what makes jokes funny?

Well, comedy director Amanda Baker, comedy writer Abi Grant and stand-up comedian Jimmy Carr have done just that. In this book, in case that’s not obvious. From how to identify the families of jokes, to decoding the building blocks of comedy, to the real – and brand new – secret to comic timing, On Jokes does for comedy what decoding the genome did for designer babies.

The essential manual for any aspiring comedian, this book can make anyone funny. Even you.

‘I hear something I forget it, I read something I remember it, I teach something I know it. I’m no grifter – I wouldn’t sell something I wouldn’t buy. This is the book I was desperately searching for when I started out in comedy. This industry has given me so much – On Jokes is an attempt to pay it back or rather forward – to the next generation of comics.

Comedy is a language & On Jokes is an attempt to codify the grammar. This is a scaffold it’s up to comedians to decide what they’ll build.

I think there’s too much magical thinking in comedy. It’s not alchemy it’s chemistry. And you can learn chemistry.’ – Jimmy Carr