An old Jew, a young Jew, and the son of a Presbyterian minister collaborate on a book. This is not the setup to a joke, but it is a laughing matter. Alan Zweibel, Dave Barry, and Adam Mansbach, each bestselling and award-winning authors in their own right, have collaborated on A Field Guide to the Jewish People  (Flatiron Books, Sept. 24), their follow-up to For This We Left Egypt? A Passover Haggadah for Jews and Those Who Love Them. The three spoke with Kirkus on a conference call about why they were the chosen people to create this authoritative, or more accurately, anti-authoritative, tome.

First, thank you for creating this as a book and not a podcast.

ADAM MANSBACH: We thought about a podcast, but there are technological issues. It’s shocking that Alan even found his way onto this call.

ALAN ZWEIBEL: I started dialing the [conference call] number about this time yesterday.

Invoking one of the four Passover Seder questions: Why is this book different from all other books about the Jewish people?

DAVE BARRY: Well, it’s written partly by the son of a Presbyterian minister for one thing. But I would say that you could put all the misinformation in other books and it still would not misinform to the level that this book does.

Alan collaborated with Dave on the novel Lunatics and with Adam on the YA novel Ben Franklin: Huge Pain in My *** before the three of you teamed up to write For This We Left Egypt? What was the inspiration to all write together?

DB: When we realized that Alan was incapable of writing on his own.

AM: We also realized that a book that was only one-third Zweibel would be much more successful than a book that was half Zweibel. Our next book is going to be a minyan with 10 writers.

What was the inspiration for the Field Guide?

AM: Originally, Egypt was going to cover all of Judaism and only after it was published did we realize all we had left out.

DM: It was the publisher who said he wanted us to do another one.

AZ: We went through a lot of titles, something like ‘From Meh to Oy.’

AM: At one point the publisher was trying to get us to call it ‘How to Jew’ and we had to point out that was fairly offensive. It sounded like the most goyish title. I looked up ‘Jewish Field Guide’ [online] and the only other book that came up was a Field Guide to Jewish Cemeteries. I’m guessing ours is funnier.

While Jews make up a tiny percentage of the American population, they seem to comprise 90 percent of comedians. At what point growing up did each of you realize that the people who made you laugh the most were Jewish?

AZ: I probably knew it quicker than the other guys. I used to go to the Catskill Mountains with my dad. We saw Myron Cohen, Jerry Lewis, Totie Fields. That was the culture; East Coast Jews would go up to the Catskills for their entertainment.

DB: I grew up in the New York area. I don’t know if I made a specific connection at the time, but when I look back on it, the guys I really liked to hang out with and who were the funniest tended to be Jewish guys.

AM: Comparing my family to the less-funny families that I grew up around, I realized it was something in the sensibility of my Jewish family, which was not in any way religious, but there was a Jewish cultural shtick that set us apart.

What makes Jewish humor Jewish?

AM: A sense of how pretty much futile it is to be alive.

AZ: I’ve tried to answer this question. It’s difficult. I begin trying to elaborate on the characteristics of Jewish humor and I realize that everything I’m saying applies to all of humor; that everything that makes Jewish humor funny is what makes all humor funny. And then I forget what I’m talking about.

What is your process for collaborating?

AM: We’ve never met. There’s a clause in my and Dave’s contracts that says we never have to be in a room with Alan for any reason.

AZ: Adam and Dave live together and they won’t give me the address.

DB: The truth is, Alan is not really that good with rooms.

Did each of you have a specialty you brought to the project?

DB: It was pretty random. The closest thing we came to being organized is that every now and then Adam would send out an email with the vast areas of Judaism that we had failed to talk about. He would write on those topics and Alan and I would continue to write about, in Alan’s case, why the yarmulke is round.

AZ: Dave did the history of the bagel, which was not on any of Adam’s lists.

The Jews contain multitudes. Will there be a sequel? A feature film? A Netflix special?

DB: I like the idea of a feature film about the making of the book. Someone could release the emails that we exchanged just criticizing each other; really just insulting Alan, let’s be honest.

AZ: Mostly me. What they did is they talk to each other about me in an email that goes out to all three of us but they put in parentheses, ‘Alan, don’t read this.’

Perhaps they were jealous because Chabad (a Hassidic movement) named you their Man of the Year?

AZ: I very rarely wave that in their face. Did you guys know that I was Chabad’s Man of the Year?

AM: After we both turned it down, yeah.

What lessons from writing the first book did you bring to writing the Field Guide?

DB: If I learned any lessons I never would have never collaborated with these guys again.

One last question from the Seder: Should this book be read in a sitting or a reclining position?

AM: It’s more important that this book be purchased.

Donald Liebenson is a Chicago-based author for the Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times, VanityFair.com, and Vulture.com.