When I can’t handle heavy or romantic stuff, I like to read Peter Mayle’s books on Provence:
A Year In Provence
Encore Provence
Toujours Provence
They’re lighthearted, sunshiney, humorous reading. Of course, you’ll want to book a flight to France afterwards, but hey.
Any W.C. Fields or Mr. Bean.
jsgoddess, have you read any of the Hillerman books? Listening Woman or Thief of Time would be a good ones. The #1 Ladies Detective books are even lighter and more affirmative. There is a romance subplot, but it’s secondary and not at all explicit.
I second the Carl Hiaasen recommendation. They’re funny, fast paced and kind of warped – books you can pop like m&ms. Finally, E: A Novel, by Matthew Beaumont is a book written entirely in emails that fly back and forth between various characters in an ad agency. It’s a two sitting read and very funny.
(You’ve probably already read all these, though.)
Oh, I’ve always meant to read the Peter Mayle books!
These suggestions all look like very good bets. Thank you all.
Laurie Notaro is a hilarious writer. She’s the female & straight version of David Sedaris. Well, she’s not quite that good but I’m biased because I just adore him. She makes some really funny observations.
Movies:
[ul]
[li]If you’re looking for silly and girlie Legally Blonde andClueless are fun, and the relationships in them aren’t really serious or the bigger part of the stories[/li][li]The Birdcage always cheers me up when I watch it[/li][li]It’s kind of old but Baby Boom with Diane Keaton is a sweet movie. The relationship is between her and a baby.[/li][/ul]
If you’re into standup comedy, YouTube has a metric crap-ton of clips ranging from 3 or 4 minutes at a time up to 30ish minutes.
Hang in there, we’re thinking about you.
Portuguese Irregular Verbs, by Alexander McCall Smith. Very light-hearted, and I can’t remember any significant romance in it, except for the Romance languages.
When my uncle died, a few weeks later my cousin tried to get her out of the house, so she took her to see Brokeback Mountain. This is NOT a recommended course of action.
How about Galaxy Quest? Hilarious, and I don’t remember a love story. Or the various seasons of Blackadder that aren’t the fourth one.
For books, how about something that has nothing to do with relationships at all? I just finished Bill Bryson’s book on Australia, In a Sunburned Country, and it was very funny and interesting.
In addition to the Sherlock Holmes stories mentioned above, the Jeremy Brett productions are awesome and available on DVD. Jeremy Brett is awesome. I mean, unless the obvious sexual tension between Holmes and Watson would bother you. 
Steve watched Brokeback Mountain one day, came to me and said it was so terribly sad and then said the next movie he was going to watch was Million Dollar Baby. “Maybe that’ll be more cheerful.”
I had to laugh when he came back after watching that one. 
It just doesn’t get funnier than Blackadder in my book, but as I recall, the end of the last episode of each season tended to be just a wee bit of a downer, really…
I’m pretty sure that they each ended with the Blackadder getting slaughtered.
Yeah, but none of them are sad until the last one.
**The Shawshank Redemption ** (dammit – I missed that Auntie Pam already listed this!
**
Around the World in 80 Days** (the Michael Todd version)
**Star Trek IV
The Lord of the Rings
The Flight of the Phoenix** (the original, with Jimmy Stewart)
I’d like to add
Charade, which is primarily a mystery/comedy with a love story, and
Creator, which is science fiction with a love story, since they’re not primarily romances, even though they’re partly love stories.
That’s one of my favorite movies.
How about Clue? oh, and Ferris Bueller’s Day Off?
How about Secondhand Lions?
Oh, yeah, and Gerald Durrell’s My Family And Other Animals is funny (actually hysterical in a couple of places), and there’s no love story involved - unless you count a love of animals and Greece.
Blazing Saddles
Cold Comfort Farm - either the movie or the book. One of my favorites. “I saw something nasty in the woodshed!” “Did it see you?”
Arsenic and Old Lace. You can’t get happier than Cary Grant when he finds out he’s the son of a sea cook.
Killer Klowns from Outer Space. Seriously. Have some friends over, drink a few drinks, and howl at the cheez. Pair it with Leprechaun or Critters for a double-cheez delight.
{{{jsgoddess}}}
More movie recs from the gals in the book group – I love these!
9 to 5
Harvey
Cat Ballou
Chicago
Max Dugan Returns (iffy because of the relationship between 2 main characters, but the movie’s main focus isn’t romantic)
Miss Congeniality
Monsters, Inc.
My Cousin Vinny
O Brother, Where Art Thou?
Oscar
Stripes
Trading Places
And a big ditto for teela brown’s recommendation of the Durrell movie. That movie really takes you away. I wish there were more like that.
Thanks again, everyone. I think I’ve added all of the books that I hadn’t already read to my to-read list (unless I missed something), and ordered a couple of the movies from the library.
Historically, books are more my thing than movies are, but historically I haven’t needed distraction quite as much as I do now!