The Tao of Laughter studies the tricks and techniques of well-known humor grandmasters and analyzes the structure of humor.

He notices how humor is related to creativity and freedom and, conversely, how the absence of humor is a manifestation of totalitarian thinking. He tries to show that humor is not something that some people are born with and some don't, but a very common human skill that can be learned, much like language. Some are more talented at it, some less so, but everyone learns a language. Likewise, everyone can learn humor. He just needs to know what it is, how it's learned, how it's used, and why bother.

That laugh is a manual, according to which humor can be learned even by a completely humorless person.