There Are Only Seven Jokes

The radio show "Can You Top This?" ran on NBC for fourteen years.

As many as 6,000 jokes per week were submitted by the radio audience.

The emcee read those selected to a panel of three comedians, and it was up to each of them to "top" the submitted joke with another on the same subject.

The reaction of the studio audience determined the winners.

Contestants whose jokes were used on the air received ten dollars, with an extra two dollars each time the panelist's joke did not top it.

During one of the airings one of the panelists made the statement "There are only seven jokes," but he didn't elaborate.

No one ever seemed to know what the seven jokes were, so I did some research on the subject.

This book is a record of what I discovered.