What Light Prose/Comedy Meets Snobby Standards?

I like comedy/light prose, but I have the hardest time finding any that's actually written well and is actually funny. I'm working my way through Penguin Island right now, and it's just so refreshing to read something that's silly but not brain dead. Anyone have any other recommendations for comedy that's written well?

For anyone else looking, I enjoyed Lucky Jim and Under the Net. Three Men in a Boat is also supposed to be a comedy classic, though I personally found it to be a bit of a slog. And of course there's always The Canterbury Tales and Shakespeare if you want to get extra snobby!

Comedy is, of course, a subjective thing: but there's always P.G. Wodehouse... if you prefer your British comedy a bit grittier and at the same time more surreal, you could look for the works of Peter Tinniswood.

Mark Leyner consistently cracks me up. Funniest novel I think I've ever read is Richard Russo's STRAIGHT MAN.

I love THREE MEN IN A BOAT.

>1 ebeeb: Can't forget about Don Quixote! If you haven't read this classic, give it a try. I wasn't prepared for how laugh-out-loud hilarious some of those scenes are.

I agree about Richard Russo.

I'll also nominate James Branch Cabell...
Jurgen, Cream of the Jest, Figures of Earth, The Silver Stallion, The High Place. These masquerade as fantasies but they are really philosophical satires. Or, as has been argued, "anatomies"...

During the 20s Cabell was sometimes called 'the American Anatole France'.

They're probably hard to find, but The Raining Tree War and African Horse by David Pownall are worth reading.

I liked The Peacock from Isabel Bogdan.

I'd suggest A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole or if that's not what your looking for The Towers of Trebizond by Rose Macaulay .

I agree with >2 RobertDay:. P.G. Wodehouse is perfect for this request. Everyman's Library makes an anthology edition that makes an excellent introduction to the many types of stories he wrote. It's called The Best of Wodehouse. It's got 2 novels and about 14 short stories that give you a good taste, including my favorite story: "A Crime Wave at Blandings".

Don Quixote, as someone said, and The Pickwick Papers; but you want lighter prose. Surprisingly, John Steinbeck can be funny; you might try Tortilla Flat or Cannery Row. I've been meaning to try Cold Comfort Farm.

Thank you all for all the ideas; I'd never heard of almost any of these titles, and I'm going to have to spend a few very pleasant hours getting acquainted with them.

>11 Cecrow: I found Cold Comfort Farm quite funny; I went in thinking it was going to be this biting satire and it was delightfully cartoonish. The main test for whether or not you will like it: do you find the idea of a man so rustic that he washes the dishes with nothing but a stick funny? If yes: read it.

Kurt Vonnegut? Bluebeard for instance