Give the gift of laughter this Christmas courtesy of a Kelowna doctor’s joke book

As the saying goes, laughter is the best medicine, and one doctor in Kelowna is helping people get their daily dose of laughter through his book.

Dr. David Goldberg recently stopped by the NowMedia office to discuss his book called Jokes You'll Love to Tell.

Alongside sharing some jokes and the story behind the book, Dr. Goldberg mentioned a phone call he had with his daughter, who is a nurse at Kelowna General Hospital (KGH).

“She called me from the hospital and said, ‘Dad, I just walked into a patient’s room, the patient is not well, he’s not able to leave, but his wife is standing at the foot of the bed reading him jokes out of your book and laughing,’” said Dr. Goldberg.

“And I just thought, ‘Oh, that is the perfect thing for this book.’ And I think that’s why it’s done so well at the KGH gift shop. It’s used a lot that way.”

The idea for the book started after years of collecting jokes and sharing them at work. One day, a colleague of Dr. Goldberg asked when he was going to share copies of all of the jokes he had told.

The comment sparked an idea in Dr. Goldberg’s head that he should make a book of all the jokes, but that was something he would undertake as a retirement project.

Life went on and suddenly Dr. Goldberg found himself with some free time after a prostate cancer diagnosis.

While undergoing treatment for the cancer, Dr. Goldberg put together the book and self-published it, with some of the proceeds going to the KGH Foundation.

Eventually, the book caught some traction and was picked up by a publisher, making it available across the country.

With the book now being sold across Canada, it needed a national charity to support. Dr. Goldberg decided that a portion of the proceeds would be donated to the Prostate Cancer Foundation Canada.

The book is available at the KGH gift shop, BC Indigo locations, independent booksellers and online through Amazon.

Click the above video to hear some of the jokes from the book and more details about the creation of it.