# Best Humorous Books **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [June 29, 2002, 2:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-humorous-books/116516 "2002-06-29T02:55:28Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![jinty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/dbc845/32.png) [@jinty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jinty)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2002, 12:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-humorous-books/116516/41 "2002-07-01T12:56:17Z")
I’ll second Carl Hiaasen, Donald Westlake and PJ O’Rourke. As S Ujest above shows, O’Rourke has the best chapter names. My favourite: “How to Drive Fast on Drugs While Getting Your Wing-Wang Squeezed”. I’m definitely going to check out a few others mentioned. ---
**Author:** ![Eve](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Eve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eve)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2002, 1:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-humorous-books/116516/42 "2002-07-01T13:32:20Z")
Some more classics, as yet unmentioned: Anita Loos’ **Gentlemen Prefer Blondes** and its sequel, **Gentlemen Marry Brunettes** ; and Patrick Dennis’ wickedly hilarious \*\*Little Me. \*\* ---
**Author:** ![Peach](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/67e7ee/32.png) [@Peach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peach)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2002, 4:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-humorous-books/116516/43 "2002-07-01T16:39:19Z")
Feel this Book:D ---
**Author:** ![Jodi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/7feea3/32.png) [@Jodi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jodi)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2002, 5:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-humorous-books/116516/44 "2002-07-01T17:03:34Z")
For funny and quick, I highly recommend **e** by Matt Beaumont. It’s a novel consisting entirely of e-mails sent within a fictitious ad agency in London – a very amusing no-brainer of a book. ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2002, 6:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-humorous-books/116516/45 "2002-07-01T18:25:58Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Jodi \* > \*\*For funny and quick, I highly recommend **e** by Matt Beaumont. \*\* As counterpoint, I have to mention Ernest Vincent Wright’s novel _Gadsby_, in which the letter “e” is not used even once. ---
**Author:** ![Great\_Dave](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/46a35a/32.png) [@Great\_Dave](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Great_Dave)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2002, 8:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-humorous-books/116516/46 "2002-07-01T20:21:16Z")
Big Trouble by Dave Barry. ---
**Author:** ![Sam\_Stone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Sam\_Stone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sam_Stone)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2002, 9:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-humorous-books/116516/47 "2002-07-01T21:21:38Z")
A second for **Big Trouble** by Dave Barry. A couple of Colin McEnroe books are just hilarious. The best is, “How To Lose Weight Through Great Sex With Celebrities (The Elvis Way)”. Another is “Swimming Chickens”. Silly, hilarious stuff. ---
**Author:** ![KneadToKnow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kneadtoknow/32/3999_2.png) [@KneadToKnow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KneadToKnow)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2002, 9:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-humorous-books/116516/48 "2002-07-01T21:50:26Z")
I haven’t seen Fran Lebowitz’s name mentioned, so I’ll remedy that now. ---
**Author:** ![burntsand](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ba9def/32.png) [@burntsand](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/burntsand)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2002, 11:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-humorous-books/116516/49 "2002-07-01T23:50:02Z")
In honour of Canada Day: I’d recommend the first three volumes of “The Bandy Papers” by Donald Jack. _Three Cheers for Me, That’s Me in the Middle_, and _It’s Me Again_ are the first trilogy, which IMHO were the best. Some of the later books are good (e.g. _Me Bandy, You Cissie_) but some are much weaker than the early ones. The books will appeal to people who enjoy flying ace stories like The Dawn Patrol, absurdity of war stories like Catch-22, or any of the English “Ripping Yarns for Boys”/Biggles type books. Some of the humour is broad, some is quite black, but it’s all very funny. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Scrivener](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/eada6e/32.png) [@The\_Scrivener](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Scrivener)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2002, 10:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-humorous-books/116516/50 "2002-07-03T22:57:37Z")
**An Underachiever’s Diary** by Benjamin Anastas And, by reputation (I haven’t read it), the supposedly similarly poignant/funny literary precedent that book has been compared to, **A Fan’s Notes** by Frederick Exley. I’ve read about half of Hiassen’s and thoroughly enjoyed them, but if I had to recommend just one, it’d be **Double Whammy**. Re. film scripts and teleplays, I downloaded Bruce Robinson’s corrosively funny **Withnail & I** off the 'net for free. The collected teleplays for the **Fawlty Towers** series has been out in paperback for several years, as are at least some of the **Seinfeld** scripts. “I’m trying to enjoy my holiday…” [Withnail] 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![MarkF](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/8797f3/32.png) [@MarkF](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MarkF)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2002, 4:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-humorous-books/116516/51 "2002-07-04T04:00:26Z")
For non-fiction humour you could try **Bill Bryson**. ---
**Author:** ![rabbit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/919ad9/32.png) [@rabbit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rabbit)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2002, 5:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-humorous-books/116516/52 "2002-07-04T17:49:25Z")
I will second The Bandy papers. Laughed so much my gut hurt. Particularly “3 cheers for me” (though they really should be read in sequence). Also (in honour of all this Lord of the Rings broohaha) Bored of the Rings by the Harvard Lampoon. Silly, but good for a cheap chuckle. ---
**Author:** ![Dr\_Paprika](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr_paprika/32/3042_2.png) [@Dr\_Paprika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr_Paprika)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2002, 11:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-humorous-books/116516/53 "2002-07-04T23:35:14Z")
Humour can be a pretty subjective thing. Books I found funny include: 1. The Lost Continent (Bill Bryson) is his best. If you like Bill Bryson, you should try Paul Theroux, George Mikes and Mark Twain’s travelogues. 2. Good Omens (Prachett, Gaiman) 3. Confederacy of Dunces (Toole) 4. Yes (Prime) Minister (Lynn, Jay) If you prefer American political humour, probably Rush Limbaugh is a Big, Fat Idiot (Franken) or “Primary Colours”. 5. Comics by Scott Adams (Dilbert), Garretson Trudeau (Doonesbury), Charles Addams (New Yorker), Bill Watterson (Calvin and Hobbes), Gary Larson (Far Side), Jim Unger (Herman) and Berke Breathed (Bloom County) 6. How to be God (Mikes) For lower-key humour, maybe Tom Wolfe (The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test), Gita Mehta (Karma Cola), anything by James Heriott, compilations of the Fortean Times (Strange Days) or the first Letters from a Nut (Jerry Seinfeld writing as Ted Nancy). [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-humorous-books/116516.md?page=2)