The Essential Wit of the World's Funniest People

Conscience is the inner voice that warns us that someone might be looking.
—H. L. Mencken
 
We’ve all heard the saying, “Everyone’s a comedian.” That may be true, but we also know that not everyone is funny, and even fewer are witty. But what’s the difference between wit and humor? Brevity helps, but more importantly, a witty saying isn’t just funny, it’s about something. As Daniel Bukszpan puts it in his introduction to The Essential Wit of the World’s Funniest People, what witty sayings have in common is their ability to relate “something truthful about mankind’s folly in a matter of just a few words.” That truth-telling is the common factor that unites this collection of jokes, asides, aphorisms, and observations.