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Funninest science fiction/fantasy book scene

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Lonnie Courtney Clay

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Nov 22, 2001, 11:24:46 AM11/22/01
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My vote goes to Jack Vance in Cugel's Saga - "I will release a taint".
LCC

Tak Loufer

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Nov 22, 2001, 12:59:24 PM11/22/01
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>Subject: Funninest science fiction/fantasy book scene
>From: LCC...@aol.com (Lonnie Courtney Clay)
>Date: 11/22/01 10:24 AM Central Standard Time
>Message-id: <7edd270a.01112...@posting.google.com>

>
>My vote goes to Jack Vance in Cugel's Saga - "I will release a taint".
>LCC
>

The ending to _Venus on a Half Shell_ by Philip Jose Farmer.

-ur pal
-tak L

Ide Cyan

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Nov 22, 2001, 2:51:47 PM11/22/01
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A Civil Campaign. The whole book.

Some of Tiptree's early stuff has extraordinarily funny scenes.
"Missionaries with fissionaries," indeed!

--
"I knew a girl at school called Pandora.
Never got to see her box, though."
- Spike, Notting Hill.

David Allsopp

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Nov 22, 2001, 3:06:10 PM11/22/01
to
In article <7edd270a.01112...@posting.google.com>, Lonnie
Courtney Clay <LCC...@aol.com> writes

>My vote goes to Jack Vance in Cugel's Saga - "I will release a taint".
>LCC

Iain M. Banks, "Use Of Weapons". The drone Skaffen-Amtiskaw brings
Zakalwe a present to cheer him up after his, um, injury.
--
David Allsopp Houston, this is Tranquillity Base.
Remove SPAM to email me The Eagle has landed.

J Greely

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Nov 22, 2001, 4:36:28 PM11/22/01
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LCC...@aol.com (Lonnie Courtney Clay) writes:
>My vote goes to Jack Vance in Cugel's Saga - "I will release a taint".

The worst mistake I ever made was to read Roger MacBride Allen's short
story "Monkey See" out loud to friends.

-j

Cernunnos

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Nov 22, 2001, 5:40:22 PM11/22/01
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"David Allsopp" <d...@tqSPAMbase.demon.co.uk> wrote in message
news:EG0vvpAyqV$7E...@tqbase.demon.co.uk...

> In article <7edd270a.01112...@posting.google.com>, Lonnie
> Courtney Clay <LCC...@aol.com> writes
> >My vote goes to Jack Vance in Cugel's Saga - "I will release a taint".
> >LCC
>
> Iain M. Banks, "Use Of Weapons". The drone Skaffen-Amtiskaw brings
> Zakalwe a present to cheer him up after his, um, injury.


Ah that reminds me, the tank scene in the hithikers guide to the galaxy.
Still makes me laugh till I cry.

--
I've been making shows of trading blows,
Just hoping no one knows,
That I've been going through the motions,
Walking through the part,
Nothing seems to penetrate my heart.


TLambs1138

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Nov 22, 2001, 6:37:18 PM11/22/01
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The footnotes in Pratchett books. Especially the one in GUARDS! GUARDS! about
the mimes and the scorpion pits.


Jean Lamb, tlamb...@cs.com
"Fun will now commence!" - Seven of Nine

Paul David John Andinach

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Nov 22, 2001, 10:46:23 PM11/22/01
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On 22 Nov 2001, TLambs1138 wrote:

> The footnotes in Pratchett books. Especially the one in GUARDS!
> GUARDS! about the mimes and the scorpion pits.

"Lord Vetinari *is* a significant improvement on many of
his predecessors."

"He has been known to have mimes hung upside down over the
scorpion pits."

"True, true. But we should not forget that he also has his
bad points..."

(from _Feet of Clay_, badly paraphrased)


Paul
--
The Pink Pedanther

Endy9

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Nov 22, 2001, 10:51:14 PM11/22/01
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The scene in one of the Lankmar books where Fafyrd is tied to the bed, in
confusion/drunken stupor rises and goes into the streets and people thinking
he is a mummy. I laughed throughout that entire story. The beggers trying
to move up the street, etc. I believe it is Lean Times in Lankmar.

--
Dennis/Endy
http://members.home.net/endymion91/index.htm
--

Kristine Smith

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Nov 22, 2001, 11:14:57 PM11/22/01
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The final discussion between Vimes and Vetinari in -Feet of Clay- "That's
practically Zen."

First runner-up: Sgt. Colon's ride though Ankh-Morpork on Rogers the bulls,
same book.

Kris


--
*********************************************************************
Kristine Smith
Winner--2001 John W Campbell Award for Best New Writer
www.sff.net/people/ksmith


Kristine Smith

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Nov 22, 2001, 11:27:27 PM11/22/01
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As for SF...

This choice may be a case of fond childhood memory, but years ago I read a
story entitled, I think, "Watch Out, Duck". It was about a ship's commander
and a scientist butting heads when they have to transport some ducks to
another planet, which is at 1 1/2 G. The ducks are initially supposed to be
transported as eggs, but something happens, and all the eggs need to be
hatched. Then the ship needs to be converted to higher G so the ducks
develop properly. I just remember the poor commander, surrounded by these
ducks.

It was in a paperback volume--I recall a chartreuse cover with a duck on it.
There was another story that was a variation of the Goose Laying the Golden
Egg, in Nevada near a nuclear testing ground. That was a funny story, too.

TMW

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Nov 23, 2001, 4:01:18 AM11/23/01
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I fondly recall the scene in Pratchett's Sourcery in which one character
boasts that all he touches turns to gold, and the response is "That must
make going to the bathroom tricky."

TM Wagner
http://www.sfreviews.net/

Jens Kilian

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Nov 23, 2001, 7:11:02 AM11/23/01
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tlamb...@cs.com (TLambs1138) writes:
> The footnotes in Pratchett books. Especially the one in GUARDS! GUARDS! about
> the mimes and the scorpion pits.

Seconded; but my favourite is the explanation of the Horseman's Word in
_Witches Abroad_. I picked up the book on a whim, and when I read that bit,
Pratchett became #1 on my instant-buy list.
--
mailto:j...@acm.org phone:+49-7031-464-7698 (TELNET 778-7698)
http://www.bawue.de/~jjk/ fax:+49-7031-464-7351
PGP: 06 04 1C 35 7B DC 1F 26 As the air to a bird, or the sea to a fish,
0x555DA8B5 BB A2 F0 66 77 75 E1 08 so is contempt to the contemptible. [Blake]

John DiFool

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Nov 23, 2001, 10:19:40 AM11/23/01
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Lonnie Courtney Clay wrote:

> My vote goes to Jack Vance in Cugel's Saga - "I will release a taint".
> LCC

The whole scene in the mudpit with those little imps (whatever
they were called) when he finds that magical talisman had me
seriously ROTFLMAO...

John DiFool


Mary K. Kuhner

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Nov 23, 2001, 11:45:35 AM11/23/01
to
Kristine Smith <KSm...@sff.net> wrote:

>This choice may be a case of fond childhood memory, but years ago I read a
>story entitled, I think, "Watch Out, Duck". It was about a ship's commander
>and a scientist butting heads when they have to transport some ducks to
>another planet, which is at 1 1/2 G.

It's in Randall Garrett's _TakeOff!_ if you should want to read it
again. With illustrations (of ducks, of course).

Haldeman's "A !Tangled Web" seems to have hit a nerve for the
newsgroup as a whole, given how often it's quoted.

Mary Kuhner mkku...@eskimo.com

Kylinn

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Nov 23, 2001, 12:59:24 PM11/23/01
to
"Kristine Smith" KSm...@sff.net wrote:

>As for SF...
>
>This choice may be a case of fond childhood memory, but years ago I read
>a story entitled, I think, "Watch Out, Duck". It was about a ship's
>commander and a scientist butting heads when they have to transport some
>ducks to another planet, which is at 1 1/2 G. The ducks are initially
>supposed to be transported as eggs, but something happens, and all the
>eggs need to be hatched. Then the ship needs to be converted to higher
>G so the ducks develop properly. I just remember the poor commander,
>surrounded by these ducks.

Plus the crewman who turned out to be allergic to
ducks. That was Randall Garrett's "Look Out! Duck!"

>There was another story that was a variation of the Goose Laying the
>Golden Egg, in Nevada near a nuclear testing ground. That was a funny
>story, too.

Isaac Asimov's "Pate de Foie Gras"; one of his tongue-in-cheek
explorations of impossible science. Not as good as the classic
"The Endochronic Properties of Resublimated Thiotimoline" IMHO.

My personal favorite for fantasy book would be Pratchett's
_Lords and Ladies_, though some parts of _The Last Hero_ had
me totally choking with laughter.
(Spoiler space)
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.

Like the bit describing Rincewind's reaction to Leonard's
device to test the effects of tumbling/zero-gee on the
human body: "...Prolonged tumbling on the device causes him
to experience the feeling of of wishing to kill everyone
beginning, against all common sense, with himself. He also
issues screams and threats. From this I deduce that being
tumbled in three directions at once has a deleterious effect
..."


Ky

Robert Sneddon

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Nov 23, 2001, 4:04:43 PM11/23/01
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In article <7edd270a.01112...@posting.google.com>, Lonnie
Courtney Clay <LCC...@aol.com> writes
>My vote goes to Jack Vance in Cugel's Saga - "I will release a taint".
>LCC

The full-sized rubber inflatable Starship Enterprise in "How Much For
Just The Planet" by John Ford. I fell off a stool laughing.
--

Robert Sneddon nojay (at) nojay (dot) fsnet (dot) co (dot) uk

Michael Caldwell

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Nov 24, 2001, 6:41:27 AM11/24/01
to
"Lonnie Courtney Clay" wrote

> My vote goes to Jack Vance in Cugel's Saga - "I will release a taint".

My vote goes to the gourmet canabalism scene in "The Eight Skilled
Gentlemen"
by Barry Hughart. Eight Coloured Unicorn Steaks anyone?

--

Simon Bradshaw

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Nov 25, 2001, 4:43:00 AM11/25/01
to
In article <7edd270a.01112...@posting.google.com>,
LCC...@aol.com (Lonnie Courtney Clay) wrote:

> My vote goes to Jack Vance in Cugel's Saga - "I will release a taint".
> LCC
>

Miles Vorkosigan's Dinner Party From Hell in _A Civil Campaign_. When I
first read that scene (on the Baen website) I was literally having to
pause between paragraphs to recover some composure.

--
Simon Bradshaw sjbra...@cix.co.uk
http://www.cix.co.uk/~sjbradshaw
*** The Science Fiction Foundation ***
http://www.sf-foundation.org

Ted Nolan

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Nov 26, 2001, 1:21:48 PM11/26/01
to
In article <SIjL7.41500$gQ1.16...@news1.elmhst1.il.home.com>,

Endy9 <endym...@home.com> wrote:
>The scene in one of the Lankmar books where Fafyrd is tied to the bed, in
>confusion/drunken stupor rises and goes into the streets and people thinking
>he is a mummy. I laughed throughout that entire story. The beggers trying
>to move up the street, etc. I believe it is Lean Times in Lankmar.
>
>--
>Dennis/Endy

Absolutely priceless, though they thought that he was "Issek of the Jug"
(not to be confused with "Jugged Issek"..) not a mummy and that the bed
was a rack.


Ted

Charles Frederick Goodin

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Nov 26, 2001, 6:28:39 PM11/26/01
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In article <memo.20011125...@sjbradshaw.compulink.co.uk>,

Simon Bradshaw <sjbra...@cix.co.uk> wrote:
>In article <7edd270a.01112...@posting.google.com>,
>LCC...@aol.com (Lonnie Courtney Clay) wrote:
>
>> My vote goes to Jack Vance in Cugel's Saga - "I will release a taint".
>> LCC
>>
>
>Miles Vorkosigan's Dinner Party From Hell in _A Civil Campaign_. When I
>first read that scene (on the Baen website) I was literally having to
>pause between paragraphs to recover some composure.

Hmmm...must be a taste thing. Parts of it were a little funny (and that
does seem, so far, to be the Vorkosigan book most like a romantic comedy),
but I certainly didn't laugh out loud.


--
chuk

Endy9

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Nov 26, 2001, 8:40:05 PM11/26/01
to
"Ted Nolan" <t...@loft.tnolan.com> wrote in message
news:0LvM7.60073$Lo5.7...@e3500-atl1.usenetserver.com...

> In article <SIjL7.41500$gQ1.16...@news1.elmhst1.il.home.com>,
> Endy9 <endym...@home.com> wrote:
> >The scene in one of the Lankmar books where Fafyrd is tied to the bed, in
> >confusion/drunken stupor rises and goes into the streets and people
thinking
> >he is a mummy. I laughed throughout that entire story. The beggers
trying
> >to move up the street, etc. I believe it is Lean Times in Lankmar.
> >

> Absolutely priceless, though they thought that he was "Issek of the Jug"


> (not to be confused with "Jugged Issek"..) not a mummy and that the bed
> was a rack.
>

You are right. It's been way too long since I read it (1983). I have them
on my shelf to reread soon.

Timothy A. McDaniel

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Nov 26, 2001, 9:50:48 PM11/26/01
to
In article <9to0je$p9e$1...@lust.ihug.co.nz>,

BLEAAAAGHHHHH!

One of the worst mistakes of my life was reading _Good Omens_ by
Pratchett and wossisname when I had the remnants of a cold. Laughing
set off coughing fits. I almost died when I got to something like

"The road to Hell is paved with good intentions", he said
sententiously.*

...

* Actually, it's paved with frozen insurance salesmen.

--
Tim McDaniel is tm...@jump.net; if that fail,
tm...@us.ibm.com is my work account.
"To join the Clueless Club, send a followup to this message quoting everything
up to and including this sig!" -- Jukka....@hut.fi (Jukka Korpela)

John Andrew Fairhurst

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Nov 30, 2001, 12:30:59 AM11/30/01
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In article <9tuj77$f0d$1...@morgoth.sfu.ca>, cgo...@sfu.ca says...

[Re Miles' Dinner Party]


> Parts of it were a little funny (and that
> does seem, so far, to be the Vorkosigan book most like a romantic comedy),
> but I certainly didn't laugh out loud.
>

The first time through I was wincing more than laughing, but later on, I
was able to relax and see the humour...
--
John Fairhurst
In Association with Amazon worldwide:
http://www.johnsbooks.co.uk/Books/Bujold
The Vorkosiganiverse!

Mike Simone

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Nov 30, 2001, 12:29:50 PM11/30/01
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tm...@jump.net (Timothy A. McDaniel) wrote in message news:<ccDM7.196$gd.212334@news20>...
> In article <9to0je$p9e$1...@lust.ihug.co.nz>,
<snip>

>
> BLEAAAAGHHHHH!
>
> One of the worst mistakes of my life was reading _Good Omens_ by
> Pratchett and wossisname when I had the remnants of a cold. Laughing
> set off coughing fits. I almost died when I got to something like
>
> "The road to Hell is paved with good intentions", he said
> sententiously.*
>
> ...
>
> * Actually, it's paved with frozen insurance salesmen.

Reading this thread I thought "Ooh, I'll get to mention _Good Omens_
before anyone else." No such luck though. Nobody I loaned that book
to got past the bit with the car phone without laughing out loud, but
I really liked the assistant motorcyclists with the ever-changing
names and the USAF officer with the wound from Saigon,

Mike Simone

Lee DeRaud

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Nov 30, 2001, 1:27:09 PM11/30/01
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On 30 Nov 2001 09:29:50 -0800, msim...@hotmail.com (Mike Simone)
wrote:

"Bugger this for a lark" gets said all too frequently around here...

Lee

deana

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Nov 30, 2001, 2:15:07 PM11/30/01
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LCC...@aol.com (Lonnie Courtney Clay) wrote in message news:<7edd270a.01112...@posting.google.com>...

> My vote goes to Jack Vance in Cugel's Saga - "I will release a taint".
> LCC

Coming out of left field here, I would have to say the dog suit &
swimming pool scene from Jack Finney's _The Woodrow Wilson Dime_.

D_Love

William December Starr

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Dec 5, 2001, 9:00:22 PM12/5/01
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In one of Stephen Brust's very early Vlad Taltos novels, there's a
scene in which Vlad goes to see one of the powerful, long-lived
characters who's a friend of his, and she tells him some "Everything
you know is wrong" things that absolutely blow his mind and turn his
view of the world and himself inside-out and upside-down, and then
afterwards when he staggers back to his office, his assistant
innocently asks him "So, did you find anything out?"

Well, you had to be there.

-- William December Starr <wds...@panix.com>

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