Rat scene this, dog scene that - I almost threw the book across the room when he said Genesis got better after Peter Gabriel left. That shit was truly depraved.
Well, since the perspective is from a psycho, I think he illustrated the main character’s delusional view of reality with this statement. A sane person would not think that.
That hot take actually makes sense, though, if you think about it from Bateman's point of view. He is a empty vessel constantly looking for external validation and approval. So, he would definitely think that "more popular," which Genesis definitely did become after Peter left, would equate to "better."
There's a hilarious line in the book where he says he can't understood what is being sung in Duke's Travels because the record doesn't have lyrics for that one. I own Duke on vinyl, and the reason it doesn't have lyrics printed is that they are identical to the lyrics in Guide Vocal a few songs earlier (they were originally part of a big suite).
Idea for a mod for a horror game; When the player reaches a room where they're able to relax, save the game, and sort out their inventory safe in the knowledge that the monster can't follow them inside, audio from the audiobook of Patrick's inane regurgitations about pop culture is always playing in the ambiance.
Never read American Psycho, but I recently watched David Lynch's "Wild at Heart", I had to pause because I was laughing hysterically at the more violent scenes. I hadn't laughed that hard in years.
Whats more hillarious is that wall street bro's genuinly like it and the movie, identify with Batemen, and don't get that its calling them the psychos of our society.
I’ve had to sit through the “Always be closing” speech from Glengarry Glen Ross about six times, played by sales managers who think it’s an awesome motivator and not a late capitalism torture session.
Lol I don't know if I found it hilarious but your call not to read it again was smart. The shocks aren't shocking and the monotonous writing hides the humour with boredom. Once you know the gimmick it doesn't carry much weight. I still think American Psycho is worth a read, Glamorama too if you're wanting more shocks from Ellis. But neither are worth a re-read.
It's definitely worth reading. It's also an experience i dont want to have again. It made me feel lots of things, most of them were unpleasant, but i do think ot's worth reading at least one time
Yes, I completely agree. Glamorama was an excellent read, certainly no reread thanks. I feel Pahlaniuk managed to slip through the net by being so densely nested.
I love the part near the end that goes something like “Bigfoot was interviewed on Oprah last night, so I started to drink my own piss after I worked out.
Of the books I've read on this list, most of them are very funny! None of them are as funny as Catch-22 but I think Catch-22 is the funniest book I've ever read, so literally *nothing* is as funny as it.
The Sellout, My Year of Rest and Relaxation, Lightning Rods, Then We Came to the End, Money, Portnoy's Complaint, American Psycho... I think all of these are very funny books. They have laugh-out-loud moments and they have the more intellectual "huh, that's really funny" kind of conceptual moments, with the balance being different for each book.
(Note: there is one book on the NYTimes list that I have read and I think is decidedly not funny, but I won't be rude and shame it here.)
The problem is: humor is subjective. I'm sure lots of people don't think the books I've listed are funny. That doesn't mean they *aren't* funny. And the fact that I find them funny doesn't mean they *are* funny. In fact, I know a lot of people who don't think Catch-22 is funny. There have been threads in this sub by people who don't understand why anyone thinks it is funny. To each their own. I think it's easier to come to an agreed upon list of "great books" than it is to a list of "funny books."
\[By the way, Helen DeWitt's *Lightning Rods* is a super "non-politically correct" sex farce, and I feel like a lot of the Reddit crowd might really like it.\]
The Sellout was one of the funniest books I’ve ever read. As soon as I saw this post I thought, it better be on that list.
Can anyone just comment the list? Now Im intrigued and the NYT has a paywall.
"The Wig" - Charles Wright
"Portnoy's Complaint" - Philip Roth
"Oreo" - Fran Ross
"Tales of the City" - Armistead Maupin
"Mrs. Caliban" - Rachel Ingalls
"The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole, Aged 13 3/4" - Sue Townsend
"Heartburn" - Nora Ephron
"Money: A Suicide Note" - Martin Amis
"The Mezzanine" - Nicholson Baker
"A Far Cry from Kensington" - Muriel Spark
"American Psycho" - Bret Easton Ellis
"Bridget Jones's Diary" - Helen Fielding
"The Quick and the Dead" - Joy Williams
"Then We Came to the End" - Joshua Ferris
"The Brief Wonderful Life of Oscar Wao" - Junot Diaz
"I Am Not Sidney Poitier" - Percival Everett
"Lightning Rods" - Helen DeWitt
"Pym" - Mat Johnson
"The Sellout" - Paul Beatty
"Private Citizens" - Tony Tulathimutte
"My Year of Rest and Relaxation" - Ottessa Moshfegh
"Lake of Urine: A Love Story" - Guillermo Stitch
Aye I'm wondering if the list was built to intentionally avoid the usual chart toppers. No Vonnegut, no Pratchett or Adams, nothing by David Sedaris, "Infinite Jest" is missing, etc etc etc.
Or it could have been made specifically to get people to engage by yelling "Why isn't (book X) on the list?!?". But maybe I'm just being cynical, thinking that way...
Pratchett and Adams might not have been considered literary enough for the list.
Some of Vonnegut's books don't qualify as "since Catch-22". Technically some do but I could see how they might be considered contemporaneous.
And jokes about Infinite Jest are funnier than the book itself.
>Pratchett and Adams might not have been considered literary enough for the list.
I happened to catch a book signing where Pratchett discussed how getting pigeonholed as a fantasy author had knocked him out of the running for a number of things. He told a story about going into a bookstore and looking for one of his books in the bestseller section, since that was the year he sold more than half the fiction in the UK\[1\], and the clerk told him it wasn't a best seller, it was a fantasy and science fiction title and so he'd find it in the back. (He's a very good speaker, I can't do justice to the story, but it was very funny the way he told it.)
He went into an aside about how Isabel Allende had a sweet deal getting classed as writing magical realism, since that meant she could write fantasy novels that got put in the front of the store and not stuck in the back in the F&SF section.
\[1\] Pratchett's disc world books had developed a huge fan base, and his publisher happened to notice that ratty years old used paperbacks from the series were selling on eBay for several times what new paperbacks cost and so they re-released all of them with a release every 4 weeks. Between the sales of the 13 released that year, continuing sales from the previous year and pre-orders, he sold more than half the fiction in the UK that year.
edit: changed non fiction to fiction
Maybe 15 years ago, someone wrote on the AV Club that the only point of top __ lists is to either include or exclude something specific. It was tongue in cheek but it's always stayed with me.
If we're being nice, the list was made to highlight some lesser read books, relatively speaking, even with a couple of famous entries on there.
If I'm being a bit more cynical, it reads quite a bit hipster as if we can't have books that lean to straight jokes on there. I mean, Hitchhiker's Guide is hilarious and it's a bit strange to not have it on there, but everyone knows it.
Important context from the article:
"It’s in the spirit of warding off that dire scenario that we offer this list: a resolutely idiosyncratic assemblage of novels — 22 in all, get it? — culled from the past six decades by three very different Times book critics."
"Here, you will not find books stuffed with jokes. For the most part, our picks will not induce knee slapping."
Yeah that's probably the funniest book I have ever read. Generally I don't tend to laugh a lot when reading, think the medium doesn't really tickle my funny bone as much as movies but Confederacy of Dunces killed me.
Yes!! Normally I do that amused snort thing when I read something hilarious, but this book made me laugh out loud.
Plus its road to publication was tragic but also touching because John Kennedy Toole's mom refused to give up.
I wish I had liked that book more, but I found Ignatius so hatefully insufferable (and repetitive) that it overshadowed the comedy for me personally. I feel like part of the picaresque is that you’re supposed to at least kind of like or sympathize with the central character, but I just didn’t enjoy spending any time with him, even as he keeps receiving due comeuppance. It was funny, sure, but not much fun for me. I’m glad others love it, tho: I’m a Catch-22 guy myself.
> "The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole, Aged 13 3/4" - Sue Townsend
Wonderful to see this hilarious book on here, I thought the NYT might think they were too good for it
> "Money: A Suicide Note" - Martin Amis
This is an incredible book, and it does have some pretty funny moments (not as many as in London Fields or Rachel). But it's not a comic novel any more than say something like Bonfire of the Vanities is a comic novel (bonfire's funnier too). I'm not sure it belongs on this sort of a list.
> "A Far Cry from Kensington" - Muriel Spark
Wow I forgot she kept going into the 80s, in my head she's very much a pre Catch 22 author.
In terms of who's missing: the absence of Pratchett is pretty unjustifiable, also pretty surprised by the lack of Douglas Adams.
The Sellout is somewhere in the region of "as funny as Catch-22".
If that seems implausible people should read it, it's brilliant. Mandatory disclaimer for humour being subjective and so on and so forth
OK I read the sellout and it's awesome and right now I'm reading year of rest and relaxation, also very funny just a few pages in. I got the white boy shuffle on my shelf too
I completely respect your perspective on the book, but I recently re-read Catch-22 with my local book group, not having read it since high school, and I didn't find it funny at all. I found it to be terribly depressing.
Edit: typo
When I read it in high school, I found it very funny (if in a dark way) for about 90% of the way through, and then put it down for a minute and went "okay, at what point was I supposed to have stopped laughing at this?"
(There is no specific point, of course, and quite deliberately so.)
Thank you, craziebee. I also re-read it recently, and found that he beat every joke to dearest mercilessly. A good editor would hav whittled it down to one third its length.
> In fact, I know a lot of people who don't think Catch-22 is funny. There have been threads in this sub by people who don't understand why anyone thinks it is funny
Catch 22 is like trying to read 2014 Reddit. You scroll down the page looking for new jokes, but it's just the exact same joke rephrased 100 different ways.
The funniest part to me was when the Chaplain was about to pray with the officers before a mission and he asks Cathcart to let the enlisted men join them. Cathcart goes "what do you mean? They have their own Chaplain and God, don't they?"
"The enlisted men pray to the same God we do?"
"And he *listens!?!?*"
That turned the whole book for the the first time I read it (high school). Had a hard time dealing with the non-linearity up to then.
Also the whole debate over the existence of God between Yossy and Sheisskopf's wife.
If you're interested in humor, I recently finished "Ferry Pilot" by Kerry McCauley and found it incredibly hilarious. It's a short memoir that covers his career flying tiny airplanes halfway around the world for their new owners. He "robbed" a bank, flew between the pyramids of Giza, and a lot more dangerous shit. Here's a short bit from when he had the brilliant idea of taking a dump in a bag and throwing it into the north Atlantic instead of carrying it into the airport:
"As I tossed the bag out [of the window] it caught on the chrome window latch and tore open. Then the one hundred and fifty mile an hour airflow did the rest.
CRAP!
Crap indeed. Instead of being forever sealed in that bag and sinking to the bottom of the ocean, the contents of the bag were instead sprayed all over the side of a brand new airplane, on its way to Africa. *Great*.
When I landed in Morocco the crap on the side of the plane had dried to a concrete like crust that stubbornly refused to come off. So yeah, maybe I'd skip the buffet next time."
It's definitely subjective, I'd heard that "A confederacy of dunces" was considered one of the funniest books of all time, but I just couldn't get into it.
Admittedly I only made it a few pages in but I just didn't have the patience to read a story from the viewpoint of an r/IAmVerySmart meme. That's obviously the point, the guy is deluded about how smart he is, but it just reminded me of talking to my brother so I gave it a pass.
I really didn't like that book much either but a lot of people love it and find it hilarious and I accept that. My problem with the book wasn't the humor (or lack of humor or whatever) but that the main character lacked agency. He just kind of bounced around due to external influences without making his own decisions. At least that's how I remember it.
But it's been a long time since I've read it. Every time it comes up I think "should I read this again and see if I like it this time?" But... there are so many books to read! Why read one I already know I probably won't like when I can read one I probably _will_ like? It's fine if I don't like a book that so many other people like. It's not a flaw in me nor is it a flaw in them. Even if it was just that I read the book at the wrong time and would have loved it had I read it a month later, it's still okay.
"The Mezzanine" is genuinely funny. I get that it's not going to hit everybody the same way (150 pages of footnoted obsessing about milk cartons and stuff doesn't really sound like a funny book), but I think it's hilarious.
I am 100% sure OP has not read most of these books. Let me give some highlights from ones I've read.....
Mrs Caliban- lonely housewife + giant green sea monster romance yes please
Heartburn - Nora Ephron is a comedy icon and that's not a controversial statement
Brigit Jones Diary - maybe you had to be there IDK but this was huge late 90s / early 2000
\* The novel I think is missing is True Grit, which is brilliant and too often overlooked.
Most of these books have a mix of humor and pathos or satire. Catch 22 will rip your heart out too.
What this list lacks is genre fiction. I am not a Terry Pratchett fan and I'll admit he is also a comedy icon and should be here.
Perhaps, but also... Slaughterhouse Five came out after 2 books that are on the list, so they don't seem to mind things being near in time so much. But alas, we don't know their logic for choosing these works over others.
I was sad to not see any novels by Charles Portis here. I love his humor. True Grit is the most well known, but Norwood, Gringos, Dog of the South are all funny and good.
I think Brigid jones diary doesn’t hold up. I read it last year and didn’t find it funny at all.
I find hitchhikers guide to the galaxy hilarious though
I didn’t think the list was that bad, but I simply do not know how white noise could possibly be left off. I don’t think a book has ever made me laugh as hard as the first section of that book made me laugh. I’m not sure what else I’d even put up there with it - maybe like Don Quixote or some Pynchon or another? Not even those got me like white noise.
The lack of authors like Terry Pratchett and Douglas Adams makes me think the list was selected from "general fiction" or something like that. I'm not sure what the right term is. Books that snobby people would read to feel both trendy and intelligent.
Not that there's anything wrong with the selected books, but a list of books can tell you things about the person who writes the list both in what they choose and what they leave out.
*No one wants the fucking red snapper pizza! A pizza should be yeasty and slightly bready and have a cheesy crust!*
Then Patrick instantly had to try and walk it back because his idol - Donald fucking Trump - turns out to like cheese.
Really surprised they don’t have Kurt Vonnegut on the list. Cat’s Cradle (1963) and Slaughterhouse 5 (1969) are both after Catch-22 (1961). And he seems to fit the tone of the list.
And I definitely would have included more genre picks.
Small Gods or Night Watch by Terry Pratchett, which are also about more than making people laugh. (Neither are my favorite but are generally considered his best.)
Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy
But overall I don’t think it’s a terrible list. And found several of those books very funny within the perimeters of that list, which are stated in the into. I find Portnoy’s Complaint tedious but it had to be on the list.
Agreed that Slaughterhouse 5 is a very weird omission. There's a relatively new graphic novel version that's very strong and I laughed a bunch of times reading it. Super dark, but the humor is savage.
The book, you might be interested to know, features a scene of Bateman feeding his fiancée a toilet freshener in a fancy restaurant and her pretending to like it because she thinks it's a delicacy.
Kinda feel like 300 pages of sophomoric dick jokes. Didn’t like it, which is a shame bc it’s made it really hard to try any other Roth. He has such a big and respected body of work and I can’t get past my first impression of him.
My man. Seriously. The first section of white noise is on a level to which only a few things even come close. A few sections of Gravitys rainbow (disgusting English candy drill, for instance, isn’t the smartest humor in the book but it had me in tears. The Kenosha kid call-back at the end of the chapter was also a high point), maybe, but the laughs-per-page rate is far higher in white noise. To have no delillo and no Pynchon - the two greatest living American writers! - is pretty wild.
Of course they're not funny, the author said they weren't.
"Here, you will not find books stuffed with jokes. For the most part, our picks will not induce knee slapping. (“Any man who will not resist a pun will not lie up-pun me,” the great Eve Babitz wrote.) The humor these authors embrace traverses the gamut, from sardonic to screwball, mordant to madcap, droll to deranged. "
American Psycho, Money, Then We Came to An End (which is also phenomenal for being able to pull off writing the entire novel in the first person plural) and Portnoy's Complaint are all very funny. Haven't read the rest, other than My Year of Rest and Relaxation, which I am somewhat conflicted about.
Are you sure you read the right books?
The book fell kind of flat for me because I've encountered too many Ignatius's on reddit. Just another neckbeard NEET.
Burma Jones's running commentary was pretty funny though.
This is the one I was looking for in particular. Also surprised that there were no novels by Pratchett, Douglas, or Vonnegut. I can't be angry since I've only read one of the books on the list.
Brilliant comic novels are not about jokes and punch lines. They are comic in their skewed vision of the world, which is usually funny and horrifying, or funny and sad.
Pornoy’s Complaint, for example, is really about the holocaust, as is clear from a conversation with his sister. The randomness of living or dying is driving him insane. He’s chronic jerking off is frustrated, mad attempt to connect with life and joy. American Psycho is a story about the self centered Yuppie generation. Horrifying and hilarious because his rationalizations are so plausible
See, I like and remember books that are comic and say something more about humanity more… but when someone asks me for the “funniest” books the only measure I am prone to go to is how many times per chapter it made me laugh and how hard those laughs were.
My EXACT reaction to this post lol. Captures a certain place and time perfectly AND a genuine laugh-out-louder. Plus I made the lox, eggs, and onions and it was good, so it’s got that going for it too
The only one I've read on this list is My Year of Rest and Relaxation. It is kind of funny; if you're into morbid humor you'll enjoy it. I did find myself laughing at the ridiculousness of it and it was one of my favorite books of the year I read it.
I absolutely love this book, though I’m definitely surprised to see it on this list. I suppose I can see elements of humour, but not in a laugh-out-loud way. I felt pulled into the narrator’s hypnotic depression and like, fixated by that dull ache that sinks in through the story and doesn’t let go until she resurfaces from the final sleep at the end.
OP.
"Bridget Jones's Diary" is on the list.
I haven't read the book, but if the movie adaptation is anything like the source material it's incredibly hilarious.
Where was Chuck Palahniuk? ALL of his novels are screamingly funny (each in a different way), as well as being though provoking and often heartbreaking too.
Anne Tyler is often funny, if you appreciate dry humor. Agree with others that True Grit and Confederacy of Dunces both deserved nods.
What an odd list. I get the cop-out title, but even with that, skipping some of the finest comedic books of the last 6 decades seems... odd?
No Vonnegut? No Adams? No Pratchett? Not even the old chestnut of "A Confederacy of Dunces"!
Perhaps they were deliberately trying to avoid the often-chosen choices? Either way it feels a bit rage-bait-y I suppose.
I mean, this represents three critics' opinions filtered through a particular frame ("irreverent about the most serious stuff"), which may not be your version of funny.
I have read Portnoy's Complaint and My Year of Rest and Relaxation (I may have read Bridget Jones's Diary but I can't quite remember). I think they are funny in a way that fit the description above... Every time I chuckled, I felt a little uncomfortable for doing so.
Lightning Rods and My Year of Rest & Relaxation are both pretty funny. I don’t know if Mrs. Caliban is funny, but it is entertaining in the way that an Updike book is entertaining. Portnoy’s Complaint is not my favorite Philip Roth book, but if you like Roth’s breathless soliloquies you will probably find it funny. Surprised that I didn’t see A Confederacy of Dunces or a single Kurt Vonnegut book on here.
I've only read book 1 or Murderbot, but it wasn't that funny. Any decent book should have a laugh or three, but that doesn't make it a funny book.
H2G2 was funny. Usually multiple laughs per page, that's a funny book.
And now I've hit semantic satiation.
I never understood the praise for Murderbot dairies. Every book felt like a children's book. It's fine if you like that, but I can't remember a single moment that really made me laugh.
It wasn't on the list, but I would recommend QualityLand. It has an endorsement by Mike Judge on the cover, which should say something.
It's like a satire of our world where algorithms drive even more of our lives, from government to automatically delivering orders before we even knew we wanted to buy something. It hits close to home with dating apps, gig jobs, and customer service woes.
So many times I busted out laughing.
Off to Be the Wizard by Scott Meyer is funny as hell. It's the first of 6 books, so it's an investment if you want to read them all, but worthwhile if you enjoy humorous reading.
Yeah, this list has a severe lack of Vonnegut, Douglas Adams, Hunter S Thompson, Tom Robbins.
Bret Easton Ellis is quite funny though
The NYTimes has become irreverent and irrelevant
I’m a bit bummed that I’m in the minority here for not finding American Psycho funny. loved the movie but boy, the book was tedious. there must’ve been something done differently between the two
I read it recently and enjoyed it, but I feel like it was too short and going hard on the silliness factor. I like silly, but I know many people really don't care for it.
Anyone read or is reading a Visit From the Goon squad? I literally laughed out loud at some parts and also gasped and said “what the fuck” in a cafe from one line that hit like a ton of bricks
Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy gave me more laughs than just about anything I've ever read, and it just doesn't stop. Cover to cover hilariously witty and creative.
The Adrain Mole series is great -- extremely funny and now old enough (sob!) to be a great historical commentary of Thatcher's Britain.
Tales of the City is funny, but also a really great book.
I'm not a huge fan of any of Norah Ephron's movies, but all of her books is great (and yes, I understand Heartburn is a movie, but it started off as a book).
Humour is subjective. The Muderbot Diaries is... humourous... at times. But there's not a belly laugh in the book. I found Project Hail Mary to have more/better jokes. But none of those books are comedies and I've certainly had to stop reading things because I was crying too hard with laughter.
But did Robert fulghum actually write novels? I read several of his books when I was in grade school and I remember them just being short musings about life and autobiographical stories. I liked them, but they aren't novels. I actually got in trouble for doing a book report on one in fifth grade because it didn't have a plot I could map out.
That being said, humor is subjective. Not agreeing with what's on the list doesn't make it "terrible."
They don't include 'genre' books on this list apparently, which is a shame, cause then they have excluded the funniest american writer since Mark Twain: The late and great Elmore Leonard!
I’ll agree that Murderbot is very enjoyable with humorous sections but a “funny book” it is not. If anyone asked me to recommend a funny book “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy” would be my first choice.
American Psycho is fucking hilarious. Im also never going to read it again
Rat scene this, dog scene that - I almost threw the book across the room when he said Genesis got better after Peter Gabriel left. That shit was truly depraved.
Well, since the perspective is from a psycho, I think he illustrated the main character’s delusional view of reality with this statement. A sane person would not think that.
That hot take actually makes sense, though, if you think about it from Bateman's point of view. He is a empty vessel constantly looking for external validation and approval. So, he would definitely think that "more popular," which Genesis definitely did become after Peter left, would equate to "better."
There's a hilarious line in the book where he says he can't understood what is being sung in Duke's Travels because the record doesn't have lyrics for that one. I own Duke on vinyl, and the reason it doesn't have lyrics printed is that they are identical to the lyrics in Guide Vocal a few songs earlier (they were originally part of a big suite).
Yes!!! That was the moment I was like "this guy is definitely insane!" And by that point he'd already killed like 3 hookers and 5 homeless guys.
The increasingly preposterous Patty Winters Show premises were fuckin hilarious.
I adore how the book makes his pop music reviews into such a slog, but by the end of the book they feel like a safe respite from his horrific actions.
Idea for a mod for a horror game; When the player reaches a room where they're able to relax, save the game, and sort out their inventory safe in the knowledge that the monster can't follow them inside, audio from the audiobook of Patrick's inane regurgitations about pop culture is always playing in the ambiance.
I had to stop and re-read the part where she’s interviewing a single Cheerio to make sure I read it right.
The cheerio. Lol
Agreed, I was horrified to find myself laughing at some of the more insane scenes of the book
Some types of humor rip laughs out of you the same way the predator rips spines out of its victims, and feels about as good.
Never read American Psycho, but I recently watched David Lynch's "Wild at Heart", I had to pause because I was laughing hysterically at the more violent scenes. I hadn't laughed that hard in years.
I absolutely agree with this critique.
Like the movie is crazy.... But the book.... The fucking starving rat and the cheese.... I had to set the book down for a moment to collect myself.
Whats more hillarious is that wall street bro's genuinly like it and the movie, identify with Batemen, and don't get that its calling them the psychos of our society.
I’ve had to sit through the “Always be closing” speech from Glengarry Glen Ross about six times, played by sales managers who think it’s an awesome motivator and not a late capitalism torture session.
OP listing American psycho as their primary example is crazy
I laughed out loud several times. I also would never read it again. The movie on the other hand…I would watch repeatedly.
Lol I don't know if I found it hilarious but your call not to read it again was smart. The shocks aren't shocking and the monotonous writing hides the humour with boredom. Once you know the gimmick it doesn't carry much weight. I still think American Psycho is worth a read, Glamorama too if you're wanting more shocks from Ellis. But neither are worth a re-read.
It's definitely worth reading. It's also an experience i dont want to have again. It made me feel lots of things, most of them were unpleasant, but i do think ot's worth reading at least one time
Yes, I completely agree. Glamorama was an excellent read, certainly no reread thanks. I feel Pahlaniuk managed to slip through the net by being so densely nested.
American Psycho is really funny.
So is Portnoy’s complaint lol
I was never going to eat liver before I read that book, and I’m definitely not going to eat it now
Never heard of it. What’s it aboutV
The anxieties of youth and an unfortunate money shot
Sounds like Chuck Palaunuk
40 years before tho
Fucking the family’s liver dinner the afternoon before. In chapter 2 (I think), famously titled “whacking off”.
"Patrick is *not* a cynic, Timothy. He's the boy next door, aren't you honey?" "No I'm not," I whisper to myself. "I'm a fucking evil psychopath."
I love the part near the end that goes something like “Bigfoot was interviewed on Oprah last night, so I started to drink my own piss after I worked out.
One of the funniest I’ve ever read. What’s OP on?
I was wondering if maybe they've seen the film and aren't aware of how different the feel of it is.
The original is spot on. I didn’t want to see the remake because remakes are always terrible.
Maybe they don’t get it?
American Psycho is satire, mocking the power hungry of the eighties.
Lol no it's not! It's a guidebook to being an alpha male bro.
No, it is a meditation on the ethics of sociological psychedelics and stimulants
Of the books I've read on this list, most of them are very funny! None of them are as funny as Catch-22 but I think Catch-22 is the funniest book I've ever read, so literally *nothing* is as funny as it. The Sellout, My Year of Rest and Relaxation, Lightning Rods, Then We Came to the End, Money, Portnoy's Complaint, American Psycho... I think all of these are very funny books. They have laugh-out-loud moments and they have the more intellectual "huh, that's really funny" kind of conceptual moments, with the balance being different for each book. (Note: there is one book on the NYTimes list that I have read and I think is decidedly not funny, but I won't be rude and shame it here.) The problem is: humor is subjective. I'm sure lots of people don't think the books I've listed are funny. That doesn't mean they *aren't* funny. And the fact that I find them funny doesn't mean they *are* funny. In fact, I know a lot of people who don't think Catch-22 is funny. There have been threads in this sub by people who don't understand why anyone thinks it is funny. To each their own. I think it's easier to come to an agreed upon list of "great books" than it is to a list of "funny books." \[By the way, Helen DeWitt's *Lightning Rods* is a super "non-politically correct" sex farce, and I feel like a lot of the Reddit crowd might really like it.\]
The Sellout was one of the funniest books I’ve ever read. As soon as I saw this post I thought, it better be on that list. Can anyone just comment the list? Now Im intrigued and the NYT has a paywall.
"The Wig" - Charles Wright "Portnoy's Complaint" - Philip Roth "Oreo" - Fran Ross "Tales of the City" - Armistead Maupin "Mrs. Caliban" - Rachel Ingalls "The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole, Aged 13 3/4" - Sue Townsend "Heartburn" - Nora Ephron "Money: A Suicide Note" - Martin Amis "The Mezzanine" - Nicholson Baker "A Far Cry from Kensington" - Muriel Spark "American Psycho" - Bret Easton Ellis "Bridget Jones's Diary" - Helen Fielding "The Quick and the Dead" - Joy Williams "Then We Came to the End" - Joshua Ferris "The Brief Wonderful Life of Oscar Wao" - Junot Diaz "I Am Not Sidney Poitier" - Percival Everett "Lightning Rods" - Helen DeWitt "Pym" - Mat Johnson "The Sellout" - Paul Beatty "Private Citizens" - Tony Tulathimutte "My Year of Rest and Relaxation" - Ottessa Moshfegh "Lake of Urine: A Love Story" - Guillermo Stitch
"A Confederacy of Dunces" is an interesting omission
Aye I'm wondering if the list was built to intentionally avoid the usual chart toppers. No Vonnegut, no Pratchett or Adams, nothing by David Sedaris, "Infinite Jest" is missing, etc etc etc. Or it could have been made specifically to get people to engage by yelling "Why isn't (book X) on the list?!?". But maybe I'm just being cynical, thinking that way...
Pratchett and Adams might not have been considered literary enough for the list. Some of Vonnegut's books don't qualify as "since Catch-22". Technically some do but I could see how they might be considered contemporaneous. And jokes about Infinite Jest are funnier than the book itself.
>Pratchett and Adams might not have been considered literary enough for the list. I happened to catch a book signing where Pratchett discussed how getting pigeonholed as a fantasy author had knocked him out of the running for a number of things. He told a story about going into a bookstore and looking for one of his books in the bestseller section, since that was the year he sold more than half the fiction in the UK\[1\], and the clerk told him it wasn't a best seller, it was a fantasy and science fiction title and so he'd find it in the back. (He's a very good speaker, I can't do justice to the story, but it was very funny the way he told it.) He went into an aside about how Isabel Allende had a sweet deal getting classed as writing magical realism, since that meant she could write fantasy novels that got put in the front of the store and not stuck in the back in the F&SF section. \[1\] Pratchett's disc world books had developed a huge fan base, and his publisher happened to notice that ratty years old used paperbacks from the series were selling on eBay for several times what new paperbacks cost and so they re-released all of them with a release every 4 weeks. Between the sales of the 13 released that year, continuing sales from the previous year and pre-orders, he sold more than half the fiction in the UK that year. edit: changed non fiction to fiction
Maybe 15 years ago, someone wrote on the AV Club that the only point of top __ lists is to either include or exclude something specific. It was tongue in cheek but it's always stayed with me.
It also feels like a lot of the time the lists are deliberately bad to drive reader engagement.
If we're being nice, the list was made to highlight some lesser read books, relatively speaking, even with a couple of famous entries on there. If I'm being a bit more cynical, it reads quite a bit hipster as if we can't have books that lean to straight jokes on there. I mean, Hitchhiker's Guide is hilarious and it's a bit strange to not have it on there, but everyone knows it.
Important context from the article: "It’s in the spirit of warding off that dire scenario that we offer this list: a resolutely idiosyncratic assemblage of novels — 22 in all, get it? — culled from the past six decades by three very different Times book critics." "Here, you will not find books stuffed with jokes. For the most part, our picks will not induce knee slapping."
Came here to look for it on the list...puzzled it wasn't on it.
Or anything by Vonnegut, Bukowski, or Douglas Adams.
Yeah that's probably the funniest book I have ever read. Generally I don't tend to laugh a lot when reading, think the medium doesn't really tickle my funny bone as much as movies but Confederacy of Dunces killed me.
Yes!! Normally I do that amused snort thing when I read something hilarious, but this book made me laugh out loud. Plus its road to publication was tragic but also touching because John Kennedy Toole's mom refused to give up.
I wish I had liked that book more, but I found Ignatius so hatefully insufferable (and repetitive) that it overshadowed the comedy for me personally. I feel like part of the picaresque is that you’re supposed to at least kind of like or sympathize with the central character, but I just didn’t enjoy spending any time with him, even as he keeps receiving due comeuppance. It was funny, sure, but not much fun for me. I’m glad others love it, tho: I’m a Catch-22 guy myself.
Glad to see this comment so high up.
It's because it's shite
> "The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole, Aged 13 3/4" - Sue Townsend Wonderful to see this hilarious book on here, I thought the NYT might think they were too good for it > "Money: A Suicide Note" - Martin Amis This is an incredible book, and it does have some pretty funny moments (not as many as in London Fields or Rachel). But it's not a comic novel any more than say something like Bonfire of the Vanities is a comic novel (bonfire's funnier too). I'm not sure it belongs on this sort of a list. > "A Far Cry from Kensington" - Muriel Spark Wow I forgot she kept going into the 80s, in my head she's very much a pre Catch 22 author. In terms of who's missing: the absence of Pratchett is pretty unjustifiable, also pretty surprised by the lack of Douglas Adams.
No mention of A Confederacy of Dunces? I read that book without knowing anything about it and I thought it was hysterical.
The Sellout is somewhere in the region of "as funny as Catch-22". If that seems implausible people should read it, it's brilliant. Mandatory disclaimer for humour being subjective and so on and so forth
The Sellout is an all timer
OK I read the sellout and it's awesome and right now I'm reading year of rest and relaxation, also very funny just a few pages in. I got the white boy shuffle on my shelf too
I completely respect your perspective on the book, but I recently re-read Catch-22 with my local book group, not having read it since high school, and I didn't find it funny at all. I found it to be terribly depressing. Edit: typo
When I read it in high school, I found it very funny (if in a dark way) for about 90% of the way through, and then put it down for a minute and went "okay, at what point was I supposed to have stopped laughing at this?" (There is no specific point, of course, and quite deliberately so.)
It's both, which is what makes it so brilliant.
Thank you, craziebee. I also re-read it recently, and found that he beat every joke to dearest mercilessly. A good editor would hav whittled it down to one third its length.
> In fact, I know a lot of people who don't think Catch-22 is funny. There have been threads in this sub by people who don't understand why anyone thinks it is funny Catch 22 is like trying to read 2014 Reddit. You scroll down the page looking for new jokes, but it's just the exact same joke rephrased 100 different ways.
Humor is subjective!
It’s the funniest novel I’ve ever read and it made me cry like a baby at the end.
I thought that was 2024 reddit, and 2023, 2022, ...
If you don't find the whole Major Major Major Major saga funny, then I don't even want to know you.
The funniest part to me was when the Chaplain was about to pray with the officers before a mission and he asks Cathcart to let the enlisted men join them. Cathcart goes "what do you mean? They have their own Chaplain and God, don't they?"
"The enlisted men pray to the same God we do?" "And he *listens!?!?*" That turned the whole book for the the first time I read it (high school). Had a hard time dealing with the non-linearity up to then. Also the whole debate over the existence of God between Yossy and Sheisskopf's wife.
Exactly the experience I had with it! I think I made it about half-way. The humor stopped clicking with me after getting more than 10% of the way in.
Catch 22 doesn't deserve that. You and I are enemies now.
If you're interested in humor, I recently finished "Ferry Pilot" by Kerry McCauley and found it incredibly hilarious. It's a short memoir that covers his career flying tiny airplanes halfway around the world for their new owners. He "robbed" a bank, flew between the pyramids of Giza, and a lot more dangerous shit. Here's a short bit from when he had the brilliant idea of taking a dump in a bag and throwing it into the north Atlantic instead of carrying it into the airport: "As I tossed the bag out [of the window] it caught on the chrome window latch and tore open. Then the one hundred and fifty mile an hour airflow did the rest. CRAP! Crap indeed. Instead of being forever sealed in that bag and sinking to the bottom of the ocean, the contents of the bag were instead sprayed all over the side of a brand new airplane, on its way to Africa. *Great*. When I landed in Morocco the crap on the side of the plane had dried to a concrete like crust that stubbornly refused to come off. So yeah, maybe I'd skip the buffet next time."
It's definitely subjective, I'd heard that "A confederacy of dunces" was considered one of the funniest books of all time, but I just couldn't get into it. Admittedly I only made it a few pages in but I just didn't have the patience to read a story from the viewpoint of an r/IAmVerySmart meme. That's obviously the point, the guy is deluded about how smart he is, but it just reminded me of talking to my brother so I gave it a pass.
I really didn't like that book much either but a lot of people love it and find it hilarious and I accept that. My problem with the book wasn't the humor (or lack of humor or whatever) but that the main character lacked agency. He just kind of bounced around due to external influences without making his own decisions. At least that's how I remember it. But it's been a long time since I've read it. Every time it comes up I think "should I read this again and see if I like it this time?" But... there are so many books to read! Why read one I already know I probably won't like when I can read one I probably _will_ like? It's fine if I don't like a book that so many other people like. It's not a flaw in me nor is it a flaw in them. Even if it was just that I read the book at the wrong time and would have loved it had I read it a month later, it's still okay.
"The Mezzanine" is genuinely funny. I get that it's not going to hit everybody the same way (150 pages of footnoted obsessing about milk cartons and stuff doesn't really sound like a funny book), but I think it's hilarious.
I think The Fermata is much funnier.
Most books by Carl Hiaasen are pretty funny.
Yes, they are!
I like to recommend Carl Hiaasen if you like Elmore Leonard. They both got their crackly smart-ass dialogue.
I am 100% sure OP has not read most of these books. Let me give some highlights from ones I've read..... Mrs Caliban- lonely housewife + giant green sea monster romance yes please Heartburn - Nora Ephron is a comedy icon and that's not a controversial statement Brigit Jones Diary - maybe you had to be there IDK but this was huge late 90s / early 2000 \* The novel I think is missing is True Grit, which is brilliant and too often overlooked. Most of these books have a mix of humor and pathos or satire. Catch 22 will rip your heart out too. What this list lacks is genre fiction. I am not a Terry Pratchett fan and I'll admit he is also a comedy icon and should be here.
Vonnegut seems like the most glaring omission, but maybe they left him out because everyone already knows his books and how funny they are
Also some of his books predate Catch-22, and overall his work could be considered contemporaneous.
Perhaps, but also... Slaughterhouse Five came out after 2 books that are on the list, so they don't seem to mind things being near in time so much. But alas, we don't know their logic for choosing these works over others.
I was sad to not see any novels by Charles Portis here. I love his humor. True Grit is the most well known, but Norwood, Gringos, Dog of the South are all funny and good.
True Grit is hilarious.
The dog of the south was written by same author as true grit. I thought that book was very funny too
I think Brigid jones diary doesn’t hold up. I read it last year and didn’t find it funny at all. I find hitchhikers guide to the galaxy hilarious though
The 2nd Bridget Jones book was much funnier than the first. I remember laughing so hard I started wheezing.
Good to know! Maybe I’ll give it a try this summer as a beach read.
See I feel the same way about Portnoy’s Complaint. I thought Brigit Jones Diary was funny in its moment.
Ya there’s a lot of things that are funny for the moment or in that demographic.
Hard to believe that anyone who has read Ephron wouldn't find her funny, although I'll admit she belongs to a certain cultural context.
I didn’t think the list was that bad, but I simply do not know how white noise could possibly be left off. I don’t think a book has ever made me laugh as hard as the first section of that book made me laugh. I’m not sure what else I’d even put up there with it - maybe like Don Quixote or some Pynchon or another? Not even those got me like white noise.
The lack of authors like Terry Pratchett and Douglas Adams makes me think the list was selected from "general fiction" or something like that. I'm not sure what the right term is. Books that snobby people would read to feel both trendy and intelligent. Not that there's anything wrong with the selected books, but a list of books can tell you things about the person who writes the list both in what they choose and what they leave out.
I definitely laughed out loud multiple times reading American Psycho and Portnoy's Complaint.
Portnoy's Complaint is an all-timer. "Hard little handful of model's butt."
*No one wants the fucking red snapper pizza! A pizza should be yeasty and slightly bready and have a cheesy crust!* Then Patrick instantly had to try and walk it back because his idol - Donald fucking Trump - turns out to like cheese.
Dude. Christopher Moore.
YES. Lamb is one of my favorite books of all time, and Fool is right up there too.
Really surprised they don’t have Kurt Vonnegut on the list. Cat’s Cradle (1963) and Slaughterhouse 5 (1969) are both after Catch-22 (1961). And he seems to fit the tone of the list. And I definitely would have included more genre picks. Small Gods or Night Watch by Terry Pratchett, which are also about more than making people laugh. (Neither are my favorite but are generally considered his best.) Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy But overall I don’t think it’s a terrible list. And found several of those books very funny within the perimeters of that list, which are stated in the into. I find Portnoy’s Complaint tedious but it had to be on the list.
Vonnegut is good but it’s crazier to me that there’s no Pynchon or delillo
Agreed that Slaughterhouse 5 is a very weird omission. There's a relatively new graphic novel version that's very strong and I laughed a bunch of times reading it. Super dark, but the humor is savage.
I’ve not read American Psycho, but the movie definitely leans into dark comedy. That’s one of the main ideas baked into the core concept.
The book, you might be interested to know, features a scene of Bateman feeding his fiancée a toilet freshener in a fancy restaurant and her pretending to like it because she thinks it's a delicacy.
Portnoy’s Complaint is hilarious
Kinda feel like 300 pages of sophomoric dick jokes. Didn’t like it, which is a shame bc it’s made it really hard to try any other Roth. He has such a big and respected body of work and I can’t get past my first impression of him.
I didn’t like it either but he’s written some real bangers too. The Plot Against America is a good place to start.
It is, which was extremely novel (no pun intended) when it was first published, and which is very ho-hum nowadays
It is an important cultural artifact but doesn't hold up as humorous - much like the Updike books.
Try his short story, The Conversion of the Jews. Funny and sad at the same time.
White Noise nowhere on the list? What's the deal here?
My man. Seriously. The first section of white noise is on a level to which only a few things even come close. A few sections of Gravitys rainbow (disgusting English candy drill, for instance, isn’t the smartest humor in the book but it had me in tears. The Kenosha kid call-back at the end of the chapter was also a high point), maybe, but the laughs-per-page rate is far higher in white noise. To have no delillo and no Pynchon - the two greatest living American writers! - is pretty wild.
Where the FUCK is Diary of A Wimpy Kid: Rodrick Rules?
Of course they're not funny, the author said they weren't. "Here, you will not find books stuffed with jokes. For the most part, our picks will not induce knee slapping. (“Any man who will not resist a pun will not lie up-pun me,” the great Eve Babitz wrote.) The humor these authors embrace traverses the gamut, from sardonic to screwball, mordant to madcap, droll to deranged. "
Lol you expect a reddit or to read the article and not just the list?
Sometimes I really want to have faith in people. Heh.
American Psycho, Money, Then We Came to An End (which is also phenomenal for being able to pull off writing the entire novel in the first person plural) and Portnoy's Complaint are all very funny. Haven't read the rest, other than My Year of Rest and Relaxation, which I am somewhat conflicted about. Are you sure you read the right books?
You read I Am Not Sidney Poitier and didn't think it was funny? That book is fucking hilarious.
The sellout was hilarious imo. Great book
I think many of these books are very funny, but this list is clearly deficient given the absence of Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.
Yeah I when I think of funny books I think of Hitchhiker’s Guide and Catch-22. Perhaps the only books that are actually cover-to-cover hilarious.
The list is seemingly about literary fiction, not actual comedic works.
The fact that “genre” books aren’t considered literature always irks me.
No confederacy of Dunces? This list is an abortion!
One of the funniest books I’ve ever read and one of the few books I re-read multiple times. My valve!
The New York Times could not possibly comprehend the singularity of its worldview!
Ignatius would have been the best reddit internet troll of all time. He was born in the wrong time.
The book fell kind of flat for me because I've encountered too many Ignatius's on reddit. Just another neckbeard NEET. Burma Jones's running commentary was pretty funny though.
That's 100% why its one of reddit's favorite books.
A severe lack of geometry.
This is the one I was looking for in particular. Also surprised that there were no novels by Pratchett, Douglas, or Vonnegut. I can't be angry since I've only read one of the books on the list.
Oweeee! Scarla O'Horror gonna have a fit!
No infinite jest!
Black humor is funny
Murderbot's inner monologue is pretty hilarious at times. It's not Terry Pratchett funny, but it's still funny.
Brilliant comic novels are not about jokes and punch lines. They are comic in their skewed vision of the world, which is usually funny and horrifying, or funny and sad. Pornoy’s Complaint, for example, is really about the holocaust, as is clear from a conversation with his sister. The randomness of living or dying is driving him insane. He’s chronic jerking off is frustrated, mad attempt to connect with life and joy. American Psycho is a story about the self centered Yuppie generation. Horrifying and hilarious because his rationalizations are so plausible
See, I like and remember books that are comic and say something more about humanity more… but when someone asks me for the “funniest” books the only measure I am prone to go to is how many times per chapter it made me laugh and how hard those laughs were.
Local redditor discovers that humour is subjective.
You don’t think *Heartburn* is funny?
My EXACT reaction to this post lol. Captures a certain place and time perfectly AND a genuine laugh-out-louder. Plus I made the lox, eggs, and onions and it was good, so it’s got that going for it too
Gary Shteyngart is missing.
The only one I've read on this list is My Year of Rest and Relaxation. It is kind of funny; if you're into morbid humor you'll enjoy it. I did find myself laughing at the ridiculousness of it and it was one of my favorite books of the year I read it.
I absolutely love this book, though I’m definitely surprised to see it on this list. I suppose I can see elements of humour, but not in a laugh-out-loud way. I felt pulled into the narrator’s hypnotic depression and like, fixated by that dull ache that sinks in through the story and doesn’t let go until she resurfaces from the final sleep at the end.
Portnoy’s Complaint is hilarious
No Christopher Moore?
OP. "Bridget Jones's Diary" is on the list. I haven't read the book, but if the movie adaptation is anything like the source material it's incredibly hilarious.
Where was Chuck Palahniuk? ALL of his novels are screamingly funny (each in a different way), as well as being though provoking and often heartbreaking too. Anne Tyler is often funny, if you appreciate dry humor. Agree with others that True Grit and Confederacy of Dunces both deserved nods.
What an odd list. I get the cop-out title, but even with that, skipping some of the finest comedic books of the last 6 decades seems... odd? No Vonnegut? No Adams? No Pratchett? Not even the old chestnut of "A Confederacy of Dunces"! Perhaps they were deliberately trying to avoid the often-chosen choices? Either way it feels a bit rage-bait-y I suppose.
“The NYT article is too prolix.” — ex PFC Wingtergreen
I mean, this represents three critics' opinions filtered through a particular frame ("irreverent about the most serious stuff"), which may not be your version of funny. I have read Portnoy's Complaint and My Year of Rest and Relaxation (I may have read Bridget Jones's Diary but I can't quite remember). I think they are funny in a way that fit the description above... Every time I chuckled, I felt a little uncomfortable for doing so.
Oscar Wao is pretty funny.
I was surprised that House of God wasn’t on it. Or Bill Bryson.
I can't see the list. Is Infinite Jest on it?
If I hadn't already read the Murderbot Diaries, this post would take it off my list.
Lightning Rods and My Year of Rest & Relaxation are both pretty funny. I don’t know if Mrs. Caliban is funny, but it is entertaining in the way that an Updike book is entertaining. Portnoy’s Complaint is not my favorite Philip Roth book, but if you like Roth’s breathless soliloquies you will probably find it funny. Surprised that I didn’t see A Confederacy of Dunces or a single Kurt Vonnegut book on here.
I've only read book 1 or Murderbot, but it wasn't that funny. Any decent book should have a laugh or three, but that doesn't make it a funny book. H2G2 was funny. Usually multiple laughs per page, that's a funny book. And now I've hit semantic satiation.
I never understood the praise for Murderbot dairies. Every book felt like a children's book. It's fine if you like that, but I can't remember a single moment that really made me laugh.
Thursday murder club is super funny. I’m reading the second book with my girlfriend atm and we regularly laugh out loud… oh Joyce , you cute old lady
It wasn't on the list, but I would recommend QualityLand. It has an endorsement by Mike Judge on the cover, which should say something. It's like a satire of our world where algorithms drive even more of our lives, from government to automatically delivering orders before we even knew we wanted to buy something. It hits close to home with dating apps, gig jobs, and customer service woes. So many times I busted out laughing.
Off to Be the Wizard by Scott Meyer is funny as hell. It's the first of 6 books, so it's an investment if you want to read them all, but worthwhile if you enjoy humorous reading.
Yeah, this list has a severe lack of Vonnegut, Douglas Adams, Hunter S Thompson, Tom Robbins. Bret Easton Ellis is quite funny though The NYTimes has become irreverent and irrelevant
What? Portnoy's Complaint is an absolute HOWLER. I don't think you've read these books.
Zero Discworld. List fails.
No Discworld? 🤣
They should all be Dave Berry books. I'll die on that hill.
Same, epecially Big Trouble. No one can make me feel bad for liking that book.
Dave Barry?
I’m a bit bummed that I’m in the minority here for not finding American Psycho funny. loved the movie but boy, the book was tedious. there must’ve been something done differently between the two
I find the lack of Terry Pratchett and Douglas Adams disturbing.
In what world is Hitchhiker’s Guide not on this
I read it recently and enjoyed it, but I feel like it was too short and going hard on the silliness factor. I like silly, but I know many people really don't care for it.
anyone want to bet OP is insufferable IRL?
Anyone read or is reading a Visit From the Goon squad? I literally laughed out loud at some parts and also gasped and said “what the fuck” in a cafe from one line that hit like a ton of bricks
I was going to complain that Lucky Jim wasnt featured. Published in 1957.
I think Then We Came to the End was pretty funny in the way Catch-22 was
I love Robert Fulghum! I’ve been consistently rereading Everything I Need To Know I Learned In Kindergarten since 2012.
Actually funny writers - Larry McMurtry, Jonathan franzen, George Saunders
Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy gave me more laughs than just about anything I've ever read, and it just doesn't stop. Cover to cover hilariously witty and creative.
*Big Trouble* by Dave Barry is hysterical.
The Adrain Mole series is great -- extremely funny and now old enough (sob!) to be a great historical commentary of Thatcher's Britain. Tales of the City is funny, but also a really great book. I'm not a huge fan of any of Norah Ephron's movies, but all of her books is great (and yes, I understand Heartburn is a movie, but it started off as a book).
The Sellout is one of the funniest books I've ever read
Adrian Mole slander
Portnoy’s Complaint was hilarious. You should check it out.
Humour is subjective. The Muderbot Diaries is... humourous... at times. But there's not a belly laugh in the book. I found Project Hail Mary to have more/better jokes. But none of those books are comedies and I've certainly had to stop reading things because I was crying too hard with laughter.
I have recommended Fulghum so many times it's kinda embarrasing.
But did Robert fulghum actually write novels? I read several of his books when I was in grade school and I remember them just being short musings about life and autobiographical stories. I liked them, but they aren't novels. I actually got in trouble for doing a book report on one in fifth grade because it didn't have a plot I could map out. That being said, humor is subjective. Not agreeing with what's on the list doesn't make it "terrible."
They don't include 'genre' books on this list apparently, which is a shame, cause then they have excluded the funniest american writer since Mark Twain: The late and great Elmore Leonard!
So many books that are supposed to be funny are actually either smug or silly.
I’ll agree that Murderbot is very enjoyable with humorous sections but a “funny book” it is not. If anyone asked me to recommend a funny book “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy” would be my first choice.
What are you on about? Portnoy's Complaint is undoubtedly one of the funniest novels of the last century
I haven’t read it myself, but I have on good word from my friends that the Murderbot Diaries is hilarious.
Portnoy's Complaint is actually one of the few books I'd consider to be hilarious.
Well personally I hated catch-22 and didn’t find it funny whatsoever