What is the funniest book you've ever read?
David J. Walkey
Recently I've seen postings on the "worst book you've ever read" and the
lists of "must read" books. Now how about the funniest book you've ever
read? I'll start the ball rolling by listing my favorite, "Lucky Jim"
by Kingsley Amis. Honorable mention goes to "Changing Places" by David Lodge.
Dave
Sandra Loosemore
Recently I've seen postings on the "worst book you've ever read" and the
lists of "must read" books. Now how about the funniest book you've ever
read?
My nomination is Twain's _Huckleberry Finn_. There are scenes that still
have me practically rolling on the floor, even after a zillion readings.
Runner-up would have to be one of Donald E. Westlake's Dortmunder
books, perhaps _Jimmy the Kid_.
-Sandra
R o d Johnson
audaciously funny". Some of the ideas in this still leave me gasping.
His first novel, "At Swim-Two-Birds" would be a close runner-up--
especially the last ending (there are several), which manages to be
bathetic and funny at the same time. In fact, anything by
Flann/Brian/Myles is a guaranteed laff. I would also mention the
Cyclops episode of "Ulysses" and "Molloy" by Samuel Beckett.
Hey, these guys are all Irish. What gives? Perhaps the Rupert Binky
scenes of Mark Helprin's "Winter's Tale" can stand in for an American
until I think of some more.
--
Rod Johnson * rjoh...@vela.acs.oakland.edu * (313) 650 2315
"No longer *wow* but *hmmm*." -- R Meltzer
Jim Mann
Don Quixote certainly is high on the list.
--
Jim Mann jm...@vineland.pubs.stratus.com
Stratus Computer
Not since Cromwell's troops, their puritan sensibilities offended by beauty,
went around smashing decorative art in churches has there been an act
of folly comparable to the abandonment and destruction of Forbes Field,
the Pirates' home for generations.
-- George F. Will, from Men at Work: The Craft of Baseball
Amie Hamilton
read the Hitchhiker's Guide series by Douglas Adams - also National Lampoon's
take-off books are in for a pretty good chuckle.
Amie
steinman
How about "A Confederacy of Dunces" by John Kennedy Toole.
--
Dave!
Joann Zimmerman
One out of two ain't bad, especially when your honourable mention is
by the correct author! I'd substitute _Small World_ for _Changing
Places_; although the dematerialisation of Swallow's diggings in
Plotinus is indeed hilarious, it is more than capped by the Bad End
suffered by the manuscript of Swallow's lecture on William Hazlitt.
Best of all, of course, is Amis's description of Jim and the bedsheets
chez Welch.
Not to raise the spectre of Academic Satire again, but why are these
novels all so closely tied up with academia?
--
"How rare, how precious is frivolity! How few writers can prostitute
all their powers! They are always implying 'I am capable of higher things.'"
E.M. Forster, _Abinger Harvest_
...!cs.utexas.edu!ccwf!jzimm
Jeff Davis
>
>Not to raise the spectre of Academic Satire again, but why are these
>novels all so closely tied up with academia?
>
Is quoting that a joke on me? Does asking about it make it worse or funnier?
Make sure your responses address the topic.
--
Jeff Davis <da...@keats.ca.uky.edu>
I'm just winking happy thoughts into my little tiddle cup
new user
Another entry for a comic (but quite wise) book is
John Kennedy O'Toole's CONFEDERACY OF DUNCES. The author, a
young lad from the South, submitted his manuscript many times with
no luck. Walker Percy read a copy of the manuscript and had a good
deal to do with it reaching publication. Alas, our writer O'Toole
was not destined for earthly existence and did himself in.
James A. Brock, Jr.
ingr!b17b!sjh911!brock
James Davis Nicoll
I'll define this as 'provoked the most extreme reaction' rather
than appear to claim I have an absolute humour scale (which starts 273
degrees below the metric humour scale).
My candidate would be 'Night Life of the Gods' by Thorne Smith,
which left me in tears and out of breath during the first reading. Dunno
why, but it was just the right book to incapacitate me through laughter at
that time.
I since made the error of reading most of Smith's work in
a short period, which seems to have burned out my Thorne Smith Humour
receptors :(
Sure liked his work to begin with, though. I don't think
Smith goes over well these days; the Ballantine reprints of his books
are out of print, I believe.
James Nicoll
Barbara Hlavin
>novels all so closely tied up with academia?
Oh, here; let me try! Academia is inherently funny?
Or perhaps: particularly since WWII, many novelists have given
a stab at teaching to support themselves while they write that
First Book. (The GI Bill has much to answer for.) And writers
tend to cast a cold eye on hierarchies, bureaucracies, and assorted
inanities so frequently found on idyllic tree-lined campuses that
some people think there is actually a causal relationship.
Speaking of casting a cold eye and academic novels, here are two
that really should be read as a pair: Mary McCarthy's _The Groves
of Academe_ and Randall Jarrell's _Pictures From an Institution_.
Both were Writers-in-Residence at the same small college, the name
of which escapes me, and their terms overlapped. McCarthy's book
caused much indignation, and Jarrell is believed by some to have
written _Pictures_ as a kind of rebuttal. The visiting writer
in his book is a woman is said to bear a slight resemblance -- in
the right light, at the right angle -- to Mary McCarthy.
_The Groves of Academe_, by the way, was written during the McCarthy
(no, no; the OTHER one) era, and there is much here that will strike
those involved in the PC argument as deja vu in reverse. (I think
there's a term for this, but when I try to think of it all I can
see is an old cartoon from "The New Yorker" showing a book and a
wine bottle labelled Deja Lu and Deja Bu.)
--Barbara
--
Barbara Hlavin "Dogs come when they're called; cats take
tw...@milton.u.washington.edu a message and get back to you." -Mary Bly
Mark Ellingham
"Cannery Row", "Sweet Thursday", and "Tortilla Flats" all by
John Steinbeck
Carlin
--
"I am the Golux," said the Golux, proudly, "and not a mere device."
The Thirteen Clocks
James Thurber
Bergmann
>>
>>Recently I've seen postings on the "worst book you've ever read" and the
>>lists of "must read" books. Now how about the funniest book you've ever
>>read? I'll start the ball rolling by listing my favorite, "Lucky Jim"
>>by Kingsley Amis. Honorable mention goes to "Changing Places" by David Lodge.
>
>One out of two ain't bad, especially when your honourable mention is
>by the correct author! I'd substitute _Small World_ for _Changing
>Places_; although the dematerialisation of Swallow's diggings in
>Plotinus is indeed hilarious, it is more than capped by the Bad End
>suffered by the manuscript of Swallow's lecture on William Hazlitt.
Well, but what about the wonderful game of Humiliation that
Swallow suggests at the Berkeley party?! Which costs the
ultra-competitive assistant professor who admits to never having
read "Hamlet" (thus winning the game) his tenure?
>Best of all, of course, is Amis's description of Jim and the bedsheets
>chez Welch.
That's second in my affections. My favorite part is, I think, Jim's
assessment of the paper he is trying to publish. I wish I had my
copy here -- could anyone else quote it? (The adjective "yawn-
inducing" figures prominently -- that's all I remember right now.)
I also like the madrigal-singing at Welch's house *very* much --
where Jim (who doesn't read music) looks at the score, notices that
the black dots move up and down "a great deal" and sees, to his
relief, "that everybody was going to have to sing all the time,"
i.e. he won't be called upon to solo.
>Not to raise the spectre of Academic Satire again, but why are these
>novels all so closely tied up with academia?
Another one is Lorrie Moore's short story "You're Ugly, Too" which
describes the trials and tribulations of a female (and single)
assistant professor of history at a small mid-Western college.
Annette
Vance Maverick
feel of incompleteness (acknowledged in the author's note to the addenda).
R o d Johnson
>Easy, Beckett's /Watt/. His best piece, I'd say, despite its distinct
>feel of incompleteness (acknowledged in the author's note to the addenda).
Is that the one with the train schedules in it? Or is that "Murphy"?
Beckett's novels are easy to mix up, but they all have hilarious (and
uncomfortable) bits--at least until "Malone Dies".
Sowmini Varadhan
>
>Now how about the funniest book you've ever
>>read?
Funniest? That's a hard one to answer.. Among the books I found funny:
"Three Men on a Bummel" by Jerome. K. Jerome
A humorous book about travels in Germany and the idiosyncracies of the
Germans. A "must read" for anyone who has actually been to Germany.
Maurice Forrester
maurice
--
____________________________________________________________
| Maurice Forrester | mjforres@suvm | MAKE BIG MONEY! |
| Syracuse University | (bitnet) | Be a historian. |
|_____________________|_________________|__________________|
Keith Bierman fpgroup
Will Cuppy's
The Decline and Fall of Practically Everybody
and by the same author
How to become Extinct
--
----------------------------------------------------------------
Keith H. Bierman keith....@Sun.COM| k...@chiba.Eng.Sun.COM
SMI 2550 Garcia 12-33 | (415 336 2648)
Mountain View, CA 94043
Vance Maverick
|> mave...@mahogany.Berkeley.EDU (Vance Maverick) sez:
|>
|> >Easy, Beckett's /Watt/. His best piece, I'd say, despite its distinct
|> >feel of incompleteness (acknowledged in the author's note to the addenda).
|>
|> Is that the one with the train schedules in it? Or is that "Murphy"?
|> Beckett's novels are easy to mix up, but they all have hilarious (and
|> uncomfortable) bits--at least until "Malone Dies".
With /Watt/ it's no matter of bits. It's from the early 40's, when he was
spending the days pretending to be a French agricultural laborer in order
not to be caught by the Germans occupying France. (Detail from -- whom else
-- Hugh Kenner!) It's I think his last work composed in English, and gains
from the richer vocabulary he permits himself that way. No train schedules,
but a lot of "redundancy" -- vast combinatorial paragraphs setting forth all
the possible permutations of whatever scene, or of Watt's modes of
discourse; brilliantly irrelevant digressions; more. Highly recommended.
Why is /Godot/ so much more popular, and /Watt/ available only in a barely
legible Grove paperback? The lottery of literary fame....
Joann Zimmerman
>"Three Men in a Boat"
>by Jerome K. Jerome
Definitely high on my list. I suppose everyone who loves this book has
their own favourite scene. I am torn between Harris's dematerialisation
and the incident with the pineapple tin - the description of its shape
gets me every time. What about the rest of its adoring public?
>| Maurice Forrester | mjforres@suvm | MAKE BIG MONEY! |
>| Syracuse University | (bitnet) | Be a historian. |
This is a real classic! Actually, just the other day I was reading
about a chappie who manages to be self-supporting as a diplomatic
historian; all his income is from writing books. Most assuredly the
exception ...
Bergmann
>>"Three Men in a Boat"
>>by Jerome K. Jerome
>
>Definitely high on my list. I suppose everyone who loves this book has
>their own favourite scene. I am torn between Harris's dematerialisation
>and the incident with the pineapple tin - the description of its shape
>gets me every time. What about the rest of its adoring public?
Et tu, Joanne? Jeez, I wish I knew what its adoring public
finds so adorable about this book. Since it comes up again and
again in this group, I finally dug up the mid-peninsula's
only extant library copy last Fall. As Kevin Kline says
in "A Fish Called Wanda": "Dis-ap-POINT-ed!!!" It seemed
incredibly dated to me (kind of like "well maybe this was
funny in the 1930s"), and laboured (where you guess that something is
probably supposed to be hilarious -- but it isn't).
I did miss the pineapple scene, though -- after the first two or so
chapters, I just browsed. Maybe someone could post it and
convert me after all?
Annette
Bergmann
>In article <1991Jul29.2...@leland.Stanford.EDU> berg...@leland.Stanford.EDU (Bergmann) writes:
>
>>Well, but what about the wonderful game of Humiliation that
>>Swallow suggests at the Berkeley party?! Which costs the
>>ultra-competitive assistant professor who admits to never having
>>read "Hamlet" (thus winning the game) his tenure?
>
>avoided Milton's justifying the ways of God to Man than it is to
>believe he avoided "Hamlet," a much shorter read.
I'll bet you dollars to doughnuts that it was, indeed,
"Hamlet." At first, the other players suspect that
Ringbaum (?) is trying to cheat. He convinces them that
he has only watched the movie but never actually read
the play. This wouldn't be half as funny with "Paradise
Lost": as you've said, too many people (myself included) never
finished that one.
Mike Godwin
>Well, but what about the wonderful game of Humiliation that
>Swallow suggests at the Berkeley party?! Which costs the
>ultra-competitive assistant professor who admits to never having
>read "Hamlet" (thus winning the game) his tenure?
"Paradise Lost," not "Hamlet." Much easier to believe that an academic
avoided Milton's justifying the ways of God to Man than it is to
believe he avoided "Hamlet," a much shorter read.
--Mike
--
Mike Godwin, |"But the thing is, you don't have many suspects who
mnem...@eff.org | are innocent of a crime. That's contradictory. If a
(617) 864-1550 | person is innocent of a crime, then he is not a
EFF, Cambridge, MA | suspect." Ed Meese, US News & World Report, 10-15-85
Mike Godwin
You have me, Ms. Bergmann. It was indeed "Hamlet." My poor memory
conflated it with "Paradise Regained" (not "Paradise Lost"), which
was also a contender in that fateful game.
Jon Conrad
Jon Alan Conrad
Paul Roberts
>
>by Kingsley Amis.
Good choice! I would tend to agree. "Portnoy's Complaint" is way up there too.
Paul Roberts
Mary Ellen Foley
"Blue Heaven" by Joe T...., oh gee, mental block..Turner? basic Anglo-
sounding name with two syllables, starts with T...I've loaned out the
book and can't check.
Second place, Armistead Maupin's "Tales of the City" books, if you've ever
lived around San Francisco, or are interested in the city.
"Twisted Tales from Shakespeare" Retelling of Hamlet, Macbeth, Romeo & Juliet,
Midsummer Night's Dream, and some of the sonnets, with lots of humor,
particularly puns. My favorite: The line "Shall I compare thee to a summer's
day?" has a footnote reading "Hot? Sweaty? Fly infested?". I also like the
footnote explaining Romeo's line re Juliet "The mask of night is upon her
face" means she forgot to remove her cold cream. I once sat through a
particularly boring commencement address wondering why my English prof up
on the stage was shaking -- afterwards, when asked if she was ill, she
explained that she had a copy of TTfS in the sleeve of her gown, and was
reading it during the ceremony!
"Blue Heaven" is humor in the vein of Amis' "Lucky Jim", but the subject
matter is quite different. A gay man and a hetero woman plan to marry, just
to get the loot from their families. More plot twists than you can shake a
stick at (and I'm assuming you're an old stick shaker from way back) Offbeat
humor...I can't tell you any more about the plot, I'll spoil it. It's a lot
like Armistead Maupin's "Tales of the City" books but it has a faster pace,
and is set in New York. My favorite line: A friend of the bride's is an avant
garde designer, who has volunteered to design the bridal gown. She brings
sketches of the proposed dress, and a warning that she needs approval to begin
soon, as just getting the materials will take time. The bride looks back at
the design and murmurs yes, she can see why "I mean, ALL those wolverines" (The
designer's own costume is described as making her look like "a tea bag in
mourning"). The point of view is that of a friend of the groom's, who can't
believe he's in this mess.
These are GREAT books! I don't think I've done them justice here...sigh...
--
WARNING!! Opinions in posting are farther away than they appear
^^^^^^^^^
Mary Ellen Foley (m...@netcom.com)
Margaret Mikulska
>
>[...] and there is much here that will strike
"Avant la lettre", perhaps ?
Margaret Mikulska
Doug Moran
>wal...@scotty.doe.carleton.ca (David J. Walkey) writes:
> read?
>My nomination is Twain's _Huckleberry Finn_. There are scenes that still
>have me practically rolling on the floor, even after a zillion readings.
I guess it depends what you're willing to accept. I always though PLEASE
DON'T EAT THE DASIES was pretty darn funny, and HARPO SPEAKS has some
truly hilarious moments. But for greatest-laughs-per-page, fall-on-the-
floor-and-gasp reading, DAVE BARRY'S GREATEST HITS can't be beat. So
funny that I could only read a few articles at a time, and then had to
take a rest.
FEAR AND LOATHING IN LAS VEGAS also rates pretty high up on the yucks
scale. Certainly it would be hard to surpass the description of Circus
Circus by a man under the infuence of various chemicals for hilarity.
--
Doug Moran | When he got to Nirvana, as a reward, Douglas was
pyramid!ctnews!zip!dougm | given his weight in fine, uncut Turkish hashish!
do...@zip.Convergent.com | Boy, did *he* live happily ever after!
Jeff Davis
1) Written as a book: Three Men in a Boat
Leave it to Psmith
Catch 22
At-Swim Two Birds
2) Collected Pieces The Most of SJ Perleman
The Best of Myles
I don't know what to say to those who don't find Three Men in a Boat funny.
Jerome claims not to have written it as a "funny" book, but he is almost
certainly lying. But it's chief attraction for me is that it is, like the
best of the Wodehouse books, very convincingly about heaven. The humor is
an extra.
Leave it to Psmith is my favorite Wodehouse. What are there? 97 different
ways to answer that question.
Catch 22 is the best funny serious book I've read. Better, for me, than
Lucky Jim which is also serious. The Ginger Man is also hysterical.
As far as Myles goes...Beware those odd human beings who find books like
The Poor Mouth or The Third Policeman or A Hard Life _funny_. Well, they
are _funny_. The way Kafka or Buster Keaton is funny. Way, way, way back
behind the straightest of straight faces. The Third Policeman even whistles
a dies irae. A Hard Life almost requires one to be Irish. And The Poor Mouth
was originally in Gaelic, and never translated (I don't think. I could
be wrong.) by the author. At-Swim Two Birds gave rise to a lot of imitators.
Some, like Barthelme, direct. Read the original.
Perelman makes me laugh in a sinister nasty way. Myles in an off the
wall, loopy, Jonathan Winters way.
Viktor Haag
that I haven't read much 'humourous' literature. Also hilarious are
Potter's Lifemanship, and Searle's Complete Molesworth.
--
vik veh...@crocus.uwaterloo.ca
"I have the necessary qualifications to speak on behalf of Jesus"
Ted "Apotheosis Now" Kaldis
KGO...@cmsa.gmr.com
>Recently I've seen postings on the "worst book you've ever read" and the
>lists of "must read" books. Now how about the funniest book you've ever
>by Kingsley Amis. Honorable mention goes to "Changing Places" by David Lodge.
In the category of non-fiction:
"Innocents Abroad" by Mark Twain.
Fiction:
"Tortilla Flat" by John Steinbeck.
-K
Barbara Hlavin
[Kingsley Amis' _Lucky Jim_ is being discussed]
>That's second in my affections. My favorite part is, I think, Jim's
>assessment of the paper he is trying to publish. I wish I had my
>copy here -- could anyone else quote it? (The adjective "yawn-
>inducing" figures prominently -- that's all I remember right now.)
>
>Annette
Dixon looked out of the window at the fields wheeling past,
bright green after a wet April. It wasn't the double-exposure effect
of the last half minute's talk that had dumbfounded him, for such
incidents formed the staple material of Welch colloquies; it was the
prospect of reciting the title of the article he'd written. It was a
perfect title, in that it crystallised the article's niggling
mindlessness, its funereal parade of yawn-enforcing facts, the pseudo-
light it threw upon non-problems. Dixon had read, or begun to read,
dozens like it, but his own seemed worse than most in its air of being
convinced of its own usefulness and significance. "In considering
this strangely neglected topic," it began. This what neglected topic?
This strangely what topic? This strangely neglected what? His
thinking all this without haveing defiled and set fire to the typescript
only made him appear to himself as more of a hypocrite and fool. "Let's
see," he echoed Welch in a pretended effort of memory: "oh yes; 'The
economic influence of the development in shipbuilding techniques, 1450
to 1485.' After all, that's what it's . . ."
Unable to finish his sentence, he looked to his left again to
find a man's face staring into his own from about nine inches away.
=========
There are bits of _Lucky Jim_ that still make me laugh helplessly,
but after reading it probably 30 times (I'm always recommending this
to others as an antidote to marginal depression) it has finally
worn out for me. Where once I was indulgent, now I am critical of
the clumsy resolutions and transitions that show this to be Amis'
prentice work. (Margaret's "lover" conveniently turning up for a
brisk, to-the-point chat with Jim, thereby eliminating his sense
of obligation to Margaret, for instance.)
I've always enjoyed the description of the faces Jim makes. I can
duplicate all but the Sex Life in Ancient Rome face, which has me
stumped.
--Barbara
--
Barbara Hlavin If God had wanted us to vote, He would
tw...@milton.u.washington.edu have given us candidates.
Bob Zuena
[. . .]
>Catch 22 is the best funny serious book I've read. Better, for me, than
I wholeheartedly concur. The best funny funny book I've ever read is _Why
a Duck_, which contains stills and dialogoue from the funniest scenes of
the best Marx Brothers movies ever made. I literally laughed til I cried.
Bob (zu...@dpw.com)
Jolly C. Pancakes
_The Throwback_, by Tom Sharpe. Tears down my face, sides hurt, I
almost didn't survive, but hell it was *funny*. In fact, anything by Tom
Sharpe is hilarious.
--
jcpatilla j...@decuac.dec.com
Otter, otter, floating light on the kelp beds of the night,
What tasty bits of squid or eel doth keep you on your even keel?
Kevin Welch
and would also like to add Westlake's "The Dancing Aztec."
I also found McMurtry's "Lonesome Dove" and "Anything for Billy" quite
humorous.
For black humor, it is tough to beat certain war novels like "Catch-22" and
Tim O'Brien's "Going After Cacciato."
---------------------------------------------------------------
Kevin W. Welch riaw...@ubvms.cc.buffalo.edu
Barbara Hlavin
>Gee, that's a tough one...there's so many! I can't choose just one!
[list deleted]
>Funny non-books:
>
>_The Literary Offenses of James Fenimore Cooper_, _1601_, and
>_On The Awful German Language_ by Mark Twain (might have the titles slightly
> wrong)
Oh, whee! I can't find the quote I've always liked so much, but --
A verb has a hard time enough of it in this world when
its [sic] all together. It's downright inhuman to split
it up. But that's just what those Germans do. They take
part of a verb and put it down here, like a stake, and they
take the other part of it and put it over yonder like
another stake, and between these two limits they just
shovel in German.
Mark Twain - address at dinner of the Nineteenth
Century Club, New York, 20 Nov. 1900, to the
toast, 'The Disappearance of Literature'
The quote I can't remember has this poor abused German jumping
into a river holding a verb in his mouth, like a retriever with
a duck.
Mike Wojcik
>
>Will Cuppy's
>
> The Decline and Fall of Practically Everybody
>and by the same author
> How to become Extinct
Also, of course, his _How to Attract the Wombat_. _1066 and All That_ by
Sellar and someone else was mentioned here not long ago. I would also
nominate Sue Townsend's _The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole_, as perceptive
readers can probably guess (btw, a couple of people sent me email about
Townsend's works which I have been unable to reply to due to nameserver
problems), and _How to be Topp_ by Searle (?). The last is a description of
life at an English school written in the voice of one of its less apt
students--very funny. As far as cannonical literature goes, I'm fond of
Aristophanes, Apuleius, Boccaccio, and Chaucer for sheer yucks. (Why are
all these guys at the beginning of the alphabet? I detect collacentrism...)
--
Michael "J" Wojcik
Represent IBM? They can't even get my middle initial right.
". . . I said, 'I need to put my soul into my work and it is well known that
computers haven't got a soul.' My father said, 'The Americans are working
on it.'" Sue Townsend, _The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole, Aged 13 3/4_
Robbie
>>Easy, Beckett's /Watt/.
>Is that the one with the train schedules in it? Or is that "Murphy"?
I don't remember train schedules in Murphy, but there is an hysterical
chess game. I submit Breakfast of Champions, Catch-22, and Still Life
With Woodpecker as a set of three contemp. absurd humorfests.
-rob
Tom Owens
Tom Jones by Hank Fielding
--
Tom Owens
MIT Library Systems Office
ow...@athena.mit.edu
617-253-1618
Craig Becker
Serious funny books:
_The Choirboys_ by Joseph Wambaugh
_Gravity's Rainbow_ by Thomas Pynchon
_Jurgen: A Comedy Of Justice_ by James Branch Cabell
_Another Roadside Attraction_ by Tom Robbins
Lite funny books:
The _Fletch_ series by Gregory McDonald (except for _Carioca Fletch_ and
_Fletch, Too_, which I think were
excuses to write off trips to
Brazil and Africa as business
expenses)
Nonfiction funny books:
_Holidays In Hell_ by P.J. O'Rourke
_A Mencken Chrestothamy_ by H.L. Mencken
Funny non-books:
_The Literary Offenses of James Fenimore Cooper_, _1601_, and
_On The Awful German Language_ by Mark Twain (might have the titles slightly
wrong)
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
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Michael Hand
stand alone, the funniest being "Cyclops" -- is _Ulysses_.
Now, don't you suddenly have that ol' I-coulda-had-a-Vee-Eight
feeling?
B-o} Michael
Paul_Andresen
wal...@scotty.doe.carleton.ca (David J. Walkey) asks:
>Recently I've seen postings on the "worst book you've ever read" and the
>lists of "must read" books. Now how about the funniest book you've ever
>read? I'll start the ball rolling by listing my favorite, "Lucky Jim"
>by Kingsley Amis. Honorable mention goes to "Changing Places" by David Lodge.
I'll chip in with three favorites (some already mentioned):
-Toole/A Confederacy Of Dunces
-Sharpe/The Wilt Alternative
-Kotzwinkle/The Fan Man
Sharpe's series of Wilt books are all funny, but I think ...Alternative...
is the best.
My personal favorite is The Fan Man. It is somewhat similar to Toole in style
and tone.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
...Don't look back, somethin' might me gainin' on you...Satchel Paige
pa...@hpcvia.cv.hp.com Paul Andresen Hewlett-Packard (503)-750-3511
home: 3006 NW McKinley Corvallis, OR 97330 (503)-752-8424
A SABR member since 1979
Jonathan Amsterdam
trusted friend, but almost all of it left me cold. I'm puzzled by what
modern readers get out of it--and I generally have no problem with
non-contemporary prose styles; if anything, I prefer them. I think Tom
Jones is well up there on the Funniest list.
Paul Orban
|> I think that it was probably Wodehouse's Summer Lightning. This may indicate
|> that I haven't read much 'humourous' literature. Also hilarious are
|> Potter's Lifemanship, and Searle's Complete Molesworth.
No, no, no, Searle merely did the drawinks, Willans wrote it, as any fule kno!
--
Paul Orban
The Biomedical Research Centre
Vancouver, B.C., CANADA.
pa...@brc.ubc.ca
Lily Pond
I actually had just started reading "Changing Places," having recently been
told that Morris Zapp is in reality Stanley Fish, of whom I am a fan.
I've tried looking this up; one person admits to not having read "Hamlet,"
and one "Paradise Regained." Don't know who the characters are yet,
or any context so I don't know which doesn't get tenure, but I just thought
I'd let you know this much anyway!
Chip Hart
Chip Hart ------------------------- ch...@pcc.com
|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-| People's Computer Co.
------------------------- Williston, Vermont
Crushed in the pit, nailed to the stage,
Karla Shapiro
the funniest books I have ever read.
I GOTTA GO by Ian Shoales is up there too. (nothing like laughing so hard
that you're crying while in a doctor's waiting room)
karla
Vance Maverick
As in, "Gee, I too could have named a major twentieth-century cultural icon"?
Don't get me wrong, I like Joyce as much as the next guy; no greater verbal
chops, ever. But I find the parodic sections of /Ulysses/ rather tedious. Give
me the chapter beginning "Mr. Leopold Bloom" any day over "Cyclops" -- and it's
not specially funny, unless you're close enough to Joyce's censors to get off on
the scene in the outhouse; the best English ever written, sure, but not comedy.
[Who named those chapters, anyway -- Stuart Gilbert?]
Vance
Jeff Davis
If they're small, they're funny. (10 lifetime trivia points to whoever
can tell me who I cadged that from.) BTW, I don't find Joyce particularly
"funny" anymore than Wm Shakespere is funny.
Ian G Batten
> I actually had just started reading "Changing Places," having recently been
> told that Morris Zapp is in reality Stanley Fish, of whom I am a fan.
We've had major news upsets, so I've not seen the articles that led to
this. So apologies for any repeats...
Spotting the characters and locations in Lodge's novels is a local
sport, aided for my partner and I by the fact that we both did our
degrees at Birmingham, hang out with people from the English department
and a few other tangential connections.
The relationship between his settings and the actual Birmingham is like
Hardy's Wessex --- places you know well are transformed and made perhaps
even more real. It's a strange feeling, spotting places you've lived
in.
The strangest sequence of coincidences surrounds ``Nice Work''. When it
was first published, quite a few of us immediately assumed that Robyn
drew heavily upon someone who used to work with the people who provided
``Josh Collins'' for Small World [*]. She denied it, claiming Lodge
barely knew her. Then the BBC called on her next door neighbour, asking
if they could use the house as Robyn's in a TV adaptation. They finally
made it around the corner about ten doors away...and Ms X's house is
seen in several exterior shots.
[*] The University has close links in computational lexicography with
Collins the publishers. Josh, who eats chocolate bars in machine halls,
seems remarkably close to J-- C----, who eats chocolate bars in machine
halls...to the extent that for some time he was referred to as Josh by
his collegues. He denied it at the time, but now having moved jobs
admits to being a part of Josh.
ian
Doug Moran
>In article <1991Jul29....@milton.u.washington.edu> tw...@milton.u.washington.edu (Barbara Hlavin) writes:
>>
>>[...] and there is much here that will strike
>>those involved in the PC argument as deja vu in reverse. (I think
>>there's a term for this [...]
>"Avant la lettre", perhaps ?
According to the esteemed Mr. George Carlin, it's "Vuja De, the feeling
that nothing like this has ever happened before."
Michael Hand
>...Michael Hand writes:
>|> C'mon. My candidate -- though many of the chapters
>|> stand alone, the funniest being "Cyclops" -- is _Ulysses_.
>|> Now, don't you suddenly have that ol' I-coulda-had-a-Vee-Eight
>|> feeling?
>
>As in, "Gee, I too could have named a major twentieth-century cultural icon"?
No, you are projecting. As in, "Gee, how could I have forgotten that
hilarious book." My mistake was to assume that my sense of humor is
more widely shared than it appears to be. I was not trying to one-up
anyone.
B-o} Michael
lewis.h.mammel..jr
>
> The quote I can't remember has this poor abused German jumping
> into a river holding a verb in his mouth, like a retriever with
> a duck.
I remember this (?) quote as:
"When a German dives into a sentence, you won't see him
again until he comes up on the other side of the Atlantic
with his verb in his mouth."
Lew Mammel, Jr.
Janet M. Lafler
>In article <1991Jul30.1...@watdragon.waterloo.edu>, veh...@crocus.waterloo.edu (Viktor Haag) writes:
>|> I think that it was probably Wodehouse's Summer Lightning. This may indicate
>|> that I haven't read much 'humourous' literature. Also hilarious are
>|> Potter's Lifemanship, and Searle's Complete Molesworth.
> ^^^^^^^^
>
>No, no, no, Searle merely did the drawinks, Willans wrote it, as any fule kno!
They are wet and weedy and we will tough them up later!
(Sorry, can't reproduce the spelling, I've only heard it read aloud.)
/Janet
--
send mail to: repn...@leland.stanford.edu
"Always carry a book with you, because you never know when you might be
arrested."
-- Emma Goldman
Mark Taranto
NOVELS:
Kingsley Amis LUCKY JIM
Joseph Heller CATCH 22 (also one of the saddest)
Peter DeVries SLOUCHING TOWARDS KALAMAZOO
William Boyd STARS AND BARS
(good movie too <he did the screenplay>)
John Irving THE WATER METHOD MAN
PLAYS:
Tom Stoppard THE REAL THING
JUMPERS
Oscar Wilde THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING EARNEST
G. B. Shaw MAN AND SUPERMAN
SHORT STORIES:
Woody Allen WITHOUT FEATHERS
CHILDREN'S BOOKS:
Roald Dahl Just about anything.
POLITICAL WRITINGS AND SPEACHES:
Richard Nixon THE CHECKERS SPEACH
Paul VI HUMANAE VITAE
Phylis Schafly I can't remember the title, but
a friend of mine kept it in the
bathroom, and it was hysterical.
Mark Taranto
Bryan Solie
>
>Hey, these guys are all Irish. What gives? Perhaps the Rupert Binky
>scenes of Mark Helprin's "Winter's Tale" can stand in for an American
>until I think of some more.
>
It's because the most gifted authors in the English tongue are Irish. This
is a misfortune poor Irish folk have had to live with for generations.
But for a Yank, John Kennedy Toole didn't do so bad with _A Confederacy of
Dunces_.
--
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Bryan Solie
I owe my allegiance to no organization. I am a citizen of the world.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
David J. Fiander
I have come to the conclusion that, in many ways, the British
and the Americans have different senses of humour. My wife and
her mother (both Swedish), and I (Canadian of (distant) British
origin) found the book to be hilarious (my mother-in-law took
our copy on a trip to Europe, and lost it somewhere in Germany,
I have yet to forgive her), but it left my mother cold as well.
The strike against this theory (of different senses of humour)
is the fact that Robert A. Heinlein (or at least one of his
characters) loved the book and the pineapple scene in
particular.
I was going to quote the pineapple scene as requested, but I
just remembered that my wife lost our replacement copy of TMiaB
on a canal boat in Edinburgh. Sigh.
--
David J. Fiander <da...@golem.uucp>
How to get a .signature: "Find somebody on the net saying something
interesting or something dumb and quote them." - Jim Winer
Francis Muir
R o d Johnson writes:
Hey, these guys are all Irish. What gives?
It's because the most gifted authors in the English tongue
are Irish. This is a misfortune poor Irish folk have had to
live with for generations.
If you will allow the Anglo-Irish into the plot, then I will agree.
Somerville & Ross's *Some Experiences of an Irish R.M.* gets half
my vote, and some stuff by Waugh the other half. *Put Out More Flags*?
Fido
Mary Anne Walters
>
>
> My candidate would be 'Night Life of the Gods' by Thorne Smith,
>which left me in tears and out of breath during the first reading. Dunno
>why, but it was just the right book to incapacitate me through laughter at
>that time.
>
> I since made the error of reading most of Smith's work in
>a short period, which seems to have burned out my Thorne Smith Humour
>receptors :(
> Sure liked his work to begin with, though. I don't think
>Smith goes over well these days; the Ballantine reprints of his books
>are out of print, I believe.
>
> James Nicoll
Good heavens! I remember this book! There was an old, falling apart copy
at the beach, minus the cover, I think. I read it when I was young (12?
younger than 15 for sure) and loved it. I've thought of it often but wasn't
too sure of the title. Is this the one where poor Hebe (is she the nymph who
bears cups?) keep trying to bear a chamber pot? And I also have a recollection
of a very funny scene in the Boston Fish market (with Neptune I think)
Two things then -- am I remembering the title properly? and -- any good
strong recommendations for further Thorne Smith readings?
Thanks in advance.
Mary Anne
(gotta change this sig.....)
--
= o "The whole French nation swims, for 3 weeks every summer,
= _ /- _ [in the tour de France]...But the English take no interest
= (_)> (_) in the Tour. 'A bicycle race,' they say. 'How deadly.'"
Nancy Mitford
Barbara Hlavin
>In article <1991Jul29....@watdragon.waterloo.edu> jdni...@watyew.uwaterloo.ca (James Davis Nicoll) writes:
>>
>>
>> My candidate would be 'Night Life of the Gods' by Thorne Smith,
>>which left me in tears and out of breath during the first reading. Dunno
>>why, but it was just the right book to incapacitate me through laughter at
>>that time.
[deletions]
>> James Nicoll
>Good heavens! I remember this book! There was an old, falling apart copy
>at the beach, minus the cover, I think. I read it when I was young (12?
>younger than 15 for sure) and loved it. I've thought of it often but wasn't
>too sure of the title. Is this the one where poor Hebe (is she the nymph who
>bears cups?) keep trying to bear a chamber pot? And I also have a recollection
>of a very funny scene in the Boston Fish market (with Neptune I think)
>
>Two things then -- am I remembering the title properly? and -- any good
>strong recommendations for further Thorne Smith readings?
>Mary Anne
>
> = o "The whole French nation swims, for 3 weeks every summer,
> = _ /- _ [in the tour de France]...But the English take no interest
> = (_)> (_) in the Tour. 'A bicycle race,' they say. 'How deadly.'"
> Nancy Mitford
Was this the same Smith who wrote _Age of the Tail_?
Oh, no,no,no; I'm wrong: sorry. That's H. Allen Smith. I read
_Age of the Tail_ at about the same age you read Thorne Smith. Pretty
funny stuff, as I recall. Imagine if our vestigial tails ceased
being vestigial, and babies start appearing with full tails.
Smith takes this idea and runs with it. What kinds of products
would be developed to exploit this New Need? Tail deodorant?
Tail make-up? Tail brassieres? What kinds of ads would be
written to sell these products?
What would the *fashion industry* do??
What kinds of tails would be most admired? Is the hair long enough
to braid? Can you bleach it? How do you adorn your tail? What do
you do if you have a Socially Unacceptable tail? Does a tail reveal
sexual excitation?
How does the older generation, tail-less, cope?
Not "the funniest book I ever read," but I'm sure getting a kick
out of remembering it.
Let me leave you with this question:
What kind of tail would Elizabeth Taylor have? Donald Trump?
George Bush? Michael Dukakis? Cher? Manuel Noriega? Samuel
Beckett?
--Barbara
Re. your .sig -- Nancy Mitford is a funny writer. Not The
Funniest Writer I Ever Read, but I do so enjoy genuine
irony. I read a biography of her some years ago, by -- Harold
Acton? *What* a family she had! If anything, _Love in a Cold
Climate_ was the sheerest understatement. It made me sad, though,
that she had so much physical pain in her life.
By the way, can anyone tell me the title of the book she wrote
about U and non-U terminology? (Bet Fido knows! :-)
James Davis Nicoll
>>
>>
>> My candidate would be 'Night Life of the Gods' by Thorne Smith,
>>which left me in tears and out of breath during the first reading. Dunno
>>why, but it was just the right book to incapacitate me through laughter at
>>that time.
>>
>
>at the beach, minus the cover, I think. I read it when I was young (12?
>younger than 15 for sure) and loved it. I've thought of it often but wasn't
>too sure of the title. Is this the one where poor Hebe (is she the nymph who
>bears cups?) keep trying to bear a chamber pot? And I also have a recollection
>of a very funny scene in the Boston Fish market (with Neptune I think)
>
>Two things then -- am I remembering the title properly? and -- any good
>strong recommendations for further Thorne Smith readings?
>
>Thanks in advance.
The problem with Thorne Smith is that most of his books seem
to be unavailable right now. In the late 70s, Ballantine reprinted
six:
Night Life of the Gods
Topper
Topper Takes a Trip
Rain in the Doorway
Turnabout
(One whose title I have forgotten)
I'd guess you can still find them in used bookstores. His books
usually have an unhappy middle-aged men in them whose lives are enriched
by contact with less socially-acceptable folks: Greek Gods in NLotG,
immoral ghosts in Topper and Topper Takes a Trip, a strange department
store in Rain in the Doorway, and a bizarre form of lycanthropy in the one
whose name I've forgotten. I think part of the reason I liked his stuff
so much was that the disatisfactions of middle aged men wasn't a field
that had been done to death in the rather limited amount of fiction
(Mostly SF) I had read at that time (I *never* want to read another
'young man comes of age, overthrows the tyranical gov't and listens to
many long, dull speeches about libertarianism in the process' book
agian :). I get the impression Smith didn't go over too well in the 70s;
perhaps now that the Boomers are getting elderly and feeble (in, say, their
30s and 40s), Smith's subject matter will be more relevant.
He used a lot of 'sex by inuendo' material which is dated
at present, although the STD phobia may change how we present sex in
fiction.
My personal favourite is Rain in the Doorway, although I don't
know why. Turnabout is interesting because it has been adapted to both
movies and TV, I believe, both pretty poorly. Topper was also butchered
in film form.
If you can't order them, try your local library. UW's arts
library had four or five omnibus editions put out in (I think) the
60s.
James Nicoll
Robert Burgin
If you enjoy travel books or have been to the places mentioned
(Paris, Rome, Jerusalem, etc.), it's a must.
Other funny books:
Randall Jarrell, _Pictures from an Institution_
Anne Tyler, _Searching for Caleb_
Clyde Edgerton, _Walking Across Egypt_
--rb
Thomas J. Olson
>
>Recently I've seen postings on the "worst book you've ever read" and the
>lists of "must read" books. Now how about the funniest book you've ever
>read? I'll start the ball rolling by listing my favorite, "Lucky Jim"
>by Kingsley Amis. Honorable mention goes to "Changing Places" by David Lodge.
>
It probably wasn't art, but the book that made me laugh harder than
anything else I've ever read (we're talking serious physical pain
here) was a thin, illustrated hardback called "Molesworth's Guide to
the Atommic Age". It consisted of what purported to be ruminations on
life and getting ahead by a (very) intellectually challenged student
in the British public schools. I read it while crashing at someone's
apartment many years ago, and don't remember the author. Has anyone
heard of this Molesworth character? Any hope in hell of encountering
that book again?
thanks,
--Tom Olson
Thomas J. Olson | ol...@virginia.edu | Ave color vini clari
Dept. of Computer Science | work: (804) 982-2217 | Ave sapor sine pari
University of Virginia | home: (804) 971-7176 | Tua nos inebriari
Charlottesville, VA 22903 | | Digneris potentia!
Thomas Bass
T.R. Pearson's *A Short History of a Small Place* is one of my
favorite funny novels. I laughed almost continually while
reading this one, mostly because I grew up in the South and
recognized most of the people in the book. I even cackled aloud
a couple of times!
Paul Orban
|>
|> It probably wasn't art, but the book that made me laugh harder than
|> anything else I've ever read (we're talking serious physical pain
|> here) was a thin, illustrated hardback called "Molesworth's Guide to
|> the Atommic Age". It consisted of what purported to be ruminations on
|> life and getting ahead by a (very) intellectually challenged student
|> in the British public schools. I read it while crashing at someone's
|> apartment many years ago, and don't remember the author. Has anyone
|> heard of this Molesworth character? Any hope in hell of encountering
|> that book again?
|>
Off the top of my head (as well as vestiges of my erstwhile coiffure),
comes my vague recollection that "The Complete Molesworth" by someone Willans,
and illustrated by Ronald Searle, consists of the following volumes (which were
all published individually): Down with Skool, How to be Topp, Back in the Jug
Agane, Whizz for Atoms, and a fifth whose name escapes me. This is compulsory
reading for any child currently attending an english Public School, an immitation
thereof, or any alumnus of such.
Janet M. Lafler
(Joann Zimmerman) writes:
>
>Not to raise the spectre of Academic Satire again, but why are these
>novels all so closely tied up with academia?
No idea.
But, on this subject, has anybody mentioned Malcolm Bradbury's _The History
Man_ yet? It's a very funny, although ultimately quite distressing, portrayal
on radical chic on a British campus in 1972. I loved it when I first read
it, though these days it may strike many of us who are struggling with PC
and anti-PC politics as only more of the same.
Jane Lean
mind. No _the_ funniest book ever, but well worth a read. It's
based on Wagner's "The Ring", although you don't need to
be familiar with "The Ring" to enjoy it.
Anyone else read it? I only found it by pure chance on a friend's
bookshelf. Picked it up because the attachment at the time was
6'5", so the title tickled my fancy.
-- Jane
Mary Anne Walters
>>strong recommendations for further Thorne Smith readings?
>>Mary Anne
>>
>> = o "The whole French nation swims, for 3 weeks every summer,
>> = _ /- _ [in the tour de France]...But the English take no interest
>> = (_)> (_) in the Tour. 'A bicycle race,' they say. 'How deadly.'"
>> Nancy Mitford
>
>
>Funniest Writer I Ever Read, but I do so enjoy genuine
>irony. I read a biography of her some years ago, by -- Harold
>Acton? *What* a family she had! If anything, _Love in a Cold
>Climate_ was the sheerest understatement. It made me sad, though,
>that she had so much physical pain in her life.
>
>By the way, can anyone tell me the title of the book she wrote
>about U and non-U terminology? (Bet Fido knows! :-)
I think there was quite a long section in The Pursuit of Love that covered
U and Non-U terminology. There is also an essay in A Talent to Annoy on
this topic as well.
--Mary Anne
--
Joann Zimmerman
>In article <53...@ut-emx.uucp> jz...@ccwf.cc.utexas.edu
>(Joann Zimmerman) writes:
>>Not to raise the spectre of Academic Satire again, but why are these
>>novels all so closely tied up with academia?
>No idea.
>But, on this subject, has anybody mentioned Malcolm Bradbury's _The History
>Man_ yet? It's a very funny, although ultimately quite distressing, portrayal
>on radical chic on a British campus in 1972. I loved it when I first read
>it, though these days it may strike many of us who are struggling with PC
>and anti-PC politics as only more of the same.
I read it as a result of the overwhelming responses when I did ask for
academic satires. The trouble with satire is that while it can be
amusing, it can also cut much too close to the bone; while reading
_The History Man_, I was plagued by a feeling of Impending Great
Personal Academic Doom. Funny, but not falling-down-on-the-floor-laughing
funny.
--
"This is a rotten argument, but it should be good enough for their lordships
on a hot summer afternoon."
- anonymous comment on brief, inadvertently read aloud in the House of Lords
...!cs.utexas.edu!ccwf!jzimm
Joan Shields
author right now. _The Wind in the Willows_ is fairly funny and, of
course, is a lovely morbid way, Dostoyevski's _Notes From the
Underground_.
Joan
dpmk...@swift.cs.tcd.ie
>
> Fido
Surely they are included in any discussion of Anglo-Irish literature?
Given that Ireland became predominantly anglophone only in the
middle of the last century, if the Anglo-Irish were omitted then
we would have to somehow redefine the nationality of most
Irish-domiciled English language authors from Swift through to Yeats.
Unless, of course, we are using the term _Anglo-Irish_ in totally
different ways.
I clearly suffer from an inability to laugh at myself because I
find S&R tremendously unfunny. I also consider Flann O'Brien
irritatingly pedantic.
Has anybody out there heard of Roddy Doyle (_The Commitments_,
The Snapper)? Now there's good Irish comedy, IMHO. Extremely
fucking funny, actually, to use his own terms. Might not
appeal too much to somebody unfamiliar with the Dublin
vernacular, though.
Has anybody mentioned Spike Milligan's wartime autobiographies or
any of John Irving's books?
Dave.
--
David Kelly, Department of Computer Science, Trinity College, Dublin.
Janet M. Lafler
(Sorry, lost track of whom she was responding to.)
>>Re. your .sig -- Nancy Mitford is a funny writer. Not The
>>Funniest Writer I Ever Read, but I do so enjoy genuine
>>irony. I read a biography of her some years ago, by -- Harold
>>Acton? *What* a family she had! If anything, _Love in a Cold
>>Climate_ was the sheerest understatement. It made me sad, though,
>>that she had so much physical pain in her life.
>>
>>By the way, can anyone tell me the title of the book she wrote
>>about U and non-U terminology? (Bet Fido knows! :-)
>
>I think there was quite a long section in The Pursuit of Love that covered
>U and Non-U terminology. There is also an essay in A Talent to Annoy on
>this topic as well.
The "U and Non-U" book is called _Noblesse Oblige_. See also Jessica Mitford's
"L and Non-L" follow-up, "Lifeitselfmanship, Or How to Become a Precisely-
Because Man." This is included as an appendix to her memoir _A Fine Old Con-
Flict_ (a pretty funny book in itself, though not one of the funniest I ever
read).
Re the exceedingly odd Mitford family: Jessica Mitford describes the following
exchange when she took her daughter to a clinic to see if she could be cured
of thumb-sucking:
"Any insanity in your family?" "No." "Any marked eccentricity?"
"No." "Any suicides?" "Well...one of my sisters shot herself." "Circum-
stances of shooting?" "She adored Hitler, so when the war broke out I suppose
she couldn't endure England and Germany being at war."
The brisk one faltered noticeably. "What were you doing at the time?"
"I'd run away to Spain before that, to join the Reds, and am now a member of
the Communist Party, USA."
She stopped writing altogether. Dinky and I were discharged as cured,
or incurable--I am not sure which. Later I was told...[by a friend] that Dinky
and I were the subject of a staff meeting, which concluded, "Since the mother
lives in a fantasy world of her own, and is incapable of giving rational and
credible answers to questions, it is impossible to treat the child further.
Sharon Foster
_Catch-22_ - lost count of how many times I re-read this one
_Life_With_Mother_Superior_ by Jane Trahey - The last time I read this was
over 20 years ago, but it took me less than a minute to come up
with the name and the author, so you *know* I liked it!
_Dave_Barry's_Greatest_Hits_, _Bad_Habits_, and DB_Turns_40_ - I laughed
so hard I got to the point where I couldn't make a sound!
--
/* Sharon Foster....First Generation Trekkie * fos...@gdc.portal.com */
/* These are my own Biased Personal Opinions (tm) and no one else's! */
Beautiful
Intelligent
Trustworthy
Charming
Headstrong
Jeff Davis
Janet M. Lafler
>In article <1991Aug1.2...@leland.Stanford.EDU> repn...@elaine36.Stanford.EDU (Janet M. Lafler) writes:
>>But, on this subject, has anybody mentioned Malcolm Bradbury's _The History
>>Man_ yet? It's a very funny, although ultimately quite distressing, portrayal
>>on radical chic on a British campus in 1972. I loved it when I first read
>>it, though these days it may strike many of us who are struggling with PC
>>and anti-PC politics as only more of the same.
>
>I read it as a result of the overwhelming responses when I did ask for
>academic satires. The trouble with satire is that while it can be
>amusing, it can also cut much too close to the bone; while reading
>_The History Man_, I was plagued by a feeling of Impending Great
>Personal Academic Doom. Funny, but not falling-down-on-the-floor-laughing
>funny.
Yeah. It does end up being quite depressing. I wasn't suggesting it
as a "funniest book," but then I've had trouble coming up with a single
chokingly, achingly funny book. Stories, yes, but not books.
Anyway, about _The History Man_, it sort of fools you, since it starts out
sort of silly and light and nasty, and becomes quite greivously upsetting.
I only wish that I had been in Miss Callendar's place; I like to think I
would've had more fortitude.
Tom Maddox
_Naked Lunch_.
--
Tom Maddox
tma...@milton.u.washington.edu
"It is imperative to write invulnerable sentences." -- Hugo Ball
Jussi-Ville Heiskanen
roleplaying buffs lampooned. Straddling genres and giving them all a sound
whipping. No contest. One of very few books the undersigned laughed outloud
in public at... Read, enjoy. Trust me. You won't go away grimfaced. Good
smileage guaranteed.
--
"The Man In Blue" // ***That's it!***
// (Merlin, in Excalibur (Sword of Power)
=============================================================================
j...@clinet.fi // Jussi-Ville "J-V" Heiskanen A.K.A. Sokrates jr.
Jussi-Ville Heiskanen
>In article <1991Jul29.2...@leland.Stanford.EDU> berg...@leland.Stanford.EDU (Bergmann) writes:
>>Well, but what about the wonderful game of Humiliation that
>>Swallow suggests at the Berkeley party?! Which costs the
>>ultra-competitive assistant professor who admits to never having
>>read "Hamlet" (thus winning the game) his tenure?
>"Paradise Lost," not "Hamlet." Much easier to believe that an academic
>avoided Milton's justifying the ways of God to Man than it is to
>believe he avoided "Hamlet," a much shorter read.
>--Mike
BZZT! Wrong!
Paradise Regained was mentioned earlier as follows:
"..., it came out that Luke Hogan has never read Paradise Regained. I mean,
I know it isn't his field, but to think you can get to be Chairman of the
English Department at Euphoric State without even having read Paradise
Regained makes you think, right? I could see Howard taking this in, going a
bit pale when he realized that Luke was telling the truth. Well, on the
third round, Sy was leading the field with Hiawatha, Mr Swallow being the
only other person who hadn't read it, when suddenly Howard slammed his fist
on the table, jutted his jaw about six feet over the table and said:
'Hamlet!'
Well, of course, we all laughed, not very much because it didn't seem much
of a joke. In fact it wasn't a joke at all. Howard admitted to having seen
the Lawrence Olivier movie, but insisted that he had never seen the text of
Hamlet. Nobody believed him of course, and this made him sore as hell. He
said did we think he was lying and Sy more or less implied that we did. Upon
which Howard flew into a great rage and insisted on swearing a solemn oath
that he had never read the play. Sy apologized through tight lips for
having doubted his word. By this time, of course, we were all cold sober
with embarrassment. Howard left, and the rest of us stood around for a while
trying to pretend nothing had happened.
A piquant incident, you must admit--but wait till I tell you the sequel.
Howard Ringbaum unexpectedly flunked his review three days later and it's
generally supposed that this was because the English Department dared not
give tenure to a man who had publicly admitted to not having read Hamlet..."
----
P.S. In short, the whole joke is in the fact that such an omission is not
"credible" in an academic chap of any stature.
Ohlhausen, Esther LaNelle
funny fiction I've read has been short stories. But here's a portion of
my list anyway:
Novels:
Dickens, _The Pickwick Papers_
Twain, _Huckleberry Finn_
Swift, _Gulliver's Travels_
Adams, The Hitchhiker tetralogy (funny in a very juvenile sense)
Ford, _How Much for Just the Planet?_
Collections:
Wodehouse, _The World of Jeeves_ (I've never had the good fortune to
find any Wodehouse novels)
Barry, _Dave Barry's Greatest Hits_ (I think I laughed out loud more
while reading this book than any other I've read)
Safire, _Fumblerules_
Asimov, _Isaac Asimov's Treasury of Humor_
This is by no means an exhaustive list... At least one Shakespeare play
(the title of which escapes me at the moment) belongs on the list, as I'm
sure do several other books.
LaNelle Ohlhausen
elo...@venus.tamu.edu
"Insert your favorite quote here."
Richard Caley
`Weird Sisters' by Terry Pratchet.
with `The Complete Yes Minister' coming a very close second.
--
r...@cstr.ed.ac.uk _O_
|<
Susan Harwood Kaczmarczik
Barring inclusion of any and all of the Calvin and Hobbes books,
these are my choices (in no particular order):
1) _Elf Defense_ by Esther M. Friesner. Anybody who could come up
with a line like "terminal elven snotitude" is okay with me.
2) All the Miss Manners books. I can't choose just one.
3) All the Amelia Peabody books by Elizabeth Peters. (Hmm, I see a
correlation between numbers 2 & 3...)
Is there a category for funniest books that weren't intended to be
funny? That could prove interesting.
--
-----Susan Harwood Kaczmarczik-------------------------------*<:-)-------------
"Go right to the rose, go right to the white rose, I'll be waiting for you..."
-----a...@ccwf.cc.utexas.edu--------------The University of Texas @Austin---
Craig Becker
Heiskanen) writes:
> Bimboes of the Death Sun. Humor, detective novel (won an Edgar), sf and
> roleplaying buffs lampooned. Straddling genres and giving them all a sound
> whipping. No contest. One of very few books the undersigned laughed outloud
> in public at... Read, enjoy. Trust me. You won't go away grimfaced. Good
> smileage guaranteed.
> j...@clinet.fi // Jussi-Ville "J-V" Heiskanen A.K.A. Sokrates jr.
Written by Sharyn McCrumb. Definitely a funny read, although I think it
helps if you are a) into SF at least a little bit and b) have attended at
least one SF convention.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
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-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Gordon Fitch
the book a title like that is sort of telegraphing your punch.
--
* Gordon Fitch | g...@panix.uucp | uunet!cmcl2.nyu.edu!panix!mydog!gcf *
Bayla Singer
Thurber & Twain are funny, but don't usually sustain humor for a whole
book (except maybe Twain's _Pudd'nhead Wilson_); the funniest book
I've read recently was Jerome K Jerome's _Three Men in a Boat._
Mike Godwin
>mnem...@eff.org (Mike Godwin) writes:
>
>>"Paradise Lost," not "Hamlet." Much easier to believe that an academic
>>avoided Milton's justifying the ways of God to Man than it is to
>>believe he avoided "Hamlet," a much shorter read.
>
Thanks. But I have already confessed my error, which I confirmed by
consulting my own copy of CHANGING PLACES.
>P.S. In short, the whole joke is in the fact that such an omission is not
>"credible" in an academic chap of any stature.
Thanks again. I'm duly flattered that you thought to share your
explanation of the "the whole joke."
--Mike
--
Mike Godwin, |"But the thing is, you don't have many suspects who
mnem...@eff.org | are innocent of a crime. That's contradictory. If a
(617) 864-1550 | person is innocent of a crime, then he is not a
EFF, Cambridge, MA | suspect." Ed Meese, US News & World Report, 10-15-85
Bob Ingria
_Naked Lunch_.
The Dr. Benway episodes are particularly amusing but there are
rib-ticklers throughout. (Don't forget Steely Dans I, II, and III.)
-30-
Bob
``Nurse, send the boy out to fill this Rx at once. Some fucking drug
addict has cut my cocaine with Saniflush.''
Francis Muir
The funniest book I've read recently was Jerome K Jerome's
_Three Men in a Boat._
OK, OK, OK. I give in. Of course this is the funniest book I too
have read recently. In the Annotated Edition which is brilliantly
researched.
Fido
Janet M. Lafler
>Bimboes of the Death Sun. Humor, detective novel (won an Edgar), sf and
>roleplaying buffs lampooned. Straddling genres and giving them all a sound
>whipping. No contest. One of very few books the undersigned laughed outloud
>in public at... Read, enjoy. Trust me. You won't go away grimfaced. Good
>smileage guaranteed.
Ick.
Sorry, but I'm going to have to disagree on this one. I thought this book
was pretty lame, especially as a mystery, besides which the author seemed to
take delight in hosing really easy targets. It doesn't strike me as partic-
ularly imaginative or original to poke fun at the fat, ugly and nerdy.
/Janet
--
send mail to: repn...@leland.stanford.edu
"We're living in a PROTESTANT POLICE STATE and all I'M worried about is getting
a job so I can help perpetuate the paranoid patriarchal DEATH culture!"
--Mo
Janet M. Lafler
>
>Is there a category for funniest books that weren't intended to be
>funny? That could prove interesting.
Aha, now this is something I can get into!
I've been having trouble coming up with examples of truly funny full-length
books (except collections), but in the category of unintentionally funny, how
about the preface to a cookbook called _The Book of Tofu_, by William Shurtleff
and Akiko Aoyagi, which includes such passages as this:
"As our work neared its conclusion, both Akiko and I realized that perhaps our
greatest teacher had been tofu itself. Like water that flows through the
worlds, serving as it moves along, tofu joyfully surrenders itself to the
endless play of transformation. Pierced with a skewer, it sizzles and broils
above a bed of live coals; placed in a bubbling, earthenware pot over an open
fire, it snuggles down next to the mushrooms and makes friends; deep-fried in
crackling oil, it emerges crisp and handsome in robes of golden brown; frozen
all night in the snow under vast mountain skies, it emerges glistening with
frost and utterly changed. All as if it knew there was no death to die, no
fixed or separate self to cling to, no other home than here."
The book has some good recipes, by the way.
Mike Godwin
>Sorry, but I'm going to have to disagree on this one. I thought this book
>was pretty lame, especially as a mystery, besides which the author seemed to
>take delight in hosing really easy targets.
I agree with Janet about BIMBOS OF THE DEATH SUN. To me it was quite dull,
although it may be a necessary tonic for anyone who admires Niven and
Pournelle's FALLEN ANGELS.
>It doesn't strike me as partic-
>ularly imaginative or original to poke fun at the fat, ugly and nerdy.
I dunno. One occasionally hears a good Sununu joke.
A. Jing Hippy
|>
|> Recently I've seen postings on the "worst book you've ever read" and the
|> lists of "must read" books. Now how about the funniest book you've ever
|> read? I'll start the ball rolling by listing my favorite, "Lucky Jim"
|> by Kingsley Amis. Honorable mention goes to "Changing Places" by David Lodge.
Scoff if you will, but "The Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy" is far and away
the funniest for me. My wife got a bit peeved by my giggling as I read it.
--
+------------------------------------------------------+
|Dave Cochran (coc...@spam.rtp.dg.com) |
|Data General Corporation, Research Triangle Park, NC |
+------------------------------------------------------+
|Just suppose there were no hypothetical situations... |
+------------------------------------------------------+
Lisa Paul
>In article <1991Jul29....@cunews.carleton.ca>, wal...@scotty.doe.carleton.ca (David J. Walkey) writes:
>Scoff if you will, but "The Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy" is far and away
>the funniest for me. My wife got a bit peeved by my giggling as I read it.
>
How could anyone scoff? I consider all of Douglas Adams' stuff
to be funny. I have read several of his books to people on long car trips
and have to take a giggle break now and then.
--
--Rowan Now this religion happens to prevail
I am not responsible, My > Until by that one it is overthrown, -
cat is the one with the > Because men dare not live with men alone,
opinions here. > But always with another fairy tale.
Janet M. Lafler
>In article <1991Aug5.0...@leland.Stanford.EDU> repn...@leland.Stanford.EDU (Janet M. Lafler) writes:
(Re: _Bimbos of the Death Sun_)
>>It doesn't strike me as partic-
>>ularly imaginative or original to poke fun at the fat, ugly and nerdy.
>
>I dunno. One occasionally hears a good Sununu joke.
Well, I make exceptions for the ugly, nerdy and _powerful_.
Barrie K. Trinkle
Barrie
NATHAN MARK
>
> >Recently I've seen postings on the "worst book you've ever read" and the
> >lists of "must read" books. Now how about the funniest book you've ever
> >read? I'll start the ball rolling by listing my favorite, "Lucky Jim"
> >by Kingsley Amis. Honorable mention goes to "Changing Places" by David
Lodge.
>
> --
> Dave!
I 2nd that! This book is up there with "Don Quixote", and the influence of
DQ is unmistakable.
"Candide", by Voltaire is also a very funny book, with a sardonic flavor.
I was referred to the three short story collections by Woody Allen, and bought
"Without Feathers" today. It looks hilarious!
Mark
Jane Lean
>
> `Weird Sisters' by Terry Pratchet.
just for accuracy in case people are trying to follow it up. I agree,
btw... most of Pratchett's work is very funny. I just found something
I didn't know existed "The Unadulterated Cat" ( illustrated
very cutely by Gray Joliffe) - what a giggle.
--Jane
Lee Sawyer
>I'll toss in a vote for _A Prayer for Owen Meany_.
>
> Barrie
Oh my. What do I think about _A Prayer for Owen Meany_ ?
Well, as with a lot of Irving's books, I laughed to the point of
tears at places. But I would not put any of his books in the
list of funniest books, nor in the list of saddest. There is
too much of both sides of life in his books to easily file
them under either category.
Everybody knows _The World According to Garp_ and _The
Hotel New Hampshire_. My other choices, in order of preference,
are
- _A Prayer for Owen Meany_
- _The Cider-House Rules_ ( I do not believe people should be
allowed to even discuss abortion until they have read this book)
- _The Water-Method Man_ (Again I laughed at places, and also was
scared to death by parts of the book that struck very close to home)
==============================================================================
Lee Sawyer | Dept of Physics | These opinions are mine.
(FSUHEP::SAWYER) | Florida State University | If you want fact,
| Tallahassee,FL | get an encyclopedia.
==============================================================================
md...@vax5.cit.cornell.edu
saw...@fshesa.physics.fsu.edu (Lee Sawyer) writes:
> In article <1991Aug5.2...@elroy.jpl.nasa.gov>, b...@hydra.Jpl.Nasa.Gov (Barrie K. Trinkle) writes...
>>I'll toss in a vote for _A Prayer for Owen Meany_.
>>
>> Barrie
>
> Oh my. What do I think about _A Prayer for Owen Meany_ ?
Tell you what I think; I'm reading it now. A most IRRITATING punctuation
style; almost EVERY sentence is constructed with two clauses separated by a
semicolon and followed by a dashed clause -- believe it or not.
After 200 pages of this and a clear feeling that Irving had almost no idea
of where he wanted to go with this novel, I'm almost ready to quit. I don't
really care about the characters. I think it's a mess. Did he get himself
Born Again or something?
-- .- .-. -.- -.-- . .- --. . .-.
Michael DY Jackson -> md...@crnlvax5.bitnet md...@vax5.cit.cornell.edu
Lee Sawyer
>[RE: A Prayer for Owen Meany]
>Tell you what I think; I'm reading it now. A most IRRITATING punctuation
>style; almost EVERY sentence is constructed with two clauses separated by a
>semicolon and followed by a dashed clause -- believe it or not.
>
>After 200 pages of this and a clear feeling that Irving had almost no idea
>of where he wanted to go with this novel, I'm almost ready to quit. I don't
>really care about the characters. I think it's a mess. Did he get himself
>Born Again or something?
>
>-- .- .-. -.- -.-- . .- --. . .-.
>Michael DY Jackson -> md...@crnlvax5.bitnet md...@vax5.cit.cornell.edu
Well, you have lodged two complaints against Mr. Irving. The first,
that the punctuation style irritated you, cannot be argued. If it
irritated you, it irritated you. Did you feel this way about any
other John Irving novel ?
I cannot agree that the novel is "a mess". There are several story
threads that Irving tries to tie together at the very end, and
perhaps that was a mistake. But I did get the feeling that the
novel had a goal in sight. It is not about any sort of hokey
"Born Again" religiosity, but it is certainly about a sense
of awe at the possibility of the preternatural. How would
someone with a skeptical predisposition react to a miracle ?