Comedy Book, by Jesse David Fox, the comedy critic for Vulture, defends the hill he’s prepared to die on: his belief that comedy is an art form, one too little respected by critics. He offers to explain how comedy operates, how it should be judged, and its place in contemporary culture. By comedy he means comic performance, and its exemplar is stand-up, “the most extreme example of comedy’s natural selection.” (Foretaste of a problem: aside from an air of knowingness, what does the reference to “natural selection” contribute?)

Comedy has practical importance. Astonishingly many people get their news from programs like The Daily Show, and Fox cites data suggesting that, for the rising generation, taste in comedy has replaced musical taste as social currency. Fox the evangelist asserts that its importance goes deep: comedy can be “truer than truth,” can build community, create empathy, and foster social change. “It can be taken seriously,” he says; “It must.” For “comedy nerds” of his generation, it’s personal. He addresses them as a fellow fan, hipster to hipster.

Fox suggests that we can can begin to understand comedy by understanding why critics disparage it. The primary goal of comedy, he says, is “funniness,” but critics have saddled themselves with ideals of taste that were “created in opposition to funniness” by “rich dicks” to put the lower classes in their place. (Vulgarisms are occasionally tossed in for street cred; paraphrasing Jerry Seinfeld, I object to this not