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.
Check out my blog it has basically nothing to do with literature.
http://slingsandarrowsandtheproudman.blogspot.com/
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.Originally Posted by dfloyd
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"
"L'art de la statistique est de tirer des conclusions erronèes a partir de chiffres exacts." Napoléon Bonaparte.
"Je crois que beaucoup de gens sont dans cet état d’esprit: au fond, ils ne sentent pas concernés par l’Histoire. Mais pourtant, de temps à autre, l’Histoire pose sa main sur eux." Michel Houellebecq.
"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.
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.
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.
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.
Last edited by kasie; 09-16-2011 at 06:04 AM.
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.
Check out my blog it has basically nothing to do with literature.
http://slingsandarrowsandtheproudman.blogspot.com/
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.
I hope death is joyful, and I hope I'll never return -Frida Khalo
If I seem insensitive to what you are going through, understand it's the way I am- Mr. Spock
Personally, I think that the unique and supreme delight lies in the certainty of doing 'evil'–and men and women know from birth that all pleasure lies in evil. - Baudelaire
I don't usually tend to read comedy although I found Bridget Jones' Diary quite funny
JazzJazz
Christopher Moore for ironic and sarcastic humor! Lamb and the Dirtiest Job are some good ones.
Hitchhiker's Guide, also Good Omens by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman.
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.
All good books have one thing in common- they are truer than if they had really happened. (Hemingway)
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
Beware of the man with just one book. -Ovid
The man who doesn't read good books has no advantage over the man who can't read them.- Mark Twain
My Blog: Of Delicious Recoil
http://stlukesguild.tumblr.com/
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
'Billy Liar' by Keith Waterhouse if you enjoy sardonic, British humour. However, be prepared to embarrass yourself if reading in public.
H
Posting Permissions
Reply With Quote
