Football School: The Greatest Joke Book

by Alex Bellos, Ben Lyttleton

Get ready to laugh your football socks off with this side-splitting joke book from the creators of the bestselling Football School series.

What's a striker's favourite magic routine? A hat trick!
Why was the peacock sent off? It was a professional fowl
What’s a chip-lover’s top footie show? Catch of the Day, with Gary Vinegar

Packed with great gags about silly stars, team titters and naughty nicknames, this is the perfect gift to give any football fan the giggles.

128 pages, Paperback

Published November 7, 2019

About the author

"I was born in Oxford and grew up in Edinburgh and Southampton. After studying mathematics and philosophy at university I joined the Evening Argus in Brighton as a trainee reporter. I joined the Guardian in 1994 as a reporter and in 1998 moved to Rio de Janeiro, where I spent five years as the paper’s South America correspondent. Since 2003 I have lived in London, as a freelance writer and broadcaster.

[...]

In 2003 I presented a five-part series on Brazil for the BBC, called Inside Out Brazil. My short films about the Amazon have been broadcast on the BBC, More 4 and Al Jazeera International."

Reviews

[Cat Strawberry]

This is a brilliant addition to the Football School series of books. This joke book is thinner than the usual Football School books but is still a good decent size considering what you get and it’s filled with a lot humour, silly jokes a lot more illustrations! Each page has some jokes printed on it along with pictures that are in black white and grey.

As is obvious, this joke book is filled with football related jokes but what I like about it is just how original they feel. Many of the joke answers end up being a play on a footballer’s or club’s names or mention specific football related terms. I like how original the jokes feel compared to other joke books where sometimes you feel you might have read the jokes before, and I can see lots of children and even adults enjoying the silly humour of these, although not being a huge football fan myself meant that a lot of the jokes were just lost on me!

There’s usually about two jokes on each page along with lots of funny illustrations. The jokes are arranged into different sections and although I didn’t laugh aloud as much as I have with other joke books (although there were times where I did find a joke or two ridiculously funny as well as others being just daft!), it’s just because I didn’t know all the footballers, clubs, etc. names and I’m sure anyone who’s a fan will just love reading these! The illustrations are very funny and sometimes I found myself laughing at them alone. The illustrations are usually related to one or two of the jokes on each page but there are also some funny images before the start of each section which are worth looking at and which will make you laugh. I like how there are so many more illustrations than the average Football School book.

I can see any football fan enjoying this book, especially if they already enjoy the Football School series. Although the humour wasn’t always the best for me (we all find different styles of jokes and subjects funnier than others) I would still recommend this for those that do enjoy football, it’s definitely a good fun book to cheer up your day.
-Thanks to Walker Books for a free copy for review.