Funniest Book Ever

Posted: Mon Apr 25, 2005 1:48 pm

All this Hitchhiker's hype has gotten me thinking, what is the funniest book you've ever read (besides anything by Douglas Adams, because I already know that everyone likes him)?

I'm going to give it to Lucky Jim by Kingsley Amis, with Jeeves in the Morning by PG Wodehouse coming in a close second.

Posted: Mon Apr 25, 2005 1:55 pm

Probably Zuleika Dobson by Max Beerbohm.

Life on the Mississippi by Mark Twain and Pale Fire by Vladimir Nabokov are close contenders though!

Posted: Mon Apr 25, 2005 2:02 pm

Hmm probably something by Terry Pratchett or Dave Berry. Dave Berry Does Japan is particularly amusing.

Posted: Mon Apr 25, 2005 2:03 pm

Oh man, Pale Fire is pretty funny. I always forget how funny Nabokov can be. Pnin's got some good lines too!

There's one (I'm probably going to mangle it) about how Pnin ignores stop signs because he considers them an affront to human agency.

I guess you had to be there.

Posted: Mon Apr 25, 2005 2:12 pm

Heh heh. I will have to check that one out! Invitation to a Beheading has some pretty funny parts too. It's a little bit more absurd though, and the jokes are not as elaborate as they are in Pale Fire.

Oh, Tom Jones (Henry Fielding) and Tristram Shandy (Laurence Sterne) are pretty hilarious too. But you have to make a serious committment to those books and they are not really light reading!

Joined: 31 Mar 2005 Posts: 493

Oh i was just going to say Pale Fire too but Despair and Lolita are definitely up there for nabakovian laughs (Clearly i'm on a lolita thing, looking at the last movie thread).
some of mordecai richler's stuff has laugh out loud moments too.

Posted: Mon Apr 25, 2005 4:03 pm

Ehh...

"Why did I take so long to marry" by Eduardo de La Puente, but then I havent read that many funny books :/

I dont even know what the hell is this Nabok guy you talking about. He sounds like a Mortal Kombat character.

Posted: Mon Apr 25, 2005 4:13 pm

I actually think Paradise Lost is one of the most hilarious books out there when you put it in the context of Milton's mindset.

Guest

milton=hilarity! ha. but ya, the devil is pretty cool in p.l.
boccaccio's decameron and cervantes don quixote are pretty funny . . .

Posted: Mon Apr 25, 2005 4:47 pm

Probably "Sex, Drugs and Coco Puffs" if I can do collections of essays. If not, then maybe "Choke"... maybe?

Out-Talled Joined: 11 Nov 2004 Posts: 4580

I found Catch-22 to be exceptionally funny. Heller's grip on surreal yet believable writing hits me in a spot few women and fewer men have found.

Posted: Mon Apr 25, 2005 6:37 pm

Giraffes? Giraffes!

Or does that not count?

Non Campus Mentis was funny, but still not a novel.

Calvin and Hobbes books?

Still not a novel... OK...

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn was funny! Yeah, that!

Posted: Mon Apr 25, 2005 6:49 pm

Not counting Douglas Adams' stuff I'd probably say Take The Canolli. It's mostly a more serious book, but there are some funny parts... I guess.

And in an almost but not quite completely unrelated topic, I saw a quote by me in the quote generator for the first time ever. WOO!

Posted: Mon Apr 25, 2005 6:51 pm

I see those all the time! They're like ghosts to me now!

Joined: 31 Jan 2005 Posts: 1231 Location: Sweden

I think I'd settle for A Confederacy of Dunces. Three Men in a Boat is a serious contender, though.

Posted: Tue Apr 26, 2005 10:58 pm

I'd say the Hitchhiker's Guide to- ...what? ...Damn ...uhh.... Finland.

Posted: Wed Apr 27, 2005 1:14 am

America the Book: A Citizens Guide to Democracy Inaction is a pretty damn funny book.

Posted: Wed Apr 27, 2005 2:13 am

LuckyIrish wrote:

America the Book: A Citizens Guide to Democracy Inaction is a pretty damn funny book.

True story!

Joined: 02 May 2005 Posts: 12 Location: Cygnus

I'm torn between A Confederacy Of Dunces and Animal Farm...Okay, so Animal Farm isn't exactly a comedy, but nonetheless I found myself laughing bitterly the whole way through. That darn George Orwell!

And as for books that are funny, but unintentionally...I'd have to say Please Kill Me, hands down.

Joined: 19 Mar 2005 Posts: 710

Mungo City by Ruttiger Knox. Think 1984, but funny! And I also found Generica by Will Ferguson to be extremely funny.

As it happens, they're two of my favourite books of all time!

EDIT: I just read on Wikipedia (I forgot Ferguson's name...) that Generica was later reprinted as Happiness.

Joined: 02 May 2005 Posts: 12 Location: Cygnus

krustywazoo wrote:

Mungo City by Ruttiger Knox. Think 1984, but funny!

I agree with you there, by God!

Joined: 19 Mar 2005 Posts: 710

Y-you've read it! YES, ANOTHER PERSON WHO'S READ IT!

Seriously, the only other people who've read it I practically told them to!

Posted: Tue May 03, 2005 12:38 am

Naked by David Sedaris is excellent! So excellent I'll have to pick up something else by him one day.

Joined: 31 Mar 2005 Posts: 493

sedaris's me talk pretty one day is also really funny!

Posted: Tue May 03, 2005 12:47 am

This is what I've heard!

Out-Talled Joined: 11 Nov 2004 Posts: 4580

Rob Grant's Incompetnce [sic] is pretty funny.

Posted: Tue May 03, 2005 9:33 am

Well I can't think of the funniest book I've ever read, so, can I just name a few? I hope I can, 'cause that's what I'm doing.

T.Pratchett: The first books were really fun to read, but I must say that Guards! Guards! still agrees with me the most. I've read it like a dozen times and still get laughs all the way through.

D.Adams: Don't worry, I won't mention the obvious 5-book trilogy; I just wanna say I really enjoyed The Long, Dark Tea-Time of the Soul.
I remembered that book the other day, while discussing the apparent lack of ingenuity in Neil Gaiman's latest book.

T-Rex - OMG!

- Blasphemer!

Also, I agree with mugabe. I still find Three Men in a Boat (To Say Nothing of the Dog) wonderfully funny and pleasant to read, especially if I need something to cheer me up.

Finally, a book I highly recommend is Marcello D'Orta's Me, I hope I'll manage. It's just an anthology of essays by schoolkids from the south of Italy- and it's hilarious.

Joined: 02 May 2005 Posts: 35 Location: Madison, WI

I suppose it would be kinda obvious, but my vote goes to Catch-22. I think its incredibly impressive how Heller can be affecting and hilarious at the same time. Hocus Pocus by Kurt Vonnegut was quite good too but I haven't read anything else by him. My involvement in the arcane arts of math and science also lead me to Surely Your Joking, My. Feynmen which I thought was wicked good for an autobiography.

true falcons will attack children · Posted: Wed May 04, 2005 1:41 am

Empire Burlesque wrote:

I'm torn between A Confederacy Of Dunces and Animal Farm...Okay, so Animal Farm isn't exactly a comedy, but nonetheless I found myself laughing bitterly the whole way through. That darn George Orwell!

And as for books that are funny, but unintentionally...I'd have to say Please Kill Me, hands down.

There is a reason that I favor Animal Farm to 1984. That reason is talking animals. Actually, I also love the way that it is light hearted and pessimistic at the same time.

Posted: Wed May 04, 2005 1:48 am

I guess I would prefer Animal Farm to 1984 if 1984 weren't such a vastly superior book in every imaginable way.