Make Me or Them Laugh: Looking for comedic or funny novels, the funnier, the better

[shadowkat]

Can you come up with 5 to 10 comedic or funny novels or novels that simply made you laugh out loud? Note they shouldn't require that much concentration. So light and funny books. Not literary masterpieces. Not that they can't be fun too...

My five - but I've already read them...and it's all I can remember. Also I'm not sure about the last three. So it's really only two. The last three had funny sections, but angsty ones too, and the fourth one - I'm guessing was unintentionally funny in places.

1. Lamb or the Gospel According to Biff by Christopher Moore
2. Right Ho, Jeeves by PD Wodehouse
3. Trojan Gold by Elizabeth Peters
4. 50 Shades of Grey by EL James (yes, I have a odd sense of humor, I admit this and only for the first book in the trilogy).
5. The Amazing Maurice by Terry Prachett (although Good Omens by Neil Gaiman and Terry Prachett may fit there as well, except it felt like a drawn out joke at times but then so did 50 Shades of Grey.)

Oh...films are easier:

1. To be or not to be by Mel Brooks
2. Noises Off
3. Grosse Point Blank
4. There's Something About Mary
5. The Producers (original non-musical film version) by Mel Brooks

Comments

[rahirah]

These aren't novels, but the funniest book I ever read was a copy of "Lost In the Horse Latitudes" by H. Allen Smith (who was a well-known humorist in the 1940s, but is mostly forgotten today.) It was a bunch of short stories about his experiences in Hollywood, and it's a product of its times in regards to women and minorities, but when I was twelve and reading it for the first time, I laughed so hard my sides hurt.

[shadowkat67.livejournal.com]

Sometimes the non-fiction stories are funnier or wonkier. But that's an interesting one that I haven't heard of.

[cactuswatcher.livejournal.com]

I'm not a big fan of a lot of Mel Brooks, but I do enjoy the ones you picked. To Be or Not To Be is a remake of a Jack Benny movie that was released during World War II. The films are both pretty good with the original a little more of a thriller and the Mel Brooks version a little funnier.

[shadowkat67.livejournal.com]

Feel somewhat the same way about Mel Brooks...often he just takes the joke too far or spreads it too thin. Less is more, Mel, seriously.

I like comedy that is subtle. Mel is not subtle. But those two films, weirdly, are. Maybe because they were earlier in his career?

I haven't seen the Jack Benny version. But the Brooks version always has me in stitches.

[shipperx.livejournal.com]

To Say Nothing of the Dog by Connie Willis (http://www.amazon.com/Nothing-Bantam-Spectra-Book-ebook/dp/B00309SCOE/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1377744584&sr=1-1&keywords=to+say+nothing+of+the+dog)
Ned Henry is a time travelling historian who has landed in the Victorian era to... See, that's where the problem begins. He didn't exactly hear his assignment for what he was supposed to be doing. Meanwhile, fellow timetraveller Verity Kindle has had to return to Victorian England because on her last trip home she had an inadverdant hitchiker in the form of a charming housecat... which is not allowed because house cats have gone extinct in the future.

When something puts Oxford's History Department's time traveling net out of service, Ned and Verity find themselves trapped in the past, matchmaking like mad in an attempt to not (further) screw up the timeline, and desperately trying to return an errant housecat to her rightful home.

It's a Victorian house party on crack.

* * *

Redshirts by John Scalzi (http://www.amazon.com/Redshirts-Novel-Three-Codas-ebook/dp/B0079XPUOW/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1377745514&sr=1-1&keywords=red+shirts+scalzi)
Something very strange is going on on the United Universal Starship Intrepid. At least that's what Andrew thinks when he begins to notice A) Every 'away mission' ends in a lethal confrontation with aliens B) The person who dies is always a low ranked ensign (which he also happens to be) C) The captain, the chief science office, and the bridge crew always come away from these encounters miraculously unscathed!

Not surprisingly, a lot of the crew below decks do a great deal to avoid being assigned to an away team...

It's a Galaxy Quest-like hommage to Star Trek (which also actually has something to say about protagonist privilege and lazy science fiction).

* * *

Anansi Boys by Neil Gaiman (http://www.amazon.com/Anansi-Boys-ebook/dp/B000FCKENQ/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1377746907&sr=8-1&keywords=Anansi+Boys+in+kindle)
Fat Charlie's dad is dead. This is when he discovers that his late father was in fact a trickster god who went by many names (one being Anansi, the spider trickster god from African folk-tales). Oh, and Charlie also has a brother that he never knew about, who has powers just like their father... and who has just stolen his life.


* * *
Ready Player One by Ernest Cline (http://www.amazon.com/Ready-Player-One-ebook/dp/B004J4WKUQ/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1377746815&sr=8-1&keywords=Ready+Player+One+in+kindle)
In a dystopian future, a Steve Job's like billionaire invented a utopian first person player game. In his will, the billionaire cryptically stated that he had left easter eggs in his game and that the first person to find them and complete the quest will inherit his substantial fortune. This set off years of obsessive game playing by the masses, but when nothing had been found it had petered out, leaving only the truly obsessed fans still looking for clues in the game world's 1980s nostalgia trivia.

It's a cross between a quest, Willie Wonka's Chocolate Factory, a dystopian tale, and shameless 1980s nostalgia (written by someone who clearly knows a thing or three about online fandoms).

* * *
Only You Can Save Mankind (http://www.amazon.com/Mankind-Johnny-Maxwell-Trilogy-ebook/dp/B000R4LGIO/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1377747020&sr=8-1&keywords=Only+You+Can+Save+Mankind+in+kindle) and Johnny and the Dead (http://www.amazon.com/dp/B000YGIIPY/ref=rdr_ext_sb_ti_sims_1) by Terry Prachett Johnny Maxwell discovers that everything happening in his video game is actually happening. 2nd book, Johnny can now see dead people...

[shadowkat67.livejournal.com]

I own one of these (To Say Nothing of the Dog) and have a sample of the other (Ready Player One) on my Kindle. You should see Amazon reviews. LOL!
There a few people who really hate Ready Player One - apparently they think it is a rip-off of Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson? Or how dare the writer talk nostalgically about the horrible sitcom Family Ties? (I don't know, I actually liked it. It was charming.)

Definitely curious about Redshirts and the Prachett one looks good. I can't read his discworld novels, because I'm allergic to footnotes - they give me hives.

[flake-sake.livejournal.com]

I'm not big about comedy but there is some neat stuff around:

1. Dealing with Dragons by Patricia C. Wrede
2. Basically all of Diskworld and almost everything by Terry Pratchett
3. Hitchhiker's guide through the Galaxy
4. Almost everything by David Sedaris, although that's more short stories
5. Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norell by Susanna Clarke
6. Bite me by Christopher Moore
7. Making History by Stephen Fry

The first that come to mind. :)

[petzipellepingo.livejournal.com]

I don't know about 5 or more but I have a favorite that I doubt you - or anyone else - has ever read : An Embarrassment of Riches (http://www.amazon.com/Embarrassment-Riches-James-Howard-Kunstler/dp/0812584988/ref=sr_1_3?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1377770655&sr=1-3&keywords=an+embarrassment+of+riches) by James Howard Kunstler. Just thinking about it makes me smile.

[shadowkat67.livejournal.com]

That looks like a lot of fun. And it's cheap too.

[shapinglight]

James Thurber's My Life and Hard Times always has me in stitches (the dog that bit people, the night the ghost got in etc), but again they're a product of their time.

[shadowkat67.livejournal.com]

Oh I love James Thurber, including the drawings. Not so much the films based on his work though, for some reason.

[sophist.livejournal.com]

The Princess Bride would top my list.

[shadowkat67.livejournal.com]

Would agree...both movie and book. I'd forgotten about it.

[treadingthedark.livejournal.com]

Sam Levenson's Everything but Money. It's pretty old, I read it as a child and I'm pretty old!

It's a humorous recollection of the author's life as a Jewish boy growing up in the Bronx. I loved it. I would love to find a copy. Maybe I'll hop over to Amazon.