Book of jokes trips up on clichés and falls flat on its face

Humour; Surviving Ireland, By Colm Tobin, Transworld Ireland, €13.50

Out now

Comedy is hard. Making someone laugh is a feat of alchemy that should never be underestimated. Doing it in writing, where the comedian and the audience are separated, is doubly so.

Most of us can’t write comedy, because it’s very difficult. And Tobin’s book, Surviving Ireland, is a perfect example of why.

It feels like a really long listicle from an average comedy blog site, filled with jokes you’ve heard a million times ...