Somebody gave me the book Hit Man by Lawrence Block, and I finally got around to reading it. I figured it would be nonstop violence, so expected to give up after a chapter or two. Big mistake. It is indeed about a hitman, and there are a lot of hits, but it is downright laughing-out-loud funny. A delightful surprise.
Anybody else read it? If not recommend it for a lot of fun.
You mean “Prizzi’s Honor”?
Different books. “Hit Man” was written by Lawrence Block in 1998, and is the beginning of a trilogy. “Prizzi’s Honor” was written by Richard Condon in 1982, and is part of a four book series.
The Whole Nine Yards was about a hit man, and I found it to be pretty funny.
Life is Beautiful was a slapstick comedy about the Holocaust. Any subject can be made funny.
Grosse Pointe Blank is high-larious and it’s about a hit man.
Gigli.
About a hit man? Check.
Completely hilarious? Check.
Gobble. Gobble
I’ve given up on books or movies about hit men. I always expect hitmen to be infallible machines, coldly carrying out their jobs with calculated efficiency. Sadly, I am always disappointed. Hitmen in literature and film always seem to have some weakness or shortcoming. So instead of a non-stop series of perfect hits, I get a bunch of mamby-pamby whiney moments, usually involving some woman that the protagonist has fallen for. WTF?
Not a comedy, but I highly recommend The Butcher’s Boy by Thomas Perry, as an excellent novel with a very effective hired killer protagonist.
That’s a great series - I still have no idea how Block made a man who kills for money into such a sympathetic, identifiable character. If you like Keller, you should try Block’s Burglar series about Bernie Rhodenbarr, mild-mannered bookstore owner by day and mild-mannered master thief by night. A lot more light-hearted in tone than Hitman , and basically a series of genre parodies {film noir, vicarage murders, The Ctacher In The Rye}, in which he has fun with crime fiction, but splendidly readable, and Bernie’s such an engaging character.
Hit Man is great fun. 
I know they’re different books. I was giving another example of a funny book about hitmen.
Hitman by Garth Ennis and John McCrea (DC Comics) had its giddy moments.
It certainly had a lot of funny moments, but man, no way I would call it a “slapstick comedy.”