The Last Laugh is a comedy and family-entertainment magazine for people who take fun seriously — jokes and wordplay, kids' parties, magic and variety shows, and the gentle comedy of everyday family life.
We started The Last Laugh on a simple hunch: that laughter is one of the most underrated things in family life, and that it deserves to be written about with the same care anyone would give to food, travel or culture. So that is what we do. We cover the craft of a good pun, the logistics of a children's party, the strange history of the clown, and the quiet magic of an in-joke that only your family understands.
We are not interested in cynicism or snark. The world has plenty of both. Our beat is the warmer, sillier, more generous side of comedy — the kind that brings people into the room rather than pushing them out of it. If something made us smile, we want to understand why, and then tell you about it properly.
The Last Laugh is edited by Marty Quinn, a writer who has spent rather too much of his life thinking about why things are funny. Marty grew up in a household where the worst possible response to a bad joke was a polite laugh, and the highest honour was a genuine groan. That upbringing left him with an enduring fascination for the mechanics of comedy and a low tolerance for a lazy punchline.
These days Marty writes most of what you read here, fields a steady stream of party-magician horror stories from readers, and continues to insist that the well-placed pause is the most important tool in comedy. He would like it on the record that he has never once told the same joke twice at a dinner party, a claim his family disputes.
We love hearing from readers, whether you have a story to share, a correction to make, or simply a joke you think we ought to know about. You can reach the whole team at [email protected], and Marty reads every message himself — usually while ignoring something more important.
