Bob Hope

Discussion Questions
(Many thanks to Angela from the Ligonier Public Library in Indiana, PA, who developed these questions and has graciously shared them with LitLovers. She also recommended this book to LitLovers.)

1.My Life in Jokes is written in a peculiar way for a biography with small snapshots of his life followed by jokes. Did you enjoy this style of this book or find it distracting? Some reviews said that reading so many jokes in a line dulled their punch.

2. Bob Hope was originally born in England, a fact many people do not know. How do you think his early life helped shape him? Do you think he considered himself all American?

3. Did you feel that more personal info could have been introduced about his life? Or was that left out with respect to his family?

4. What did you think of Bob Hope’s relationship with the various presidents? How did he roast them in public and yet become close friends with most of the ones that he met?

5. Was there one joke that stood out to you above the rest?

6. Talk about specific passages that struck you as significant—or interesting, profound, amusing, illuminating, disturbing, sad...? What was memorable?

7. Both Bob Hope and his wife lived to see a century of their life. How do you think the changes they saw throughout their lives help to shape who they are.

8. Bob Hope loved the military, he spent much of his life traveling overseas to see servicemen and perform for them. Why do you think he had such a love for what they did? Why do you think the military loved him so much also? And what did you think about them honoring him by making him a veteran and naming military vehicles after him?
(Questions courtesy of Angela, Ligoniere Library, Indiana, PA.)

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