Open Book's Funny Books: What's your Funniest Book of all time?

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy "trilogy" by Douglas Adams.

I think 'The Cat Who Came in From the Cold' or 'Lost for Words' by Deric Longden are two of the few that have made me laugh out loud

A Confederacy Of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole

At Swim Two Birds & The Dalkey Archive - Flann O'Brien

The Molesworth books by Geoffrey Willans and Ronald Searle - I start laughing just thinking about them. And it's probably not the funniest ever, but I have vivid memories of guffawing in public in an embarrassing manner while reading Bill Bryson's Notes From A Small Island.

The Dog Run by Arthur Nersesian

I howled with laughter as I read John Kennedy Toole's "A Confederacy of Dunces", it depends on one's sense of humour. Also McCarthy's Bar: A Journey of Discovery In Ireland by Pete McCarthy is an extremely funny read. Some of the situational comedy and colourful characters caused tears to course down my cheeks!

The last time I laughed out loud (on the Tube - mildly embarrassing) was whilst reading Alan Moore's Future Shocks. I would love to see a graphic novel mentioned for a change!

Good Omesn by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gayman. One of the funniest looks at the apocalypse ever. Crawly and Azraphale need their own books

"Riotous Assembly" , Tom Sharpe...Savage but outrageously funny!

The last time I laughed out loud at a novel was at "Pontoon" by Garrison Keillor.

Just William by Richmal Crompton. This book makes me laugh out loud as do all the other books in the "William" series. They are books that can be dipped in and out of. You do not have to read the whole book as each chapter is a complete story in itself.

Funniest book ever? Three Men in a Boat runs close. The Clicking of Cuthbert? Lucky Jim? Scoop?

'Wilt On High' - Tom Sharpe [and that's two votes for Tom Sharpe]. One of those books which, when read on public transport, provokes strange looks from fellow passengers as one tries to stifle one's laughter - and fails miserably.

Anything by the legendary Spike Milligan.

Six months ago I would have said Lucky Jim by Kingsley Amis and The Boarding House by William Trevor. I didn't find new writing very funny. But then I read the hilarious When You Are Engulfed in Flames by David Sedaris which then led me to discover the very funny Julian Corkle Is A Filthy Liar by D J Connell.

A Melon for Ecstasy by John Wells and John Fortune, by far the funniest thing I have ever read

The Unconsoled by Kazuo Ishiguro is one of my favourites. Don't try to follow the narrative - just enjoy the ride.

"Portnoys Complaint" by Philip Roth is hilarious, though if you're sensitive to a bit of vulgarity, don't read it. "A Suitable Boy" by Vikram Seth has episodes of wonderful humour. "Catch 22" - a mixture of tragedy and unique humour.

Diana's Story or anything else by Deric Longden, but particularly this as it makes you laugh out loud and then cry, but a definite feel good book.

Also Bill Bryson's Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid

Lost For Words - Derek Longdon

Three Men In A Boat - Jerome K Jerome. Love it and he would be at my dinner party !

Notes From A Small Island - Bill Bryson.

The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole Aged 13 3/4's.



Some books here that are unknown to me but will now take a good long read.

The first time I remember laughing out loud reading a book in a book shop was when I found a copy of "The Insult Dictionary" -how to insult people in 5 languages.(not bad words, just mildly insulting phrases) I suppose that and its companion volume "The Lovers Dictionary" - how to chat up people in 5 languages would be seen as not funny these days but they amused a young teenage lad!

I did enjoy the Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin by David Nobbs. I persuaded my parents to buy me a copy so I could read it to my friends at school.

THREE MEN ON A BOAT AS WELL AS THREE MEN ON A BUMMEL have given me immense amounts of joy for decades. I carry one of these books with me on my travels to read on the plane. Other books by Jerome K Jerome, Idle thoughts of an Idle Fellow, Diary Of a Pilgrimage, etc also deserve a place of pride in the literary world......

Naked by David Sedaris, hands down.

Puckoon by Spike Milligan

Three Men in a boat. A confederacy of dunces. A Melon for Ecstasy. Tales from the Long Room, Peter Tinniswood. Augustus Carp the autobiography of a really good man.

The Funniest Book I've come across was one which said 'Lift Me' on the cover and it weighed a metric ton. Never got to read any of an author's writing.

A Prayer of Owen Meany by John Irving is the funniest book that I have ever read. If someone knows a better one please advise.

Funniest books: Of the novel's I've read, "Catch-22" and "Portnoy's Complaint" are the funniest. For an anthology you might take a look at "The Book of Heroic Failures" by Stephen Pile, subtitled "The Official Handbook of the Not Terribly Good Club of Great Britain".

Futura Pulications Limited ISBN 0 7088 1908 7

Of the many funny books I've read, those that made me laugh out loud on trains stand out. There is an embarrassingly long list, but it includes Douglas Adams' "Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" (in particular the definition of flying, and Ford Prefect's response to Arthur Dent's assertion that there was nothing unpleasant about being drunk) and Clive James' "Unreliable Memoirs", highlights of which are his description of the train of 'billy carts' he engineered, and of his flatulent adventures in the classroom.

Cold Comfort Farm by Stella Gibbons always makes me laugh out loud.

I've already posted a comment that "The Book of Heroic Failures" by Stephen Pile might be considered. I've just been reading it again May I quote an example of how to fail with honours?



The Least Successful Piano Recital



Early in the 1970s a promising American pianist gave a concert in the chamber music room of the Erewan Hotel in Bangkok. The recital was only a few minutes old when the artist discovered that due to the climate’s excessive humidity the D key of the treble clef began to stick repeatedly. As luck would have it, his programme comprised Bach’s D minor Toccata and Fugue and his Prelude and Fugue in D major.

The reviewer in the Bangkok Post also noted that there was a problem with the piano stool which had been so enthusiastically greased that during one of the more vigorous sections the pianist suddenly found himself swivelling round to face the audience.

Abandoning the Toccata in D minor, he moved on to Liszt’s Fantasia in G minor, at which point the G key of the bass clef also stuck. To try and free the notes the virtuoso started kicking the lower section of the piano with his foot with the result that the piano’s right leg soon gave way and the whole instrument tilted through 35 degrees.

At this point he rose, bowed and left the stage to audience applause. When he returned he had in his hand a fire axe with which he began to demolish the piano.

On hearing the resounding crash which followed, the ushers came rushing in, and, with the help of the hotel manager, two watchmen and a passing policeman, finally succeeded in disarming the man and dragging him off stage



Michael Lee

It seems to me, that books funny or other wise, will appeal at different stages of ones life. I read "three men in a boat" at the age fourteen and thought it hilarious, laughing out loud at the various incidents. Todays humour is of a different style. Have just finished "Cest La Folie" by Michael Wright and the self deprecating humour is delightful. A read I would highly recommend.

"And To My Nephew Albert I Leave The Island What I Won Off Fatty Hagan in a Polker Game" by David Forrest. Light hearted silly nonsense that i could read over and over again. You'll have to look hard to find a copy as it is out of print, but i cherish mine!

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Bill Bryson- Neither Here nor there- laugh out loud funny.

Puckoon & any Spike Milligan war memoirs-especially Adolf Hitler my part in his downfall

'Gone with the Windsors' by Laurie Graham, because she manages to find such humour in the abdication crises, and also 'Mr Starlight', again by Laurie Graham - a new take on the Liberace type of figure. Where's the humour in that? Read and see.

"The Joys of Yiddish", by Leo Rosten; Laurence Sterne's Tristram Shandy: both examples of humour that is intelligent and thought-provoking as well as hilarious. The mordant Jewish humour of the former is indeed a joy.

Hard Luck by James Maw. Should be better known - it's a wonderful book.

puckoon by spike milligan

the first and almost last book that makes me laugh out loid

'Two Caravans' by Marina Lewycka. Her first novel, "A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian' was funny, but 2 Cs is brilliant; hilarious, tragic and a sharp comment on our society. Dickens for the 21st century.

"The Ascent of Rum Doodle" by W E Bowman is without any doubt the funniest book ever written. Even Bill Bryson in the introduction to the edition I have, describes it as 'the funniest book you have never read". A spoof on a disasterous mountaineering expedition, it maintains an amazing level of humour throughout and is still funny on succesive readings. My sister in law has banned my brother from reading it in bed, as the whole place was shaking. The humour is so good that you just cannot go on reading as you are laughing so much and the tears stream down your face. I once tried reading it on a trans-Atlantic flight and ended up with a napkin stuffed into my mouth. A total joy from beginning to end.

And second runner up, Cold Comfort Farm... another one that has just continued to bring great amusement ever since I discovered it in the school library a very long time ago.

Anything by PG Wodehouse, Roddy Doyle,s Barrytown Trilogy esp The Van and Seasonal Suicide Notes by Roger Lewis

Booth Tarkington's Penrod and Penrod and Sam but the best is Penrod and Jasper They can rarely be found as they are considered racist though.

Three men in a boat by Jerome K Jerome. The very descriptive mishaps of the three men not forgetting the dog, Montmorency always has me in gaffaws of laughter.

I remember years ago laughing out loud at David Niven's 'The moons a balloon'. More recently I really enjoyed Mark Haddon's 'A spot of Bother' and this summer I laughed out loud at 'Starter for ten' by David Nicholls. As someone previously said our humour changes with age but also with experience - a friend found 'A spot of bother' very sad (perhaps I have a sick sense of humour).

Any of the 'ART of Coarse....' books by Michael Green. Depends on your own experiences which ones you find funniest: Rugby, Acting, Sailing, etc.

My favourite is The Art of Coarse Cruising, which I used to quote to my Day Skipper students because it's so TRUE and just as useful as the professional navigation training.



Also, The Pack of Pieces by Anthony Armstrong. Mid-war Punch articles with modern versions of fairy Tales. Makes me sick with laughter.

Round Ireland with a Fridge by Tony Hawkes had me laughing out loud.

Ian Macpherson's The Autobiography of Ireland's Greatest Living Genius (Fiachra MacFiach) is the funniest book ever. Complete book published this year, 2011 - so it's a new kid on the block. Website is hilarious too. www.irishgenius.me

I would like to nominate Bill Bryson's early travel books. Who could forget the delightful Mrs Smegma of Dover, or the snot-nosed hiker on the Appalachian trail? His talent for comic exaggeration is unbeatable.

Dylan Thomas' Under Milk Wood is also a perennial delight.

The Morello Letters has to be one of the funniest books I've read in a long time. An opinion shared by Jon Snow. The website is also very funny www.morelloworld.com/

Although "1066 and all that" is extremely amusing and more jokes appear with every reading my favourite funny book must be "England their England" by AG MacDonald. From the opening scene throughout it is full of amusing episodes including the universally famed village cricket match, all to support the contention that the English are a nation of poets but fail to recognise this in themselves.

The Money That Never Was by David Luddington. Really funny British humour of the style of Doc Martin or the old Ealing comedies.

The Hitch hikers guide is definitely one of my favourites, but missie has reminded me of the Morello Letters. I've recently read the second book 'More Morello Letters' and unfortunately woke the wife up, by actually laughing out loud whilst reading it in bed! I think the letters and responses between Mr and Mrs Morello and Stuart Rose (nudist) chairman of M&S are up there with the best of them. Fabulous fun and well worth a look.

Frequently lost amidst the swell of his fantasy and SF novels, Michael Moorcock's "The Chinese Agent" (1970) ably demonstrates that Moorcock also has a superb talent for ironic humour and was employing it long before the likes of Douglas Adams and Terry Pratchett became famous for writing 'funny novels'. Jerry Cornell is the reluctant secret agent who would would much rather enjoy a slap-up meal on his expense account than save the world from the schemes of the Chinese agent Kung Fu Tzu, who conversely believes Cornell is a James Bondian 'super spy' with a web of criminal contacts throughout London. Undeservedly out of print (except for an overpriced and error-strewn POD omnibus), second-hand copies of "The Chinese Agent" are still readily available from the usual online sources and well-worth picking up if you fancy a good laugh.

My vote goes to EF Benson's Lucia books. When I read them I laugh and when scenes come to mind they bring a smile with them. What more can books offer.

Whenever I think of Bill Bryson's 'A Walk in the Big Woods' it makes me smile, and reading it I cried with laughter. Bryson had the great idea of walking the Appalacian Trail but he didn't have anyone to accompany him and, like most of us, he was not young and superfit. The only friend to apply to accompany him his Katz who is very overweight and not at all fit, and who soon falls behind, jetisoning their supplies of rice, etc. because they are weighing him down. At one point they are joined by an unwelcome companion and resort to subtefuge to escape her attentions. The funniest point is when he believes there is a bear outside the tent and his realisation that he only has a penknife to defend himself! Well worth reading.

William Boyd's 'A Good Man In Africa' has some hilarious bits, but the book that has my vote for funniest is John Kennedy Toole's 'A Confederacy of Dunces'. It's funny from start to finish - a work of genius.

Top has to be Douglas Adams' The Hitchhiker's Guide To the Galaxy. This is one of very few to make me laugh out loud. I love Spike Milligan's Puckoon and all the war diaries. Tom Sharpe's collection is outstanding fun, read years ago. Must be the absurdity and satire that are key to all their fun.

Good to see so many of my favourites listed, as well as some I've yet to discover. JG Farrell's 'Siege of Krishnapur' deserves an honourable mention for its wonderful anti-hero Fleury who resembles Morgan Leafy in 'A Good Man in Africa'. While reading the latter in the garden, my guffaws awoke a retired and deeply asleep neighbour...

Another treat in store is the NF 'Penguins stopped Play' by Harry Thompson; although a newbie to cricket, I was practically sick ,in convulsions literally, much to the astonishment of my sons.And what a surprisingly delightful pen portrait of Paul Daniels! A more blackly comic novel of his is 'This Thing of Darkness' about Darwin and Fitzroy's voyage to Tierra del Fuego. Last, but very much not least, is any work by Tim Moore, travel writer. 'Spanish Steps' left me gasping for breath and 'French Revolutions' is also extremely funny. Absolute master of self-deprecating humour.

Time to order some new books......

What no Geoff Dyer? Surely 'Out Of Sheer Rage' and the latter part of 'Death In Varanasi' make the grade.Also special mention for Bill Bryson(especially his ill-fated trip to a glaswegian pub where he could neither understand the language nor even drink the beer.

And what about Sue Townsend?The Adrian Mole saga gets blacker and funnier with every book.

The Restraint of Beasts by Magnus Mills. The funniest book I have ever read. I read it a long time ago but it is a book I always recommend. It is not continuously funny but is punctuated by frequent, hilarious and unexpected moments. I loved it.

Two hilarious books I roared outloud at are:-

Esprit de Corps by Lawrence Durrell (Yes!! Really!) Wonderful tales of his time in the Diplomatic Corps

and

Starter For Ten by David Nicholls- a rite of passage novel that kept me giggling away.

Funniest EVER - The Diary of a Nobody. by George & Weedon Grossmith. I have & treasure my grandfather's first edition with illustrations by Weedon Grossmith, 1921 Alfred A Knopf.

The Thought Gang by Tibor Fischer is the book that has most readily reduced me to tears, living in my memory though I read it 20 years ago.I remember buying half a dozen copies to share to my loved one Fast-paced, highly quirky and totally original. (Though I also agree about Tim Moore and Lawrence Durrell - especially 'My family and other animals)

I've come too late to this because most of the ones I'd have chosen have already been listed (although I found Tom Sharpe's first two much funnier than the Wilt series). I was also reminded of lots which I'd forgotten enjoying. I'm a bit surprised nobody yet seems to have mentioned Janet Evanovitch and Carl Hiaasen.

Howard Jacobson's Coming From Behind is his funniest novel to date. Hilarious and very rude.

One of the funniest books of all time is A E Bowman's "The Ascent of Rum Doodle" -- a view shared by Bill Bryson according to the blurb on the cover! Read it and be very amused.

Has anyone mentioned Travels with my Aunt by Graham Greene? The gradual subversion of a respectable dahlia-obsessed retired bank manager makes you cheer, and his Aunt Augusta has to be one of the best comic characters around. His Monsignor Quixote is also fantastic - about a poor Spanish priest from La Mancha (of course) who is accidentally promoted to be a monsignor, and goes on an odyssey around Spain with his friend Sancho Panza (a communist mayor who doesn't believe in God) to buy purple socks...

Back in 1976, when I was revising for my finals, my husband brought home 'Wilt' by Tom Sharpe and told me to read it as he'd heard it was funny and might take my mind off my worries. I was into page one, paragraph one when he claims he heard me laugh so loudly I could be heard from the end of the garden. I read the book in one sitting - certainly by the next morning - and was doubled over at certain passages. It was a book of its time: There were references to the Watergate tapes as well as the politics of higher and further education...Wilt being a 'Poly' lecturer, thus a failure also happened to teach failures. Anyone who can remember him trying to teach Liberal Studies via Lord of the Flies to 'Meat One' will attest to that! A hilarious book.



But I also have to mention 'The Secret Diaries of Adrian Mole' by Sue Townsend now that Jo Brand has just reminded me. Many years ago, I tried to teach this book to my charges in a comprehensive school, but giggled too much for their liking... It was definitely one for the adults as I found some of the funny bits made me lose it, yet they remained puzzled.

A particular favourite bit is when Adrian goes to visit Queenie, another of his collection of old pensioners, in hospital. To get to Queenie, he has to run the gauntlet down the geriatric ward. One old lady calls out to him, 'Could you get me a nice piece of fish for my husband's tea'. Adrian asks Queenie about this and she tells him not to worry as the old lady lives in the past. Adrian muses about this later as he escapes....He doesn't blame the old lady for living in the past.... 'her present is dead horrible'.



Lastly, a plea for 'Stars and Bars' by William Boyd.

I was reading this on a train journey and my friend asked me what was so funny as every now and again, I'd be smiling or chuckling. I passed it to her and she began to read. The effect was instant! She just laughed till she cried......and as we all know, that's highly contagious. Before long, she had me going and much of the rest of the carriage. A wonderful book, hugely funny!

Are we allowed to nominate three?

The Restraint of Beasts by Magnus Mills. Of the many funny parts, the passage where the itinerant fencers are wearing fertilizer sacks as weather protection has me in tears of laughter every time I re-read it.

Travels With My Aunt-definitely!! I wish he could have written other funny books instead of his pornographically horrible Brighton Rock.I live in Brighton!

Diary Of a Nobody-brilliant!! 'I left the room with quiet dignity but caught my foot in the mat'

William Boyd can do no wrong.

Mike Manson's "Where's my money?" Hilarious - set in a dole office in the '70s

Well Remembered Days as told to Arthur Mathews

And how about Peter de Vries, once described as America's funniest writer and now seemingly completely forgotten? I can still remember laughing till the tears ran down my face at the Tunnel of Love and Let Me Count the Ways. But there is tragedy and anger as well. Compare and contrast with John Irving, perhaps.

The funniest books I've ever read are (jointly):



The Bartimaeus trilogy by Jonathan Stroud - I laugh at these books so hard every time I have to stop reading when I start crying because my ribs ache!! The main character Bartimaeus the djinni is so cynical and grumpy he's hilarious, and I think it's a sign of great comedy that in the 7 or 8 years the books have been out the jokes haven't aged a day! The books are just as brilliant every time I read them!



&



Evil Machines by Terry Jones - absolutely as anarchistic and Pythonesque as you'd expect!



I can't believe I'm the first to mention both of these as they are absolute classics!!

PUCKOON by Spike Milligan is a joy to read -full of hilarious characters and situations.

WILT , PORTERHOUSE BLUE By Tom Sharpe are two of his best.

Terry Pratchett has a whole series of candidates in the Discworld books -although often dismissed because of the "fantasy" label they are wonderfully funny. A modern Jonathan Swift? Try GUARDS, GUARDS! MORT or Wyrd Sisters.

What a carve up! by Jonathan Coe I consider an excellent satire of Thatcherite Britain and a book that still makes me laugh on re-reading.

With a sense of the ridiculous, and darkly hilarious I nominate Neil Gaiman for The Anansi Boys and American Gods. THe ultimate in comic fantasy!

Robert Rankin's fantasy works, including Brightonomicon, are not bad too.

I still remember with great glee the laugh out loud books by Jerome K Jerome, which I read when I was in my early twenties. Everyone knows Three men in a Boat, but I was lucky to have Three Men on the Bummel bound in with my copy. His description of the use of phrase books and the german character, especially the duelling scars, still, many years later, make me smile when I think of them. I read it for the first time on a train journey and was embarrassed at my own out loud hoots of laughter! Please mention it on the programme.

Any of Tom Holt's later books, and best of all are "Expecting Someone Taller" and "Who's Afraid of Beowulf".

White Noise by Don DeLillo



Hillarious on death and the fear of it. A professor of Hitler studies trying to learn german before a big conference, important hair, a pill that erradicates the fear of death, a simulated evacuation team collecting data from a real 'airborn toxic event'... absurdity of the highest order.



I re-read it once a year - the crack cocaine of humourous fiction.

Might I suggest Mark Newham's 'Limp Pigs' as a worthy contender? Taking the Chinese propaganda machine as his target, Newham's irreverent insider account of the system's absurdities has the reader alternating between laughing out loud and wincing in pain. It's as if Waugh and Orwell had got together to take China apart. Strongly recommended.

Thank you - What a wonderful list of titles - enough to keep me going for years. I so agree with some: yes, why has Peter do Vries apparently been forgotten? I specially loved his "Comfort Me with Apples" and "Reuben Reuben". And other writers I loved have been listed: "Lucky Jim" (I most laughed at the bit where he wanted to push a bead up Margaret's nose); Evelyn Waugh's "Decline and Fall"; almost anything by David Sedaris; "Cold Comfort Farm"; P G Wodehouse; "Changing Places" by David Lodge, which I loved so much that as soon as I'd finished reading it I went back to the beginning and started again.

But I didn't see any mention of Christopher Brookmeyer - his "A Big Boy Did It and Ran Away" and "A Tale Etched in Blood and Hard Black Pencil" are masterpieces, his particular flair, writing young kids' dialogue, is breathtaking.

Also "A Year in the Merde", by Stephen Cooke

I know this is a bit on the older side, but I laughed like a crazy person at The Pickwick Papers (it took me a month and a half to read, but I giggled the whole time). I'd also submit Three Men in a Boat (To Say Nothing of the Dog) by Jerome K. Jerome. Hilarious. (Also, the other day I was eating an incredibly dry turkey sandwich and having read Three Men in a Boat, I would have given worlds for mustard!)

Oh, come on now....there can be no question that the funniest book ever written is `Three Men in a Boat` by Jerome K. Jerome.

I defy anyone not laugh themselves to tears, as our hero tries to dispose of an over ripe cheese, eventually taking it to the seaside and burying it on the beach, where for years after people go to `Take the Air`.

May i also put in a vote for the `Just William` books, still hilarious and total absorbing.

How Richmal Crompton got so thoroughly into the mind of an 11 year old boy will always be a mystery, but thank the God of comedy that she did.