Cost of Laughing Rises 2.9 Percent in Last Year

Oddly Enough ^ | 3-22-02 | Ellen Freilich

[petuniasevan]

Cost of Laughing Rises 2.9 Percent in Last Year

March 22, 2002 8:12 am EST

By Ellen Freilich

NEW YORK (Reuters) - The price of chuckles, giggles, guffaws and outright hilarity rose 2.9 percent over the last 12 months, according to the tongue-in-cheek Cost of Laughing Index for 2002.

Malcolm Kushner, the attorney turned humor consultant who developed the Index, found the rise in the cost of laughter during a recession perplexing.

Was scarcity a factor? Did the demand for laughs outstrip supply in a time of war?

Though not included in the index, Andersen, the accounting firm that is facing criminal charges in connection with the collapse of energy trading giant Enron, found the year to be humor-free.

But the price of jokes at Andersen's expense, notably by late-night television comics, has proved costly. On Wednesday, Andersen published a full-page ad in The New York Times -- at a likely cost of $137,000 -- to acknowledge the "tough place" it found itself in, while confessing that it was unable to find "the humor" in its situation.

The government's Consumer Price Index rose 1.1 percent over the comparable 12-month period. So the cost of jokes rose at a stronger pace than consumer prices for food, clothing and other goods.

While the survey didn't specify whether the quality of jokes had improved along with the price, one of America's leading humorists said his jokes had become a better value.

One of the hottest books just off the humor presses, Calvin Trillin's "Tepper Isn't Going Out," a novel exploring the connection between a man and his parking space, is priced at $22.95, up nearly 15 percent from the price of Trillin's previous book, "Family Man," published in 1998.

But Trillin says there is more to this ostensible price increase than meets the eye.

"I want to say that this new book -- a bargain at $22.95 -- has more jokes in it than the last book," the Kansas-born author and long-time New Yorker writer told Reuters. "So this book, I would say, is actually cheaper than the last book. It depends how you measure."

[petuniasevan]

a novel exploring the connection between a man and his parking space

Hey, sounds better than anything Oprah wants you to read...

[RangeRatt]

the plot for "Tepper Isn't Going Out" sounds like a Seinfeld plot...where is Kramer when we need him the most?

[anniegetyourgun]

Oh thank heavens - with the title on this thread I thought they had figured out another way to tax me.....