Funniest Books You Have Read

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Funniest Books You Have Read

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1coffeezombie
aug 2, 2006, 2:33 pm

Personal favorites, guilty pleasures, obvious classics. What are the books that make you laugh that most?

2montano
aug 2, 2006, 3:55 pm

Without a doubt, my favorite is Me Talk Pretty One Day by David Sedaris. The essay entitled Jesus Shaves is SO funny. I copied it and sent it to everyone I know.
A recent find was Alice, I Think by Susan Juby. I was in the eye doctor's waiting room, doubled over laughing. It's a YA book but soooo funny!
Florence King wrote some hilarious memoir-type stuff.

3Lunawhimsy
aug 3, 2006, 11:20 pm

Douglas Adams Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy series. I'm in love with Zaphod.

4Eurydice
aug 4, 2006, 12:47 am

Ooh - no! Not Zaphod! - Ford Prefect! (Though I sympathize deeply with poor Arthur's search for a decent cup of REAL tea!)

Actually, I admit it, I'm NOT in love with Ford Prefect. But don't tell him, will you?

5Fantasma
aug 4, 2006, 5:52 am

42!!
:o)

6Eurydice
aug 4, 2006, 5:56 am

LOL.

7rikker
aug 4, 2006, 1:13 pm

Now THERE's a hoopy frood who really knows where his towel's at. :)

8engelcox Eerste Bericht
aug 4, 2006, 2:25 pm

The one author and book series that I feel duty bound to evangelize is Joe Keenan, who wrote a couple of books about the Broadway musical scene called Putting on the Ritz and Blue Heaven, then quit writing novels for a while to concentrate on being the executive story editor for Frazier. Now that the show is no longer being made, he's back with a new book, My Lucky Star. The only caveat I make about these books are that some of the characters are gay, so if you're extremely homophobic, you might want to give them a miss.

9sarahjanesandra
aug 5, 2006, 3:01 am

While I did enjoy the Douglas Adams "trilogy", Christopher Moore always makes me laugh. Lamb is brilliant!!!

10faceinbook
aug 5, 2006, 12:45 pm

T.R. Pearson is perhaps the "funniest" author I have ever read, however, the funniest literary scene I have ever come across is the Nativity scene in the book titled "A Prayer For Owen Meany" by John Irving

Another author who comes to mind is Richard Russo. The man has a great sense of humor :>)

11quartzite
aug 5, 2006, 5:22 pm

I am very fond of T.R. Pearson though my favorites Cry Me a River and Blue Ridge are not necessaily his funniest.

12lorsomething
aug 9, 2006, 1:55 pm

The 5-minute Iliad and other instant classics by Greg Nagan is the funniest (so far). I laughed out loud through the whole thing. And the same can be said for Anguished English by Richard Lederer.

13Bookmarque
aug 9, 2006, 2:23 pm

In addition to the Hitchhiker's books I laughed like crazy reading The Water Method Man and the Adrian Mole series by Sue Townsend.

14Mz.Balma
aug 11, 2006, 2:43 am

Don Quixote is without a doubt the funniest book I've ever read, but I would never have picked up on half of the funny bits if I hadn't had the guidance of a very excellent Spanish lit professor along the way. I also laughed quite a lot while reading Me Talk Pretty One Day, The Princess Bride, and Lady Cottington's Pressed Fairy Book.

15atamata Eerste Bericht
aug 11, 2006, 5:14 am

Woody Allen's The Complete Prose, genius and totally surreal! I can't read it on public transport without making a fool of myself from laughing out loud at most of it.

16kageeh Eerste Bericht
Bewerkt: dec 15, 2006, 5:04 pm

Joe Queenan's Red Lobster, White Trash & the Blue Lagoon; Joe Queenan's America (1999) is one of the funniest books I have ever read and easily his best. His chapter on VC Andrews' Flowers in the Attic (which I guiltily read and loved) made me laugh so hard, I couldn't breathe trying to read it to a friend. And wait until you read what he thinks of the Broadway musical "Cats". Read it -- you will lose all control.

17BoPeep
aug 11, 2006, 1:18 pm

Joe Queenan also wrote If You're Talking To Me, Your Career Must Be In Trouble which I remember thinking I was going to like from the title alone. :D

18bookmarks Eerste Bericht
aug 11, 2006, 11:51 pm

Wodehouse is the master. My favorites of his are the Bertie and Jeeves books. The great thing about Wodhouse is that you have several books to choose from if you like his writing.

19redbike Eerste Bericht
aug 12, 2006, 12:23 am

the funniest book I have ever read is without a doubt a confederacy of dunces. My roommates seconds this.

20FicusFan
aug 19, 2006, 5:55 pm


I like Christopher Moore's books especially those set in Pine Cove. The Lust Lizard of Melancholy Cove is probably my favorite.

Terry Pratchett is good too - I like Small Gods and Interesting Times.

David Sedaris is funny too, but I prefer listening to him on audio books rather than reading him.

I like Gerald Durrell's stories about growing up and his passion for the natural world. The books start with My Family and Other Animals and follow him into old age, he grew up to be a naturalist and work with wildlife parks and zoos.

I also loved Sue Townsend and the series that starts with The Adrian Mole Diaries.

My most recent funny book is Things My Girlfriend and I Have Argued About by Mil Millington Just hysterical.

21bemidjian
aug 19, 2006, 11:29 pm

I generally enjoy the works of Donald Westlake but I think he outdid all his other works with Dancing Aztecs.

Jasper Fforde has come close but only Westlake has brought me laughter that brought me to tears.

22chat_noir Eerste Bericht
Bewerkt: aug 19, 2006, 11:41 pm

I love David Sedaris's books. Naked is so funny.

23wolfnotes
aug 20, 2006, 12:10 am

Stories from a Moron by Ed Broth.

24del_rex
aug 20, 2006, 6:55 pm

Lucky Jim has certain passages that never fail to make me laugh out loud, no matter how many times I read them; Woody Allen, definitely! Laurie Notaro is fun, Douglas Adams always a treat. The Angry Clam is an ineffable joy forever--I mean, the opening line is "So wrought with hostility, the angry clam plots the destruction of the universe." I was instantly hooked. Daniel Pinkwater, Cynthia Heimel, Max Shulman...All right, I give up. I admit it. I'm a shallow human being and basically I'll for for anything since life is all about havin' a laugh!

25Bookmarque
aug 21, 2006, 10:03 am

Am listening to Motherless Brooklyn as done by Frank Muller (Recorded Books) and his reading cracks me up. He "does" Lionel perfectly - the verbal ticks are a riot. Although I'm probably laughing where I shouldn't be. Can't be helped.

26nickhoonaloon
aug 21, 2006, 10:25 am

I might have to seek out The Angry Clam after reading the message from del_rex above.

My own choices are pretty predictable I think - P G Wodehouse, Jerome K Jerome, Terry Pratchett. I also once read a parody of Raymond Chandler by S J Perelman - Farewell My Lovely Appetiser - that is pretty near the funniest thing I`ve read. I also liked a humourous piece by W E B Du Bois - possibly his only humourous piece ? - entitled On Being Crazy (1922).

Keep laughing.

27parcequilfaut
aug 21, 2006, 11:25 am

Man! Notaro, Sedaris, Wodehouse...y'all read my mind this morning.

I'm not a big Queenan person; he comes off to me as a pompous asshole. I am a huge fan of Terry Pratchett, who is hilarious, Pamela Ribon, who rocks my socks, and, on the nonfiction side, Molly Ivins. Jill Connor Browne's stuff is funny, too.

28bibsy32 Eerste Bericht
aug 21, 2006, 1:02 pm

Back in the Jug Agane, and other Molesworth books by Geoffrey Willans - maybe only appeal to the English? Hilarious.

29nickhoonaloon
aug 21, 2006, 1:27 pm

Now you`ve brought back some memories ! Wasn`t there a character described as starting each day with the words "Hello clouds, hello sky." ???

30bibsy32
aug 22, 2006, 7:39 am

That was ickle prety fotherington-thomas - who was like a gurl!

31BoPeep
aug 22, 2006, 7:41 am

Eny fule kno that. Hem hem.

I can't wait to introduce my little boy to St Custard's. I might wait until he's got the hang of spelling things correctly, though.

32nickhoonaloon
aug 22, 2006, 7:57 am

bibsy32

Thanks for that, it was indeed Fotherington-Thomas.

33bettyjo
aug 23, 2006, 8:39 pm

I laughed out loud at Miss Julia Speaks Her Mind by Ann Ross. A couple of very funny YA novels are The Canning Season and The Vacation both by Polly Horvath..Great for adults as well.

34FicusFan
aug 25, 2006, 11:42 pm


I too have fallen under the spell of The Angry Clam. I have it on my wish list and will search it out or order it on my next bookstore outing. Thanks

35magst
aug 27, 2006, 2:07 pm

I laughed my butt off while reading Big Trouble and Tricky Business by Dave Barry.

36quartzite
aug 28, 2006, 3:59 pm

Just about any time Dave Barry mentions dogs, such as his large economy size dog and the small emergency back-up dog, I pretty much lose it.

37dawnlovesbooks Eerste Bericht
aug 30, 2006, 11:37 am

augusten burroughs will keep you laughing!

38sunny
aug 31, 2006, 5:12 pm

The Lover's Dictionary : How to Be Amorous in Five Languages (make sure to get the original edition. Mine is newer with some ugly illustrations, leaving out some of the phrases).

39gforce7 Eerste Bericht
Bewerkt: sep 1, 2006, 10:13 am

Sue Townsend's Adrian Mole series, the first one probably being the best.

Also Damien Owens, John O'Farrell & Mil Millington's books.
Three Men in a Boat by Jerome K. Jerome

Frank Skinner's autobiography is the funniest biog I've ever read (funnily enough - excuse pun - written by a comedian).

I also found parts of Angelas Ashes by Frank McCourt hilarious, but some people completely fail to see the humour in it (?!?!)

40geekparade Eerste Bericht
sep 1, 2006, 10:06 am

The Mammy series by Brendan O'Carroll had me shooting Diet Coke out of my nose. It is about Agnes Browne, and how she raises her 7 children as a single mother in the Dublin ghetto in the 60's.

Here are the 4 titles in chronological order:

The Young Wan
The Mammy
The Chiselers
The Granny

Funniest things I've ever read.

41gforce7
sep 1, 2006, 10:15 am

Agreed geekparade, I forgot about those!!! Deffinately highly recommended.

42junecauliay Eerste Bericht
sep 2, 2006, 6:31 am

I recently read a book called Killing Saantinni by Angelo Kafuna and my face ached with laughter from beginning to end. A recent review said that it is going to be the cult novel of the next thirty years and I agree that it has that potential. The mad-cap antics of Skydiver (the main character) and his (clearly un-hinged) mentor Saantinni are non-stop. It's hilarious.

43Hera
sep 2, 2006, 8:43 am

PG Wodehouse. I'm reading the Jeeves books at the moment and laughing hysterically on public transport. I just finished Carry On, Jeeves and without exception laughed hard twice on each page. I like Joe Orton, too: he's filthy and has hilarious one-liners (all those Carry On movies as a child have had a deleterious effect on my sense of humour).

44ProdigalReader Eerste Bericht
sep 6, 2006, 4:31 pm

FicusFan:

Christopher Moore is one of my absolute favorites. Lust Lizard is good; I also like The Stupidest Angel and Lamb.

I am also a fan of Bill Bryson.

45sergerca
sep 7, 2006, 9:54 pm

I will second Big Trouble.

Also, P.J. O'Rourke's anything- but Eat the Rich stands out.

46Bookmarque
sep 8, 2006, 8:04 pm

Oh how could I forget Carl Hiaasen? Stormy Weather and Tourist Season made me howl. Great writer. Love Skink - what a character. Plus, Hiaasen was a buddy of Warren Zevon's so we know he had good musical taste. Even co-wrote some songs with ol' Warren.

47ryn_books
Bewerkt: sep 13, 2006, 4:07 am

I want to go home by Gordon Korman.

Children's / YA book - I've kept it for 2 decades and lent many times to various friends as a 'happy book'. Guaranteed to make them laugh out loud at some point when reading the book.

Well written, engaging, funny! and still keeps the empathy and childs point of view.

48princemuchao
Bewerkt: sep 23, 2006, 9:28 pm

Berkeley Breathed makes me laugh like no one else can... except for maybe the great Hunter S. Thompson. Curse of Lono has to be one of the funniest books I have ever read - the problem is that when I read Gonzo, I tend to laugh a bit too maniacally.

I second/third anything by Christopher Moore and John Kennedy Toole's A Confederacy of Dunces

49gman4626 Eerste Bericht
sep 23, 2006, 2:52 pm

I Third!

50lorsomething
sep 28, 2006, 5:50 pm

Anything by Cathie Pelletier, but especially The Funeral Makers. She captured small town life like no one else I've read.

51nickhoonaloon
okt 2, 2006, 4:19 pm

All time favourite would be P G Wodehouse, probably Psmith in the City.

Honourable mentions would go to Terry Pratchett, though I stopped buying his new ones a few years ago as I thought the quality was slipping, Jerome K Jerome, also Malcolm Pryce, author of Aberystwyth Mon Amour and The Unbearable Lightness of Being in Aberystwyth. There`s also one I`ve not read yet, Last Tango in Aberystwyth. Unbearable Lightness... , which I`ve read recently, is third in the series and suffers from that thing authors do, of adding in a `darker tone` to show they have depth or whatever. Writers are like celebrities, I don`t believe they have any depth for the most part. Robert Rankin is OK too.

52nickhoonaloon
okt 3, 2006, 5:08 pm

P.S. Have just started The Wrong Boy by Willy Russell. Excellent so far.

53SimonW11
okt 4, 2006, 4:17 am

What no ones mentioned. Puckoon or Damon Runyon?

54mortaine
okt 5, 2006, 11:27 pm

Stiff by Mary Roach-- has to be the funniest non-fiction book I've read in a long time. I mean, I liked Al Franken's book last year (The Truth? was that it), but that's so political.

Stiff enriched my life in so many ways, not the least of which was the experience of sitting in a coffeeshop and having someone tap me on the shoulder to ask what I was reading, and the priceless look of discomfort he gave me when I showed him the cover and explained cheerfully "It's a book about dead bodies!"

55miabooks
okt 6, 2006, 12:38 pm

It appears that the humour I've enjoyed is of a somewhat dark/cynical nature.

A few that had me laughing out loud, in public, usually on the treadmill:

A.M. Homes, Music for Torching
Lisa Zeidner, Layover
Amy Herrick, The Happiness Code
David Lodge, Therapy
Don DeLillo, White Noise

One I hated & thought was very unfunny, though many have dubbed it hilarious was Running with Scissor by Augusten Burroughs.

5618rabbit
Bewerkt: okt 14, 2006, 2:00 am

My votes are for The Straight and Narrow Path by Honor Tracy.Have read it many times and it still makes me laugh out loud. Also,Flann O'Brien, The Poor Mouth and The Best of Myles.

57mackan
okt 14, 2006, 4:10 am

I must admit I like Michael Moore, even if I do realize there are a lot of Americans here, and he seems to be a somewhat controversial person, over there ;)

He is like the funny little brother of Eric Schlosser, if you ask me.

An english writer with an ear for the funny in language is (forementioned) Douglas Adams, although I like the "Dirk Gentley"-books even more than the "Hitch hiker"-trilogy

C.S. Lewis Screwtape letters is some seriously funny satire.

But the funniest book I've read this year is actually The brick testament - The ten commandments, which is an hilariously funny idea, well executed and a cool way of telling sunday school stories.

58firefly7522
okt 16, 2006, 4:02 am

A really funny book I read a couple of years ago was Horseplay by Judy Reene Singer. Obviously, it's about horses, so, if you're not at least interested in horses, you probably won't enjoy it. But, it was just really funny to me. The language and the situations that the lead character uses and gets herself into are hilarious, and the supporting characters just add to the mix. A light, enjoyable read for anyone interested.

59Precipitation
okt 16, 2006, 7:53 pm

The Areas of My Expertise by John Hodgman, The Hitchhiker's Trilogy, Post Office by Charles Bukowski, and A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole.

60bookishbunny
okt 17, 2006, 4:03 pm

The anthology Fierce Pajamas from New Yorker Magazine. I also have a vintage edition of humor from Esquire magazine.

As a novel goes, Bloodsucking Fiends by Christopher Moore was great, but it's been years.

61bettyjo
okt 24, 2006, 10:36 pm

Just listened to the audio of The Devil in the Junior League by Linda Francis Lee and drove around town laughing...it is much lighter stuff than what I like to read but I needed it and it is pure fun.

62bookishbunny
okt 25, 2006, 8:55 am

My books-on-tape selections are always lighter fare than my reading books (though sometimes I'm surprised and end up with a good, complex one). I'm going to see if they have your suggestion at my library. Thanks, bettyjo.

63Morphidae
okt 25, 2006, 2:45 pm

MaryJanice Davidson's Undead books crack me up. The first is Undead and Unwed.

64bookjones
Bewerkt: nov 5, 2006, 1:46 am

So glad to read of The Angry Clam love earlier in the thread! As much as I love that book---indeed, ANY book where a bivalve converts to Islam---I still have to say that the funniest book I have read in years is In Me Own Words: The Autobiography of Bigfoot by Graham Roumieu. It had me in hysterics the first time I read it and it never ceases to have me rollin' whenever I re-read it. I've made sure to give it as a gift to all my close friends.

Pretty much tied with Bigfoot though is the entire oeuvre by David Rees. Get Your War On, Get Your War On II, My New Filing Technique Is Unstoppable, and My New Fighting Technique Is Unstoppable. Who knew clip-art could be so useful, so vulgar. . .so unstoppable as it were?

I agree with those who gave props to Berkeley Breathed too. My humor fangurl crush on all things Bloom County date back to my teen years when the strip was active. Oh Opus, Bill the Cat, Steve Dallas, et al how I miss your freaky glory.

65nickhoonaloon
nov 5, 2006, 5:16 am

"ANY book where a bivalve converts to Islam"

You mean there are others ?

66KathyWoodall
nov 5, 2006, 7:40 am

Christopher Moore books are really funny in a sick twisted way. I also enjoy Fannie Flagg books.

67bookjones
Bewerkt: nov 5, 2006, 11:43 am

"ANY book where a bivalve converts to Islam"

You mean there are others ?


Well technically I suppose there could be others. Heh.

In retrospect I should have typed "as I would" instead of "indeed" however if anyone in the LT sphere does know of any other books where bivalves grapple with converting to Islam, Shinto, B'Hai or ANY other faiths then I think they should share this information in this public forum post-haste!

68PhilipMarlowe
nov 5, 2006, 8:33 pm

Probably, Candide: 200 years later, nothing has changed-- the book is as accurate as ever.

69littlegeek
Bewerkt: nov 8, 2006, 2:30 pm

Christopher Moore, Wodehouse, Adams yes, yes. No one has mentioned Evelyn Waugh, who has got to be one of the funniest writers in the English language, ever! The Loved One, Decline and Fall, Vile Bodies, Scoop!
Also, what kind of Americans are we, no Twain, no Vonnegut? What's wrong with you people?

70littlegeek
nov 8, 2006, 2:38 pm

Never Mind the Pollacks by Neal Pollack made me laugh out loud so many times. You have to be of a certain age, and it helps if you have read Lester Bangs, but if so, it's a scream!

The Neal Pollack Anthology is funny too.

71akenned5
Bewerkt: nov 8, 2006, 5:20 pm

Also, what kind of Americans are we, no Twain, no Vonnegut? What's wrong with you people?

Well, actually littlegeek, not all of us are Americans. I am an Aussie.
Agree with you about Waugh.

72hollybelle88 Eerste Bericht
nov 8, 2006, 5:46 pm

I just this past week discovered Wodehouse! I am working on my third book now. I have been listening to them on BCD and the reader is great. Also, just yesterday I discovered old TV series Jeeves and Wooster on VHS in our library. Jackpot!

73pechmerle
Bewerkt: nov 9, 2006, 12:08 am

Mark Twain, of course. Among his lesser known works, The Innocents Abroad is a very funny recounting of his first trip to Europe, on the first ever American package tour.

And among Evelyn Waugh's humor classics, don't miss Black Mischief, a mordant satire of emerging Africa.

74kristena Eerste Bericht
nov 9, 2006, 12:53 am

Confederacy of Dunces made me laugh aloud in public many times. America, The Book: Teacher's Edition. Mark Twain's anti-imperialist works. Bob Black's work. Man in the Black Coat (anthology of absurdist lit from Russia).

75littlegeek
nov 14, 2006, 1:50 pm

"Well, actually littlegeek, not all of us are Americans. I am an Aussie"

Sorry, I realise and love the fact that the internet is international. I was just trying to light a fire under my compatriots.

Speaking of funny books & Aussies, I love Peter Carey.

76akenned5
Bewerkt: nov 14, 2006, 5:22 pm

littlegeek; yeah, he is a great writer. Another hilarious Aussie book is called Honk if you are Jesus by Peter Goldsworthy. Great stuff about cloning.

Didn't mean my comment to come out so shrill. Sorry about that. I agree that Vonnegut is one of the funniest writers around, but haven't really thought about Mark Twain that way. Must read more of his stuff. I am always coming across witty sayings by him.

77samizdat
nov 14, 2006, 5:44 pm

How has Catch-22 not been mentioned?

Funniest book I've read.

78Hera
nov 14, 2006, 8:26 pm

I forgot The Wimbledon Poisoner by Nigel Williams and Cold Comfort Farm which both made me laugh out loud recently. Waugh is, of course, funny in a twisted way - the ending of Scoop is hilarious but so cruel, though nowhere near as vicious as Decline and Fall. I thought Bliss was Peter Carey's funniest novel, with Illywhacker close behind. All of these are quite 'dark' compared to the light-hearted humour of Wodehouse, which I have been enjoying recently.

79KathyWoodall
nov 15, 2006, 5:58 am

I have never read any of Kurt Vonnegut's books. Is there one in particular anyone would recommend?

Kathy

80littlegeek
nov 15, 2006, 1:51 pm

Unless you are a fundamentalist Christian and are easily offended, I recommend Letters From the Earth as a very funny Twain book. Most of his works are hilarious if you ask me.

81littlegeek
nov 15, 2006, 1:53 pm

Kathy, for Vonnegut I would recommend some of the earlier books like Cat's Cradle, Sirens of Titan, Slaughterhouse Five, Breakfast of Champions. The later books are more whiney and less funny, imho.

82KathyWoodall
nov 15, 2006, 3:49 pm

littlegeek thanks!! I'll check the library for them. =)
Kathy

83janey47
nov 15, 2006, 5:29 pm

The three funniest books I've ever read:

Mating, by Norman Rush
Lolita, by Vladimir Nabokov
American Psycho, by Bret Easton Ellis

84janey47
nov 15, 2006, 5:30 pm

Hi littlegeek!!!!

*waves*

85marfita
nov 17, 2006, 3:20 pm

Dit bericht is door zijn auteur gewist.

86marfita
nov 17, 2006, 3:20 pm

The best christmas pageant ever by Robinson had my mother laughing all evening. Odd, it made me cry. Still a great book, however you react to it.
I first came to wodehouse through Cocktail Time, which is an Uncle Fred story. Wodehouse's language is so great, and he can really build up the visual for a domino of pratfalls; witness the cold tongue collation episode in Something Fresh (also called Something New, depending on the pond effect).
I agree totally with Adams, Pratchett, and especially Sedaris. The work that made the Diet Pepsi come out my nose (much better than Diet Coke, although I prefer real Coke to real Pepsi - go figure) though, was The Frogs by Aristophanes. Yes, 2300 years later, it's still funny. Drove me to study Ancient Greek (as I've said elsewhere on LT) just to make sure it was all Aristophanes' wit.
And, what is truly amazing to me is that Patrick F. MacManus make me howl. I have absolutely no interest in fishing, hunting, or anything outdoors (if I were I'd be on FishinHuntinOutdoorsThing, wouldn't I?) yet his writing makes my husband get up from what he's doing, walk out on the porch or to the living room to see what the aitch-ee-double-hockeysticks is so funny.

87pepperman42 Eerste Bericht
nov 18, 2006, 3:14 am

slapstick made me laugh til i cried

88MrsLee
nov 18, 2006, 5:49 am

I always use the ladies room before I attempt to read James Herriot books, though I need tissues at hand also.
Never Sniff a Gift Fish, The Grasshopper Trap by Patrick McManus, several chapters remind me of my childhood on a ranch. I identify with family members coming to see if I'm O.K. while reading this.
Anything Can Happen, by George and Helen Waite Papashvily (the touchstones brought up the wrong info on this). A seriously funny account of an immigrants introduction to America. c.1940. Read this aloud to my DH and we both howled.

89_ousia_
nov 18, 2006, 3:12 pm

I absolutely love all of the books by Douglas Adams. I also enjoyed Bridget Jones' Diary as well as its sequel, Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason - although nowhere near as much as Adams' books. Oh, and Garfield comics . . .

90DuckSoup Eerste Bericht
nov 18, 2006, 3:31 pm


I am going to go with Hunter S Thompson's "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas." Fast paced madness!

"Uncle Fred in the Springtime" by Wodehouse, is another good one;

as is, Vonnegut's "Cats Cradle."

91nevusmom
nov 18, 2006, 3:37 pm

Y'all are far too high-brow for me! The funniest book I've EVER read was the hypochondriac's guide to life. And death. by Gene Weingarten, a friend, and former colleague of Dave Barry, another of my favorite writers. I had tears rolling down my face!

I also like Patrick McManus, Lewis Grizzard, James Thurber, and Mark Twain. Regarding comic strips, I'm a big fan of Pearls Before Swine.

Since The Angry Clam has been mentioned so many times, I'm hopping over to Amazon to check it out.

92SierraCharlie
nov 18, 2006, 7:04 pm

I'm fairly new here, so apologies if I'm gate-crashing. Would agree with Lolita. Lots of people I know don't get the farcical nature of it at all. I think it's extremely witty and clever.
My favourite though, and the only book to make me laugh out loud page after page is Catch-22. You feel like yo're laughing because the only alternative is to go mad with the horror and futility of it, truly hilarious

93chamekke
Bewerkt: nov 26, 2006, 2:45 am

I read Notes from a Small Island by Bill Bryson when I was living in the UK (I'm a Canadian), and certain parts of that book made me laugh until I wept. It captured certain aspects of life in England rather alarmingly well, I thought.

I also remember reading aloud selections of The Meaning of Liff by Douglas Adams and John Lloyd (who sadly doesn't seem to merit his own touchstone) to coworkers in a certain biochemistry departmant, and they laughed until they wept, too. (Someone has rather unsportingly put the entire text of this book on the Web, less the illustrations, and you can read it at http://folk.uio.no/alied/TMoL.html.)

Anyway. Liff is a wonderful book in which Adams and Lloyd take dozens of funny-sounding place names - real ones, such as the eponymous "Liff" - and give each one a totally bogus, yet badly needed, definition. (And by the way, if anyone can propose one for the tiny village of Heanton Punchardon {don't sneeze, you'll miss it!}, I am taking nominations...)

P.S. Edited for bad use of square brackets!

P.P.S. Further edited to note that I just noticed something. Adams and Lloyd DID define Heanton Punchardon (n.) as "A violent argument which breaks out in the car on the way home from a party between a couple who have had to be polite to each other in company all evening."

Truly, these were masters.

94Jilly Eerste Bericht
nov 26, 2006, 2:54 pm

I'll chime in with my praises for Christopher Moore....all his books have made me laugh out loud, especially Lamb. If you get a chance to see him at a book reading (or non-reading as he calls it) -- you simply must go! He's even funnier in person!

The funniest book I've read recently is by Jen Lancaster -- Bitter is the New Black: Confessions of a condescending egomaniacal, self-centered smart-ass, or why you should never carry a Prada bag to the unemployment office.

95Dragonfly
Bewerkt: nov 29, 2006, 8:15 am

Three recommendations. First, Three Men in a Boat by Jerome K. Jerome. I've read it several times and it still makes me laugh out loud. Second, Southern Ladies and Gentlemen by Florence King. Folks, her descriptions of the archivist's encounters with members of the public are not exaggerated. Third is an essay by science fiction and fantasy writer Poul Anderson on how not to write fantasy. The title is "On Thud and Blunder". It appeared in a book called Fantasy and it's also been posted on line.

96bookishbunny
nov 27, 2006, 10:28 am

Bloodsucking Fiends by Moore made me laugh out loud. That, so far, is my favorite of his.

97Thalia
nov 27, 2006, 11:56 am

Oh good! I've only read Lamb by him so far and loved it so much that I decided I needed to read some more. And Bloodsucking Fiends was the one I picked up last week. I'm looking forward to reading it.

98Jilly
nov 27, 2006, 10:29 pm

Thalia-
Perfect timing...You Suck: A Love Story is coming out in January. It's a continuation of Bloodsucking Fiends. You'll definately enjoy it!

99ariel4thou
nov 28, 2006, 12:11 am

The last section of "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn." I laughed, I roared -- I LITERALLY rolled on the floor laughing. And it's a classic, too!

100SimonW11
nov 28, 2006, 3:23 am

Just pulled my copy of Puckoon off the shelf

101pechmerle
nov 28, 2006, 4:06 am

Calvin Trillin's Travels with Alice is a very funny collection of his travel essays. E.g., I had to laugh out loud at his description of "taurine piscine" in southern France: combines non-lethal bull fighting with an above-ground swimming pool.

102dawnmarie Eerste Bericht
dec 3, 2006, 10:37 am

Without a doubt Roughing It by Mark Twain. No matter how blue I am I can always find something in there to make me laugh... usually to the point of tears.

103dawnmarie
dec 3, 2006, 10:44 am

My husband is reading Sirens of Titan and says I'm gonna have to read it. The only other Vonnegut I've read in recent years is Galapagos and it was grrreat.

104pamelad
dec 7, 2006, 4:06 am

Some classics. Catch 22 is my all-time favourite. I read it when things don't make sense. Cold Comfort Farm, The Diary of a Nobody, the Lucia books by E.F. Benson. Period pieces - laughing at class-consciousness.

105akenned5
dec 7, 2006, 4:53 pm

Last night I thought of a hilarious series - maybe not my favourites, but really funny. Stephen Potter's One-Upmanship, Gamesmanship and Lifemanship books. They are maybe the book equivalent of a 'mockumentary'. They are formatted and illustrated like instruction manuals or self-help books. Anybody else out there a (non-Harry) Potter fan?

106neekeebee
dec 7, 2006, 7:56 pm

Off the top of my head, books that have made me laugh out loud:

Lynne Truss's Eats, Shoots, and Leaves (I probably just botched the punctuation there) and Talk to the Hand;
Bill Bryson's I'm a Stranger Here Myself
and parts of Louis Cha's The Deer and the Cauldron

107ariel4thou
dec 8, 2006, 4:54 pm

There is a YA series (YOUNG YA) that is just drop dead funny .. it's called Soup by Robert Newton Peck. Actually it's alot like The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. About a young boy who gets into all sorts of trouble. I remember reading these books to my daughters and laughing so hard I cried.

108djkmbro Eerste Bericht
dec 8, 2006, 7:16 pm

Has anyone read the books of Donald Jack - the only title I can remember off the top of my head is That Me in the Middle.

There are 3 books about a Canadian in the First World War. The scene where he visits the house of his future wife and get trapped in a Victorian bath has had me ill with laughter more than any other passage of writing

109Marillion Eerste Bericht
dec 8, 2006, 7:19 pm

Tom Holt and his brilliant pythonesque books: Expecting Someone Taller; Who's Afraid of Beowulf; Flying Dutch; and Odds and Gods are all very silly, memorable reads. Highly reccomended if you have a taste for irreverent British humor.

110sqdancer
Bewerkt: dec 9, 2006, 12:27 am

djkmbro
I have three Donald Jack books but I haven't read them yet. I'm going to bump them up my TBR pile! Thanks for the recommendation. :)

111raptorrunner
Bewerkt: dec 10, 2006, 12:49 am

As a youth, neither I nor my brother could read Shovelnose and the Gator Grabbers aloud Robert Alter although we tried mightily.

Two swamp dwellers, humans, try to make a living, licit or illicit, and seem to always meet Shovelnose, who is always just trying to be a 'gator, and always just totally and utterly ruins whatever cockamamie plan Dad Peps and his dadburned fool of a son, Hughie, have cooked up. Dad Peps is somewhat like McManus' Rancid Crabtree and Canada's Red Green.

35 years later, reading to friends, I can read it better, but in a strangled voice, as holding one's breath has a limited effect on trying not to laugh.

112SimonW11
dec 10, 2006, 1:54 am

113LitClique
dec 11, 2006, 3:36 pm

Songs in the Key of Z about outsider musicians. The writing is fifty times funnier than even the subjects!

114LittleRedBookKitten Eerste Bericht
dec 11, 2006, 4:43 pm

Lighthouse by William Monahan. Obscene and offensive and laugh-out-loud funny.

115limpet
dec 13, 2006, 1:06 pm

Huckleberry Finn is about as funny as it gets...Wodehouse, Thurber, Benchley, Carl Hiassen....

But my NUMBER ONE funniest book of all time...the one I've bought over and over again, is Westward Ha! by SJ Perlman. I wept.

116ariel4thou
dec 14, 2006, 3:15 am

Completely forgot Steinbeck's Cannery Row! (Hmmm... Huck Finn .. Soup .. Cannery Row .. I think I'm seeing a pattern here ...)

117birgit
dec 14, 2006, 8:21 am

The funniest books I've ever read were undoubtedly the two "Be afraid honey, it's...FM4" books by Christoph Grissemann and Dirk Stermann. Unfortunately, they're only published in German and as far as I know they're hilarious.

118Xenalyte
dec 15, 2006, 10:17 am

Sounds like Ariel needs a sammich! :)

119victoriana Eerste Bericht
dec 15, 2006, 3:02 pm


Wilt by Tom Sharpe - Warning - don't read on the bus,train or plane!

A Year in Provence- Peter Mayle - the book is good the audio cassettes/cds are brilliant.

120marfita
dec 15, 2006, 3:24 pm

I remember reading The ThrowBack by Tom Sharpe decades ago and laughing myself sick. I got it from my local branch library in Manhattan. Phew! I'd like to find a copy of that now.

121kageeh
dec 15, 2006, 4:50 pm

nevusmom (#91) --

I bought The hypochondriac's guide to life. And death. by Gene Weingarten when my son was in law school and convinced he was dying of the most obscure ailments. In fact, his entire childhood was one of rampant hypochondria. The book made me lose all control of bodily functions. But now my son is in medical school and he never feels sick. Go figure.

122ariel4thou
dec 16, 2006, 6:36 am

Re: A Year in Provence

Y'know, for some reason I have the hardest time with these types of books. They just feel so self-serving. So you got to live in France. So you wrote your stories and made some money off of them. What, after all, make your stories better than anyone else's? I think they need to be pretty incredible to be worth reading, and I don't think Peter Mayle cut the mustard in this respect.

I have the same problem with blogs ... I guess I'd rather make/live my own adventures rather than read about some other guy's.

I did read this book, and it was quaint. But it was also the tipping point for me in developing this opinion. By the time I was done, I just kind of felt like ... "Who cares?"

123ciciha
dec 16, 2006, 7:10 am

>122 ariel4thou:

I know what you mean, but -- chances are I'm never gonna make it to Provence, or Tuscany either (Under the Tuscan Sun), so the best I can do is evesdrop on other folks' experiences there. It's better than reading a dry travel book...

Re: blogs, etc., I do agree that a lot of folks online have an overdeveloped sense of their own importance -- excepting of course those of us posting to *this* site! :))

Gosh, have we gotten off-topic or what.

124greendragongirl
dec 17, 2006, 2:35 am

Good Omens by Gaiman & Pratchett has to be the funniest book I've ever read. I laugh out loud evry time i read it (which is many many times)
To Say Nothing of the Dog by Connie Willis is also very funny.
And of course anything by Douglas Adams, Christopher Moore, Christopher Buckley, Terry Pratchett, Vonnegut, and Jasper Fford.

Some one posted awile back about Stiff ... I agree it was laugh out loud funny and it was great to see people reactions to my laughing at a book about dead bodies while eating lunch : )

125ariel4thou
dec 17, 2006, 6:18 pm

Ciciha: Yes, I know what you mean about learning about other cultures through the stories. I think I'd prefer to read about the people there, then, rather than about "my experiences remodeling my home in Provence."

Okay, I hear you loud and clear about keeping in subject. I will stop now :o)

126mellonhead
dec 26, 2006, 12:47 pm

116 - Cannery Row has always been one of my favs. I've read and re-read it and always find it to be hysterical! I find a lot of Steinbeck's works funny.

127Seajack
Bewerkt: apr 13, 2007, 7:58 pm

You folks who liked "Three Men in a Boat" should find Diary of a Nobody and A Short Walk in the Hindu Kush pretty amusing as well. Other thoughts ...

Twain's Innocents Abroad was great. His observations on tourism are still applicable today.
Gerald Durrell's stories of his family are quite enjoyable.
I've never read her, but my mom and cousin just about wet themselves laughing at the mention of Laurie Notaro's name.
I liked Waugh's Scoop, but Decline and Fall was too grim for me.
The Miss Julia series can be funny, but kind of hit-n-miss after the initial premise wears off.
I strongly recommend reading Keenan's first two books ahead of My Lucky Star.
Though not exactly on topic here, those who like Adrian Mole - I gave up around the Cappucino Years - should try Townsend's essays in Public confessions of a middle-aged woman aged 55 3/4.

128SimonHaynes
dec 27, 2006, 2:25 am

Fans of "Three Men in a Boat" should also look up Jerome's sequel (Three men on the Bummel) which is on Gutenberg.

129akenned5
jan 1, 2007, 5:05 pm

116 & 126:
Though I haven't read cannery row I am really surprised that you find Steinbeck funny. I have read a couple - Of Mice and Men, East of Eden, and Grapes of Wrath, and humourous doesn't spring to mind as an adjective. I guess I need to go back and have another look. It has been years ... decades, even.

130ariel4thou
jan 1, 2007, 7:38 pm

akenned5 -- well, if all authors' books were all the same, who would ever bother to read more than one?

Run ... do not walk ... to read Cannery Row. It is one of my lifetime top five. And it is drop dead hilarious. Just ask "I and the guys ..."

... rofl ....

131bookishbunny
jan 2, 2007, 12:36 pm

I forgot about Dave Barry Slept Here. I named a fictional actress I portrayed (long story) Holly Smoot after the Smoot-Hawley Tarriff just because of that book.

132valeriech1 Eerste Bericht
Bewerkt: mrt 13, 2007, 11:43 pm

The funniest book I've read lately is Paula Poundstone's There's Nothing In Here That I Meant To Say...absolutely laugh out loud funny on each page, or your money back.

vch

133sunny
Bewerkt: mrt 20, 2007, 9:45 am

Paula Poundstone, Never mind the Pollacks, Songs in the key of Z (with CDs) on my wishlist now.

Thank you :-)

And I'd like to change my 'funniest book(s)' to the Calvin and Hobbes comics.

134EncompassedRunner
Bewerkt: mrt 20, 2007, 10:50 am

Dit bericht is door zijn auteur gewist.

135bookishbunny
mrt 20, 2007, 11:47 am

#134: all that was necessary was for Christianity to accept the idea that Jesus was not God

Oh, is that all? ;)

136scottja
mrt 20, 2007, 1:04 pm

Hmm... in the unintentional comedy department, I don't think it gets much better than How to Good-Bye Depression: If You Constrict Anus 100 Times Everyday. Malarkey? Or Effective Way?.

137bookishbunny
mrt 20, 2007, 1:11 pm

#136,

That just sounds like a way to hold it all in.

:D

138MrsLee
mrt 20, 2007, 2:42 pm

Well, I was just thinking about thinning down the groups I'm in, due to time constraints, and this was one of the possibilities, but after the last four posts, how can I leave. Really, truly, LOL!

139rufustfirefly66
apr 11, 2007, 4:47 pm

I'm reading Lamb by Christopher Moore, and it's hilarious. Straight Man by Richard Russo. The Dortmunder books, and Smoke by Donald E. Westlake. Carl Hiaasen. Twain and Vonnegut. Candide

140pechmerle
apr 13, 2007, 4:07 am

R.I.P., Kurt Vonnegut

141fuzzy_patters
apr 13, 2007, 4:28 pm

I am amazed by the number of people who loved Vonnegut. How many other authors would cause as many posts on these boards if they passed? I guess it shows how deeply touched people were by his novels. They were humorous, tragic, ironic, satirical, and moving all at the same time.

142gautherbelle
apr 22, 2007, 12:03 pm

I really enjoyed Lamb by Christopher Moore. Biff won my heart with his love and friendship of Josh. As I read it, I kept seeing it as a movie, but knew it could never be a movie without tremendous controversay, boycotting, etc. It's a wonderful book that made me laugh out loud and call friends to read sections to them. I reread parts of it over and over again.

143varielle
apr 23, 2007, 9:55 am

I agree that P.G. Wodehouse is the funniest ever. His story Uncle Fred Flits By makes me laugh until I cry every single time.

144tomcatMurr
apr 26, 2007, 1:01 am

#136 Now that really had me laughing out loud...

145gautherbelle
apr 28, 2007, 2:14 pm

Last summer I introduced my young nephew to Roald Dahl. It was fun to hear him laughing out loud as he read and when he finished, (like Oliver) insisting on more.

That weekend we went to the bookstore and bought several Dahl books for him.

146RCarbajal Eerste Bericht
mei 4, 2007, 7:57 am

Homeland by Sam Lypsite-- made me laugh out loud more than any other book I can remember.

147Schmerguls
mei 9, 2007, 7:51 am

The funniest book I have ever read is:
3950 1066 and All That A Memorable History of England Comprising, All the Parts You Can Remember Including One Hundred and Three Good Things, Five Bad Kings, and Two Genuine Dates, by Walter Carruthers Sellar and Robert Julian Yeatman (read 31 Oct 2004)

148coffeezombie
mei 20, 2007, 12:06 pm

Here is my list of humor writeres I don't think get mentioned nearly enough in everyday conversation:

1. S.J. Perelman. This man dances the tango with the English language.

2. Woody Allen. Before his career in film took off, he published three excellent collections of humor.

3. Stephen Leacock. There is a mountain in Canda named after him. Show some respect by reading anything by him.

And that's all I can think of off of the top of my head.

149MarianV
mei 20, 2007, 2:44 pm

P.J.O'Rouke, Sedaris, Michael Moore because you know they are trying to make you laugh, Carl Hiaason & early G. Keillerbecause they tell funny stories. The late Art Buchwald because he was so good at spotting the ridiculous in the world of politics. My all time favorite -- Erma Bombeck who spoke to & for all the women & mothers of my generation.

150Ohioszo Eerste Bericht
mei 21, 2007, 11:40 am

Dit bericht is door zijn auteur gewist.

151scottja
mei 21, 2007, 12:02 pm

#148: I couldn't agree more about Perelman and Allen, so I'll take your recommendation and check out Leacock. Thanks!

152akenned5
mei 23, 2007, 7:42 pm

I've just been reading David Sedaris's Me Talk Pretty One Day and just loved it. The description of the language classes in Paris with the sadistic teacher had me snorting coffee through my nose (always a good sign!).

#150 I could not link to Ralph McInerny, but I will look for him at Amazon.
#136 - this has changed my life!

153Ohioszo
Bewerkt: jul 12, 2007, 5:15 am

Ralph McInerny has a new book out, but, about his life ... I Alone Have Escaped to Tell You ... an FYI for akenned5.

Gilbert Keith Chesteron's Mysteries of Father Brown have a lot of Catholicism in them; he was a convert to the Faith. Besides these two, the other mystery authors that I have read, seem to be dependent on what PBS had introduced me to: Agatha Christie, John Mortimer, George Simenon. All humorous mystery writers. At least in two stories that I remember, Poirot decides not to tell the authorities who committed the murder!

Biographies, and real-life stories set in war-torn countries it seems, are of my favorites: The latest being Charles Osgood's Defending Baltimore ... where he reminisces upon his childhood.

154drbubbles
Bewerkt: jul 31, 2007, 9:05 am

Wow — I can hardly believe no-one's mentioned Bill Bryson's A Walk in the Woods. It's not as coarse as some of his other books, and in fact has some pretty subtle humor. It's the funniest thing I've read in at least the last decade. The line that made me laugh loudest, longest, and hardest was something like, "It was suspiciously light."

Also quite good is Ambrose Bierce's The Devil's Dictionary. It's entirely 19th century snarkiness. For example:

Belladonna, n. In Italian, a beautiful woman; in English, a deadly poison: thus demonstrating the essential identity of the two languages. {or something like that.}

Oh, and Non Campus Mentis: World History According to College Students.

Edited to add last book.

155januaryw
aug 1, 2007, 9:49 am

I just finished Good Omens by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett (who know the end of the world could be so funny!

156craso
aug 7, 2007, 11:45 pm

I just finished Thursday Next: First Among Sequels by Jasper Fforde. Jasper Fforde is my favorite author. I am now reading Thud! by Terry Pratchett. I enjoyed Good Omens by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett, but Thud has been a disappointment. Can anyone recommened a funnier Terry Prachett book? Maybe I started with the wrong book.

157Maggiemayne
aug 10, 2007, 8:55 pm

I recently read "Well Remembered Days - Eoin O'Ceallaigh's Memories of a Twentieth Century Catholic Life" by Arthur Matthews. This book is hilarious. If you have read any Frank McCourt books; then give yourself a break, and laugh your way through "Well Remembered Days".

158see_a_knight
aug 10, 2007, 9:24 pm

I always leave a couple of books on my shelf for light reading and laughter for stressful times.

Last weekend I read a Sophie Kinsella book called Shopaholic & Sister. It was a riot and perked me up.

I suggest that when you read her books that the voice you hear in your head has an English accent - works for me!

159dwsact
aug 10, 2007, 9:53 pm

Two very different books set me to laughing at different stages in my life.

Pickwick Papers by Charles Dickens, read while I was in junior high, showed me that classics could be fun.

More recently the nonfiction Gaborabilia by Anthony Turtu and Donald F. Reuter, which chronicles the antics of Zsa Zsa, Eva, and Magda Gabor, kept me happily occupied for hours. Just the quotes from Zsa Zsa would have been sufficient. For example:

"How many husbands have I had -- you mean apart from my own?"

"I wasn't born. I was ordered from room service."

The photos enliven the well chosen words in the narrative. Take time out from the heavy stuff some evening and try this one.

160dHeinemann
aug 11, 2007, 6:46 am

Dit bericht is door zijn auteur gewist.

161lrobe190
dec 17, 2007, 2:20 am

I am new to this group, but I just had to chime in. i just finished Bill Bryson"s The Life and Times of the Thunderbold Kid and it's one of the funniest books I've ever read. Baby-boomers born in the late 40s or early 50s will especially enjoy it. The other book that ranks up there with "the funniest ever" is Marley and Me by John Grogan.

162neekeebee
dec 20, 2007, 5:31 pm

I just finished American Shaolin by Matthew Polly, and it made me laugh out loud. This is an account of the author's experiences as a scrawny college kid who goes to Shaolin in the 1990s to learn martial arts. His experiences and insights are hilarious.

>Irobe190: I just saw the Bill Bryson book at the bookstore the other day, and now I will definitely pick it up.

163beschrich
dec 20, 2007, 7:20 pm

If we can consider plays too, then:
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead by Tom Stoppard,
The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde, and The Lieutenant of Inishmore by Martin McDonagh are all very funny.
Also, while it has some disturbing subject matter, I found Time's Arrow by Martin Amis quite funny; the narrator experiences another man's life backwards, but interprets it as if it were going forwards.
Also have to mention a classic comedy novel that hasn't come up yet, Henry Fielding's Tom Jones.

164lbucci3 Eerste Bericht
dec 25, 2007, 11:08 pm

I don't know if it has been mentioned in here, but I didn't see it.
The Princess Bride by William Goldman. The authors bracketed comments just make this book hysterical for me.

165Sisifus
jan 23, 2008, 6:22 am

Has anyone read My Friend GOD by Dave Berg? I think this one and Mort by T. Prachett are the funniest books I've read so far.

166joehutcheon
jan 23, 2008, 6:30 am

The three funniest books I can think of (all of which I couldn't read in public because of laughing till I cried):

Lucky Jim by Kingsley Amis
The Best of Myles by Flann O'Brien
Coming from Behind by Howard Jacobson.

There's also Billy Liar by Keith Waterhouse, and Peter Tinniswood's books about Carter Brandon I Didn't Know You Cared, Except You're a Bird and A Touch of Daniel

167tropics
Bewerkt: dec 8, 2009, 11:02 pm

I recently finished Bill Bryson's The Life And Times Of The Thunderbolt Kid: A Memoir, happily suffering through paroxysms of laughter as I joined him on a nostalgic journey through the '50s.

168QueenOfDenmark
jan 27, 2008, 2:24 pm

Yes Man by Danny Wallace is hilarious and I love the bit where he sends his best friend a bouquet with a card reading "Fancy a pint." I'm not sure I believe all of what he did but it was funny anyway.

My family and other animals by Gerald Durrell is also very funny and my favourite part is the bit with the matchbox.

Any Just William book by Richmal Crompton has me crying with laughter.

169abbottthomas
Bewerkt: jan 27, 2008, 3:26 pm

>148 coffeezombie: I'd certainly go with your three - I treasure my battered copy of Nonsense Novels. Woody Allen, I think, comes over better when he speaks - his story about the moose has me ROFLOL.

>166 joehutcheon: I'm really glad that someone came up with the Brandon family.

A name I haven't found here - rather to my surprise - is James Thurber. A bit out of fashion, I suppose, but I challenge anyone to read, say, The Night the Bed Fell without laughing.

(edited with an afterthought) - One more is The House of God by Samuel Shem. Medical doctors should love it - everybody else might get a bit nervous. ;-)

And after the many recommendations I must try Christopher Moore - never come across him!

170littlesnail
jan 27, 2008, 6:49 pm

15 and 148: I agree about Woody Allen... Without Feathers, Side Effects, and Getting Even are amazing books (I have them all together on Complete Prose). I can help laughing out loud... one of the first things I do whenever I feel a bit depressed is read this book, I usually go back to "A Brief, Yet Helpful, Guide to Civil Disobedience", "The Whore of Mensa" and "My Apology". I just can't get enough of it.

Here you can find an excerpt: http://www.redpills.org/?p=256

171KymberK
jan 28, 2008, 6:29 pm

The Idiot Girl's Christmas by Lauri Notaro was hillarious. I haven't finished it yet, but Git-r-Done by Larry the Cable Guy is hillarious as well.

172markon
feb 5, 2008, 10:47 pm

Crazy Aunt Pearl's Drunk, Divorced and Covered with Cat Hair! (Laurie Beasley Perry is the author.) Yes, it's chick lit (which usually isn't my thing), but my girlfriend and I read parts of it to each other one night and howled!

A hilarious book with a compassionate heart.

markon

173Speechguy
Bewerkt: feb 14, 2008, 6:40 pm

D. Adams? check, B. Bryson? check (I'm also a fan of his language work, The Mother Tongue and Made in America), Woody Allen? check, P.J. O'Rourke? check...here are a few others I found with laugh out loud moments...H.S. Tompson (Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas), anything by Molly Ivins, Fannie Flagg (esp. Standing in the Rainbow), the Growing Up Catholic series, and I haven't seen too many comic strip books mentioned, but if I want a laugh, I turn to any of the old Bloom County books and marvel how not much has changed...and how much has...and as a child I read and re-read Erma Bombeck's books over and over and over again.

174rogue_librarian
mrt 9, 2008, 12:32 am

The Amazing Mackerel Pudding Plan - it may have been that I was on Weight Watchers and calorie deprived at the time, but it had me giggling like an idiot. Bill Bryson is great; I'm reading I'm a Stranger Here Myself right now, but I think my favorite of his is Neither Here Nor There. I recently discovered (thanks to Nancy Pearl) Cold Comfort Farm, still very funny after so many years.

175Phantasma
mrt 14, 2008, 3:59 pm

Someone mentioned Lamb, it has to be not only one of the funniest books of all time, but one of the best.

Janet Evanovich is hilarious, I've enjoyed most of the books she's written.

176jamesapt10
mrt 16, 2008, 1:31 pm

I have to agree Lamb was one of the funniest books I have ever read. Christopher Moore always makes me laugh but Lamb was his best.

177sunny_jim9
Bewerkt: mrt 17, 2008, 6:55 pm

Hello, all...

I'm new to "library thing" and this is the first group I've joined. I hope I make a good first impression! As far as funny books go, I'm pretty new to them as well. So far, what tickles my funnybone...

Tied for first place are Terry Pratchett and Christopher Moore.
Second place would be P. G. Wodehouse.
Tied for third place are Janet Evanovich and Carl Hiassen.

I haven't noticed anybody mentioning George MacDonlad Fraser. He's famous for his Flashman series, but The Pyrates which is a stand-alone novel, is probably the first laugh-out-loud book I've ever read. It's hysterical!

178thekoolaidmom
mrt 21, 2008, 4:30 pm

Okay, now don't flame me or anything, but... The books I have laughed the hardest at were:

The Jungle, because no one could possibly have THAT much bad luck. One chapter everything's going good, their getting married or getting a house, then the very next chapter (and for a few chapters after that,) they all get struck down with five fatal illness at the same time, get fired and lose the house. It's just too unrealistic not to laugh at.

Candide: Or Optimism by Voltaire for many of the same reasons. Whereas I don't believe Sinclair was aiming for a good chuckle, I think Voltaire was going for that. Candide is a satire, and one line that sticks out to me is when Candide discovers Cunegonde survived the ravaging, she tells him no one ever dies from disemboweling. And that's one thing that does make this book funny... the absolute absurdity that no matter what horror befalls our crew, no matter the physical torture, no one ever dies from any of it, and they retain their wonderful optimism, accepting everything as "The best of all possible worlds."

Tartuffe by Moliere... So utterly hilarious, I couldn't STOP laughing. Tartuffe is also a satire and a play.

179JacInABook
mrt 21, 2008, 6:03 pm

#120 Funny you should mention The Throwback I bought it used a couple of days ago as it had mysteriously gone missing from my Tom Sharpe collection.

It's one of the books that I go back to when I'm feeling a bit down. Opening the covers and reading about Lockhart Flawse's experiments in taxidermy and being so "neighbourly" is guaranteed to have me laughing 'til I get stomach ache.

180SaintSunniva
mrt 27, 2008, 12:48 am

A partial list of funny-to-the-point -of-gasping books

The Flying Inn by G. K. Chesterton
The Best of Myles by Myles na Gopaleen
A Good Man is Hard to Find by Flannery O'Connor
A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole

authors
Dave Barry
Tony Kornheiser Tony's column used to be in our daily paper. When he was dropped I wrote, begging them to get him back, but they didn't.
Erma Bombeck,

181crroys
mrt 27, 2008, 11:00 pm

As I read through these I have written down some titles that will now move to the top of my list - thanks! But for me - each summer I have to grab Gray Paulsen's Harris and Me. Perhaps it is because I spent summers on a farm but my sides literally ache when I read it and I still remember my 7 year-old-son reading passages out loud to my 70-year-old mother and me when it first came out. He is attacked by roosters when he visits the farm so he can relate but the electric fence - now that's just genius....

182cynthiadogmom
Bewerkt: apr 14, 2008, 7:54 pm

Hidden gems: Shirley Jackson's two books about her family life, Life Among the Savages and "Raising Demons." The story of musical beds on a night when she, her husband, and her three kids were all sick is hilarious.

I see someone mentioned Catch-22, but no one mentioned Richard Hooker's M*A*S*H. I actually love one of the several sequels he wrote, M*A*S*H Goes to Maine. Those of you who are familiar with rural Maine, you know full well the comic potential here.

183Clarencex
Bewerkt: apr 25, 2008, 6:27 pm

Wow, what a lot of good tips. I will definitely look here next time I'm in need of a good read.

Any Mark Twain book will make me laugh out loud.

The funniest book I have read in the last few yeears has to be Life and Times of Tristram Shandy. Somehow, I had never read it befor in my 60+ years. Boy am I glad I finally got around to it - It is hysterical.

184thekoolaidmom
apr 25, 2008, 9:43 pm

I recently read Plum Lucky, by Janet Evanovich, and I have never laughed at any book in my life! After that, I picked up Plum Lovin' and mooched One for the Money... I hope the rest of the Stephanie Plum books are as funny as that one.

185marfita
mei 18, 2008, 4:30 pm

# 179 Thanks for reminding me about The Throwback and mentioning finding a used copy. It gave me hope. I just went by Bookmooch and mooched myself one! I am sooo happy!

186johnnyapollo
mei 19, 2008, 10:38 pm

Another vote for "A Confederacy of Dunces"

187urania1
Bewerkt: jun 11, 2008, 1:46 pm

I don't think I could pick a favorite, but my top fifteen list would definitely include Candide, A Confederacy of Dunces, Straight Man, Cold Comfort Farm and The World According to Garp and My Life and Hard Times by James Thurber, Crampton Hodnet by Barbara Pym, any of Wodehouse's Jeeves or Blandings Castle novels, Martha in Paris by Margery Sharp, any of Nancy Mitford's novels (Love in a Cold Climate, Don't Tell Alfred, etc.), Tolkien's Farmer Giles of Ham, Twain's The Diaries of Adam and Eve, Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream, Pope's The Rape of the Lock, and The Mouse that Roared for those who remember the Cold War years.

And I just remembered a few other Satyricon by Petronius. The absolute funniest book that I've read in the past year has to be Cooking with Fernet Branca. If you're into gardening Radical Prunings by Bonnie Thomas Abbott is great fun.

188williamcostiganjr
jun 12, 2008, 9:51 am

Gotta be Portnoy's Complaint. And Catch-22 is a close second.

189tropics
jun 12, 2008, 12:20 pm

Dit bericht is door zijn auteur gewist.

190tropics
jun 12, 2008, 12:30 pm

Garrison Keillor's Wobegon Boy is hilarious.

191vincentvan
jun 21, 2008, 11:07 pm

I don't see any mention of Charles Portis here...so I'll throw in a word for his The Dog of the South.

192gerryw4655
jun 22, 2008, 1:07 pm

Actually, I think they get better!

193ekpyrotic
Bewerkt: jun 22, 2008, 1:24 pm

Dit bericht is door zijn auteur gewist.

194cynthiadogmom
jun 22, 2008, 3:58 pm

I just came across one of my favorites, a bawdy retelling of the Arthurian tales, Rude Tales and Glorious by Nicholas Seare. It would make a great Mel Brooks movie.

195Clarencex
Bewerkt: jun 23, 2008, 12:17 pm

Any body remember the One Upmanship series? They were very funny. First in the series was called: One-Upmanship: Being Some Account of the Activities and Teachings of the Lifemanship Correspondence College of One-Upness and Games Lifemastery

Highly recommended

196reuchlin
jul 20, 2008, 12:45 pm

Some of the "books that make me laugh the most" are terribly solemn and usually 'religious' and/or 'scientific.'
Charles Darwin, say, is a hoot, and as for the Book of Deuteronomy...it has me in stitches.
And do them economist fellas, and politico pundits believe a quarter of anything they tell us? Sheesh!
Maybe I'm a manic-depressive, or bi-polar, because I have to confess, these very same experts and geniuses reduce me to tears of the other sort as well. So half the time, I'm clutching my sides for dear life, and next thing you know I'm suicidal.
Dese books should carry a health warning!

On a more serious note, I've been giving some thought to "Personal favourites, guilty pleasures, obvious classics" and I'm much obliged to "coffeezombie" (as indeed the rest of ye are) for breaching the subject.

The last shall be first, here at least, and I start with a few titles that are obvious classics to me.
Don Quixote
Tristram Shandy
The Third Policeman
Virtually anything by Gogol, Jane Austen, Lewis Carroll, Rabelais, Kierkegaard

"Guilty pleasures" might be The Match Trick or The Pleasure of My Company or The Goon Show Scripts
Dorothy Parker
Mikhail Zoschenko
Henri Michaux
Raymond Queneau

As for personal favourites, it's good to see that some of them have already been mentioned;
Woody Allen
Daniil Kharms
Oscar Wilde
but speaking for myself, as it were, I'd also want to put a word in for James Stephens, Alfred Jarry, Serna de la Gomez
and umpteen yiddisher humorists,(too many to list --see my reviews)

A thousand thanks to all of you for your enticing suggestions.
R.

197dawnlovesbooks
jul 21, 2008, 7:59 am

bridget jones' diary
the shopaholic series by sophie kinsella
all of the books by david sedaris and Augusten Burroughs

198BOB81
jul 28, 2008, 8:04 am

How about Ball Four?

199tabrez
Bewerkt: jul 29, 2008, 11:29 am

Inimitable Jeeves by P.G. Wodehouse
The Restaurant at the End of the Universe by Douglas Adams
The Amulet of Samarkand by Jonathan Stroud (Just the part of the narration that's in Bartimaeus's voice)

200mushroom104
aug 12, 2008, 4:53 pm

By far the funniest book I have ever read is I'm a Stranger Here Myself by Bill Bryson. I literally laughed so hard that I cried through several chapters.

201Patient
aug 12, 2008, 5:15 pm

I love anything by Bill Bryson. Richard Russo's Straight Man is hysterical, especially the scene in which a harried interim chair of the college English Department grabs a bothersome goose by the neck and says in front of a local news TV camera that the goose 'will get it' if his department takes any more budget cuts. I also remember a scene in a Janet Evanovich book in which a nutty dog who eats anything, but has recently swallowed an entire bottle of milk of magnesia, is kidnapped and driven away by the bad guys, only to have the car squeal to a stop and the bad guys fall out of the car because the medicine suddenly had taken effect.

202lawlasaurus
Bewerkt: aug 13, 2008, 6:35 am

well im going to have to say The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy like everyone else has. also Why do Men have Nipples? and Why do men Fall Asleep after Sex?

203SaintSunniva
aug 21, 2008, 12:23 am

> 111 raptorrunner's description struck me, and all I can say is, that is one hard-to-find book:

As a youth, neither I nor my brother could read Shovelnose and the Gator Grabbers aloud by Robert Edmond Alter although we tried mightily.

I looked on Amazon, ABE, Alibris and ebay, the library and LibraryThing. No one has a copy.

Suggestions?

204dpmartel
aug 26, 2008, 11:51 pm

Love Tom Sharpe esp Riotous asembly, Indescent exposure and the Wilt series. I recently fell in love with the very goofy (perhaps YA) and outrageous but deliciously funny Youth in Revolt by C.D. Payne. I also howl w laughter over Woodehouse, Hiaasen (some books more than others), and much of Sedaris. Im looking forward to reading some of the suggestions in here too!

205jasond71
aug 28, 2008, 11:04 pm

You've got to read "McCarthy's Bar" (by Pete McCarthy). An Englishman having oddball encounters with the locals while travelling in Ireland to try to discover his roots. May result in gasping for breath and emitting "micro-wees" into your undies on public transport.
Also - I'm an humour author, so you can critique my comedy/crime novel at www.curlygibson.com

206fecklessgadfly
Bewerkt: feb 8, 2009, 5:25 pm

Of course these have been said but Terry Pratchett and Douglas Adams rock my socks off...

If you've never read any of the Letters from a Nut
books by Ted L. Nancy, you should really check them out.

207Teacup_
aug 31, 2008, 12:35 pm

I honestly never tried a really good funny book. I'd love suggestions though.

I'm the kind of person that likes dry sarcastic jokes, any ideas?

208ChrisRiesbeck
aug 31, 2008, 1:26 pm

I don't know about jokes as such, but P J O'Rourke's tone is pretty sarcastic.

209Karen_Wells
aug 31, 2008, 4:22 pm

For me Wodehouse is the apprentice but Bramah is the sorcerer. What he does with words has been making me gasp since I was eight, and these days I save him up specially for when I'm ill. He can, for example, take 'She was one hot chick' and turn it into:

“After secretly observing the unstudied grace of her movements, the most celebrated picture-maker of the province burned the implements of his craft, and began life anew as a trainer of performing elephants.” (from Kai Lung's Golden Hours)

210Teacup_
sep 2, 2008, 3:36 pm

Chris, yeah? Thanks... I'll look it up :)

211pechmerle
sep 3, 2008, 4:33 am

Evelyn Waugh is just the ticket for dry, sarcastic humor. I'd suggest starting with Black Mischief and Scoop. Then, any of other his novels that feature Basil Seal as (anti-) hero are great.

212devious_dantes
sep 3, 2008, 8:57 am

I think that several of Dave Berry's book and the "Straight Dope" series (trivia) by Cecil Adams are pretty funny, but I think that the funniest novel I've read is Tom Jones, by Henry Fielding. It is funny, witty, and still has boatloads of humanity.

213devious_dantes
sep 3, 2008, 9:57 am

Waiting for Godot was pretty funny, too.

214Medellia
sep 15, 2008, 12:12 pm

I meant some time ago to put in my two cents for David Foster Wallace's The Broom of the System on this thread. I got my reminder, I guess. It's one of the funniest books I've ever read--every time I read it my face hurts from smiling and laughing so much. I hear Infinite Jest is funny as well, but I haven't had the guts to tackle it yet.

215smc1
Bewerkt: sep 28, 2008, 10:11 pm

Agree that Confederacy of Dunces (especially funny) and Sue Townsend's Diaries of Adrian Mole can make you laugh.

Another book that is almost as laugh-out-loud funny as Confederacy of Dunces is Mike Nelson's Death Rat. Adding to the Brit humor list, Decline and Fall and Sue Townsend's Number 10 are also very good. I also remember Nabokov's Pnin, and Lucky Jim by Kingsley Amis as being humorous. And, A Walk in the Woods by Bill Bryson.

A couple of older books that are still very funny are The Plague and I by Betty MacDonald and Our Hearts Were Young and Gay by Skinner and Kimbrough.

216gonzobrarian
okt 15, 2008, 8:25 pm

Along with anything written by Christopher Moore, I have to mention that the Pirates! series from Gideon Defoe cannot fail to deliver laughs. I think my favorite so far is The Pirates! In an Adventure with Communists.

217cal8769
okt 16, 2008, 8:13 am

I have to add Stiff by Mary Roach. She has a way with her humor that is not degrading for such a serious subject and she also makes serious subjects very readable. I laughed outloud a lot.

218edoc
okt 16, 2008, 12:14 pm

Read it a very long time ago but the Snapper by Roddy Doyle made me laugh out loud. Also entirely different type of humour but Without Feathers by Woody Allen.

219citykid
feb 5, 2009, 10:30 am

Wow, both of those guys are my favorites, but I liked Good Behavior best.

220LMBreader
feb 17, 2009, 4:25 pm

I loved the book it was great!!! SO funny book!! I hope u all read it very well. i read it for a book report!!!

221Collectorator
feb 17, 2009, 4:48 pm

Dit lid is geschorst van de site.

222purplepanther
feb 18, 2009, 1:32 pm

If the Sun Doesn't Kill You, the Washing Machine Will (Paperback)
by Peter Wood (Author)

223cal8769
feb 19, 2009, 11:08 am

That so goes on my wishlist because of the name alone!

224PsibrReadHead
Bewerkt: feb 21, 2009, 1:59 am

PG Wodehouse, who I think of as the great-great-great grandfather of the sitcom, esp. Frasier. (Who is more Woosterian: Niles or Frasier? Discuss....)

Dave Barry: psychotropic frogs and dogs with Elizabeth Dole faces!!!!

Charles Portis: Dog of the South and Norwood....Reo Symes? OMG!
I've read DOTS at least 6 times and I still laugh out loud......alone.....in the privacy of my own home......

Something really obscure: My Brother Was an Only Child by Jack Douglas, a 1950's comedy writer; it includes a letter home from a child at camp:
"I was bite be a rottlesnake" and "my coonselor is a fagg, can I be one too?"

For satirical and humorous nomenclature: you can't beatCarl Hiaasen or Charles Dickens

Twain, including "The Jumping Frog of Calaveras County" Apparently, in humor writing, you can't go wrong with frogs or dogs......

David Sedaris: Entire ouvre; favorite line: "Snowball just leads elves on....

225Sandydog1
feb 20, 2009, 5:04 pm

I just finished Right Ho, Jeeves. Wodehouse was obiously a master.

Mark Twain could crack you up over cats too ("Tom Quartz") and birds ("What stumped the Blue Jays"), elephants, horses and even tumble-bugs. And don't forget the gratuitous violence ("A Day at Niagara", "The Story of the Good Little Boy", "The Story of the Bad Little Boy", "Journalism in Tennessee"). But the all time best is his masterpiece of relationships ("The Diary of Adam and Eve").

As for David Sedaris, I barely chuckle. He's supposed to be terrific on audio. I'll try.

226ChrisRiesbeck
Bewerkt: feb 20, 2009, 5:20 pm

Any book by Robert Benchley will do me fine, but I'll point to Love Conquers All since it's on Project Gutenberg, and since this is LibraryThing, this seems like an appropriate section:

http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/1/5/8/5/15851/15851-h/15851-h.htm#toc_79

I particularly liked

"(I really don't say all those clever things to the clerk. It took me quite a while to think them up. What I really say is, timidly, "Haven't you any bookcases without glass doors?" and when they say "No," I thank them and walk into the nearest dining-room table.)"

227PsibrReadHead
Bewerkt: feb 21, 2009, 2:00 am

Sandydog1:

May I suggest you try the first one, "Holidays on Ice" based on his real-life job as a clerk at Macy's?

228Sandydog1
feb 21, 2009, 3:30 pm

Thanks PRH, I'll check it out!

229goodlife882
feb 28, 2009, 4:13 pm

A Christmas Story (movie) gets me every time!

230PsibrReadHead
mrt 9, 2009, 1:00 am

Have you read his In God We Trust: All Others Pay Cash and Wanda Hickey's Night of Golden Memories: And Other Disasters? Pretty funny stuff; Jean Shepherd would sort of be like the love child produced from a triangle involving Mark Twain , James Thurber and Garrison Keillor. I think he's underread and underrated. Perhaps because he wasn't prolific in print......

231refashionista
mrt 9, 2009, 9:01 am

Books that make/made me LOL:

Bridget Jones' Diary
Bachelor Brothers' Bed and Breakfast
I Was A Teenage Katimavictim
The "Great Brain" books -- I've been picking these up for my kids!
The Twits

232lookitisheef
mrt 9, 2009, 10:43 pm

I would have to say The Journal of Mortifying Moments is my all-time fav. I find the self-deprecating and embarrassing personal experiences in novels to be absolutely hilarious...yet at the same time, I hope to everything that I never experience anything remotely similar.

233ReadStreetDave
mrt 10, 2009, 1:19 pm

I'm a sucker for almost anything by Bryson, Sedaris and Wodehouse. I'm working my way through Disquiet Please, a compilation of humor pieces from the New Yorker. One overlooked classic is God Knows by Joseph Heller -- picture the biblical story of David retold by Mel Brooks.

234PsibrReadHead
mrt 11, 2009, 1:19 am

Have to include the columnists Maureen Dowd, Molly Ivins, Calvin Trillin

235PorschePaige
mrt 11, 2009, 8:03 am

It's a triple tie between Never Have Your Dog Stuffed by Alan Alda, Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams, and Yes Man by Danny Wallace. Though Yes Man is at the lead, purely because I've read it most recently. It's the type of laughter that makes you cringe... God, did he really do that? I'm glad he did, though, because I got a laugh out of it!

236Christie
Bewerkt: mrt 15, 2009, 6:37 pm

237Christie
mrt 12, 2009, 5:53 pm

Dit bericht is door zijn auteur gewist.

238mumoftheanimals
mrt 13, 2009, 8:15 pm

Class, Jilly Cooper - analysis of British class system written 25 years ago and so a bit dated but still works.

The Inimitable Jeeves - Wodehouse writes so much. They are all good but some are better than others.

Henry Root letters

Dilbert - Fab

239amycamus
apr 3, 2009, 12:34 am

Dit bericht is door zijn auteur gewist.

240murunbuchstansangur
apr 10, 2009, 12:07 pm

Agree, P G Wodehouse - especially 'Comrade Bingo', and the one with the hot water bottle-bursting scam.

Also Kingsley Amis, 'Lucky Jim', and Tibor Fischer, 'The thought Gang'.

241esrichards
apr 16, 2009, 10:09 pm

I read Chuck Klosterman's book Sex, Drugs and Coco Puffs, and thought it was hilarious. If you like the funny and yet poignant essay writing styles of David Sedaris and Augsten Burroughs, I think you would like (and laugh) by reading this book.

242aleksandar2
Bewerkt: apr 17, 2009, 3:38 pm

Portnoy's Complaint by Phillip Roth and Čudovište by Davor Slamnig, the title means literally Monster. Out of classics Adventures of Good Soldier Svejk During the Big War by Jaroslav Hasek. I do not know the exact title in English.

I can't believe what books are put under the title Funniest Books You Have Read. Am I twisted?

243insolent_redhead
apr 17, 2009, 6:27 pm

Books that made me laugh:
-Giraffes? Giraffes! by Doris Haggis-on-Whey
-Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers by Mary Roach
-anything by David Sedaris, although Me Talk Pretty One Day and Naked are my favorites
-Apathy and Other Small Victories by Paul Neilan
-Everything is Illuminated by Jonathan Safran Foer
-Motherless Brooklyn by Jonathan Lethem
-The World According to Garp by John Irving
-A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole

Also have to agree with those who said Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.

244hyper7
apr 26, 2009, 6:50 am

I don't think anybody mentioned Bridge of Birds, I found it pretty funny quite often.

Anyway, thanks to everybody, my wishlist has swollen remarkably after reading this thread.

245Tid
apr 26, 2009, 6:57 am

Anything by PG Wodehouse has me in stitches, and though not side-splittingly fall-on-the-floor funny, the deep satire and wit in Saki's short stories never fail either.

The loudest laugh I ever gave in public (blush) was while reading The Cat Who Came In From The Cold by Deric Longden.

246cal8769
apr 26, 2009, 3:02 pm

Carter Finally Gets it by Brent Crawford had me laughing out loud. The thrill of a 14 year old's travel through puberty.

247vivienbrenda
apr 26, 2009, 10:22 pm

David Sedaris's prose and reading makes me snort stupidly with laughter. Some of Bill Bryson's travel books have also brought me to the edge of hysteria, again particularly when he reads his work on audio. Auntie Mame by Patrick Dennis made me laugh out so loud once while I was on a commuter train the people around me couldn't stop staring.

248Tid
apr 27, 2009, 5:54 am

"Some of Bill Bryson's travel books have also brought me to the edge of hysteria"

Yes! So true..

249Rach974923
mei 6, 2009, 4:00 pm

Yes, loving Bill Bryson too. Also, anything by Tony Hawks or Dave Gorman sets me giggling.

250squirrel17
mei 25, 2009, 8:18 pm

Just discovered this laugh-out-loud gem: Welcome to the Company by Eileen McVety. Hilarious spoof of working in an office. Painfully familiar material!

251Tid
mei 26, 2009, 6:53 am

> 250

Inspired by "The Office" you think? Or does it precede it?

252elik82
jun 29, 2009, 4:25 pm

The funniest books I ever read were definitely:
Confederacy of Dunces and Wilt.
Totally hilarious.
Catch-22 must be mentioned as well.

253bookfail.com
jul 15, 2009, 10:03 am

Hmm, I'd say, The Zen of Farting, REAL Ultimate Power, I Hope They Serve Beer In Hell, and Semen Natural Harvest - A Collection of Semen-Based Recipes, but definitely not in that order.

254LDG
jul 15, 2009, 3:25 pm

Lots of good suggestions so far.

Thurber's My Life and Hard Times is a favorite. And how about Merrill Markoe's What the Dogs Have Taught Me?

Also almost split a seam over a chapter in Skipping Towards Gomorrah. (It was male-anatomy-related humor, so maybe it's more funny to a woman? Most men I've told it to, just sort of cup the area in question and look pensive.)

Linda

256booklove2
jul 15, 2009, 3:47 pm

Dit bericht is door zijn auteur gewist.

257PsibrReadHead
jul 19, 2009, 2:11 am

Glad to see another Jean Shepherd fan on here. He was sooooo funny and gets so few props.....

258Schmerguls
jul 22, 2009, 7:24 am

I hope I am not repeating myself, but the most uproarious book I ever read was:

1066 and All That A Memorable History of England Comprising, All the Parts You Can Remember Including One Hundred and Three Good Things, Five Bad Kings, and Two Genuine Dates, by Walter Carruthers Sellar and Robert Julian Yeatman (read 31 Oct 2004)

I laughed out loud at every page...

259Tid
jul 22, 2009, 8:07 am

#258

Yes, a very funny book. Whatever you do, don't confuse it with a post-modern skit on it called 1966 and All That - a very unfunny, draggy, fourth-form kind of book. Avoid it like the plague.

260sunny
Bewerkt: jul 24, 2009, 3:47 pm

In the middle of Something missing by Matthew Dicks (http://www.librarything.com/profile/MatthewDicks). Not the laugh out loud kind of funny, but very amusing (until now).




261bondurantdaring
aug 1, 2009, 11:20 pm

I quite enjoyed:

-The Bear went over the Mountain by William Kotzwinkle
-anything by David Sedaris, although Holidays on Ice is my favorite
-A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole
-A Dirty Job by Moore (I haven't read Lamb yet, but it sounds like I'd better)
-Bitter is the new black by Jen Lancaster

This is a great group, thanks for the good suggestions.

262reviewsbylola
aug 14, 2009, 10:03 am

It's already been mentioned, but Confederacy of Dunces illicites laughter from me just thinking about it! My boyfriend just finished it the other day and he was often chuckling to himself as he read it.

263LitClique
aug 14, 2009, 12:15 pm

262>The fancy private college near me is doing a staged reading of Confederacy of Dunces this spring. I plan to go just because I can't believe they're even going to attempt it!

264missmaddie
aug 24, 2009, 7:52 pm

I highly recommend Free-Range Chickens. It's hilarious!
PS I agree with neekeebee (106) those are great books, too!

265LizzieD
aug 27, 2009, 11:05 pm

Has anybody mentioned The Fencepost Chronicles by W.P. Kinsella? How about Saki? FUNNY!

266Jim53
aug 28, 2009, 12:57 pm

#263 thanks for that link. Dunces is one of my all-time favorites. I'll have to consider driving up for that one.

Currently reading Handling Sin, which someone mentioned above. He does a great job of settiing up coincidences that combine to hilarious effect.

Someone mentioned Three Men in a Boat. Don't miss Connie Willis's follow-up, To Say Nothing of the Dog.

Agree on many of the others. I remember when everyone was reading Garp in 1979 or so. At one of my staff meetings, a guy slammed down his calendar and said, "Three fourths is not enough!" and almost everyone burst out laughing.

267Medellia
aug 28, 2009, 1:04 pm

#265: Oh yes, Saki! Every time I read "The Stampeding of Lady Bastable" I giggle uncontrollably.

268Tid
aug 31, 2009, 11:06 am

I think Saki is brilliant! Exceeds Oscar Wilde for wit, in my opinion. I'd nominate a story but which one? they are all so good. Perhaps "Tobermory" ...

269Tope96
nov 7, 2009, 6:04 pm

Saki is pure comic genius.

270nhlsecord
dec 8, 2009, 4:45 pm

Did anyone mention Tim Cahill? His earlier books are great, especially the story about climbing the rope up El Capitan, and the one about going down in caves with snakes.

Donald Jacks' Bandy Chronocles are also very funny - very Canadian.

Also, Dave Duncan write fantasies with a lot of humour in them. My favourite is The Reaver Road.

Gerald Durrell and James Herriott are great too.

I'll add David Niven's The Moon's a Balloon and Bring on the Empty Horses autobiographies
and Ron Luciano's baseball stories.

271etishmack
jul 26, 2010, 12:22 pm

Arnie the Donut is great!

272etishmack
jul 26, 2010, 12:22 pm

Dit bericht is door zijn auteur gewist.

273GeekyRandy
Bewerkt: jul 26, 2010, 11:31 pm

I'm going to say, strangely, that the books that made me laugh were also quite disturbing in nature. During chapters of nothing but Patrick Bateman's review on music in American Psycho by Bret Easton Ellis, I was almost crying tears of laughter.

And in-between all the depth, pop culture references, scares, thrills and disgusting violence in C. W. Schultz's Yeval; Schultz still found a way to make me crack up. Yeval = brilliant!

274adpaton
jul 29, 2010, 3:45 am

I enjoy almost everything by Wodehouse but probably enjoy those featuring Jeeves and Bertie the best, with the Blandings crew a close second. And Three Men in a Boat by Jerome K. Jerome is wonderful - and so is Three Men on the Bummel, but only in parts. The Grossmiths' Diary of a Nobody is another sidesplittingly funny book.

Of more recent vintage we have Stephen Potter with his One-Upmanship books, a must-read, but possibly my favourite is Michael Green; his Art of Coarse Acting and Art of Coarse Rugby are indescribably hilarious, and no-one can touch Tom Sharpe at his best - as evidenced in The Throwback and Blott on the Landscape.

Alan Coren is a brilliant essayist and I am always on the lookout for collections of his work - the first one I read was Golfing for Cats, British humour at its best. I think he wrote for Punch back in its heyday. The Henry Root Letters books are also very funny - a clever idea, much copied.

When it comes to plays, Aristophanes is funny, and so is so is some of Shakespeare, although neither of them touch She Stoops to conquer by Oliver Goldsmith. Of more recent vintage, Oscar Wilde - The Importance of Being Earnest - and Noel Coward - Blithe Spirit - are keepers.

I like some of James Thurber and Dave Barry but am not generally keen on American humour: I love Donald Jack - the first few bandy books are sublime - but he's a Canadian.

South Africans are making huge strides in humour, especially columnists, and writers to look out for are David Bullard, Daryl Bristow-Bovey, Barry Ronge and Ben Trovato.

275ReadStreetDave
aug 15, 2010, 5:16 pm

I'm not even halfway through Super Sad True Love Story by Gary Shteyngart, but I think it (and he) are going to earn a spot on this list. I liked his Absurdistan, but this is even better. Unless you're a Fox news devotee.

276wildbill
Bewerkt: aug 15, 2010, 9:59 pm

A good humorous book is a good laugh sitting on the book shelf for me anytime I feel the need. I agree with the fans of Jeeves. I should add one to my tbr.
I am also intrigued by the recommendation for Flannery O'Connor's stories. I have them and I've never tried them. Thank you for the recommendation.
My top of the list:
American Wits: An Anthology of Light Verse Dorothy Parker et al.
1601 by Mark Twain This is a short piece and is in the better anthologies. It is about a bunch of folks visiting Queen Elizabeth and somebody cuts a wicked fart.
National Lampoon: Another Dirty Book Some may find this offensive but most of it is really funny.
Being There No Peter Sellers but it is funny.
The Gang That Couldn't Shoot Straight by Jimmy Breslin. They take a lion along when they go to collect protection money.
The Decline and Fall of Practically Everybody The funny side of history.
Explainers: The Complete Village Voice Strips, 1956-1966 by Jules Feiffer I was about ten when I first read his stuff. He has a Woody Allen sense of humor.

277citykid
feb 17, 2011, 3:23 pm

Aside form the ones I have seen here, which are the cream. I laughed often at The Blond Bombshell, and The Flying Dutchman by Tom Holt, and Tepper Isn't Going Out by Calvin Trillin.

278LintonRobinson
mrt 24, 2011, 12:15 pm

Anything by Christopher Moore
Anything by Joe Keenan
Anything by Tom Sharpe

Also Bill Fitzhugh, Tim Dorsey, Carl Hiaasen

279nancylombardo
jun 7, 2011, 2:59 pm

I think John Corey is hilarious, in the books by Nelson DeMille. Not at all PC, but very funny dialogue.

I laughed at the Spellman books by Lisa Lutz.

Bill Bryson and David Sedaris are very funny. Lucky Jim was hysterical.

280nancylombardo
jun 7, 2011, 3:01 pm

And, Curious Incident of the Dog int he Night by Mark Haddon. Very poignant, and funny.

281MrsRichardSchiller
jun 7, 2011, 3:19 pm

Recently, it would have to be the brilliant My Booky Wook by Russell Brand, and moreso, it's sequel, Booky Wook 2. Don't dismiss him because he's bawdy! He's a brilliant writer.

282johnnydrhodes
aug 2, 2011, 7:40 am

Anything by Bill Bryson, I love the true to life little touches and sardonic humour.

283Editrixie
Bewerkt: aug 7, 2011, 10:30 am

I have that same Jules Feiffer book on my shelf, wildbill!--swiped it from my dad after I first read it as a child. I also read Passionella back then, even though I didn't understand a whole lot of it.

284haniafrc
aug 26, 2011, 5:14 am

My personal favourite is

Znaczy Kapitan by Karol Olgierd Borchardt

most probably being issued only in Polish though..

285Booksloth
aug 26, 2011, 6:27 am

The Second Coming and Kill Your Friends, both by John Niven and Callisto by Torsten Krol. (Your sense of humour does need to be a little black though.)

286mgtyp
mei 25, 2012, 8:45 am

The edible woman author Margaret Atwood - if you like absurd observations, that makes one giggle

287JonnyGibbings
Bewerkt: mei 27, 2012, 12:35 pm

Dit bericht wordt niet meer getoond omdat het door verschillende gebruikers is aangemerkt als misbruik. (Tonen)
Mine lol!! Malice in Blunderland. Reeeeeeeeevewicus: http://jonnygibbings.wordpress.com/what-they-are-saying-about-malice/

288JonnyGibbings
mei 28, 2012, 2:18 pm

I'd have to say, for pure laughs, Apathy and Other Small Victories by Paul Neilan is a brilliant book. It's one of those a bit flimsy but better for it. Very Funny. Agree with Booksloth Kill Your Friends is a brilliant back humour read.

289Booksloth
mei 29, 2012, 4:30 am

#288 Thanks Jonny, I was beginning to think I was the only person who'd ever read it. Have you also tried The Second Coming by the same author? If not, I highly recommend it.

290JonnyGibbings
mei 29, 2012, 11:27 am

No, I have it. Though a mate is reading it at the moment. I loved Kill your friends, so dark & sharp. I can't read anything at the moment. and it's killing me, have a week off in a few days too! Meant to be better than 'Kill' You love it?

291sunny
Bewerkt: sep 11, 2012, 1:46 am

292Tid
sep 11, 2012, 12:43 pm

May I nominate Fifty Shades of Grey? For purely unintentional humour, of course, unless the author is playing a subtle game that involves laughing all the way to the bank...

293faceinbook
sep 11, 2012, 2:43 pm

>262 reviewsbylola:
Think of all the author's who sweat to produce a novel of worth......they toil over the words, the plot, their characters and probably sell a couple hundred books...if that.
Then along comes Fify Shades of Grey....pitiful !!!! just plain pitiful.

294ericbishoppotter
aug 19, 2014, 10:54 am

Ivy Compton-Burnett's MEN AND WIVES is wickedly funny.

295KenMagee
nov 10, 2014, 6:49 am

Better Than Life - Grant Naylor. It covers the early part of the Red Dwarf TV series... hilarious.

296barney67
Bewerkt: nov 14, 2014, 1:21 pm

This is an old thread and a long one, so I didn't read the posts, but for what it's worth, here are some ideas off the top of my head for work that made me laugh.

For the most part I find writers lack humor. It's tough to be funny in prose. Fiction writers that have made me laugh include Walker Percy, Saul Bellow, and Fred Chappell. Also some funny things in Mark Twain.

I like the essay collections of Steve Martin, and his wonderful memoir, but not his fiction, which attempts to be profound without delivering. Joseph Epstein, my favorite essayist and man of letters, also happens to have a sense of humor. Good thing—he taught English at Northwestern. Many years ago I loved The Complete Prose of Woody Allen, like the story about the chess match by mail that goes awry. Hilarious. There are a few places in Salinger's work that made me laugh.

I remember enjoying slim volumes of Davd Letterman's Top Ten Lists and Jack Handey's Deep Thoughts. I have a few volumes of Calvin and Hobbes. I like the Car Talk column by the Magliozzi brothers (one of them recently deceased) and Dan Arielly's columns in the weekend Wall Street Journal. I'm hoping he will one day write a book. Why not? Everyone else does.

That's about it. Many books try to be funny and are not. I look at the humor lists at Amazon and am not too impressed. I turn on TV and movies. Ugh. Lots of sex jokes, not much else. I was making jokes like that when I was 13.