Funny books for me

November 15, 2013 5:08 PM

Read Pratchet. Read Adams, Asprin. What next?

What are some good funny books? I need... a lot of them.... so, lay them on me! I don't care about genre, just humor + book quality. Oh, and novels instead of humor books like Dave Barry's Ramblings please.

thanks

posted by Jacen to Sports, Hobbies, & Recreation (43 answers total)

Charles Stross's "Laundry" series is pretty funny when it's not being mind-wrenchingly horrifying.
posted by baf at 5:14 PM on November 15, 2013 [2 favorites]

Jasper Fforde. You can get an idea of the humour from his website. I have only read the Thursday Next and Nursery Crime series, but thoroughly recommend all of those.
posted by pianissimo at 5:17 PM on November 15, 2013 [8 favorites]

P.G. Wodehouse. The Jeeves stories are particularly recommended.
posted by Aznable at 5:26 PM on November 15, 2013 [8 favorites]

Anything by Christopher Moore or Mark Leyner.
posted by gnutron at 5:27 PM on November 15, 2013 [4 favorites]

Harry Harrison's Bill, the Galactic Hero series:

• Bill, the Galactic Hero
• Bill, the Galactic Hero on the Planet of Robot Slaves
• Bill the Galactic Hero on the Planet of Bottled Brains
• Bill the Galactic Hero on the Planet of Tasteless Pleasure
• Bill the Galactic Hero on the Planet of Zombie Vampires
• Bill the Galactic Hero on the Planet of Ten Thousand Bars
• Bill the Galactic Hero: The Final Incoherent Adventure

posted by XMLicious at 5:29 PM on November 15, 2013 [1 favorite]

TBH, having Asprin on your list makes me feel OK with listing a lot of folks whose work I enjoyed, even if I didn't LOL more than once or twice, but I think all these are worth trying out.

P. G. Wodehouse's Bertie Wooster & Jeeves books (& others later)
Tom Holt's The Walled Orchard and other historicals (& fantasies too, but less so)
Alexei Panshin's Anthony Villiers trilogy
Frans Bengtsson's The Long Ships
Christopher Moore's lots of stuff
John Scalzi's standalone novels
Jonathan Howard's Johannes Cabal series
Thorne Smith's everything
Jasper Fforde's Thursday Next series
Ernest Bramah's Orientalist fantasies
Jerome K. Jerome's Three Men in a Boat
posted by Monsieur Caution at 5:29 PM on November 15, 2013 [5 favorites]

Here's an example of Scalzi's writing:

The Shadow War of the Night Dragons, Book One: The Dead City

posted by XMLicious at 5:36 PM on November 15, 2013

Me Talk Pretty One Day by David Sedaris. Laughed till I wept.
posted by lizifer at 5:55 PM on November 15, 2013

I'm really enjoying The Rook by Daniel O'Malley. (YouTube trailer.)
posted by vickyverky at 6:10 PM on November 15, 2013 [2 favorites]

John Lanchester's Debt to Pleasure is deliciously wicked. And very funny as the penny slowly drops. It won the Whitbread Prize for first novel, so should meet your quality requirements, too.

(I know Lanchester mostly for his financial reporting in the LRB, but he was a novelist first.)

William Goldman's Princess Bride is hilarious.

And while we're on a metatextual jag, Laurence Stern's The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman is a very funny, if difficult read.

I and the rest of the thread seem to be drawing a sadly predictable blank on great funny novels by women. I'm hoping someone can come along and offer a corrective!
posted by col_pogo at 6:17 PM on November 15, 2013

I'm a huge Adams fan and a recent convert to Pratchett, and I also really like Kurt Vonnegut.
posted by jeoc at 6:18 PM on November 15, 2013 [1 favorite]

Have you ever read anything by James Thurber? They vary a lot but they're always clever and amusing.

Back when Punch Magazine was still a going concern, they had a desk made of wood in their office, and occasionally they would ask an author to carve his name in the desk with a pen knife. Only two Americans were ever offered that honor: Mark Twain, and James Thurber.
posted by Chocolate Pickle at 6:23 PM on November 15, 2013 [2 favorites]

Jack Handey of Deep Thoughts fame just published a novel, The Stench of Honolulu, which begins like this:

When my friend Don suggested we go on a trip to the South Seas together, and offered to pay for the whole thing, I thought, Fine, but what's in it for me?

posted by Rustic Etruscan at 6:39 PM on November 15, 2013 [1 favorite]

I'm a big fan of Bill Bryson (he has some side splitting books about trying to walk the Appalachian trail and traveling to Australia) but they may be too much like Dave Barry's ramblings for you. You might enjoy Shirley Jackson's memoir Life Among the Savages. Technically not a novel but a sort of funny "mom goes nuts when the family moves to the country with small children" if you're into that sort of thing. I am usually not, but I enjoyed it.
posted by jessamyn at 6:51 PM on November 15, 2013 [3 favorites]

Based on the Adams/Pratchett/Asprin trifecta, I think you'd really dig John DeChancie's Castle Perilous books. Funny, pretty lighthearted, kinda weird, fantasy - it's fun stuff.
posted by DulcineaX at 6:51 PM on November 15, 2013

Christopher Moore! My favorite book of his is Lamb: the Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal, but that one gets genuinely heartbreaking towards the end what with the crucifixion. His other novels are more on the wacky romp end of things. I also especially liked his vampire books, Bloodsucking Fiends: A Love Story, You Suck: A Love Story, and Bite Me: A Love Story.
posted by yasaman at 6:53 PM on November 15, 2013 [1 favorite]

Zadie Smith's novel White Teeth is fucking hilarious.

Also, anything by Oscar Wilde, especially The Picture of Dorian Gray. Ok, so technically it's irony, not comedy. Still hilarious in a twisted way

Also, going with the Irish theme, Paddy Clark Ha Ha Ha by Roddy Doyle.

Out in left field... the Scott Pilgrim comic book series? They have a really subtle, sweet kind of humour.
posted by winterportage at 7:08 PM on November 15, 2013 [2 favorites]

Nth-ing all the Jeeves & Wooster suggestions.

If you haven't read Terry Pratchett & Neil Gaiman's Good Omens, you should also give that a go.

Others you might enjoy:
Jhereg - the first in a series of books by Steven Brust
The Gun Seller by Hugh Laurie (yes, that Hugh Laurie)
Hippopotamus by Stephen Fry
posted by dotgirl at 7:10 PM on November 15, 2013 [1 favorite]

The Eve Dallas books by J. D. Robb are amusing, but I read two or three of them before I decided the humor is intentional.
posted by Bruce H. at 7:22 PM on November 15, 2013

The Hollow Chocolate Bunnies of the Apocalypse by Robert Rankin

Any books by Amanda Filipacchi.
posted by book 'em dano at 7:29 PM on November 15, 2013 [1 favorite]

Patrick McCabe's Mondo Desperado.
Jerome K. Jerome's Three Men in a Boat.
Kurt Vonnegut's Hocus Pocus.
Flann O'Brien's The Third Policeman.
P. G. Wodehouse's The Man With Two Left Feet.
David Wong's John Dies At The End.
posted by Sticherbeast at 7:57 PM on November 15, 2013

Steve Aylett's Slaughtermatic.
posted by Sticherbeast at 7:59 PM on November 15, 2013

The Woody Allen trilogy: Getting Even, Without Feathers and Side Effects.
posted by KwaiChangCaine at 8:45 PM on November 15, 2013

Magnus Mills. Start with The Restraint of Beasts.
posted by bricoleur at 8:55 PM on November 15, 2013

Ursula Vernon. AKA T. Kingfisher.
Sfar & Trondheim's Dungeon.
posted by egypturnash at 9:15 PM on November 15, 2013

I can second Christopher Moore- especially Lamb, and add Soon I Will Be Invincible by Austin Grossman.
posted by charmedimsure at 9:47 PM on November 15, 2013 [2 favorites]

Nthing Christopher Moore. His book Fool is one of a very few novels I loved enough to reread, and I reread it twice. Also my husband, who is a huge fan of the authors you named, has every book Christopher Moore ever wrote and rereads them regularly.

Sam Lypsite's book Home Land made me laugh and laugh. I recommended it to someone online a few years ago, and he emailed me to say he too thought it was one of the funniest books he ever read.
posted by Serene Empress Dork at 11:35 PM on November 15, 2013

I'd do Breakfast of Champions by Vonnegut, personally. If you like more adolescent humor, Artemis Fowl is pretty good, but it's not for everyone. I like Thursday Next but it's more clever than funny, if that makes sense-- The Last Dragonslayer is pretty funny, though, in a sort of absurd way. Lots of lobster-related organized religion, stuff like that.
posted by NoraReed at 11:50 PM on November 15, 2013

Anything by A Lee Martinez should fit the bill.
posted by tdismukes at 1:19 AM on November 16, 2013

Carl Hiaasen if you don't mind your humour with a bit of mystery and environmentalism thrown in.
posted by goo at 1:51 AM on November 16, 2013 [1 favorite]

Anything -- anything -- by Robert Sheckley.
posted by Sebmojo at 2:39 AM on November 16, 2013 [1 favorite]

Seconding A. Lee Martinez. I've been enjoying his books after reading all the other usual suspects.
posted by thegreatfleecircus at 3:37 AM on November 16, 2013

Funniest book I've ever read is A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole.

(But some of Hiaasen's come in second.)
posted by booth at 5:36 AM on November 16, 2013 [1 favorite]

Seconding Mark leyner. Wonderful stuff, and DNA is pretty much my hero.
posted by mintcake! at 8:45 AM on November 16, 2013

Matt Ruff's little-known but hysterical Sewer, Gas, and Electric.
posted by WidgetAlley at 9:55 AM on November 16, 2013

Given the light, funny, and fast-paced authors you mention, I recommend the Meg Langslow series by Donna Andrews. I'd place them more in the Asprin/Prachett direction than Adams for humor style -- not as serious as Adams can be. I don't know how to explain how funny they are, but just thinking about them is making me giggle. I'd read in order, since there are a couple of fun surprises that would be lost otherwise.
posted by SandiBeech at 11:55 AM on November 16, 2013

John Swartzwelder's books are hilarious.
posted by Chenko at 12:38 PM on November 16, 2013

Anne Lamott both her novels and her autobiographical stories.
Lois McMaster Bujold's Vorkosigan books
Gerald Durrel's books about growing up in Corfu and later collecting animals for his zoo
posted by BoscosMom at 4:25 PM on November 16, 2013

Dickens, The Pickwick Papers. This is early and atypical Dickens, with little of the melodrama and preaching that disfigure his later work. Pure comedy.

Saki, anything and everything.

S.J. Perelman, who wrote much of the Marx Brothers' material. His work is still under copyright, so there's not much available free. Read the Wikipedia article and then go to AddAll or Amazon to pick them up for pennies.

If you read only one thing by Oscar Wilde, let it be The Importance of Being Earnest.
posted by KRS at 5:12 PM on November 16, 2013

Is it possible we're this far in without Catch-22 by Joe Heller?
posted by thinkpiece at 6:35 PM on November 16, 2013

Sparkle Hayter's Robin Hudson series is funny and features a female protagonist.
posted by bunderful at 9:24 AM on November 17, 2013

If you have any video game/mmo/rpg experience--Mogworld by Yahtzee Croshaw (also, the audio book, which is read by Yahtzee, is specifically great).
posted by anaelith at 4:32 PM on November 17, 2013

I just finished a hilarious YA novel called Me and Earl and the Dying Girl.

Nthing Christopher Moore. If you finished Pratchett you read Good Omens, and if you liked Good Omens you'll like Lamb.

Also try Tom Robbins, starting with Skinny Legs and All or Jitterbug Perfume.
posted by kostia at 9:41 PM on November 21, 2013 [1 favorite]