The Genius of the Jewish Joke focuses on what is distinctive and unusual about Jewish jokes and Jewish humor and the unique role that this humor has played in the survival of the Jews. Jokes are defined as short stories, meant to amuse, with a punch line, though Jewish humor exists in many other formsriddles, comic definitions, parodiesas well. The book makes a radical suggestion about the origin of Jewish humor namely, that Sarah and Abrahams relation to God, and the name of their son Isaac (which, in Hebrew, means laughter), recognies a special affinity in Jews for humor. Abraham does not sacrifice Isaac (humor) and, thus, humor and the Jews are linked early in Jewish history.