Just here to place another vote for anything by Kurt Vonnegut.
I’ll second P.G. Wodehouse, especially the Jeeves and Wooster books, Erma Bombeck, and certainly Kinky Friedman. (His Web page, http://www.kinkyfriedman.com/, is pretty funny too).
Another I like is Damon Runyon, whose stories have been collected as “Guys and Dolls”. Life on Broadway in the '20s.
And Lawrence Block has a series pretty much like Westlake’s Dortmunder books: “Burglars Can’t be Choosers”, “Burglar in the Closet”, and several more. Make sure the cover mentions Bernie Rhodenbarr; as great as they are, his Matt Scudder novels are NOT funny. Read those when you’re looking for noir.
Arnold mentioned Christopher Buckley. But in my opinion, while Little Green Men was very good, Thank You For Smoking is a masterpiece.
I just read Al Frankin’s Rush Limaugh is a Big Fat Liar.
I picked it up at Barnes & Noble for $1.
Quite funny.
But, the word “liar” does come up.
Being from Georgia, I have to put a plug in for any of Lewis Grizzard’s books. His titles used to crack me up before I ever even opened the book. My favorites are still,
‘Shoot Low, boys, They’re Riding Ponies!’
‘Elvis is Dead, and I’m Not Feeling So Well Myself’
Another book that had me in stitches, my oldest son was reading it to me while we were driving, Jerry Seinfeld’s book ‘SeinSpeak’ DJ was even doing it with Jerry’s accent, which made the story funnier.
I’ll second Douglas Adams, Terry Pratchett, P. J. O’Rourke, Dave Barry…
But when I’m really down in the dumps, I’ll either read from The Decline And Fall Of Practically Everybody by Will Cuppy, or Excuse Me, What Was That? by Anton Braun Quist. Both of them can be depended upon to make me laugh, no matter how grumpy my mood.
Terry Pratchett is great, is currently one of my favorites. And I disagree with Da Ace, he is getting better with his later books. Less of the Absurd out of place humor, and more of the thoughtfull subtle humor.
I can’t believe no one has mentioned Roald Dahl. Danny Champion of the World is one of the greats.
I don’t think it’s a classic or anyting, but C.D. Payne’s “Youth in Revolt: The Journals of Nick Twisp” was too funny. Then again, I was only 16 when I read it. I hear he’s got a new book out now, finally. Can’t wait to get my hands on that.
I didn’t say Pratchett was getting worse (actually, I’d argue the opposite), but that he’s not going for the cheap laughs anymore. I don’t remember laughing out loud at a recent Discworld book, but he is one of those writers (Dave Barry is another) who I read out loud to anyone unfortunate enough to be in earshot. Now time to gloat: I’m going to read The Truth (the Discworld novel that will be published in November) this weekend. Ha Ha!
Otherwise in funny fantasy, the pickings are pretty lean. There are lots of books presented as funny, but not many that made me laugh. I did like Mary Gentle’s Grunts!, which is the standard fantasy giant-battle-against-the-Dark-Lord plot seen from the POV of a company of Orcs that get automatic weapons. And The Tough Guide to Fantasyland by Diana Wynne Jones, is a Baedekker-style view of the cliches of fantasy.
For Wodehouse: pretty much all of the Jeeves books are good choices. (I’d start with the earlier ones, myself, but I can never remember titles. Look for copyright dates before 1940 or so.) There is a group (one of my colleagues among them) that believes the “Blandings Castle” books are actually better, but I don’t agree. Blandings is funny, but Jeeves and Wooster is sublime.
Calvin Trillin’s foodie writings (collected as The Tummy Trilogy) are quite funny (though maybe a bit dated, since they’re mostly from the '70s). His “straight” columns also contain a lot of wry humor, and I’ll never be able to forget his repeated references to the “wily and parsimonious Victor S. Navasky.” Among his novels, I personally like Floater better than Runestruck, but they’re both just about impossible to find.
Another vote here for Christopher Buckley; I think Thanks You for Smoking is somewhat funnier than Little Green Men (which, though, features a wicked George Will parody at its center). He also has a book of funny essays, Wry Martinis.
Funny?
Well, I agree that Terry Pratchett is quite funny, particularly the first few Diskworld books. I don’t like his other stuff (other than DW that is) so much.
Douglas Adam is also brilliant, both the HHG2G and the Dirk Gently series. His book about endangered species (Last chance to see (?)) is also very good and funny, while not about funny things.
PG Wodehouse is also funny, the Jeeves & Wooster TVseries were superb. Stephen Fry and Hugh Laurie were in good form.
Fry is also a good writer and funny too, and his autobiography is very good.
I found some books by Stephen Brust very funny too, and also the book about Jason Cosmo (cant rememeber by whom).
Same goes for Robert Asprin (the Phools company series and the other series about the Ahz &co).
If one can count Gary Larson among writers his books always manage to cure my depression. (now I just need to cure my TICS (Terminal Involuntary Celibacy Syndrome ))
BTW the original Forest Gump by ??? is very funny and totally different from the cheesy movie.
Pez
No, I just don’t like sigs
I have to take back one the things I said before (and gloat just a little bit). I’d written that I thought Pratchett was getting more serious and deep in his later books. While that is true, I have to admit that I read The Truth over the weekend, and I broke out laughing several times (mostly in the early pages, which is the norm with the more recent books).
So Pratchett is still as funny as he ever was; he’s just developed other good points on top of that.
Let me also mention a writer who’s made me laugh out loud (and isn’t an obvious choice): Mark Twain, especially Roughing It (my favorite book of his) and The Innocents Abroad.