Author Michael Dunne is familiar with the landscape of American Humor, and at times his surveys are helpful. He introduced me to some interesting and rare strains of humor in American life.
However, the book is, on the whole, a train wreck. It suffers from several faulty presuppositions. This wouldn't be so bad, but these very presuppositions are the foundation of the argument.
I'll mention one of the faulty presup's:
Calvinists tend to find fault in others. Sometimes this tendency arises with a sense of identification, "Aren't people -- including ourselves -- just like that (pg. 1)." Sometimes, a sense of isolation, "other people are fallen from perfection without any necessary recognition that we may be in the same boat ourselves (pg. 1)."
Dunne goes on to describe this tendency as a skeptical view of human nature (pg. 2).
Now, no doubt, humans tend to find fault in others, often self-righteously. However, Calvinism, of all -isms, tends to fight against self-righteousness, hypocrisy, and judgmentalism. Also, Calvin's doctrine of total depravity is indeed the fodder for much that is humorous. Yet, this is only the T in TULIP.
Dunne doesn't seem to have a good grasp of the whole of Calvinism, nor of the doctrine of total depravity, which is not mere, "skepticism about human nature." Also, there needs to be more clear definition of terms: what Dunne describes as Calvinism is often actually plain self-righteousness.
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