Hopefully this first line of the unfinished joke above is enough to make you laugh. The inspiration comes from the two books I have just recently entered into inventory,
Asimov's Annotated Paradise Lost and
Asimov's Annotated Don Juan.
Isaac Asimov, born in 1920, was a biochemist with a Ph.D. from Columbia University. Most of us know him as the author of the Foundation Trilogy: Foundation, Foundation and Empire, and Second Foundation.
Not surprisingly, Asimov later expanded the Foundation Trilogy and added four more Foundation titles to his oeuvre.
One of his first published works was the short story Nightfall, which in 1968 was voted by the Science Fiction Writers of America (www.sfwa.org) as the best short story written in that genre. Being Asimov, he of course returned to that story years later and released Nightfall with Robert Silverberg.
Here's the thing about Isaac Asimov ? he couldn't stop writing. He has over 500 titles listed to his credit on Asimovonline.com. When I mentioned that Nightfall was an early story, by that I mean it was his 32nd published story. During his life he wrote not only science fiction, but about science itself, as well as literature and ancient history. He wrote about the Bible, penned a guide to Shakespeare, and even annotated Gilbert and Sullivan.
I don't know if he was ever diagnosed, but perhaps he suffered from hypergraphia. The inability to stop writing ? and the opposite malady, writer's block ? are examined in Alice Flaherty's The Midnight Disease. Were he alive, I'm sure that Asimov would have a few words to contribute on the subject.
Asimov also wrote jokes. Most likely the mixture of biochemistry, popular science, science fiction, and literary criticism percolating in his brain drove him to seek lighter moments, and among his humor books are Asimov Laughs Again and Limericks: Too Gross; or, Two Dozen Dirty Stanzas.
I'm sorry that he's no longer here with us. He could have finished this joke for me:
"Shakespeare, God, and Isaac Asimov walk into a bar..."