{"id":46238,"date":"2026-11-01T08:24:37","date_gmt":"2026-11-01T14:24:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/theprairiesbookreview.com\/?p=46238"},"modified":"2026-11-01T08:24:37","modified_gmt":"2026-11-01T14:24:37","slug":"only-the-funny-survive-how-comedy-keeps-finding-a-way-by-rich-davis-ii","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/theprairiesbookreview.com\/?p=46238","title":{"rendered":"Only the Funny Survive: How Comedy Keeps Finding a Way by Rich Davis II"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>A rollicking tribute to comedy\u2019s restless genius.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Davis takes readers through a century of comedy, showing how changing technologies, unforgiving audiences, and unexpected setbacks shaped some of entertainment\u2019s most inventive performers. Comedy has never been a forgiving profession. Audiences heckle, executives interfere, and jokes fall flat. Davis follows comedians from vaudeville\u2019s ruthless crowds to the internet\u2019s algorithm-driven stages, exploring how each new medium demanded fresh skills and sharper instincts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The liveliest passages concern performers who turned disaster into opportunity. Jack Benny transformed a disastrous violin performance into a comic breakthrough; the Marx Brothers discovered that insulting their audience got bigger laughs than singing. Davis is especially good on radio\u2019s reliance on timing and television\u2019s power to turn a facial expression into a punchline. His accounts of Second City and Saturday Night Live show how much great comedy owes to talented people working together. Personal recollections lend warmth, while stories of unlikely breakthroughs reveal the persistence behind seemingly effortless performances. His closing examination of artificial intelligence poses a provocative question: If technology can improve a joke, can it teach someone to be funny?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">A perceptive, richly entertaining portrait of comedy as an art of survival.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center wp-block-paragraph\">***<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center wp-block-paragraph\"><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Only-Funny-Survive-Comedy-Finding-ebook\/dp\/B0HHJ86TLM\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Buy now<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center wp-block-paragraph\">Pub date October 9, 2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center wp-block-paragraph\">ASIN B0HHJ86TLM<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center wp-block-paragraph\">Price $14.99 Paperback, $6.99 Kindle edition<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A rollicking tribute to comedy\u2019s restless genius. Davis takes readers through a century of comedy, showing how changing technologies, unforgiving audiences, and unexpected setbacks shaped some of entertainment\u2019s most inventive performers. Comedy has never been a forgiving profession. Audiences heckle, executives interfere, and jokes fall flat. Davis follows comedians from vaudeville\u2019s ruthless crowds to the internet\u2019s algorithm-driven stages, exploring how each new medium demanded fresh skills and sharper instincts. The liveliest passages concern performers who [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":145610851,"featured_media":46239,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","advanced_seo_description":"Explore the evolution of comedy in this insightful tribute, revealing how comedians thrive amidst challenges and technological change.","jetpack_seo_html_title":"The Evolution of Comedy: Surviving Laughter Through Time","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_seo_schema_type":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_wpcom_ai_launchpad_first_post":false,"_jetpack_hide_featured_image":false,"_jetpack_featured_image_duplicate_dismissed":0,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"{title}\n\n{excerpt}\n\n{url}","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"_wpas_customize_per_network":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[],"tags":[7223,91,3328,178,376,1136176,3748,723772231,1473,1008073,856121,309,723772230,349],"class_list":["post-46238","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-author","tag-blogging","tag-book-reviews","tag-books","tag-humor","tag-indie-books","tag-non-fiction","tag-only-the-funny-survive-how-comedy-keeps-finding-a-way","tag-reading","tag-review-blog","tag-review-website","tag-reviews","tag-rich-davis-ii","tag-writing"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pajKJn-c1M","amp_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/theprairiesbookreview.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/11\/71QF7M1V42L._SY522_.jpg?fit=326%2C522&ssl=1","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/theprairiesbookreview.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46238","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/theprairiesbookreview.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/theprairiesbookreview.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theprairiesbookreview.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/145610851"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theprairiesbookreview.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=46238"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/theprairiesbookreview.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46238\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":46241,"href":"https:\/\/theprairiesbookreview.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46238\/revisions\/46241"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theprairiesbookreview.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/46239"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/theprairiesbookreview.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=46238"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theprairiesbookreview.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=46238"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theprairiesbookreview.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=46238"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}