william novak was in his kitchen, doing exercises to soothe a sore shoulder, when he got the idea of doing a book of jokes for old people. <u+201c>i come from a generation where we laughed about everything,<u+201d> the 68-year-old boston-based author says. <u+201c>why not laugh about getting older?<u+201d> for much of his life, mr. novak has collected jokes the way other people curate fine wines or works of art. in 1981, he and friend moshe waldoks edited and annotated <u+201c>the big book of jewish humor,<u+201d> which contains 368 pages of humorous gems from the marx brothers, philip roth, woody allen and others, and remains in print. nine years later, the duo followed it up with <u+201c>the big book of new american humor,<u+201d> in which, mr. novak teases, <u+201c>only half the jokes are jewish.<u+201d> like aging baby boomers, the jokes in <u+201c>die laughing: killer jokes for newly old folks,<u+201d> out oct. 25 from touchstone, are oldies but goodies. these classic story jokes, with their setups and punchlines, aren<u+2019>t told much anymore, but mr. novak says older generations seem to perpetually appreciate them. <u+201c>i got that with the jewish humor book. adults would say, <u+2018>i bought it for my parents,<u+2019> <u+201d> says mr. novak, whose own children include b.j. novak , the actor (<u+201d>the office<u+201d>) and author (<u+201d>the book with no pictures<u+201d>). <u+201c>one of the reasons i wanted to do this book was to keep the joke alive.<u+201d> the author has led a sort of double writing life, also ghostwriting memoirs for celebrities . <u+201c> iacocca: an autobiography ,<u+201d> which he wrote with then-chrysler chief executive lee iacocca, was the no. 1 nonfiction book of both 1984 and 1985, ultimately selling around 2.7 million copies. <u+201c>my agent tried to negotiate a percentage of the royalties, and we were told it was not gonna happen,<u+201d> mr. novak says, still lamenting the loss a little. <u+201c>they said, <u+2018>we<u+2019>ll put your name on the cover.<u+2019> i wasn<u+2019>t sure i wanted that. it was still a little embarrassing to be a ghostwriter in 1984. no kid ever went to bed at night dreaming of becoming a ghostwriter.<u+201d> that success, though, helped make mr. novak the go-to ghost for a time. he penned the memoirs of nancy reagan, magic johnson, oliver north and tip o<u+2019>neill, among others. but he says he turned down an offer to write donald trump <u+2019>s second book, <u+201c>trump: surviving at the top<u+201d> (1990). <u+201c>i had a strong feeling he was not my kind of guy,<u+201d> mr. novak says. more recently, the author has been writing biographies for private, often wealthy individuals, who pay mr. novak to write books about themselves or a family member, and then print the memoirs<u+2014>never to see a bookstore shelf<u+2014>at their own expense. as he returned to humor, there was some worry that the title <u+201c>die laughing,<u+201d> which mr. novak<u+2019>s wife, linda, thought up, might offend some people. at least one publisher was put off by it. <u+201c>there<u+2019>s this idea that older people are easily offended. in fact, it<u+2019>s younger people who are more easily offended,<u+201d> mr. novak says. <u+201c>look at colleges<u+2014>you can<u+2019>t say a word anymore.<u+201d> <u+2018> there<u+2019>s this idea that older people are easily offended. in fact, it<u+2019>s younger people who are more easily offended. look at colleges<u+2014>you can<u+2019>t say a word anymore. <u+2019> <u+201c>die laughing<u+201d> includes chapters on various realities of the golden years: long marriages, minds and bodies that don<u+2019>t always perform the way they used to, and even death and the afterlife. the book takes readers to lots of doctors<u+2019> offices, to heaven, to golf courses. in one joke, a woman asks her doctor for the good news before the bad. the doctor says, cheerily, <u+201c>we<u+2019>re naming a disease after you!<u+201d> in another, which mr. novak says can be traced back to ancient greece, two geezers are sitting on a bench. one turns to the other and says: <u+201c>remind me, was it you or your brother who died last winter?<u+201d> memory issues have long been humor-friendly, and they<u+2019>re especially apt in a book for <u+201c>newly old folks.<u+201d> <u+201c>i read that for years people said their biggest aging concerns were heart disease and cancer,<u+201d> mr. novak says. <u+201c>now it<u+2019>s alzheimer<u+2019>s.<u+201d> <u+201c>die laughing<u+201d> brings a light touch to the subject. in one setup, a couple has guests over for dinner, and the husband is trying to remember the name of a restaurant he liked. he asks his guests to start naming flowers. <u+201c>rose,<u+201d> one of them finally suggests. <u+201c>thank you,<u+201d> the husband says, then yells to his wife in the kitchen: <u+201c>rose! what<u+2019>s the name of that restaurant?<u+201d> the book also features cartoons, including about 20 from the new yorker, like one by roz chast in which a man is skimming a newspaper<u+2019>s obituary page. the headlines read: <u+201c>twelve years older than you,<u+201d> <u+201c>two years younger than you,<u+201d> and so forth. at a certain age, we<u+2019>re ready to laugh at death, mr. novak says. <u+201c>bad taste i<u+2019>m willing to do. life is in bad taste. if you<u+2019>re easily offended, you shouldn<u+2019>t be reading any joke book,<u+201d> he says. <u+201c>i drew the line at terrible taste. there<u+2019>s very little toilet humor. one joke is about a new wine that will stop you from getting up to urinate. it<u+2019>s called pinot more.<u+201d> corrections & amplifications: an earlier version of this article incorrectly called the book <u+201c>die laughing: killer jokes for newly old people.<u+201d>.
william novak keeps old jokes alive in <u+2018>die laughing<u+2019> - wsj
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