Funny Novels (recommend some)

[kalowski]

How about A Fraction of the Whole by Steven Tolzt? A brilliant book.
The follow up Quicksand is pretty good too. I see he released another one last year so I'll have to get that.

[Video Game Fan 2000]

at swim two birds
cats cradle

[dontpaintyourteeth]

There are some darker, but still very funny, choices from some of the more out-there writers of 60s/70s England. Ann Quin's Berg is a brilliantly executed black comedy about a man who goes to a grim seaside town to track down and kill his estranged father, getting into some strange misadventures in the process. Christie Mary's Own Double-Entry by B.S. Johnson takes a more meta approach, looking at a young man who starts keeping accounts of the rights and wrongs in his life using bookkeeping methods and ends up taking matters into his own hands to balance the books. There's a particularly extraordinary bit where the protagonist gets into an argument with the author about how he's portrayed. Both of these books are short, punchy and very funny, despite their frequently grim subject matter.

Fuck yes. YES MATE. Two of my favourite books ever ever.

[dontpaintyourteeth]

at swim two birds

If I hated Third Policeman would I like this? Or am I better off just assuming I wouldn't get it

[Video Game Fan 2000]

If I hated Third Policeman would I like this? Or am I better off just assuming I wouldn't get it

is markedly different book in style, voice and tone but the sense of humour is essentially the same and the objects of the satire are more or less the same

if you're reading it as an experimental novel and you hated Third Policeman, you might get a lot out of it. but if you're specifically reading it for laughs and you hated Policeman, you'll certainly hate it too

[poloniusmonk]

For sheer joy, it's very much worth reading Ulrich Haarburste's Novel of Roy Orbison in Clingfilm.

I agree with the poster/s who mentioned Shalom Auslander and Donald Antrim's Elect Mr Robinson For A Better World. I'm also one who thinks The Third Policeman is fantastic. And Arthur Mathews' Well Remembered Days is extremely funny.

I'm a huge fan of Mark Leyner (although I remember someone on this site being very unimpressed a couple of years back): The Tetherballs of Bougainville and Et Tu, Babe probably the best places to start.

Helen DeWitt's Lightning Rods is brilliant.

Sam Lipsyte is great too, Home Land and The Ask in particular.

Charles Portis wrote amazing deadpan novels – True Grit of course but The Dog of The South and Norwood are also fantastic.

For an obscure more recent read in the absurdist vein, I loved Fontoon by John Schoneboom. Also My Elvis Blackout by Simon Crump.

And The Futurological Congress by Stanislaw Lemis way funnier than you'd might expect if you only went in for his serious stuff.

[Good Hank]

Tampa by Alissa Nutting is a great read.

[Mr Farenheit]

The Diary of a Nobody, has a lot of the frustrated banality that I love in HS Art stuff like 'Things your dad is still doing'

Sutree by Cormac McCarthy is often funny and very deso.

I read The Third Policeman last year, still a favourite. Enjoyed The Poor Mouth and the Hard Life but not the other novels so much. The newspaper columns are fantastic.

Stuff that had me guffawing when younger that I haven't re-read in decades:

Douglas Adams, PG Wodehouse, Catch 22, Mark Twain, Terry Pratchett

[Magnum Valentino]

The Third Policeman audiobook read by Bishop Brennan is laugh out loud funny.

[Gurke and Hare]

All of David Nobbs's novels.

[popcorn]

I'm afraid it's an obvious and basic suggestion but the Adrian Mole novels have probably made me laugh more than any other books ever. And they're so, so easy to read.

I love the Mr Swan farce so much from Adrian Mole I pasted it all into a file so I can return to it from time to time. https://pastebin.com/VZCuWvHv

There is no Mr Swan. The swan in question cannot be dignified by the prefix 'Mr'. He is a mute, a creature not a man. He cannot be talked to or reasoned with, because he is in fact a wild animal.

He is dangerous and completely unreasonable. He is constantly defecating on the towpath, the car park and occasionally in the entrance of the Old Battery Factory, where I live. He is making my and my neighbours' lives a misery. Unless the authorities move swiftly to alleviate this grave situation, I fear that a violent act will ensue.
 
Yours,
A. A. Mole

Dear Mr Mole

I found the tone of your letter most offensive. Mr Swan is obviously in need of help, not condemnation.

You say he is mute. Is he in touch with the Speech Therapy Department at the Leicester Royal Hospital, and is he aware that Social Services can help with his incontinence? Perhaps Mr Swan's problems are the cause of his antisocial behaviour. I still feel that reconciliation and negotiation is the path we should take towards a satisfactory outcome. Calling Mr Swan 'a creature, a wild animal' and threatening violence can only be counterproductive.

Yours sincerely
Trixie Meadows

Neighbourhood Conflict Co-ordinator

[frajer]

There are some darker, but still very funny, choices from some of the more out-there writers of 60s/70s England. Ann Quin's Berg is a brilliantly executed black comedy about a man who goes to a grim seaside town to track down and kill his estranged father, getting into some strange misadventures in the process.

Just wanted to say this sounds fantastic! Doubt I would have even heard of it, or Ann Quin at all, so cheers for the recommendation. Ordered now. What a bloody lovely and enriching place this forum is.

In terms of recommendations, I'm at risk of becoming a bore on this one but Grant Naylor's first Red Dwarf novel 'Infinity Welcomes Careful Drivers' is magnificent.

It's a novelisation but also stands on its own feet away from the telly series as a work in its own right, and I think it's the best - or at least most consistently great - version of Dwarf there is. Loads of extra embellishments and diversions too. The stuff about holograms in general and Lister's immediate pre-Dwarf existence as a taxi hopper driver living in a left luggage locker, is terrific. Really funny turns of phrase, character-based comedy and crackling dialogue throughout.

I still think about Rimmer taking an extra 30 seconds to positively visualise his future by successfully throwing a balled-up paper towel into a bathroom bin (he cheats, of course) and that taking this extra time leads to him being hit full-force in the face by a nuclear explosion.

Probably everyone who's even vaguely interested has read it but, on the off-chance someone hasn't, then get it in your eyeballs as soon as humanly is possible.

[buttgammon]

Just wanted to say this sounds fantastic! Doubt I would have even heard of it, or Ann Quin at all, so cheers for the recommendation. Ordered now. What a bloody lovely and enriching place this forum is.

Really glad to hear this! Hope you enjoy it.

[badaids]

When I read Hell Bent For Leather by Seb Hunter 20 years ago, I laughed at that more than any other book I've read. His examination of his views on metal as a 12 years old were hilarious. Not sure how it would hold up now though, I'd probably re read it and feel embarrassed thought I found it so funny.

A hundred years earlier, Three Men in a Boat is still a scream, mostly. Then it where he gets beaten up by a swan is magical.

Finally. The Timewaster Letters isn't a novel and runs out of steam, but is jam packed with hilarious ideas and developments on every pages.

[QDRPHNC]

Lucky Jim, Portnoy's Complaint, Pale Fire - not exactly a funny book that book, but it made me laugh quite a bit.

[Captain Crunch]

Has anyone read Harold by Steven Wright, am wondering how his persona translates to a book.

Yes it's well worth reading.  I need to read it again because I was reading it at night, nodding off then having no idea what was a dream and what was written.  It's not a constant lol-fest, more like a beautiful, strange little vision. 

I would nominate Love, Nina by Nina Stibbe.  I was trying to get into new things and it came up on the Rule of Three podcast.  I was CRYING with laughter reading it, just solid hilarity page after page.  Then I listened to the podcast and it was like they were talking about a totally different book.  I'd still recommend it, gently overlooking what looks like a car crash of a telly version. 

[Imperator Helvetica]

There are some darker, but still very funny, choices from some of the more out-there writers of 60s/70s England. Ann Quin's Berg is a brilliantly executed black comedy about a man who goes to a grim seaside town to track down and kill his estranged father, getting into some strange misadventures in the process. Christie Mary's Own Double-Entry by B.S. Johnson takes a more meta approach, looking at a young man who starts keeping accounts of the rights and wrongs in his life using bookkeeping methods and ends up taking matters into his own hands to balance the books. There's a particularly extraordinary bit where the protagonist gets into an argument with the author about how he's portrayed. Both of these books are short, punchy and very funny, despite their frequently grim subject matter.

I bought Christie Mary's Own Double-Entry by B.S. Johnson on this recommendation. Read it over one long bath and thoroughly enjoyed it. Thanks!

[buttgammon]

Really glad you enjoyed it!

[Kankurette]

Heartburn by Nora Ephron, I read it last year and kept getting it out of the library because I loved it so much. Don't read while hungry though.

at swim two birds
cats cradle

Nice, nice, very very nice.

[holyzombiejesus]

Jernigan by David Gates is really funny although the blurb makes it sound quite annoying.

Peter Jernigan's life is slipping out of control. His wife's gone, he's lost his job and he's a stranger to his teenage son. Worse, his only relief from all this reality - alcohol - is less effective by the day. And when the medicine doesn't work, you up the dose. And when that doesn't work, what then? (Apart from upping the dose again anyway, because who knows?)

Jernigan's answer is to slowly turn his caustic wit on everyone around him - his wife Judith, his teenage son Danny, his vulnerable new girlfriend Martha and, eventually, himself - until the laughs have turned to mute horror. But while he's busy burning every bridge back to the people who love him, Jernigan's perverse charisma keeps us all in thrall to the bitter end.

Shot through with gin and irony, Jernigan is a funny, scary, mesmerising portrait of a man walking off the edge with his eyes wide open - wisecracking all the way.

[Captain Crunch]

Has anyone read Harold by Steven Wright, am wondering how his persona translates to a book.

Nice interview here:

https://uproxx.com/entertainment/steven-wright-comedian-interview-book-harold/

[paddy72]

How about A Fraction of the Whole by Steven Tolzt? A brilliant book.
The follow up Quicksand is pretty good too. I see he released another one last year so I'll have to get that.

That was brilliant, thanks for the reminder – think I may have to read it again.

'Let's see him underperform his own death' is just beautiful.

[Famous Mortimer]

John M Ford, who's had a bit of a critical renaissance since he died, wrote all sorts. Sourcebooks for RPGs ("Paranoia", for one), brilliant alternate-history novels ("The Dragon Waiting") and, among others, a really funny Star Trek novel, "How Much For Just The Planet?"

The Enterprise and a Klingon ship both arrive at Direidi, trying to secure dilithium mining rights. The residents seem more interested in musical theatre and turning the lives of the Enterprise crew into a farce. Someone stole Kirk's clothes, so now he has to wear an evening dress! And so on. It's the first time I've laughed out loud at a book in so long, and it just keeps giving you lovely little turns of phrase or bizarre situations. You probably need a reasonable interest in Star Trek to bother with it, but if you do, it'll be available in a second-hand bookshop near you.

Ford was great friends with Neil Gaiman, and apparently wrote him into this novel as Ilen the Magician, along with a bunch of his other author friends (and himself, as the Stage Manager).