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/lit/ - Literature

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11627015 No.11627015 [Reply] [Original]

What's the funniest novel you've ever read?

>> No.11627100

I absolutely despise books trying to be funny, douglas adams especially. That said he is quite funny. I know they aren't novels but Twelfth Night made me laugh as did Importance of being Earnest

>> No.11627170

>>11627015
Puckoon by Spike Milligan.


I don't read many "funny book" but catch 22, and confederacy of dunces are ones that made me laugh.

I tried to read good soldier svejk...which I had heard was funny...and at first it's great but it got stale fast. I was reading how the editing for the book just wasn't there....and it's painfully obvious.

>> No.11627283

american psycho

>> No.11627289
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11627289

>> No.11627291

pg wodehouse

>> No.11627297

The bible

>> No.11627535

Bump

>> No.11627558
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11627558

<------------

>> No.11627618

>>11627558
Those troll faces are dead in reddit stop projecting

>> No.11627624

>>11627015
The Trial by Frank Kafka

>> No.11628527

Catch 22.

>> No.11628660
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11628660

>> No.11628686

>>11627015
naked lunch

>> No.11628734

I recently got the sixth installment of the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy radio series. It was based on a book by Eoin Colfer,who did the Artemis Fowl books. It was okay,I suppose:nice to hear the voices of the old gang,but also depressing. Not sure if it should be quantified as an homage to a favorite series or a picking of the bones of a dead author.

>> No.11628738

>>11628660
Based cover

>> No.11628744

>>11628527
This

>> No.11628746

>>11628527
Oy vey

>> No.11628747

>>11627297
This and Pale Fire

>> No.11628762
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11628762

Pic related and The master and Margarita. I haven’t read many funny books though, so I’m uninitiated imo.

>> No.11628782

>>11627618
>t. redditor

>> No.11629136

>>11628527
same

>> No.11629412

>>11628747
I don't think of Pale Fire as a 'funny' book, but Charles running around is pretty great.

>> No.11630297
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11630297

>>11627015
The scottish colloqialisms make me laugh out loud. And the fact that I unironically agree qith bruce

>> No.11630330

>>11627015
Withnail And I

>> No.11630407

a bit on the edgy side but i found myself chuckling couple of times reading Letters from Earth by Twain

>> No.11630424
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11630424

The only book to ever make me laugh out loud, at least since I was a retarded little child, so the distinction goes to it by default.

>> No.11630434

>>11628762
strong agree on The Master and Margarita

>> No.11630505

>>11628744
>>11629136
Good goyim

>> No.11630569

Sombrero Fallout: A Japanese Novel, by Richard Brautigan.

I bought it on a whim because the title was ridiculous, and, as it turns out, the novel is pretty ridiculous too. It's pretty short too - takes like an hour and bits to get through - so it doesn't overstay its welcome like a lot of other 'funny' books.

>> No.11630730

>>11630569
How could I forget about that? Brautigan can be hilarious. The Hawkline Monster is a masterpiece

>> No.11631971

>>11627015
The Three Musketeers. The Duke of Buckingham's insane romantic monologue probably being the high point.

>> No.11631993
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11631993

Some of Plato's dialogues

>> No.11632014
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11632014

>>11627015

>> No.11632955

>>11627100

But they're literally two of the most unfunny tryhard Shakespeare plays. try Taming of the Shrew for real funnies.

>> No.11633035

>>11627015
I "stopped liking" this book years back when it supposedly became uncool and reddit, but I reread it after watching the 2005 movie version (which was really hit or miss) and honestly it's a really brilliant and unrivaled work, it and its sequels

>> No.11633400

Don Quixote

>> No.11633616
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11633616

>> No.11633648

>>11627015
I haven't read much that was explicitly in it for the comedy but I laughed a couple of times at notes from underground.

>> No.11633873

>>11628686
this

>> No.11634056

>>11627015
Brave New World.
The humour comes from the harrowing similarities to modern society.

>> No.11634069

>>11628527
This, until the Rome chapter. Then I was just back to depressed.

>> No.11634075

I thought the final showdown in Lolita between Humbert Humbert and that other pedophile was pretty funny, in how they're just sitting around having an amicable chat and then suddenly chasing each other around with knives and then the other pedophile just gets into bed in a huff and pulls the covers up like a spoiled child before he gets murdered.

>> No.11634087
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11634087

This had a lot of moments that were genuinely hilarious, like when he talks about all the ways he fucked with his fiancee

>> No.11634510
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>> No.11634589

Cat's Cradle

>> No.11634795

Cryptonomicon has its moments.

>> No.11635115

Broom of the System

>> No.11635162

>>11632955
Importance of being earnest is Wilde dumdum

>> No.11635635

>>11634087

>> No.11635861

Most William Gaddis works, besides carpenter's and agape.
Infinite Jest. Its comedy almost balances out its sadness

>> No.11635901
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11635901

>>11627624
What's interesting to me is that Kafka was purportedly up writing at late hours and could barely contain his laughter while writing books that are now seen to be portends of a bleak bureaucratic future.
I'm not sure if he had a superlative sense of humor or he was making an funny and extreme case of just how bad the nature of a desk job is and/or the irony of the human condition can be.

Regarding funny literature, I'm still a big fan of Sergei Dovlatov, because mostly because his work has a mixture of genuine and very accessible sadness and wry humor. But I was also really interested in the absurd culture of the post-Stalin soviet union at the time that I started reading him.

>> No.11635927

>>11635901
There are times in the legal field where things are so bleak and fucked up that you can't help but just laugh. There are such absurd characters that take things so seriously. Prosecutors using victims families as bait for judges. Judges giving one sentence rulings based on a case from another jurisdiction with no authority. Defense attorneys with spiked hair, bowties, and shitty suits representing guys with tattoos on their face. prosecutors texting during trial with other prosecutors sitting behind them. Reading off scripts they found on the state website (they read the arguments word for word so you see tons of baby attorneys repeat the same shit)


And all of them think themselves the smartest most capable people on the planet. It's fucking hilarious. Kafka had it right.

>> No.11636010
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11636010

its just so fun and comfy

>> No.11636016

>>11636010
Fuck, this. It's a really comfy book. Also it made me want to drink a lot of fucking wine.

>> No.11636273
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11636273

i don't read too much but this was funny and super enjoyable

>> No.11637683

>>11628527
this

>> No.11638357

Any book by Kurt Vonnegut makes me lol at least a few times.

>> No.11638387

>>11628527
Only 40 pages in but already this book has made me laugh so much, fuck you /lit/ for telling me this was meant to be bad

>> No.11639003
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11639003

Surprised no one has yet said Calvino. This book made me lol out loud several times, but some of his essays are also hilarious. Gassman is really good for scattering masturbation jokes among Greek philosophy and painful recollections. Also, as another anon said, P.G. Wodehouse is the tits.

>> No.11639439

the disaster artist

>> No.11640613

>>11627297
This

>> No.11640635
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11640635

unintentionally

>> No.11641606

>>11634510
This was up there for me too. I want to read it again now since I'd probably find it a lot more funny now.

The only other times I can remember laughing out loud at a book were Erasmus's In Praise of Folly and a few plays by Aristophanes and Plautus.

>> No.11641794
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11641794

>>11627291
This, nearly all of his books strike the art of subtle humor with perfect delicacy

>> No.11642042

>>11630297
thats a good one, I might be one of the only fans of Sex lives of Siamese Twins

>> No.11642090

Dead Souls has heaps of funny moments but I didn't finish it bc I had to read school shit.

>> No.11642282
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11642282

>>11631993
Actually this