# Funny books **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [July 31, 2000, 6:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/funny-books/27516 "2000-07-31T06:25:15Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![manhattan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/manhattan/32/7_2.png) [@manhattan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/manhattan)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2000, 11:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/funny-books/27516/41 "2000-08-01T23:26:19Z")
This thread is best suited for **In My Humble Opinion**. I’ll move it there for you. ---
**Author:** ![Scribe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Scribe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scribe)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2000, 2:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/funny-books/27516/42 "2000-08-02T02:29:57Z")
I like the quirky humour of Roger Price, the '50s artist and humourist…If you can find his In One Head and Out The Other, you may enjoy it… ---
**Author:** ![Stephe96](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Stephe96](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stephe96)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2000, 3:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/funny-books/27516/43 "2000-08-02T03:54:31Z")
‘Bored of the Rings’ by The Harvard Lampoon. Funny as hell… ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2000, 4:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/funny-books/27516/44 "2000-08-02T04:21:05Z")
All of Dave Barry’s books Mark Twain’s Connecticut Yankee, and assorted short works Bored of the Rings by Harvard Lampoon (read my copy to bits) Alligator by Harvard Lampoon (if you can find it) – spot- on James Bond parody Tom Weller’s “Science Made Stupid” and “Culture Made Stupid” Alan King’s “Help! I’m a Prisoner in a Chinese Bakery!” and “Anybody who owns his own Home Deserves it.” A. Whitney Brown’s book Gary Larson’s Far Side books Claire Huffaker’s novels, especially “Nbody Loves a Drunken Indian” The dialogues of Lucian – still good after 2000 years Allan Sherman’s “The Rape of the A_P_E\*” Sandra Boynton’s book on “Chocolate: The Consuming Passion” ---
**Author:** ![Myrr21](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e495f1/32.png) [@Myrr21](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Myrr21)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2000, 4:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/funny-books/27516/45 "2000-08-02T04:31:15Z")
If you’re fairly liberal, \*\* Michael Moore’s \*\* \* Downsize This! \* is very amusing. Even if you read \*\* the Onion, \*\* \* Our Dumb Century \* is all new stuff–and it’s brilliant. Anything by \*\* John Irving, \*\* \* The World According to Garp \* had me rolling on the floor…though much of the rest is very amusing too… ---
**Author:** ![nashiitashii](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/7c8e57/32.png) [@nashiitashii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nashiitashii)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2000, 4:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/funny-books/27516/46 "2000-08-02T04:37:23Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by corvus \* > \*\*The Hitchhikers Guide To The Galaxy By Douglas Adams is probably your best bet for a good pick-me-up. You could also try reading anything by Terry Pratchett, his Discworld work are usually pretty satisfying. > I’ve also heard Dianetics is pretty funny 🙂 \*\* I like all the Douglas Adams books. They’re hillarious. ---
**Author:** ![Typo\_Negative](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/typo_negative/32/484_2.png) [@Typo\_Negative](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Typo_Negative)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2000, 1:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/funny-books/27516/47 "2000-08-02T13:30:30Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Guy Propski \* > \*\* > Did you ever read either one of Joe Bob Briggs’ collection of reviews, “Joe Bob Goes to the Drive-in” and “Joe Bob Goes Back to the Drive-in.” In addition to hilarious movie reviews, his picture of life in Grapevine, Texas is priceless. And you’ll see just how many words you can attach the suffix “-fu” to. > > \*\* Lets not forget his manly self-help book, ‘Iron Joe Bob’. But it’s kind of hard to find. One of the funniest books I ever read was ‘The gang that couldn’t shoot straight’ by Jimmy Breslin. It was made into a very dull movie. ---
**Author:** ![Proudest\_Monkey](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/proudest_monkey/32/13257_2.png) [@Proudest\_Monkey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Proudest_Monkey)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2000, 1:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/funny-books/27516/48 "2000-08-02T13:43:50Z")
I was also going to recommend Hiaasen and Westlake. Hiaasen’s latest, “Sick Puppy,” made me laugh out loud. In addition, I would suggest Dan Jenkins–humor and sports. “You Gotta Play Hurt” is a favorite read of mine. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2000, 1:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/funny-books/27516/49 "2000-08-02T13:43:58Z")
When I first read Douglas Adams’ “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy” I felt a sense of deja vu. It seemed EXTREMELY similar to Robert Sheckley’s sf novel “Dimension of Miracles” I’ve since learned that a lot of other people feel the same way, too. Adams has admitted being heavily influenced by Sheckley, and he’s since backed away from that style. Sheckley still is a prolific writer, but he was heavily active during the fifties and sixties churning out short satiric sf gems. A lot of his work seems to have been copied without atttribution, or at least has heavily influenced people without their knowing it. Besides the “Hitchiker’s Guide/Dimension of Miracles” thing there has been Stephen King’s “Running Man” (which strongly resembles Sheckley’s “Prize of Peril”, as Harlan Ellison has pointed out, while absolving King) and the movie “Total Recall” (Which I swear bears a stronger resemblance to Sheckley’s “The Status Civilization” than to the Philip K. Dick story it’s ostensinly based on). There have been a few movies based on Sheckley’s work (The Tenth Viction, Freejack, Condor Man), but they’ve been an unremarkable bunch, not reflecting Sheckley’s wit. So look up Sheckley’s early short story collections.Also those of Fredric Brown William Tenn Theodore Cogswell The short sf stories of the 1950s were wonderful and witty things. ---
**Author:** ![fluffinator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/ecc23a/32.png) [@fluffinator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fluffinator)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2000, 4:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/funny-books/27516/50 "2000-08-02T16:39:04Z")
Donald Westlake, Carl Hiassen, Joan Hess… and one specific Asimov book, for sure… Murder at the ABA… I can’t read any of these authors without ending up laughing out loud over and over again… ---
**Author:** ![brachyrhynchos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/brachyrhynchos/32/376_2.png) [@brachyrhynchos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/brachyrhynchos)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2000, 2:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/funny-books/27516/51 "2000-08-03T02:08:03Z")
**Richard Brautigan** 1971 _Revenge of the Lawn_. ---
**Author:** ![silent\_rob](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e9a140/32.png) [@silent\_rob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silent_rob)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2000, 6:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/funny-books/27516/52 "2000-08-03T06:34:44Z")
Whoops, forgot one. Gregory MacDonald’s (sp?) _Fletch_ books are great. They’re currently out of print, but I know you can find them at used book stores or check the library. Even better than the movies (as if there was any doubt). ---
**Author:** ![TroubleAgain](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e480ec/32.png) [@TroubleAgain](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TroubleAgain)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2000, 10:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/funny-books/27516/53 "2000-08-03T10:46:02Z")
My favorites for a laugh have mostly been mentioned here: Pratchett Adams Barry McManus (yes, I love the hunting and fishing anecdotes.) Thurber, in a major way If you like \*very dark humor, \*Carl Hiaasen is funny. (I personally find him to be _too_ dark…) He writes…well, hard to describe, but it’s all Florida-based comedy/satire/commentary type novels with a lot of ecological/conservationist slant to it. Whether his characters are red-necks, drug-dealers, fishing-charter captains, waitresses, etc., they are pretty darned true to type…or stereotype, whatever. (He wrote _Striptease,_ but don’t hold that against him…) ---
**Author:** ![Munch](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/munch/32/5281_2.png) [@Munch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Munch)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2000, 1:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/funny-books/27516/54 "2000-08-03T13:55:32Z")
I HAVE to second Bill Bryson’s “A Walk in the Woods”. Absolutely hysterical. Also, Tony Hawks’ “Round Ireland with a Fridge”. True story about a guy who loses a bet and has to hitchhike around the coast of Ireland with a refrigerator. ---
**Author:** ![SixStringSamurai](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c4cdca/32.png) [@SixStringSamurai](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SixStringSamurai)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2000, 2:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/funny-books/27516/55 "2000-08-03T14:56:56Z")
Stephen Fry has written several comic novels that have been reviewed very well though I haven’t picked one of them up yet. I was doing a search on [Borders.com](http://Borders.com) and found his book “Making History” which is about a college student who finds a way to prevent Hitler from being born and the world that results from this change. ---
**Author:** ![struuter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b9e5f3/32.png) [@struuter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/struuter)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2000, 3:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/funny-books/27516/56 "2000-08-03T15:21:07Z")
I’ve always been partial to Higgins’ ‘Harold and Maude.’ It’s short, but a great book. Most of Ian Frasier’s short works are HILARIOUS. He’s had stuff in Atlantic Weekly and New Yorker for sure and probably other places. Had him for a writing class in college–he was awesome and a genuinely nice man. Can’t say enough good things about him. ---
**Author:** ![rackensack](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e5b9ba/32.png) [@rackensack](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rackensack)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2000, 6:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/funny-books/27516/57 "2000-08-03T18:06:38Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by SixStringSamurai \* > \*\*Stephen Fry has written several comic novels that have been reviewed very well though I haven’t picked one of them up yet. I was doing a search on [Borders.com](http://Borders.com) and found his book “Making History” which is about a college student who finds a way to prevent Hitler from being born and the world that results from this change. \*\* Fry’s _The Liar_ is pretty funny, though a bit much of the same thing after a while. My favorite printed work of his is one that’s not, so far as I know, available in the U.S.: a collection of stories, occasional pieces, radio scripts, etc. published in the U.K. as _Paperweight_. I picked it up at Blackstone’s in Boston on a trip up there several years ago and had to stop reading it in the airport because of the looks my giggles and snorts were getting me. ---
**Author:** ![conway](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ec9cab/32.png) [@conway](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/conway)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2000, 7:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/funny-books/27516/58 "2000-08-03T19:15:53Z")
Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole… About a fat virgin man in New Orleans…'nuff said ---
**Author:** ![G.B.H.Hornswoggler](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/c67d28/32.png) [@G.B.H.Hornswoggler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/G.B.H.Hornswoggler)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2000, 7:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/funny-books/27516/59 "2000-08-03T19:33:25Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by SixStringSamurai \* > \*\*Stephen Fry has written several comic novels that have been reviewed very well though I haven’t picked one of them up yet. I was doing a search on [Borders.com](http://Borders.com) and found his book “Making History” which is about a college student who finds a way to prevent Hitler from being born and the world that results from this change. \*\* **The Liar** (a semi-autobiographical novel about Fry’s own college years, by the way) and **The Hippopotamus** are both hilarious, if you like a certain kind of nasty British humor. (And I do.) **Making History** is more serious, but still has its funny moments (and it’s also quite a good science fiction novel, which somewhat surprised me given its source). **Moab Is My Washpot** is his autobiography/memoir; it only goes up to his entrance into Cambridge but it’s a huge hoot (though it also has its dark moments, like any life). I liked **Paperweight** , but didn’t laugh quite as much as the other poster; perhaps because all the short pieces became too much of the same thing after a while. Forgotten on my first list: _John Mortimer_. His “Rumpole” stories are very funny (and they might be familiar from the BBC series, which I haven’t seen), but I’m also partial to **Paradise Postponed** , which has two leser, but still readable, sequels. And _Donald Westlake_ has also been mentioned; I’d just like to say that I think **Drowned Hopes** is about as perfect as a funny crime novel can ever hope to be. ---
**Author:** ![Kyla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/eada6e/32.png) [@Kyla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kyla)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2000, 12:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/funny-books/27516/60 "2000-08-04T00:07:35Z")
Most of my favorite funny books have already been mentioned, but I have to chime in: _The Innocents Abroad_ by Mark Twain. It’s kind of obscure, as it is non-fiction and written before he was famous, but it’s absolutely hysterical. Mark Twain was on the first pleasure cruise, as a reporter, and his stories, which I suppose are pretty much true, are priceless. Lots of commas in that last sentence. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/funny-books/27516.md?page=2)