I have had no luck on creating a group on gmail, Can you explain how to create a group on gmail?

I simply want to forward a joke to several people in Gmail, but can't figure out how! If I click on the drop down by reply, then it opens up the TO: In regular email, you click on the TO and it opens up the address book and you can then select whom you want it to go to.

How do I get my address book open, select the people I want this to go to
and have them appear in the to window. I have been reading on the internet and talking to people, and we are all having the same problem. This does not seem to be a user friendly email. I generally don't have problems adapting to new software.

I've been a long-time fan of Google's Gmail and have particularly enjoyed how it pops up with possible email addresses when you type in the first few characters. I'm now finding that I frequently email a half-dozen people, however, and it's rather a pain to type in each name. Is there some way to make a simple alias that will include all of these folk when I send mail in Gmail?