obviously tastes differ. “Hitchhiker” caused a general reaction of “and…?” from me. maybe i was too young when i browsed “Catch-22”. but for genuine giggles, a true believe-it-or-not nominee is “Tick-Tock” by Dean Koontz. another would be “Good Omens”, a Terry Pratchett collaboration. (best read if you like your humor dry and/or British.)
I enjoy Waugh, Heller and Parker, too, but they don’t make me laugh out loud while reading them. I just smile or smirk, re-read the funny passage, and if it’s good enough, I’ll write it down somewhere for future use.
Terry Pratchett makes me laugh out loud sometimes. The part in Good Omens where they’re describing the various “wicked Bibles” including the “Buggre Alle This” Bible was hilarious. Douglas Adams made me laugh out loud a few times in the first four Hitchhiker’s books (“Open Airlock #3, Marvin… Marvin, can you pick up that piece of paper? Here I am, brain the size of a planet, and they ask me to pick up a piece of paper…”). A handful of Dennis Miller’s Rants had the same effect, but I doubt people will be laughing at them in fifty years. Curiously enough, Robert Benchley and Woody Allen books make me laugh out loud as well, but not S. J. Perelman (too subtle, ususally; he’s another smirk-inducer). I think Fran Lebowitz’s Metropolitan Life made me laugh out loud once–that bit where she refers to sleep as being “death without the responsibility.”
Kingsley Amis’ “Lucky Jim”. The one paragraph description of a hangover is the best articulation of that painful state ever written.
Enoch, you’re right—how can I have mentioned Mrs. Parker and left out Mr. Benchley?! Ditto, Fran Lebowitz. And Cornelia Otis Skinner, another Benchley-type essayist of the 1930s and '40s.
No one has mentioned “The Onion” collection yet!
[hijack]
lachesis sez:
You’re right, I don’t believe it!
I don’t know, I just could NOT get into that book at all. I picked it up in the airport to occupy me on the way to wherever I was going, and ended up just leaving it in the seat pocket!
I like most of his other works, though 
[/hijack]
Braindroppings by George Carlin. I never ever thought I’d read his stuff, but my friend forced me to flip through this while she drove me somewhere. Freakin’ hilarious.
I’ll second the earlier mentions of:
Dave Barry
Terry Pratchett (especially the earlier Discworld books; they’ve been getting more somber as they go on)
P.J. O’Rourke (tops would be Age and Guile Beat Youth, Innocence and a bad Haircut, which has a lot of his great '70s National Lampoon writings)
Bill Bryson
and James Thurber.
Not yet mentioned: Three Men in a Boat by Jerome K. Jerome is hilarious, and his collection of essays Idle Thoughts of an Idle Fellow is even funnier in spots.
Unlike some others, I have found S.J. Perelman to be laugh-out-loud funny, mostly in his titles. Sometimes his writing is more about wordplay than belly laughs, but there’s a lot of really funny stuff in there, too.
Edward Gorey has made me laugh out loud. I’d particularly recommend The Gashlycrumb Tinies.
And Donald E. Westlake’s “Dortmunder” crime novels always leave me giggling. I think Drowned Hopes is the best.
The funniest book I’ve read recently was “Little Green Men” by Christopher Buckley. It’s a clever satire on UFO belief (the premise is that the government has faked UFO sightings to encourage the general population to vote for increases in defense and the space program.)
He is a very funny writer and some of the “footnotes” are side-splitting. He skewers politicians, journalists, UFO believers, government secret agencies, etc… Highly recommended!
The Fan Man by William Kotzwinkle (kinda’ off color) and Kandy Kolored Tangerene Flake Streamline Baby by Thomas Wolfe.
Heart agreement on the splendid Ms. Parker, Carl Hiassen, Dave Barry, and P.J. O’Rourke.
Some others not mentioned yet:
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Molly Ivins for humor on the liberal side of the political spectrum; not as howlingly funny as PJ, but she sneaks in some good ones.
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Florence King; she makes Fran Leibowitz, etc. look like pussycats. Eccentric as hell, unapologetically misanthropic and drop-dead funny. Of special note: With Charity Towrd None, Reflections In A Jaundiced Eye, and Wasp, Where Is Thy Sting.
*Calvin Trillin; his “foodie” stuff is hilarious (i.e. Alice, Let’s Eat), but some of his fiction is funny, too. My favorite is Runestruck, a weird little gem about Down Easterners caught in the Viking vs Columbus debate.
Thanks for the topic, and the suggestions!
Veb
Cosmic Banditos by A. C. Weisbecker.
It is out of print though so you might have trouble finding it.
John
I’d forgotten about Jerome’s Three Men in a Boat. I didn’t expect to find myself chuckling out loud while reading a cozy English novel written in the 1890s… (or was it 1880s?) But the bit where he describes going out for a morning swim while on vacation still makes me smile, or the speculation about all the hotels where the king slept.
Incidentally, I’ve read a couple of P. G. Wodehouse novels–The Inimitable Jeeves and Thank You, Jeeves, I think–and they were amusing, but never made me laugh out loud. Can anyone recommend to me the funniest Wodehouse books? Next on my list would be The Code of the Woosters.
I grew up howling reading Erma Bombeck and it was my first taste to creative writing. I particularly remember a particular line of hers in one of her books that said something to the effect of her neighbors dog could poop the size of Mt. Vesuvius and I had to ask my mom exactly what was a Mt. Vesuvius was ( I was 11 or so) and when she did, I fell onto the floor in a fit of laughter. Poop jokes are hysterical to kids.
Then I discovered Dave Barry’s “Babies and other hazards of sex” and could not stop laughing.I sat on the couch reading this bargin bin book while my mom chatted with friends and hooted and cracked up over stuff that made my eyes tear up. ( I was 18 or 19) and I ended up loaning the book out to one of the friends and have never seen it since.
I’ve been a Barryophile since and have [namedropping] had a bit of correspondence going with him. [/namedropping]
P.J. O’Rourke, IMHO, is just brilliant. I just love “Holiday’s in Hell.” I have probably read it five times and still laugh out loud over stuff. His Rolling Stone article on Cuba was what turned me on to him.
I particularly like travel pieces, and I found another writer, Doug Lansky, who wrote " Up the Amazon without a paddle" that was nicely done. Not as funny as O’Rourke’s travel pieces or as witty as Barry doing the Olympics, but a pleasant read. Great story in there about scaring hippo’s away with a boat paddle and being within a few feet of a huge crocodile in the middle of the night.
I’ve decided that this country is in dire need of a great female humorist. Someone droll and cynical enough to put a fresh spin on the same old same old.
I’ve told my husband that I think I could fill this spot. He can only picture being the butt of alot of jokes in a column. To which I responded, " You already are now, but if I got syndicated, we’d make some money off your buffoonery." Now, what he feels, is pressure to act even more dopey.
There are some great suggestions here and I’m writing them down, along with the great ones that Uke gave me to see if I find them at the book store.
I’ll second anything by Carl Hiaasen. Although his book, Striptease, translted badly (horribly) to screen, his books definitely deserve a chance. They are outrageously funny, and a joy to read!
I’ll add any of Kinky Friedman’s mystery novels.
They are laugh out loud funny. Kinky is always
a hoot.
I can’t believe we haven’t mentioned the funniest book I ever read: * Letters from a Nut * or * More Letters from a Nut * by Ted L. Nancy. But Ted L. Nancy COULD be Jerry Sienfeld in disguse, Jer wrote the introduction. It’s all very wierd. But SOOOO funny.
Oh my god those are awful! If you want to see that done WELL you have to get The Lazlo Letters and Citizen Lazlo by Lazlo Toth (aka Don Novello, aka Guido Sarducchi.) The “Nut” books are poorly done blatent ripoffs of these.
I just want to second (third?) (fourth?) Catch-22. I started reading it in the library one day when I was in high school, before I learned to drive, when my parents were late picking me up. The library was about to close, and there was a cleaning lady vacuuming the floor. I had just gotten to the trial of Clevinger, and was in hysterics, and by the time I got to the “read me back the last line” bit, I had literally fallen out of my chair. I was on the floor, paralyzed with convulsive laughter, and the cleaning lady was giving me very strange looks.
I can usually take or leave P.J. O’Rourke, but his Rolling Stone essay about Russia also had me in convulsions, especially his 2,000 pound concrete sneakers.
And finally, for Star Trek fans, or better yet people who can’t stand Star Trek, I heartily reccomend “How Much For Just the Planet?”, in which the crews of the Enterprise and a Klingon ship get total asses made of themselves by the natives of a dilithium-rich planet. The publisher’s guidelines were changed shortly after its publication to prevent any sequels. Bloody hilarious.
I’m surprised to only see one post in favor of Patrick F. McManus. If you are a man, were a boy, or have ever met anyone who is a man or was a boy, these will split your sides.
He writes a column in Outdoor life, and most of his books are compilations of columns. There are two main themes, outdoorsmanship and growing up in rural Idaho. I guess this description doesn’t tell you why they’re funny or why they appeal to everyone I know. But you really need to check him out. It’s particularly good for reading aloud on a camping trip, but you don’t need to do those things to get a kick out of his books.
He’s put one of his stories on the web at The Modified Stationary Panic
Trout Fishing in America