The more I think about, the more I realize that the funniest books I’ve read are usually not novels at all. I love the collections of Dave Barry’s columns, and his books on Cyberspace and Japan and Guys, but I’m not as taken by his comic novels. I find the following books much more lsaugh-inducing than any comic novel
James Lileks’ The Gallery of Regrettable Food and Gastroanomalies and Interior Desecrations (and don’t neglect his ever-changing website https://www.lileks.com/
Columbia Journalism Review’s books of printing errors Squad Helps Dog Bite Victim and Red Tape Holds up New Bridge and the hundreds of similar books by National Lampoon and Jay Leno, and a huge number of other people.
Yes, if we’re not talking about novels, this is the funniest book I’ve ever read: Dave Barry’s Book of Bad Songs - Wikipedia
Of course you have to be in the right demographic to know the songs he’s talking about, but I suspect most Dopers are.
It’s a very dark book and it’s not for everyone, but I’ve never read anything that made me laugh as much as Money by Martin Amis.
Edit: It’s not a novel, and I’m pretty sure it’s fallen out of print now, but ‘Our Dumb Century’ by The Onion has at least laugh out loud line on every single page. Sample headlines:
‘Gandhi Eats Enormous Piece of Cake After Hunger Strike’
‘Japanese Military Dictatorship Forges Alliance With White Supremacists In Well Thought Out Scheme’
‘Kennedy Slain by CIA, Mafia, Castro, LBJ, Teamsters, Freemasons’
I lost my copy some years back and now the only copies I can find are second-hand and going for like 80 dollars.
For me that author would be Elwood Leonard. I’ve read every word he wrote (including his early Westerns). There’s plenty of funny situations in his novels, but I don’t know if any of them are “funny novels”.
One “funny” book that numerous people recommended to me, but that I absolutely did not like was Jerome K Jerome’s Three Men In A Boat. A few friends told me it was hilarious, so I bought it. It was a struggle to finish.
There is a special place in my heart for Ring Lardner’s You Know Me Al. I read it for the first time about 45 years ago and still find it very, very funny.
Hah! My dad could say a few phrases very well in German. One was, “I do not have a hat on my head” which sounded like an SS Officer barking out orders.
Reading this thread confirms that almost everything I’ve found hilarious in my life has been non-fiction, including many of the mentions above: Dave Barry, James Lileks, Bored of the Rings (plus SJ Perelman). I liked Lamb (Gospel According to Biff) but I’d describe it as “droll” rather than hilarious.
Of the NY Times list I’ve only read Portnoy’s Complaint and Tales of the City and thought they were occasionally amusing.
I remember reading The Egg and I when I was like 12 years old and thought it was hilarious at the time…probably not worth going back to check.
A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole. It was funnier with I listened to it. Hollywood, etc. has been trying to make a movie about it. Barriers.
House of Holes by Nicholson Baker. They’d be unable to make a movie about this without CGI. Off the charts erotic humor.
