4 out of 4 stars
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During the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, Denny Hatch created Bawdy Jokes & Patter Songs to give the public something to read to take their mind off the world’s problems. Mr. Hatch wrote this book when he was 83-years old. In this book, he details his love for patter songs and well-crafted jokes that have served him with many years of laughter and entertainment. When I first read the title of this book, I did not know what a bawdy joke or patter song was. The author does a great job of detailing what these words mean with 87 jokes and 87 patter songs to define what they are.
In a time when millions of people are losing their jobs and everything has gotten dark, the author welcomes the readers to his world of enjoyment. From jokes that range from mild to explicitly vulgar, Mr. Hatch did a good job of keeping me laughing. This book is for a mature audience because the content of these jokes is not tame and will make you ask yourself, “Did he really write this?” Some of these stories have these components of sexual innuendos, dark humor, and violence that were laminated with these peculiar and off-the-wall punchlines. I thoroughly enjoyed them all.
As for the patter songs, the author is a fan of musicals and live performances with a comedic theme. Danny Kaye was a comedic actor who thrived in the early to mid-1900s, with his high energy, fast-talking performances that are reminiscent of Robin Williams. Mr. Hatch discusses many famous lyricists, performers, and musicians who helped make the genre what it is today. My favorite Danny Kaye performance that the author recommended was “Danny Kaye As The Professor of Music” on YouTube. To watch Kaye in his element was simply amazing, funny, and breathtaking. I like that the author included YouTube links to each of these 87 patter songs he’s mentioned. It made it easy to copy and paste the URL into my search engine to watch the performances, rather than search for it on my own.
I had so much fun learning new jokes that I’d never heard of before and embracing older music that has been around for centuries. I would recommend this book to people who love Broadway musicals that are upbeat and animated. I only found a couple of grammatical errors that need to be fixed but did not take away from my enjoyment of this book. As I mentioned before, this book is filled with vulgar jokes that are profane, sexual, and offensive, so if you are looking for clean comedy, then I would not recommend this book to you.
I’m going to give Bawdy Jokes & Patter Songs four out of four stars. The jokes had me in a range of emotions from laughing to being in shock because of the punchlines. I’m a millennial, so I thought I was going to have a hard time relating to these patter songs that were created in the late 1800s, but I surprised myself and was drawn in by the lyrics and the actors. This book is professionally edited. There was nothing I disliked about this book.
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Bawdy Jokes & Patter Songs
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