/lit/ - Literature

[Anonymous No.9993005]

Books that have made you laugh out loud like a retard in public.

[Anonymous No.9993028]

Catch-22, A Confederacy of Dunces, and Apathy and Other Small Victories are my personal meme trilogy of funniest books ever written

[Anonymous No.9993031]

Breakfast of Champions was funny when I read it. I was 19 at the time so I don’t know how I’d react now.

[Anonymous No.9993036]

All of them. That's my natural state.

[Train Wallpapers No.9993040]

>>9993005
THHGTTG

[Anonymous No.9993255]

>>9993028
I will check those out.

[Anonymous No.9993278]

Henry IV

[Anonymous No.9993306]

>>9993005
Literally my own writing.
Also, Catch-22. Probably the funniest thing I've ever consumed out of every medium--literature, television, film.

[Anonymous No.9993315]

American Psycho

[Anonymous No.9993322]

>>9993005
I made sure to read Catch-22 at home, precisely because I knew I'd laugh.

I did read Master and Margarita in public though, so I didn't get away from laughing like a retard in front of people.

[Anonymous No.9993329]

Notes From The Underground's first act is funny as hell. I remember being on the metro and just laughing autistically at this remarks about how people with toothache start moaning differently after a couple of days.

[Anonymous No.9993330]

The Sound and the Fury

[Anonymous No.9993336]

I laughed out loud while reading Don Quixote and Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, to the point of tears. But I wasn't in public.

[Anonymous No.9993345]

>>9993329
Yea, that was brilliant. I always remember the toothache, as if they enjoy having the pain just so they can complain etc.

[Anonymous No.9993493]

>>9993306
Post bitch

[Anonymous No.9993707]

>>9993493
Oh I'm not saying any of it's actually good; it probably isn't. But I'm pretty vain, and love reading my own writing. Here's an example:

When I was 16 I was one week late turning in an essay for my elective film class. One night I took adderall and wrote the essay, and then wrote a facetious letter to my teacher arguing that I shouldn't have any points taken off. The tone of the letter was very pompous and arrogant; I remember a lot of the argument having to do with my being an exceptional student to whom the rules do not apply. Throughout the letter there were footnotes written by an exhausted "editor", myself of course, basically contradicting everything I was writing. Looking back the whole thing was a brand of narcissism that can only manifest in a somewhat intelligent teenager, but at the time it was the most amusing thing I'd ever read.

Oh, and I'm currently writing a post-apocalyptic novella set in a war-torn United States wherein travel outside of small villages has been rendered virtually impossible due to the fact that their are leftover landmines practically ever. The protagonist is a landmine defusing prodigy who pursues a string of conspiracy theories culminating in a belief that most of the landmines are actually fake and filled with banana pudding (instead of the booster charge in pic related).

[Anonymous No.9993711]

>>9993707
*practically everywhere
forgot pic

[Anonymous No.9993724]

>>9993707
>that plot
I sense a small drop of Gravities Rainbow influence

[Anonymous No.9993740]

>>9993724
This might be unbelievable, but I actually came up with the idea before having ever read Pynchon, but having now read him I can see where you're coming from. Its good and bad. On the one hand if I ever get published people will think I'm unoriginal. On the other hand publishers might be more inclined to publish me because I appear to be imitating a popular, established author.

[Anonymous No.9993770]

>>9993005
Best Seller by Fontanarrosa
I read it in high school during breaks and it annoyed the fuck out of everyone (this includes people in other floors as well) because of how loud I laughed.

[Anonymous No.9993788]

>>9993770
Sounds a bit weird to laugh that hard in public tbqh.

[Anonymous No.9993992]

>>9993788
There were apparently incidents where Kafka would laugh so hard at what he was writing that the neighbors would place noise complaints

[Anonymous No.9994063]

>>9993336
this is the funniest thing i have ever read

and the most it got out of me were small chuckles.

is there anything someone can recommend that will make me crack up like a dipshit? i just cant seem to laugh at literature.

[Anonymous No.9994078]

>>9993992
>kafka
i cant even find an english translation. is there one?

[Anonymous No.9994086]

I tried to read Candide on the bus but would be constantly on the verge of bursting into hysterics. It invited a lot unwelcome attention. Voltaire is a god.

[Anonymous No.9994200]

>>9994078
There are many English translations for Kafka's works.

[Anonymous No.9994295]

>>9994063
>and the most it got out of me were small chuckles
If the distinction matters to you, "funny" literature is humorous, rather than funny. Something about the way it's consumed pretty much forbids laugh-out-loud moments. And I don't think it's as simple as reading text somehow interfering with the timing and "flow" that are necessary for a good punchline, as I find myself cracking up about half a dozen times per day at stuff I read on this site. Idk, maybe something that could be explored further? Why the medium isn't conducive to anything more than "small chuckles".

Consider for a second that slapstick humor is pretty much impossible to write, and also that slapstick is pretty much the most universally accessible form of humor (and so maybe is the kernel of humor). Why did I laugh the first time I ever saw webm related, and why do fucking infants of all people (if they really are people) laugh at peek-a-boo? I think there's something going on here that is 1) pretty informative as to the basic essence of laugh-out-loud funny and 2) near impossible to capture in literature.

Also, read Catch-22 if you haven't.

[Anonymous No.9994310]

>>9993005

Ulysses

[Anonymous No.9994322]

>>9993005
Not funny at all.

>>9993336
Funniest book ever.

[Anonymous No.9994383]

>>9994200
you know what i mean, you dipshit

[Anonymous No.9994386]

>>9994295
this is a more thoughtful reply i could have asked for. all i can say is...

ill read catch 22

[Anonymous No.9994438]

lol Catch-22 and Confederacy of Dunces are my favorite books to read. I have attention problems and despite the strange narration and weird plot structures I don't get frustrated with disruptions like I do with other books. I don't mind having to re-read a page when there's good probability that I'll get a chuckle.

[Anonymous No.9994630]

>>9994386
Yeah, you definitely should, it's hilarious. It's great. It's also a bit heartbreaking at times. Basically the "I laughed, I cried..." of literature, or at least of the literature that I've read. I first read it about 10 years ago when I was a wee lad in secondary school, and I've spent about the last 4 years trying to find and read a "better", more "artistic" novel to call my favorite in public, and I've succeeded there, but in private Catch-22 is still my favorite book.
I wonder if anyone wants to say why Catch-22 is so damn funny, or just comment on the mechanics of that book in general. I read somewhere (probably wikipedia) that Heller often reveals the punchline before giving the premise of the joke, and that the same punchline is often prefaced by a variety of premises/scenes, and also that the same scene gives rise to a few different types of punchlines.

[Anonymous No.9994827]

>>9994383
No, I really don't.