# What is your favourite funny novel? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** books-writing-myths\ **Created:** [March 14, 2024, 1:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-favourite-funny-novel/998832 "2024-03-14T13:43:04Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 7
**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:** [March 16, 2024, 3:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-favourite-funny-novel/998832/121 "2024-03-16T03:21:54Z")
> [@Exapno\_Mapcase](#): > > None of the names I’ve started the site with are mentioned here. They’re truly forgotten. Yet the ones in the opening - George Ade, Richard Armour, Will Cuppy, Corey Ford, Oliver Herford, and Charles Wayland Towne - were literally bestsellers and widely and wildly famous in their day. I thought about mentioning Ade, Cupy, and Armour, whom I’ve read, but I don’t really find them laugh-out-loud finny. Same for H. Allen Smith. ---
**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:** [March 16, 2024, 3:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-favourite-funny-novel/998832/122 "2024-03-16T03:32:18Z")
They were truly of their time. Ade’s satire of his times is only occasionally relatable today. Cuppy’s masterpiece was The Decline and Fall of Practically Everyone. His other books don’t live up to it. Armour is like a late-night comic. Nobody can make that volume of jokes all work, but the good ones make up for the meh. I suffer from the fate of oversatiation. I don’t laugh out loud at anything anymore, even live stand-up. I maybe nod and think, good one. But when I see a good one I want to tell people about it. Nobody has thoroughly written up these people; that makes them irresistible. And nobody should deny their historical importance even when they no longer provoke ROFLMAO responses. ---
**Author:** ![Nyvaak](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/5f8ce5/32.png) [@Nyvaak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nyvaak)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2024, 3:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-favourite-funny-novel/998832/123 "2024-03-16T03:41:16Z")
> [@commasense](#): > > I will give you the benefit of the doubt and assume that autocorrect “fixed” “Psmith.” It tried for me just now. Yes! Psmith. If not autocorrect, then it was a mortifying lapse on my part, especially given how often the main character mentions that “the P is silent.” Ouch ! ---
**Author:** ![Son\_of\_a\_Rich](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/son_of_a_rich/32/5439_2.png) [@Son\_of\_a\_Rich](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Son_of_a_Rich)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2024, 4:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-favourite-funny-novel/998832/124 "2024-03-16T04:49:37Z")
I like his meeting with the ghost of the Cardiff giant. Only it’s the ghost of PT Barnum’s replica giant, not the original, itself a phony. Or something like that 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2024, 3:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-favourite-funny-novel/998832/125 "2024-03-16T15:26:25Z")
I’m still not sure what my favorite funny novel is—there are probably a number of them I’m not remembering right now. But a couple that I don’t think have been mentioned yet in this thread: _Alice’s Adeventures in Wonderland_ (Lewis Carroll): probably the first novel (at least in the broad sense of book-length fiction) I read that made me think, “Hey, this is funny!” _Wobegon Boy_ (Garrison Keillor): probably my favorite of Keillor’s books. ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2024, 6:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-favourite-funny-novel/998832/126 "2024-03-16T18:23:47Z")
> [@Thudlow\_Boink](#): > > _Wobegon Boy_ (Garrison Keillor): probably my favorite of Keillor’s books. > [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iEtzOElK3r0](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iEtzOElK3r0) $23.58! 🤣 ---
**Author:** ![kitap](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/b9e5f3/32.png) [@kitap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kitap)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2024, 12:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-favourite-funny-novel/998832/127 "2024-03-17T00:07:59Z")
I adore Armour’s retelling of literature. “Friar Lawrence is President of the Optimist Club of Verona” will never not make me laugh. Somehow my friends and I stumbled on him in high school and our essays on **MacBeth** were heavily influenced by him. ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2024, 12:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-favourite-funny-novel/998832/128 "2024-03-17T00:35:43Z")
One of my favorites is Charles Portis’ “True Grit”. I also enjoyed a lesser-known Portis novel,[“The Dog of the South”](https://encyclopediaofarkansas.net/entries/the-dog-of-the-south-15271/). In that one, protagonist and narrator Ray Midge underakes a “journey at the age of twenty-six from [Little Rock (Pulaski County)](https://encyclopediaofarkansas.net/entries/Little-Rock-970/) deep into Central America to British Honduras (Belize), to get back his Ford Torino, his American Express and Texaco credit cards, his shotgun, his good raincoat, his tape recording of Professor Buddy Casey’s lecture at Ole Miss on the Siege of Vicksburg, and his wife Norma, all of which he says were stolen from him by Guy Dupree, Midge’s unhinged colleague on the copy desk of a Little Rock newspaper.” I have a fond memory of part of the road trip in which Ray was driving a car which had seen better days. There were multiple holes in the floorboards, and it was discovered that at a certain highway speed, gum and hamburger wrappers and other lightweight detritus would remain perfectly suspended on air currents within the vehicle. ---
**Author:** ![Dendarii\_Dame](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/bbce88/32.png) [@Dendarii\_Dame](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dendarii_Dame)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2024, 9:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-favourite-funny-novel/998832/129 "2024-03-22T21:27:22Z")
I’ve only read a few books by Christopher Moore. _The Stupidest Angel_ was the funniest so far. ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2024, 11:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-favourite-funny-novel/998832/130 "2024-03-22T23:28:05Z")
Wait until you read _Lamb_. Or _Fluke_. Or _Island of the Sequined Love Nun_. (What? Me hype an author I love? Never.) ---
**Author:** ![brasstacks](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/d26b3c/32.png) [@brasstacks](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/brasstacks)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2024, 11:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-favourite-funny-novel/998832/131 "2024-03-22T23:33:20Z")
I don’t know if anyone else thinks this, but Albert Camus has been funny to me in a strange way. The Fall is particularly odd. It almost feels like a really drunk George Costanza or a proto Zapp Brannagan or something like that. The Stranger also by Camus was that way too. They call him a moralist. These two books were basically monologues of two quite possibly very disturbed characters. ---
**Author:** ![brasstacks](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/d26b3c/32.png) [@brasstacks](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/brasstacks)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2024, 11:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-favourite-funny-novel/998832/132 "2024-03-22T23:35:12Z")
There’s also The Wasps by Aristophanes. That shit was funny and I may be nuts for saying so. Such a strange sense of humor that I may no longer have access to since I last read it earlier in my life. ---
**Author:** ![Raza](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/raza/32/213_2.png) [@Raza](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Raza)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2024, 12:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-favourite-funny-novel/998832/133 "2024-03-23T00:01:59Z")
Based on this thread I picked up my first Moore book, _A Dirty Job_, and simply love it. Six chapters in it was only LoL once, but the writing is so captivating. I got sucked in by the first paragraph and now I can’t tear myself away. IMO, not quite the clever turn-of-phrase of Pratchett but moves the story along at a better pace. And I am a big fan of Pratchett’s DEATH books, so this is a great starter book for me. ---
**Author:** ![Dr\_Paprika](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr_paprika/32/3042_2.png) [@Dr\_Paprika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr_Paprika)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2024, 6:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-favourite-funny-novel/998832/134 "2024-03-26T18:35:58Z")
Interesting to see Goodreads take on the funniest novels is much closer to your choices than the NYTs oddly curated list. > **[Funniest Novels of All Time (1386 books)](https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/5447.Funniest_Novels_of_All_Time)** > > 1,386 books based on 2157 votes: The Ultimate Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams, Catch-22 by Joseph Heller, Good Omens: The Nice and Accu... ---
**Author:** ![TreacherousCretin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/treacherouscretin/32/476_2.png) [@TreacherousCretin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TreacherousCretin)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2024, 7:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-favourite-funny-novel/998832/135 "2024-03-26T19:36:12Z")
> [@silenus](#): > > Wait until you read _Lamb_… My favorite line: “I thought there would be more color.” ---
**Author:** ![Yllaria](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yllaria/32/3452_2.png) [@Yllaria](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yllaria)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2024, 5:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-favourite-funny-novel/998832/136 "2024-03-27T17:17:45Z")
> [@Dr\_Paprika](#): > > Interesting to see Goodreads take on the funniest novels is much closer to your choices than the NYTs oddly curated list. I think the books on the NYT list had to be funny and literarily significant. You know, important. ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2024, 6:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-favourite-funny-novel/998832/137 "2024-03-27T18:17:52Z")
I did notice that the title of this thread asks for your “ **favourite funny novel** ,” while the list is titled “22 of the **funniest novels** …” These are not the same thing: “funniest” implies that we should be judging just on the single dimension of how funny the novel is. ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2024, 6:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-favourite-funny-novel/998832/138 "2024-03-27T18:28:39Z")
And because humor is so subjective, a list like the NYT one is less than useless. For example, I personally find Douglas Adams to unbelievably over-rated. But that’s just me. Millions find him excellent and hysterical, which is wonderful for them and his estate. Both co-exist without conflict. I would find a list from the NYT useful only in the negative. ---
**Author:** ![Dr\_Paprika](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr_paprika/32/3042_2.png) [@Dr\_Paprika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr_Paprika)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2024, 2:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-favourite-funny-novel/998832/139 "2024-03-28T02:01:32Z")
This is a good point. ---
**Author:** ![SCAdian](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/scadian/32/3292_2.png) [@SCAdian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SCAdian)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2024, 2:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-favourite-funny-novel/998832/140 "2024-03-28T02:23:21Z")
My favourite is _Metzger’s Dog_, by Thomas Perry. I’ve read it several times. > [@Dr\_Paprika](#): > > This NYT free article had me questioning what my favourite funny novel is. They give their 22 opinions. I’ve only read six of them, and have never even seen or heard of many of their recommendations. I haven’t read any of them, and hadn’t ever heard of most. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-favourite-funny-novel/998832.md?page=6) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-favourite-funny-novel/998832.md?page=8)