Make 'Em Laugh features the most popular routines, the most ingenious physical schtick, the snappiest wisecracks and the most biting satire of the last century. It helps readers understand who we are as a nation, what we have laughed at, and why.
By melding comedy dialogue with biography and American history, Make 'Em Laugh informs as it entertains. Created by the same team behind the acclaimed book and Emmy Award-winning documentary series, Broadway: The American Musical, each chapter of Make 'Em Laugh focuses on a different style of comedy, from the physical comedy of the Marx Brothers and Jerry Lewis to the wiseass humour of Larry David and Chris Rock.
Rather than replicating the PBS series, the book offers more depth and detail on the lives and work of America's comic geniuses.