Book Review: 'Dirty Jokes and Beer'

Mercifully, Drew Carey, star of ABC's hit The Drew Carey Show, eschews the watered-down collection of humor pabulum usually found in books like this. In Dirty Jokes and Beer he actually divulges behind-the-scenes information, from ABC censors' notes on Drew scripts (''Lewis's reference to 'penis enlarging' will not be acceptable'') to the always juicy, deep dark secret (''When I was nine, I was sexually molested. Hey, that ought to sell some books, huh?''). Still, Dirty Jokes spends 10 chapters on unfunny ''comic'' essays (sample topics: Tailhook, dieting) that Carey says the publisher insisted he include. ''I wrote it while holding a gun to my own head,'' he writes. That's funny, I read it that way. C+