'Doctor, doctor, what do you call a book about comedy that tries to be funny, argumentative, wide-ranging, silly, weirdly personal and fairly well-researched?' 'Doomed to failure.' Bullets are violent. Jokes are violent. Can either be used for good? What is 'good'? A Good Bullet will make next to no effort to answer the last question because it's too hard. But it will have a crack at asking why and how jokes commit violence. Why and how they amuse us with things that otherwise cause us anxiety and pain. Why and how sex, war, history, death, insecurity, hatred and loss - all the good stuff - make people laugh.