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10-21-2001, 07:55 PM
|  | Mom of the Four Men | | Join Date: Sep 2000 Location: Canada, sort of
Posts: 17,469
| | Laugh till you drop -books | |
Ok, I'm making another list. (It's Amy's fault - I am becoming compulsive about organizing everything!  )
I want a list of the funniest books ever. I mean, the ones you can't even read aloud to your friends or spouse. the ones which make your pets worry while they watch you writhe helplessly. I want a list of these books that everyone ought to keep on hand for emergencies, when one absolutely needs a good belly laugh at 3:00 a.m., when everyone's asleep.
Here we go, then - start your list here!
Cindy |
10-21-2001, 08:24 PM
|  | Epinions Members | | Join Date: Jul 2000 Location: Richmond Hill, GA
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Lewis Nordan:
The All-Girl Football Team
Welcome to the Arrow-Catcher Fair
T.R. Pearson:
A Short History of a Small Place
Bailey White:
Sleeping at the Starlite Hotel
Mama Makes Up Her Mind
David Foster Wallace:
the essay A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again in the book by the same name. Cruise ships will never be the same again...
And, though I haven't yet read any of their books,
Garrison Keillor
&
David Sedaris
If their expository moments on National Public Radio are any indication, my copies of Lake Wobegon Days, Barrel Fever and Naked will have wrinkled pages from where I've spilled tears of laughter. |
10-21-2001, 09:38 PM
|  | Epinions Members | | Join Date: Sep 2000 Location: Alabama
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Anything by Dave Berry or Lew Grizzard.
I didn't find Lake Woebegone Days as funny as the rest of the United States seems to have done.
--naomi
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10-21-2001, 10:15 PM
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I think Patrick McManus is pretty funny  I had a friend with a lot of his books and so I have read a few and really got a kick out of them... Fishing stories and stuff like that...
Ander |
10-21-2001, 10:44 PM
|  | Agent for Clio | | Join Date: Jul 2000 Location: Houston
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Dave is right about TRP and Miz Bailey. Ander is right about Patrick McManus.
Allow me to add Wodehouse (more the Blandings Castle books even than Jeeves and Bertie) and - as in laugh-'til-you-throw-plumb-up - Tom Sharpe.
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10-21-2001, 10:54 PM
| | Banned | | Join Date: Jul 2000
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French for Cats and Advanced French for Exceptional Cats by Henry Beard. Wonderful little books. |
10-21-2001, 11:13 PM
|  | Epinions Members | | Join Date: Jan 2001 Location: Malden, MA, USA
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Hmmm, I'm having a much harder time thinking of drop dead funny books than movies. I'll do my best.
Fractured Fairytales by A.J. Jacobs
Fantastic Mr. Fox by Roald Dahl
The Emerald City of Oz by L. Frank Baum (odd choice I know)
That's all I seem to be able to think of right now.
Janice |
10-22-2001, 03:12 AM
|  | Gravitas! | | Join Date: Jul 2000 Location: New Orleans, La. U.S.A.
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Aw! Someone stole my Dave barry recommendation. Well, let me plug two specific books of his. Dave barry's Book of Bad Songs, and Big Trouble.
The Bride of Anguished English (I can't think of the author). I'm sure the original, Anguished English, is funny but I haven't read it.
Couplehood and Babyhood both by Paul Reiser
On the children's book front, The Watson's Go to Birmingham. It has a serious background, and a pretty sad part, but most of the book is side splittingly funny. Also, for real low humor: Captain Underpants by dav Pilkey |
10-22-2001, 08:56 AM
| | Agent for Clio | | Join Date: Jul 2000 Location: Houston
Posts: 863
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Thurber. How could I have forgotten to mention Thurber? And S. J. Perelman.
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'It's a revolution, damn it! We're going to have to offend somebody!' - John Adams, 1776 (The Musical), Peter Stone & Sherman Edwards
Fiat justicia et ruat coelum.
Oderint dum metuant.
Ut veniant omnes. |
10-22-2001, 09:14 AM
|  | Dancing in the streets | | Join Date: Jul 2000 Location: Home of the Frito
Posts: 4,932
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You've gotta know I'm bring the kids' suggestions.
Seven Kisses in a Row and The Sick Day by Patricia MacLachlan
Junie B. Jones and the Stupid Smelly Bus by Barbara Park (just try reading that to a group of 6-9 year olds without taking laugh breaks)
Lilly's Purple Plastic Purse by Kevin Henkes
Regarding the Fountain by Kate Klise
Pretty much anything besides Love You Forever from Robert Munsch
Skinnybones by Barbara Park (my third graders last year fell on the floor laughing during this one)
Pretty much anything by Jon Sciezska
And I second Angela's nomination of Paul Reiser's books
Cindy
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10-22-2001, 09:17 AM
| | Epinions Members | | Join Date: Jan 2001 Location: Malden, MA, USA
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anything by Ogden Nash
Janice |
10-22-2001, 05:31 PM
|  | Glamorous Hollywood Star! | | Join Date: May 2001 Location: Hollywood, California by way of Birmingham, Alabama
Posts: 2,353
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The novels of Patrick Dennis (Auntie Mame being the most famous).
The novels of Tom Sharpe (A truly twisted British satirist who makes me absolutely howl in public...)
MNM
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10-22-2001, 09:18 PM
|  | Scanning maniac | | Join Date: Dec 2000 Location: Ontari-ari-ari-o
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My wife laughed so hard at a Dave Barry book (the one about computers) that she broke her water and went into labour. Pretty tough for me to top that.
I've laughed at my fair share of bad books, but that doesn't really count.
The Calvin and Hobbes comic books get me laughing hard more often than not.
pageclot |
10-22-2001, 10:37 PM
|  | Epinions Members | | Join Date: Oct 2001 Location: Ohio
Posts: 1,080
| | Re: Laugh till you drop -books | |
Quote: Originally posted by hadassahchana
I want a list of these books that everyone ought to keep on hand for emergencies, when one absolutely needs a good belly laugh at 3:00 a.m., when everyone's asleep.
Cindy | Let me add my vote for anything Dave Barry! I especially enjoyed his _Guide to Guys_ and _Dave Barry Does Japan_, although his _Dave Barry Turns 40_ is hilarious, too and...well, you get the point. 
Terry Pratchett is also good for a laugh. His _Wyrd Sisters_ is a good takeoff on Shakespeare.
Ariane |
10-22-2001, 10:49 PM
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Oh yeah...
The Exploits of Ebenezvm and the Wanderings of Wuntver by Craig Shaw Gardner. Ummmm... Pretty much just for those into Fantasy adventure books but I found them to be extremely funny when I read them... This was a while back but...
Also the novelization of The Princess Bride was pretty good
Ander |
10-22-2001, 10:59 PM
| | Gravitas! | | Join Date: Jul 2000 Location: New Orleans, La. U.S.A.
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I second any Calvin and Hobbes books. Especially ones with the snow sculptures (best if you have a twisted sense of humor). My boss showed me some at work, and I could barely make it through the day, I was laughing so hard. |
10-23-2001, 02:30 PM
|  | I'm against it. | | Join Date: Feb 2001 Location: Atlanta, GA
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Aw, geez. I usually don't read funny books, but three do come to mind: Bridget Jones's Diary by Helen Fielding. Cheesy, okay, but I wonder if there's any single woman out there who doesn't find this the least bit funny?? Personally, I laughed all the way through, and that's unusual for me. Bunnicula and Howliday Inn by James Howe. Okay, so these are children's books but they are absolutely HYSTERICAL, even for adults! The rest of the books in this series never were as good as the first two. Seven Days to a Brand New Me By Ellen Conford. Again, a young adult book, but this one still gets me EVERY time. About a teenage girl who buys a self-help book and a Harlequin-type romance book in an effort to discover what will help her get guys! Too funny!
(Can you tell I used to work in a school library??
valerie |
10-23-2001, 06:40 PM
| | Banned | | Join Date: Jul 2000
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Quote: |
I second any Calvin and Hobbes books. Especially ones with the snow sculptures (best if you have a twisted sense of humor).
| I had a kid in Sunday school once who loved C&H -- he made a nativity scene in the manner of C&H snow sculptures. It was ghastly.
I didn't stop laughing for a month.
I think his parents made him see a therapist. |
10-24-2001, 04:57 PM
| | Epinions Members | | Join Date: Oct 2001 Location: Ohio
Posts: 1,080
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Quote: Originally posted by kurt_messick
I had a kid in Sunday school once who loved C&H -- he made a nativity scene in the manner of C&H snow sculptures. It was ghastly.
I didn't stop laughing for a month.
I think his parents made him see a therapist. |
You all have inspired me. I picked up a C&H book at a used bookstore yesterday and now I think I want all of them. 
The "snow goons" are probably my favorite sketches of Calvin's, and I adore the evil sense of humor. One that stands out in my mind is where he models a snowman car accident around his dad's car, complete with a snowman, mouth gaping open in anguish.
The comics of Ted Rall also make me laugh, but it's quite a bit more cynical and dark humor...especially his book where he interviews people on the worst things they ever did. My small claim to fame is that his mother was my high school French teacher.
Arianej |
10-24-2001, 05:51 PM
|  | Mistress of Mayhem | | Join Date: Jun 2000 Location: New York
Posts: 17,154
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Quote: Originally posted by Dani257
I'm sure the original, Anguished English, is funny but I haven't read it.
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I'll vouch for it. It's hilarious.
Add Roald Dahl's, My Uncle Oswald to the list. Adult humor (quite adult) from a beloved children's author.
Sara
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10-24-2001, 06:11 PM
|  | Epinions Members | | Join Date: Jun 2000 Location: in the palm of your hand
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Tom Sharpe has been mentioned several times and I’ll second him. Or is it third or fourth him by now?
It’s a crying shame, but several of his books are out of print. Beg, borrow, or steal if you must, but find a copy of his Blott on the Landscape.
His South African novels (Riotous Assembly and the sequal Indecent Exposure) are also excellent. |
10-24-2001, 08:19 PM
| | Mom of the Four Men | | Join Date: Sep 2000 Location: Canada, sort of
Posts: 17,469
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I went looking for something by Sharpe today, but came up empty-handed. I think his books will go onto my amazon.com wish list.
I am really grateful for all of these recommendations- don't stop! I am making a list long enough to get me through even the nastiest winter.
Cindy |
10-25-2001, 07:38 PM
| | Epinions Members | | Join Date: Jan 2001 Location: Malden, MA, USA
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If you don't mind something a little risque, The Harvard Lampoon's Bored of the Rings is drop dead I'm going to die soon funny. I re-read the first half on the way home tonight and boy did I get some strange looks on the train. This ring and no other is made by the elves
Who'd pawn their own mother to grab it themselves
Ruler of creeper, mortal, and scallop,
This is a sleeper that packs quite a wallop.
The Power almighty rests in this Lone Ring.
The Power alrighty for doing your own thing.
If broken or busted, it cannot be remade
Send it to Sorhed (the postage is prepaid).
It's probably only available in used bookstores though. 
Janice |
10-25-2001, 08:27 PM
| | Gravitas! | | Join Date: Jul 2000 Location: New Orleans, La. U.S.A.
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I think the title is 765 Stupidest Things Ever Said. It's not funny all through, but it has some definite funny parts. |
10-26-2001, 01:11 AM
|  | Geeky goof | | Join Date: Jul 2000 Location: Boston, Mass.
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Dave Barry and C&H top my list. I also love the The Hitchhiker's Guide... "trilogy" by Douglas Adams.
Ailsa
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