The book is split up into several chapters, each covering a different branch of philosophy, such as metaphysics or epistemology. He hoped readers of the book would come away "with a good general background" of the subject, stating "it's kind of Philosophy 101". In an interview with NPR host Liane Hansen, Klein stated that when he and Cathcart were studying philosophy at university, they noticed many similarities to the structure of jokes, which lead to the idea for the book.
What the philosopher calls an insight, the gagster calls a zinger. They tease the mind in the same ways…philosophy and jokes proceed from the same impulse: to confound our sense of the way things are, to flip our worlds upside down, and to ferret out hidden, often uncomfortable, truths about life. The concept behind the book in the Introduction: “The construction and payoff of jokes and the construction and payoff of philosophical concepts are made out of the same stuff. Plato and a Platypus Walk Into a Bar – Understanding Philosophy Through Jokes is a 2007 book by Thomas Wilson Cathcart and Daniel Martin Klein that explains several philosophical concepts with the help of jokes that serve to illustrate the points in the book.
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