# Funny Novelists??? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [August 15, 2003, 7:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/funny-novelists/195347 "2003-08-15T07:28:57Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![hlanelee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/3bc359/32.png) [@hlanelee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hlanelee)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2003, 7:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/funny-novelists/195347/1 "2003-08-15T07:28:57Z")
Who do you think are some of the funniest contemporary novelists? I like Carl Hiaasen, Elmore Leonard, Donald Westlake Laurance Shames, and authors along those lines. ---
**Author:** ![boobah](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/46a35a/32.png) [@boobah](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/boobah)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2003, 7:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/funny-novelists/195347/2 "2003-08-15T07:31:13Z")
Terry Pratchett. And he’s not contemporary, but he’s still funny to me. Jerome K. Jerome. ---
**Author:** ![don\_t\_ask](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e68b1a/32.png) [@don\_t\_ask](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/don_t_ask)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2003, 8:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/funny-novelists/195347/3 "2003-08-15T08:07:20Z")
None contemporary but laugh out loud funny: Mordecai Richler - The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz, The Incomparable Atuk, Cocksure and many short stories. Terry Southern - The Magic Christian, Blue Movie. Tom Sharpe - a South African but very English humour. The first 2 are set in South Africa and got him banned there. Riotous Assembly, Indecent Exposure, Porterhouse Blue, Blott On the Landscape, Wilt, Ancestral Vices I also recall I really enjoyed Roth’s The Great american Novel about a baseball team with no home stadium. Has some unforgettable stuff. ---
**Author:** ![Meurglys](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/258eb7/32.png) [@Meurglys](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Meurglys)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2003, 11:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/funny-novelists/195347/4 "2003-08-15T11:10:54Z")
**Jasper Fforde** - _The Eyre Affair_ and it’s sequels. Thursday Next is, literally, a literary detective and someone is trying to kidnap Jane Eyre out the book and hold her to ransom! Full of jokes about literature but also laugh out loud funny. **Bill FitzHugh** - _Pest Control_, among others. A Pest Control Operative mis-describes his business and is mistaken for a hitman; he needs the money, but can his methods work on humans!? ---
**Author:** ![twickster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ec9cab/32.png) [@twickster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/twickster)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2003, 12:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/funny-novelists/195347/5 "2003-08-15T12:06:51Z")
Funniest novel ever – _Straight Man_, by **Richard Russo**. ---
**Author:** ![FlyingDragonFan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/c89c15/32.png) [@FlyingDragonFan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FlyingDragonFan)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2003, 12:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/funny-novelists/195347/6 "2003-08-15T12:40:25Z")
Kurt Vonnegut ---
**Author:** ![C\_K\_Dexter\_Haven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/b2d939/32.png) [@C\_K\_Dexter\_Haven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/C_K_Dexter_Haven)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2003, 12:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/funny-novelists/195347/7 "2003-08-15T12:51:29Z")
I’ll echo Donald Westlake (but you have to be careful what you select, he has some deadly serious writing too – great stuff, but not funny.) In the mystery vein, you might also try Janet Evanovich’s series about Stephanie Plum, the incompetent bounty hunter. The ninth book in the series just came out, and they’re all laugh-out-loud funny. Whaddya mean, Terry Pratchett isn’t contemporary?? … and he’s certainly VERY funny. I find Carl Hiassen repetitive. I mean, OK, I guess all writers are a bit repetititve, but Hiassen seems to always have the same plot and characters. Dave Berry has two very funny novels out, BIG TROUBLE and TRICKY BUSINESS. ---
**Author:** ![Catsmeow](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f9ae1b/32.png) [@Catsmeow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Catsmeow)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2003, 12:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/funny-novelists/195347/8 "2003-08-15T12:53:51Z")
Eric Garcia’s Rex series. Roll on the floor funny. Piers Anthony before the panties. Jane Heller esp _Female Intelligence_ Oh the list could go on and on. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Landshark](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/77aa72/32.png) [@Landshark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Landshark)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2003, 1:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/funny-novelists/195347/9 "2003-08-15T13:02:12Z")
Christopher Buckley Kinky Friedman (Possibly not to everyone’s taste, but I personally find his novels hilarious.) I’ll also second the mention of Donald Westlake; especially for his “Dortmunder” series. ---
**Author:** ![Algernon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/a183cd/32.png) [@Algernon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Algernon)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2003, 2:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/funny-novelists/195347/10 "2003-08-15T14:17:28Z")
I’ll echo Janet Evanovich as the funniest current author. Each of her Stephanie Plum books are laugh-out-loud funny. In previous threads such as these, I’ve been inspired to try other authors/books and I’ve yet to find someone as consistently funny as Evanovich. For example, a number of Dopers recommended David Sedaris, so I went out and bought two of his books, _Naked_ and _Me Talk Pretty One Day_. I was severely disappointed. There were probably only three pages total that were truly funny. ---
**Author:** ![Fibber\_McGee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/a6a055/32.png) [@Fibber\_McGee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fibber_McGee)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2003, 2:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/funny-novelists/195347/11 "2003-08-15T14:28:20Z")
What’s this, no one’s mentioned Christopher Moore? And him with a new book just out too, for shame . . . ---
**Author:** ![Anniee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c77e96/32.png) [@Anniee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anniee)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2003, 2:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/funny-novelists/195347/12 "2003-08-15T14:30:58Z")
He’s dead now, but Richard Adams’ The Hitchhikers’ Series was the only stuff that made me laugh my ass off the way it did. Never knew books could do that (though I never knew a book could scare you like Salem’s Lot could.) ---
**Author:** ![meow\_meow](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f04885/32.png) [@meow\_meow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/meow_meow)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2003, 2:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/funny-novelists/195347/13 "2003-08-15T14:39:37Z")
That’s Douglass Adams. John Irving cracks me up. (Hotel New Hampshire, A Prayer For Owen Meany) ---
**Author:** ![Anniee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c77e96/32.png) [@Anniee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anniee)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2003, 2:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/funny-novelists/195347/14 "2003-08-15T14:52:21Z")
My bad; got him mixed up with the Watership Down author. I’ve been going through my bookshelves and it happens. Still hilarious stuff 🙂 ---
**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:** [August 15, 2003, 3:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/funny-novelists/195347/15 "2003-08-15T15:02:42Z")
Some names not yet mentioned (in alphabetical order yet): George Baxt has done a long series of funny mysteries based on movie stars, although it started with _The Dorothy Parker Murder Case_. He went on to do Mae West, Alfred Hitchcock, William Powell and Myrna Loy and a dozen others. Peter Benchley (yes, the _Jaws_ guy) did two very funny books, _Q Clearance_, a Washington satire, and the black humorish _Rummies_, about a drug rehab center. Try him if you like Christopher Buckley. Carrie Fisher is surprisingly good as a novelist, with _Postcards from the Edge_ probably her funniest. If you haven’t read Armistead Maupin’s _Tales of the City_ series, you’re in for a treat. It’s infinitely superior to the PBS show made from it. Ring Lardner and Damon Runyon are classic humorists of the 1920s. A bit dated now, but their styles will always be unique, if much imitated. Jane Smiley’s _Moo_ is an academic satire that you don’t need to know anything about academics to laugh about. David Lodge is the British equivalent, but more on the academic side. Gore Vidal can’t be missed in a discussion of humor. His darkest satire is probably _Live from Golgotha_, one of those books meant to offend everybody. **Dex** , **boobah** said that _Jerome K. Jerome_, not Terry Pratchett is the non-contemporary one. Connie Willis’ _To Say Nothing of the Dog_ is a modern take-off of Jerome. And how can you mention the wonderful Terry Southern and not mention that he co-wrote _Candy_? ---
**Author:** ![wonky](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wonky/32/393_2.png) [@wonky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wonky)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2003, 3:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/funny-novelists/195347/16 "2003-08-15T15:20:14Z")
I’ll third Evanovich. There’s a scene in her Christmas novel with Stephanie Plum, Lola, and a dwarf on the hood of her car that made me laugh so hard I started hyperventilating. Don’t read her romances, though! I just read _Full House_ and it was really bad. Pratchett is very funny. Vonnegut, Henry Fielding, Jane Austen–all funny. Tamar Myers’s mystery series with the Mennonite herione makes me laugh. I seem to recall Joan Hess’s Maggody series being at least amusing. Sharyn McCrumb’s book set at a sci-fi convention (Bimbos of the Death Star, or something similar, and I think there’s a sequel) was very funny. I’ve only read the first three Spenser novels, but each was at least amusing. No idea if the later novels are still funny. There was an absolutely hysterical mystery called _Date with a Dead Doctor_, by Toni Brill. There’s a sequel I’ve never read. Mary Kittredge wrote some funny books, as well, also mysteries. Julie ---
**Author:** ![Balance](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ccd318/32.png) [@Balance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Balance)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2003, 3:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/funny-novelists/195347/17 "2003-08-15T15:43:02Z")
Barry Hughart’s Master Li and Number Ten Ox novels are extremely funny, particularly the first one, _Bridge of Birds_. ---
**Author:** ![Smeghead](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f1d935/32.png) [@Smeghead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smeghead)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2003, 5:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/funny-novelists/195347/18 "2003-08-15T17:41:44Z")
Neil Stepheson’s _Cryptonomicon_ is hilarious, and an excellent read. It’s probably the best book I’ve read in at least a year. ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2003, 6:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/funny-novelists/195347/19 "2003-08-15T18:00:39Z")
The funniest book I ever read (four times) was **The Milagro Beanfield War** by John Nichols. His follow-up books in the trilogy weren’t nearly as good. ---
**Author:** ![mojave66](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/5f9b8f/32.png) [@mojave66](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mojave66)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2003, 6:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/funny-novelists/195347/20 "2003-08-15T18:37:36Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Algernon \* > \*\* > In previous threads such as these, I’ve been inspired to try other authors/books and I’ve yet to find someone as consistently funny as Evanovich. For example, a number of Dopers recommended David Sedaris, so I went out and bought two of his books, _Naked_ and _Me Talk Pretty One Day_. I was severely disappointed. There were probably only three pages total that were truly funny. \*\* Disappointed by Sedaris? Really? I love his stuff. I laughed so loudly through “Naked” that I annoyed my SO. Proof that YMMV is a truism. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/funny-novelists/195347.md?page=2)