Funniest Book Ever Read

[BienvenuJDC]

Agree on Breakfast of Champions, Douglas Adams and Molloy.

It's quite rare that I find a book really funny. But actually, War and Peace has been making me laugh quite a bit at times. American Psycho did too.

I'd forgotten about Douglas Adams, and Lewis Carroll also had some humorous/silly works...

[Wilde woman]

Anything by (guess who!) Oscar Wilde is hilarious, but I recommend "The Importance of Being Earnest."

Also, I quite enjoyed "The Rape of the Lock" by Pope and Catch-22 by Heller.

For some old-school (as in Classical and medieval) humor, I really like Catullus and Chaucer. Oh, and The Golden *** by Apuelius.

[Helga]

there are many authors who are funny in there seriousness like Wilde, and others that are funny in a more absurd sense like Douglas Adams... but the last book I read and laughed out loud every 3 minuets or so was Marley and me by the columnist John Grogan, as a dog owner who knows how 'difficult' dogs can be, it was a very amusing book!

[keilj]

Mark Twain definitely comes to mind. The Innocents Abroad, his autobiography, or Roughing It in particular are very funny. Whether he's describing hiding on a rooftop and dropping a watermelon on his younger brother's head, or describing a sea captain who can drink "astonishing amounts of whiskey while never showing any signs of feeling the effects", or describing an Indian mining friend who decided a good place to store dynamite was in the stove.


I also heard that George Bernard Shaw's Man and Superman is very funny. I just bought it but have not gotten to read it yet

[MarkBastable]

Dickens, Southern, Amis, Vonnegut. And above all, Wodehouse.

[JhKreisler]

Holy crap that is the first Pinter comment I've seen on these forums, The Dumb Waiter and The Caretaker are amazing and quite funny.

Also I thought Candide by Voltaire, The Doctor is Sick by Burgess, The Fur Hat by Voinovich and Breakfast of Champions by Vonnegut were all pretty funny.

Indeed! I too enjoyed the birthday party and the chambre.

[Kevets]

JP Donleavy has had me laughing harder than any other author. But it's been many years, and perhaps I've matured since then!

[aliengirl]

I agree that Mark Twain, Oscar Wilde, Frank Baum, Lewis Caroll and even Shakespeare are quite funny. And not to forget Stephen Leacock, the great humorist. Recently I read Roald Dahl's ''Charlie and the Chocolate Factory'' and enjoyed it a lot.

[janesmith]

I'd have to suggest "Three Men in a Boat"- Jerome K. Jerome. I was really surprised at how hilarious it was in parts. Brilliant portrayal of middle-class snobbishness.

[Modest Proposal]

I tend to be someone who rarely laughs out-loud at anything particularly the written word. However, Adams, Spark, Waugh and Heller, I find terribly funny.

[rufustfirefly]

A Confederacy of Dunces - Kennedy

Catcher in the Rye -Salinger

The two funniest books that I can recall.

[MarkBastable]

A Confederacy of Dunces - Kennedy


I had forgotten that one. It's the same sort of humour as The Office. You have to watch it from behind the sofa. But very funny.

[Snowqueen]

I have read two plays of George Bernard Shaw and thoroughly enjoyed them, especially Arms and the Man. It is not just funny but witty too.

[Darcy88]

Maybe its just me, but I burst into laughter at least once each chapter when reading Don Quixote. When he charges the flock of sheep and gets stoned by the shepherds, oh my, how I chuckled at that.

[keilj]

Catcher in the Rye -Salinger

...funniest books that I can recall.


huh??

[Brad Coelho]

Confederacy of Dunces, any Vonnegut novel & Catch 22 are good calls. I just finished White Noise (Delillo) which definitely had its moments; as did Notes from the Underground (while not known as a side splitter it certainly can get you rollin').

[JuniperWoolf]

Don Quixote really is pretty damn funny.

I also thought that Dorian Grey was hillarious, but that's just my sense of humour. I loved Dorian, I thought that he was a riot.

[TheBearJew]

Vonnegut and Douglas Adams have a flair for wit. But, I'd say that Catch 22 is the rare book that had me turning heads as a result of my seemingly random laughter.

[Alexander III]

Byron's Don Juan, had me laughing out loud every stanza

[Binx]

Confederacy of Dunces, any Vonnegut novel & Catch 22 are good calls. I just finished White Noise (Delillo) which definitely had its moments; as did Notes from the Underground (while not known as a side splitter it certainly can get you rollin').

You know your right; I don''t think of Notes from the Underground at all as a comedy, but it was pretty funny actually.

[MarkBastable]

huh??

Huh what? It is pretty funny - though drily so.

[keilj]

Huh what? It is pretty funny - though drily so.

ha - all right. As long as you're not talking knee-slapping funny

[Nax]

I have a bit of a sadistic and dry sense of humor, so for me its Hunter S. Thompson.

His insightful and often drug fueled rants just crack me up.

[Thespian1975]

I've just finished Joy in the Morning by P G wodehouse. Every line in it makes you smile and quite a few make you laugh out loud or nudge the person next to you and read out quotes.

A quote from Stephen Fry on the back reads

"You don't analyse such sunlit perfection, you just bask in it's warmth and splendour"

[Emil Miller]

Having read vast tracts of Wodehouse's prolific output I have laughed out loud on many an occasion. It's fatal to read him on public transport at the risk of being thought mad by other passengers, but the funniest book for me must be Evelyn Waugh's 'Scoop' which had me helpless with laughter from beginning to end. I'm laughing now just thinking about it.

[giventofly]

If you can handle some dark... verrrry dark and shocking humor, and are looking for something more contemporary, just about anything from Chuck Palahniuk is a winner. I would recommend Survivor or Choke (If you saw the movie, please don't let it disuade you. One of the worst adaptations ever of a phenomenal book). But beware: He is NOT for the faint of heart.

[ForKnowledge]

pioneer, go home by Richard Powell

[annatak]

Mil Millington (Things My Girlfriend and I Have Argued About), Christopher Moore and Sherman Alexie for me.

[MagicalSoul]

Adventure of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain is my best 'laughing' book.
I don't like comical books nor those which meant to be "amusing", I prefer serious books.

[waltereegho]

Will Cuppy's 'The Decline and Fall of practically Everybody' is hilarious. I also enjoyed the oeuvre of German writer Walter Moers.

[jet.thursday]

Neil Gaiman made me laugh and gave me suspense feeling :yikes:
I really love his novels^^
Mark Twain's Huckelberry Finn is a good one too!
I really liked it as well :blush:
so i hope you'll love them too^^

[Niamh]

Anything written by Danny Wallace generally has me laughing my head off. :nod:

[D.S. Poorman]

Confederacy of Dunces
Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
Catch-22
Don Quixote

and just because it was surprisingly so... Lolita

and check out some of Larkin's poetry like this:

This Be The Verse-

They **** you up, your mum and dad.
They may not mean to, but they do.
They fill you with the faults they had
And add some extra, just for you.

But they were ****ed up in their turn
By fools in old-style hats and coats,
Who half the time were soppy-stern
And half at one another's throats.

Man hands on misery to man.
It deepens like a coastal shelf.
Get out as early as you can,
And don't have any kids yourself

[Aravona]

I must say, at risk of being slated for it, I have always found Terry Pratchett very amusing. To the point of laughing and people staring at me. Mostly due to his sarcastic take on things, and a rather darker humour as his books progressed, along with his alziemers.

However the book to make me laugh the most, was actually not even fiction. Eats, Shoots and Leaves - wonderful. I'm always looking for new funny books, old or new, for children or not and this thread has definately given me some new ideas in some places I didn't even assume to find humour.

[Maryana]

Terry Pratchett, especially in English - his ironic jokes aren't an easy thing to translate.

[caspian]

Marki Twain's Huckelberry Finn is one of my very first books and I guess is the reason why this genre became my favorite and why I love Dickens


A Confederacy of Dunces - Kennedy

Catcher in the Rye -Salinger

The two funniest books that I can recall.

Totally agree. A confederacy of Dunces is my top pick. I don't remember anything else funnier.
I remember reading aloud funny parts of "catcher in the rye" to my sister and making her laugh too.

John Irving's "prayer for Owen Meany" and Booth Tarkington's Alice Adams made me laugh too. Both novels are poignant, pitiful but at times skockingly humorous.



and just because it was surprisingly so... Lolita


agree:shocked:

[D.S. Poorman]

Yeah, Caspian, when I was reading Lolita, within a dozen pages I was just shaking my head at the hilarity of that dry sardonic self-deprecation and parenthetic boorish snobbery of Humbert Humbert as humor was the last thing I expected to discover. I found myself often thinking that I aught not read the book at the local coffee house because someone might think "That guy's being awfully obnoxious laughing every 30 seconds!" And then they'd get nosy and work in a glimpse at the cover and think "Oh, he thinks that book about the 40 year old man screwing the 12 year old girl is funny? What a black hearted cretin!" Anyhow, certainly a brilliant book from so many facets of scrutiny. The language perhaps being penultimate in the estimation after the entire inspiration for the plot itself.

[caspian]

Yeah, Caspian, when I was reading Lolita, within a dozen pages I was just shaking my head at the hilarity of that dry sardonic self-deprecation and parenthetic boorish snobbery of Humbert Humbert as humor was the last thing I expected to discover. I found myself often thinking that I aught not read the book at the local coffee house because someone might think "That guy's being awfully obnoxious laughing every 30 seconds!" And then they'd get nosy and work in a glimpse at the cover and think "Oh, he thinks that book about the 40 year old man screwing the 12 year old girl is funny? What a black hearted cretin!" Anyhow, certainly a brilliant book from so many facets of scrutiny. The language perhaps being penultimate in the estimation after the entire inspiration for the plot itself.

You sound so fresh about it. Have you read it recently? It had been long time since I've read it. I can't even recall in what language I've read it; russian or english? I agree with you. I had a lot of laughing too and was astonished when I caught myself being on the side of humberto humbert at most times and not hate him. That's only book I've read from Nabakov. I wonder if his other works are any closer to 'lolita"'s language.

[D.S. Poorman]

So are you located on the Caspian Sea? Neither here nor there but just wondering about your user name and your avatar looks like the tideland of some large body of water...

I guess it's been a couple of years since I read Lolita so I would consider that recent relatively speaking. No doubt I read it in English as I wouldn't have made it very far in Russian, haha! However the book made quite an impression on me so certain aspects won't be slipping into the undertow of time gone by. I think Nabokov did us a favor (certainly intensional regarding the structure of the book itself) by introducing poor old H.H. when he is already locked up and then flashing back to the story of his downfall. That way, knowing he and his sickness are contained from respectable society, we are free and guiltless to feel however we might care to feel about him and his compulsion for "nymphets". Thus, if you find you sympathize with any particular cognition H.H. has (other than pedophilia of course) it is a harmless endorsement because he's rotting in his jail cell (or was it a mental hospital, well, nonetheless...) I've meant to pick up some other Nabokov but have failed to do so as yet.

[bouquin]

I know literature is sometimes assumed to be dead serious, but there are a few works and authors that prove the opposite by writing a higly literary book with a very funny side. I'm reading the drama-works of Harold Pinter and it's really humoristicly written

Do you guys know any good books that also made you laugh?



Pinter's The Caretaker is on my immediate reading list. Right now I'm on Saul Bellow's Henderson the Rain King where there are a lot of funny scenes and descriptions!

[Niamh]

Sue Townsend's books make me laugh.

[lyni]

I agree with Terry Pratchett. his Discworld series of books are very entertaining.

[caspian]

So are you located on the Caspian Sea? Neither here nor there but just wondering about your user name and your avatar looks like the tideland of some large body of water...

I guess it's been a couple of years since I read Lolita so I would consider that recent relatively speaking. No doubt I read it in English as I wouldn't have made it very far in Russian, haha! However the book made quite an impression on me so certain aspects won't be slipping into the undertow of time gone by. I think Nabokov did us a favor (certainly intensional regarding the structure of the book itself) by introducing poor old H.H. when he is already locked up and then flashing back to the story of his downfall. That way, knowing he and his sickness are contained from respectable society, we are free and guiltless to feel however we might care to feel about him and his compulsion for "nymphets". Thus, if you find you sympathize with any particular cognition H.H. has (other than pedophilia of course) it is a harmless endorsement because he's rotting in his jail cell (or was it a mental hospital, well, nonetheless...) I've meant to pick up some other Nabokov but have failed to do so as yet.

I think it was jail and he dies there(if I remember correctly)
You're right. and I think if it wasn't for its amusing language it would be impossible to read Lolita. Though it didn't make it any less disturbing, Some of those disturbing scenes are just carved in my memory, I just can't forget. Lolita is one of those books I will never read again.

You guessed my location correctly. My avatar is doing great. :nod: I probably stuck with it just for one reason -to avoid to be related to Prince Narnia. :biggrin5:

[WICKES]

Evelyn Waugh for me, closely followed by P G Wodehouse and Oscar Wilde. Evelyn Waugh's Decline and Fall is the funniest novel in the English languge.

Here's a challenge- name me a funny German writer!

[Emil Miller]

Evelyn Waugh for me, closely followed by P G Wodehouse and Oscar Wilde. Evelyn Waugh's Decline and Fall is the funniest novel in the English languge.

Here's a challenge- name me a funny German writer!

Erich Kaestner who wrote 'Emil and the Detectives' among others.

Thomas Mann is also very funny in 'Felix Krull'

Incidentally, Wodehouse is just as funny in German as in English.

[ktr]

There are a lot of great writers mentioned in here - great writers have a way of being humorous without trying, it's just natural.

I picked up "how i became a famous novelist" by steve hely - because, you know, i'm awesome. i sat down at barnes and noble (they didnt have the book at the library) and started reading - there was a quote a few pages in (spoiler, stop reading now if you're not interested) ---- (this is not a direct quote btw, im going from drunken memory)

"the professors, instead of liking perfectly good books like moby dick, where the ****ing whale eats everybody, pretended to like pretentious bull**** like boring middlemarch and jerk off ulysses"

i decided to buy it right then, im a huuge moby dick fan

anyway, the book itself, while it has a ton of "characters" - id say it lacks character, in the end, you're left feeling a bit empty - but ****, it's a god damned funny book.

if funny is enough for you, pick it up - great travel book

[DougSlug]

"Lucky Jim" by Kingsley Amis. Brilliant laugh-out-loud stuff. Few morsels:

[upon waking up hungover] "His mouth had been used as a latrine by some small creature of the night, and then as its mausoleum."

"Each of you belongs to the two great classes of mankind, people I like and people I don't."

[inner thoughts of protagonist] "What would I do afterwards? Teach in a school? On dear no. Go to London and get a job in an office. What job? Whose office? Shut up."

"The piece was recognizable to Dixon as some skein of untiring facetiousness by filthy Mozart."

[kasie]

My Family and Other Animals - Gerald Durrell.

Warning - This book is Laugh Out Loud funny: do not read it on Public Transport - you will get funny looks from your fellow passengers and maybe will fall off your seat. (She speaks from personal experience.)

[monaghme]

I am so glad several others included Confederacy of Dunces by John Toole Kennedy. It's my favorite book of all time. I fell in love with the characters and it is very funny.

(for a truly funny book, it's ironic...the story of how it got published is an actual book in itself. Terribly sad story...the author committed suicide years before his mother finally got the book published).

While these are not novels but personal essays, I would say that David Sedaris books are laugh out loud funny as well.

I am off to locate some of the other recommendations to pile onto my summer reading pile! Thanks.

[wokeem]

As previously stated, anything by Vonnegut is always going to be filled with some fairly absurd and hilarious moments; Bluebeard is often overlooked but I greatly enjoyed that one.

A satirist that doesn't get nearly enough recognition would be Ambrose Bierce. Do yourself a favor and try and find The Devil's Dictionary at a library. He redefined almost every word in your standard dictionary and put a very cynical and often times very hilarious spin on its definition. Some examples being;

Admirability-My kind of ability, as opposed to your kind of ability

and

Ocean-A large body of water taking up two thirds of a world made for man, who has no gills.

[PrimordialBeast]

on the road by kerouac and cat's cradle by vonnegut had me laughing most of the time

[angel92]

Lamb by Christopher Moore

[Tallon]

Lucky Jim By Kingsley Amis always has me in stitches.

[minstrelbard]

Douglas Adams, of course. And Wodehouse. And Leacock. I'm also fond of Dave Barry.

And "1066 And All That". I forget who wrote it. Is it still in print? It was a hilarious spoof history of England.

[Veho]

Thank You, Jeeves by Wodehouse was the most recent. I laughed so much at one point my parents got annoyed!

Far From the Madding Crowd just made me laugh a very little too, which is odd because Hardy usually produces the opposite effect. I'm sure it was a one off though.

Other authors have been Shakespeare, Kesey and I can't think of anymore.

[PrimordialBeast]

I thought On the Road was pretty hilarious

[LMK]

Tim Dorsey's Serge Storm books, while not literature are books that are so outrageous I can't help but laugh out loud.

[YORK]

My first post on this board. I'll try to make it reasonably interesting.

I think the most I've laughed recently was during a second reading of Stella Gibbons' 'Cold Comfort Farm'. I was almost in tears at some of Gibbons' one liners and intentionally purple prose.

I always remember Evelyn Waugh making me chortle as well. I haven't read much by him recently, mind.

[Sebas. Melmoth]

The book of Acts.

In chapter 19, verses 13 thru 16 we get a little exorcist story which always makes me laugh:

Some who went around driving out evil spirits tried to invoke the name of the Lord Yahshua over those who were demon-possessed.
They would say, 'In the name of Yahshua whom Saul preaches, I command you to come out.'
Seven sons of [a certain priest] were doing this.
The evil spirit answered them, 'Yahshua I know, and Saul I know about, but who are you?'
Then the man who had the evil spirit jumped on them and overpowered them all.
He gave them such a beating that they ran out of the house naked and bleeding.

[YORK]

Hamlet telling Polonius that his beard is too long always gets me as well. I can't remember exactly which act or scene that is in.

I think it's when the players are performing something from classical antiquity shortly after their arrival and Polonius complains about its length. Hamlet basically tells him he should go to the barbers instead of whining.

[kiki1982]

Kafka's Castle made me cry with laughter. As did Lucian's Assembly of the Gods which I was researching regarding Kafka's book.

Austen makes me roar every time. I don't know what it is with the woman. She just does.

I'll have to second Far from the Madding Crowd as well... Some of the parts are hilarious, certainly when the gentle folk is talking in the malt house... Or when Joseph (?) has to take the coffin back and they get drinking in the inn 'because she's got the time anyway' or something like that and then Gabriel turns up and asks what the hell is going on and Joseph replies that he's always got this weird thing happening to him when he is in an inn after a while... That he sees double... :lol:. Can anyone be more idiotic?
But indeed, that is Hardy's only one I believe which is still remotely funny...

[Olga4real]

J.C. Jerom "Three men in a boat" is probably my favorite.
Short stories by O'Henry, Zoschenko(Russian author), Max Beerbohm
Hasek's "Good soldier Svejk" is bloody hilarious. The Russian equivalent is Voynovich's "Adventures of Chonkin"

I absolutely agree with you about Svejk!
I would like to add Gogol, Ilf and Petrow and of course Anton Checkov!!!

[Persuasion]

"Diplomatic Baggage" by Bridgit Keenan

About a diplomat wife adventure with her spouse.

I enjoyed that book very much and laughed alot.

[OrphanPip]

The book of Acts.

In chapter 19, verses 13 thru 16 we get a little exorcist story which always makes me laugh:

Some who went around driving out evil spirits tried to invoke the name of the Lord Yahshua over those who were demon-possessed.
They would say, 'In the name of Yahshua whom Saul preaches, I command you to come out.'
Seven sons of [a certain priest] were doing this.
The evil spirit answered them, 'Yahshua I know, and Saul I know about, but who are you?'
Then the man who had the evil spirit jumped on them and overpowered them all.
He gave them such a beating that they ran out of the house naked and bleeding.

Acts 20:9 is pretty funny too.

And there sat in a window a certain young man named Eutychus, being fallen into a deep sleep: and as Paul was long preaching, he sunk down with sleep, and fell down from the third loft, and was taken up dead.

Apparently, Paul wasn't the most exciting preacher.

[dafydd manton]

This is going to stir up a hornet's nest, but the Book of Mormon. The Tudor syntax and misuse of words drove me crackers, the nicking of bits from Proverbs and Kings were so wildly inappropriate and the way it turned the Bible on its head yet claimed to believe it were hilarious - and I'm a big Spike Milligan fan! And please not let's get into an argument, it's only my humble opinion. Free information and worth every penny you paid for it.

[LuggageFan]

An essay, rather, not a novel; George Eliot’s Silly Novels by Lady Novelists (http://webscript.princeton.edu/~mnoble/eliot-texts/eliot-sillynovels.html) cracks me up every time.

Extrait du texte:

“The most pitiable of all silly novels by lady novelists are what we may call the oracular species–novels intended to expound the writer's religious, philosophical, or moral theories. There seems to be a notion abroad among women, rather akin to the superstition that the speech and actions of idiots are inspired, and that the human being most entirely exhausted of common sense is the fittest vehicle of revelation. To judge from their writings, there are certain ladies who think that an amazing ignorance, both of science and of life, is the best possible qualification for forming an opinion on the knottiest moral and speculative questions. Apparently, their recipe for solving all such difficulties is something like this:–Take a woman's head, stuff it with a smattering of philosophy and literature chopped small, and with false notions of society baked hard, let it hang over a desk a few hours every day, and serve up hot in feeble English, when not required. You will rarely meet with a lady novelist of the oracular class who is diffident of her ability to decide on theological questions,–who has any suspicion that she is not capable of discriminating with the nicest accuracy between the good and evil in all church parties,–who does not see precisely how it is that men have gone wrong hitherto,–and pity philosophers in general that they have not had the opportunity of consulting her.”

Ahhh, sweet pedantry…

OMG that really is funny, isn't it? :smilewinkgrin:

[life]

Sometimes the saddest books can be the most funny. The first third of Brideshead Revisited (Waugh) is probably the most hilarious thing I've ever read. And Lost In The Cosmos by Percy is a ridiculously funny (but despite, or maybe because it is very serious at the same time).

[lyni]

The Discworld books by Terry Pratchett.
very dry English humour.

[Big Dante]

Looking at my bookshelf this morning I realised how I am lacking in the comedy department.
So lets hear what novels made you laugh the hardest and why.

[PeterL]

The funniest novel that I have read is The Aluminum Man by G. C. Edmondson. Some of the Flashman series are very funny.

When it comes to funniness in writing there is a lot of room for disagreement.

[Austin Butler]

Thomas McGuane's The Bushwhacked Piano

[NiMROD]

A Confederacy of Dunces and Catch-22 both made me laugh quite a bit. Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy I find to be a love it or hate it type book.

[WyattGwyon]

A few that are purely or primarily comic:
Gary Shteyngart, The Russian Debutante's Handbook and Absurdistan
Jincy Willett, Winner of the National Book Award
William Gaddis, JR and A Frolic of His Own
Thomas Pynchon, Vineland

Many of the funniest things I've read have been in novels with a serious element:
David Foster Wallace, Infinite Jest
Gaddis, The Recognitions

[Calidore]

To counterbalance NiMROD, I love Hitchhiker's Guide and its first sequel (the rest can be safely skipped), but thought Confederacy of Dunces was godawful--the title better describes the Pulitzer committee that voted for it.

[Seasider]

"Scoop" by Evelyn Waugh

[Emil Miller]

"Scoop" by Evelyn Waugh

Yes it literally had me helpless with laughter time and again. I like humorous writing and have read the usual comic authors such as Thurber, Buchwald, Leacock, Wodehouse etc. but, to my mind, Scoop is the funniest book in all English literature. If there were anything funnier, I would probably have hysterics. I should add though that its humour is very, very English and might not appeal to everybody. Definitely not to be read sitting among others on a train.

[esferica]

"The Good Soldier Shvejk" by Jaroslav Hashek

[TheFifthElement]

I found Catch 22 pretty funny. And what I've read of Don Quixote was pretty funny too. Comedy is so personal though.

[dfloyd]

Try Waugh's other African novel, Black Mischief. To equal or top both of Waugh's novels, try The Horse's Mouth by Joyce Cary. all of these were published by the Folio Society, and I have them for sale. Send me a personal message.

[Calidore]

I haven't read a lot of Tom Sharpe, but his first two Wilt novels were pretty funny. Tom Holt's Norse mythology spoof Expecting Someone Taller is also good.

[Rores28]

Wodehouse's stuff is pretty funny and light as well. You can pick up any of his books without having read the others, despite the fact that he employs the same basic cast of characters.

David Foster Wallace and Kurt Vonnegut are pretty funny as well, but its often more deadpan humor. And the overarching subject they are discussing will not be light and fluffy like wodehouse.

[Emil Miller]

Try Waugh's other African novel, Black Mischief. To equal or top both of Waugh's novels, try The Horse's Mouth by Joyce Cary. all of these were published by the Folio Society, and I have them for sale. Send me a personal message.

Black Mischief is also hilarious but it ends grimly with death and cannibalism and the protagonist back in London at a loose end. The same goes for A Handful of Dust, which brilliantly sends up the silliness of the upper classes but ends in tragedy. Decline and Fall has some extremely funny characters, especially Captain Grimes and the confidence trickster Soloman Philbrick. Anyone who has only read Waugh's Brideshead Revisited, will be very surprised at just how funny he can be after such a serious novel.
Decline and Fall is described thus by one critic: " Concocted of cruelty,bigotry, pederasty, white slavery, violence, madness and murder, Decline and Fall is fundamentally playful and side -splittingly funny"

[avid]

"the gang that couldn't shoot straight" by Jimmy Breslin was a very funny novel. It takes the gangster genre and makes it just plain silly fun.

[Darcy88]

Can't say I've read that much comedy in my time. Don Quixote though had me frequently laughing aloud. Sancho's gullibillity, Don Quixote's earnestness, and the brilliantly ridiculous action sequences which proceed from both will crack you up big time. Don Quixote imagines an uncouth bar-wench to be a noble lady of impeccable class and breeding.... Sancho believes that he'll be rewarded for his service by being granted title to his own island.

Another classic - Gulliver's Travels - has some parts that are truly hilarious as well. The cleverness of the irony, the fantastical nature of the plot, the setting and the action, as well as the sheer comedy of certain scenes, such as when a six inch tall dagger-wielding Gulliver engages in mortal combat with a pair of pig-sized rats .... oh my... I found it all priceless.

And though I've only read bits and pieces, Boccacio's Decameron was rather potently humorous at times.

[Seasider]

Changing Places by David Lodge. About his year as an Exchange Prof in America. I did the same thing but though my year had funny moments it wasn't as funny as his.

[kasie]

Diary of a Nobody - G & W Grossmith: the episode of painting the bath makes me smile just remembering it; you can see it coming a mile off but that just makes it even more ridiculous when the inevitable happens.

Three Men in a Boat - J K Jerome: again, you're just waiting for the daft things to happen.

The Pursuit of Love - Nancy Mitford: wistful and bound to end in tears but the Uncle is so monstrous, he's hilarious.

Someone has already mentioned Tom Sharpe - I'll just say Porterhouse Blue is my favourite and for once the tv version did it more than justice.

Hitchhiker's Guide - heard the original radio version with great delight rather more years ago than I care to remember.....never could understand why some people did not find it funny.....

Jasper fforde - any of them, but start with The Eyre Affair for the Thursday Next series or you'll be flummoxed by the conceit out of which the stories are airily spun.

And no one has mentioned him because he's not Proper Literature, but Terry Pratchett never fails to raise a smile for me: try Weird Sisters - I defy anyone not to guffaw at the opening paragraphs; that Hwil the Playwright could go far...

Oh, and it's not a novel, but Gerald Durrell's My Family and other Animals is wickedly subversive: I have never been able to take Lawrence Durrell seriously after reading it.

I second the David Lodge choice and would add that his Nice Work struck a horribly familiar chord when I read it as I exchanged an academic life for a job in industry.

[Rores28]

Black Mischief is also hilarious but it ends grimly with death and cannibalism and the protagonist back in London at a loose end. The same goes for A Handful of Dust, which brilliantly sends up the silliness of the upper classes but ends in tragedy. Decline and Fall has some extremely funny characters, especially Captain Grimes and the confidence trickster Soloman Philbrick. Anyone who has only read Waugh's Brideshead Revisited, will be very surprised at just how funny he can be after such a serious novel.
Decline and Fall is described thus by one critic: " Concocted of cruelty,bigotry, pederasty, white slavery, violence, madness and murder, Decline and Fall is fundamentally playful and side -splittingly funny"

I know we're not all Twilight fans feverishly speculating about the ending of New Moon or anything, but spoiler alerts are still a good rule of thumb.

[Helga]

I have never read that many funny books, I did find the guide to the galaxy funny and Don Quixote but I also found the simple book Marley and me very funny at times maybe because I saw Spock in Marley a lot.

[JazzJazz]

I don't usually tend to read comedy although I found Bridget Jones' Diary quite funny :biggrin5:

[annatak]

Christopher Moore for ironic and sarcastic humor! Lamb and the Dirtiest Job are some good ones.

[Chris 73]

Hitchhiker's Guide, also Good Omens by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman.

[Melysnl]

Fear and Loathing in Law Vegas is absolutely the funniest book I've ever read. I read it in college and it brought me out of a bad mood. The Acid House by Irvine Welsh and anything by Jennifer Belle are seconds. Barrel Fever by David Sedaris and American Psycho by Brett Easton Ellis too.

Most of these books aren't novels though, which is why I have to crown Jennifer Belle as the funniest novelest, if I had to. Maybe I'm sick but but all of her books are funny, honest, and helped me to regain my composure when I needed to. I get the dark humor; surreal and hilarious at the same time.

[stlukesguild]

Gore Vidal- Myra Breckenridge
Philip Roth- Portnoy's Complaint
William Faulkner- As I Lay Dying
Flannery O'Conner- short stories
Jonathan Swift- A Modest Proposal
Donald Barthleme- The Dead Father (Obviously I have a black sense of humor)
John Kennedy Toole- A Confederacy of Dunces

[wordeater]

Comic writers are often underrated. Here are some classics:

Roald Dahl, My Uncle Oswald
P. G. Wodehouse, The Inimitable Jeeves
Jerome K. Jerome, Three Men in a Boat

[hillwalker]

'Billy Liar' by Keith Waterhouse if you enjoy sardonic, British humour. However, be prepared to embarrass yourself if reading in public.

H

[NiMROD]

Ooh I'm glad someone mentioned Lamb by Christopher Moore. That made me laugh a lot.

[Bastable]

I'm surprised nobody has mentioned Lucky Jim by Kingsley Amis, i just finished my second read through this year, one of the funniest, in a subtle way, books i've ever read.

[PoeticPassions]

This has made me realize I almost never read funny stuff... oh no... I can't think of any novel that really made me laugh. I am sure there has to be something.

Oscar Wilde's plays tend to be funny. I always laugh with Shakespeare... Cymbeline, for example.

Though not a funny book, it definitely made me laugh out loud a few times: Notes from Underground

I may have to pick up a few books all of you have mentioned... I need some comedy in my life.

[Brett Cottrell]

Catch 22 (Joseph Heller)
Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff (Christopher Moore)
Jitterbug Perfume (Tom Robbins)
Skinny Legs and All (Tom Robbins)
Red Dwarf (Grant and Naylor)
Good Omens (Pratchett and Gaiman)
Kraken (China Mieville)

[Seasider]

The Education of Hyman Kaplan by Leo Rosten and the sequel The Return of Hyman Kaplan are very funny, especially if you have ever tried to teach English to a group of non- English speakers. Hilarious.

[Des Essientes]

"The Heart of a Dog" and "The Master and Margarita" by Mikhail Bulgakov.

[Isla]

"The Milagro Beanfield War" by John Nichols = Rib-aching tears of joy.

[Brett Cottrell]

"The Heart of a Dog" and "The Master and Margarita" by Mikhail Bulgakov.

Haven't read The Heart of a Dog, but The Master and Margarita is great. Love the cat.

[Silas Thorne]

'Catch 22' by Joseph Heller.
'The Liar' by Stephen Fry. Oh, and DO NOT read the wikipaedia entry or a review on this before reading the book. It will just spoil the fun.
I've also found some novels by Kurt Vonnegut rather funny, though the chuckles are bitter.

[Seasider]

The Dud Avocado by Elaine Dundy. Very funny account of an American ingenue's experiences in Paris after WW2.

[hellsapoppin]

While technically not a novel, Mark Twain's Practical Jokes With Artemus Ward was by far the funniest book I ever read. So sad it is out of print.

[ashthehunk]

Hi friends
Just finished reading Three men in Boat by Jerome K Jerome
Its Good but you wont be able to enjoy it fully unless you are a Londoner or have taken a ride through Thames as per book.

I think of all the genres in literature , humor is toughest to master.
So who are the authors you think are masters of this art.
And which is the funniest book you have ever read.

Ciao

[kev67]

Scoop by Evelyn Waugh is very funny, as is Lucky Jim by Kingsley Amis.
David Lodge's Small World was very funny.
I used to like Spike Milligan's war diaries: Hitler, My Part in his Downfall, and the others. I am not sure I'd find them so funny now.
James Herriot's vet books were hilarious.
George MacDonald Fraser's Private McAuslen books were hilarious also. Some of his Flashman books were pretty funny too.
Larry McMurtry gave some of his characters great lines in the Lonesome Dove series.

[kev67]

Hi friends
Just finished reading Three men in Boat by Jerome K Jerome
Its Good but you wont be able to enjoy it fully unless you are a Londoner or have taken a ride through Thames as per book.

I think of all the genres in literature , humor is toughest to master.
So who are the authors you think are masters of this art.
And which is the funniest book you have ever read.

Ciao

I've been on several boat trips on the Thames. I've even swam down a few miles of it. However I did not think Three Men in a Boat was very funny and could not see what the fuss was about. It's quite a pleasant book; it's not very funny.

[Anton Hermes]

The Dud Avocado by Elaine Dundy. Very funny account of an American ingenue's experiences in Paris after WW2.
That's one of my all-time favorites right there.

[Hawkman]

Tom Sharpe's Riotous Assembly had me in stitches and rolling on the floor the first 6 times I read it.

[phoenixtears]

Three Men In A Boat by Jerome K Jerome was quite amusing and so are some of the short stories of O Henry.

[fajfall]

Shakespeare's The Comedy of Errors. It has a hilarious fat joke that goes for several pages that adds nothing to plot. "That mountain of Mad Flesh!"

[mona amon]

Catch 22
Lolita
Pale Fire
Wodehouse's Jeeves and Blandings books
Anything by Dickens and Jane Austen
Ulysses
My Family and Other Animals by Gerald Durrell
Bernard Shaw's plays