Humour and literature

[Irene Wilde]

Why, Irene Wilde, I'm positively mortified! However did I miss your mention of Mr. Twain! Shame on me! I don't think I've been eating enough food lately. I need somebody to fix me one of those mushroom omelets like the one you made mention of in John Lanchester's Debt to Pleasure. Mirabell, will you come cook for me? I'm getting tired of all the dirty dishes!

What can I say about Mr. Twain?? Fab-u-lous!! And would you believe it, Irene? Is it synchronicity? Methinks it is. I just purchased a copy of Cannery Row at a book sale last month. It's still stashed away in a box somewhere.....but I'll find it. Can't wait to check out the catching-frogs story. I just announced to my mum today that I'm thinking of getting a pet frog . After all, that character in Mr. Twain's story pointed out that all a frog needs is a good education! My dream is to learn Spanish and teach it to the frog at the same time. Sounds like a plan, doesn't it?? I can give up my search for a prince once I own a pet frog! Hmmm....I could even buy him a miniature crown! Who says a frog doesn't deserve the....well, royal treatment?

~Titania

If you ever find yourself driving through Virginia City, NV, you will find a large sign that says "Mark Twain was Robbed Here." Apparently his luck improved after that.

I do hope you enjoy Cannery Row. It is a favorite of mine, very gentle and sweet.

Good luck education your frog. I hope it does its homework more willingly than my daughter.

[Noane13]

One of my favourites is Magnus Mills 'Restraint of Beasts"

[saliotthomas]

I shall check that out Noane.I'll let you know.
Try to get back Pourquoi j'ais mang? mon p?re by Roy lewis.I think there is a preface by Theodore Mono,not shure.

[rabbitfast]

Love in the Time of Cholera is hilarious...as are Ulysses, Pride and Prejudice, At Swim-Two-Birds and countless others...so yes, there is room for humour in literature...absolutely.

[Igu Soni]

Don't understand why there's no mention of Bill Bryson round here. Doesn't write fiction, makes me laugh my head out every time, and I generally find it hard to get more than a smile or a snort out of books(in comparison to my friends). Wikiquote article.

I would also like to know if anyone actually thinks about George MacDonald Fraser. Supposed to be funny but I found him contrived, though I did only read around ten pages

[OutragedOptimist]

A few laugh out loud funny writers come to mind: Samuel Beckett, Carson McCullers (sp?), Mark Twain. I'm reading Murakami for the first time and finding him pretty funny too.
It occurs to me that these are all writers who, while they aren't directly political, have strong views on social issues. Is there some link between comedy and politics? In non-fiction, comedy tends to make political points come across stronger; maybe the same goes for fiction.

[john h]

I think humorous books are a lot harder to pull off than generally recognized. I've read a lot of books that were supposed to be funny that didn't seem very funny at all. An exception is "The Siege of Krishnapur" by J.G. Farrell.

[Flower]

I find Hanif Kureishi hilarious at times! I have found myself laughting out loud a few times reading his books...

His old novel "Buddha of Suburbia" was made into a tv serie some years ago and that gave me a good laught as well...

[Bev Stayart]

During his youth, Mark Twain lived in both Missouri and Iowa.

[My name is red]

A confederacy of dunces is my favourite when it comes to humour.I do love books with a little humour in it.

[ferns_dad]

A few laugh out loud funny writers come to mind: Samuel Beckett, Carson McCullers (sp?), Mark Twain. I'm reading Murakami for the first time and finding him pretty funny too.
It occurs to me that these are all writers who, while they aren't directly political, have strong views on social issues. Is there some link between comedy and politics? In non-fiction, comedy tends to make political points come across stronger; maybe the same goes for fiction.

beckett in watt...

[Daniel del Real]

I am currently reading a book titled The Best English Humour and it's a collection of short stories by English writers. It is always good to rescue Humourous texts as solid pieces of good literature.
This books includes texts by P.G. Wodehouse, Saki, Evelyn Waugh, Tom Sharpe, Roald Dahl, Alan Bennett, Julian Barnes, Martin Amis, Ian McEwan, Douglas Adams and Nick Hornby.
By now, I've just read the first 5 authors and it's been hilarious. The tales by Saki and Roald Dahl are very very good.
I have the curiosity to see how funny can McEwan be, since the books I've read for him are really tragic.
Anyway, a really good collection to smile a little in this hard times.

[Igu Soni]

Nick Hornby.

Please say more about this one, when you are done reading. I watched the movie adaptation(High Fidelity) of one of his books and found it hilarious. Would love to know how he writes.

[miercuri]

I read three books by Hornby, High Fidelity included, and I believe it is the kind of literature one would read when one wants to loosen up a bit. Hornby has a healthy dose of wit and irony which I certainly appreciate. I liked High Fidelity the book better than the film, but I liked the film version of About a Boy better than the book. It's nothing all that special but it cheers me up, so I guess he's worth checking out.

[ferns_dad]

wild boys by burroughs has some very hilarious parts

[Liam]

I can't believe no one's mentioned David Sedaris yet. He's hilariously funny. Do check out his essay-like stories (or his story-like essays, whatever) Barrel Fever, Naked, Holidays on Ice, Me Talk Pretty One Day, Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim, and When You Are Engulfed in Flames, his latest, which I haven't read.

It's all about being Greek, American, gay, part of a big family, exiled from a big family, loving your relatives, hating your relatives, as well as the general suffocation and small-mindedness of Anytown, America. I enjoyed his collections thoroughly (a phrase I often use to express my enthusiasm, I know).

[Jan Mbali]

Your list certainly covers some of the funniest I have read: Sharpe (The Throwback and Porterhouse Blue are my favourites) and of course Dahl, Wodehouse (appeals to everyone - cannot figure out exactly why - perhaps clever butler and brainless aristos does it), Waugh and the unique Saki. Damon Runyon I devoured as a child, purely because he was among the books on my parent's shelves. Recently found Travels with Donkey in the Cevanne by Stevenson hilarious. Find Jerome K. Jerome more irritating than funny, and Thurber similarly so, because both seem to play the same tune in endless variations. There are great novelists who can be extremely funny - Dickens is one - en route, as it were. And then there are the satirists, Swift for me was the greatest, and there are Vonneguts, et al who are hard to pin down. But what I find funniest, are the wonderful scripts you get in the best movies or made for TV series, the gbest of which for me are the scripts written by Ben Alton for Black Adder goes forth - the WW1 in the trenches series. Where wit meets satire meets situational humour, both sharp and rude and crude. "Ball bouncingly funny" to quote one of the characters. And comic poets and singer-poets and stand-up comedians. And the Simpsons at their best. Bless them all for levening our sad lives!

[miercuri]

David Sedaris

Some of my friends keep raving about him. These same people also rave about Josh Kilmer-Purcell's memoir I Am Not Myself These Days, which according to them is supposed to be pretty funny and brilliant. I've had these two names on my list of priorities for almost two years now.

[Igu Soni]

I read three books by Hornby, High Fidelity included, and I believe it is the kind of literature one would read when one wants to loosen up a bit. Hornby has a healthy dose of wit and irony which I certainly appreciate. I liked High Fidelity the book better than the film, but I liked the film version of About a Boy better than the book. It's nothing all that special but it cheers me up, so I guess he's worth checking out.

Thanks. I enjoyed About a Boy the movie, but had no idea it was written by Hornby.
And I just saw yesterday High Fidelity the book in penguin's orange-striped(classic) line. Weird.

[Threetrees]

I am careful about humour to make sure whether I have it or not. Humour is the mirror of your soul, isn't it? I must admit that certain people laugh at me - I immediately see them as those having it. If laugh at them is the same. All the others I call "humour-rumours". They echo me back in the manner alike. It's a battle. They (I) see that there is something funny in what I (they) say or recite but they (I) can't get where humour lies. I don't smile ( or smile but it's much like a laughter - when we smile to people saying "Good morning!" it doesn't mean we laugh at them, does it?) when it comes to humour (or should I?). I laugh when humour comes. I am always serious about it. Nothing can be more serious than this humour. Someone has started this thread, so we'll continue. This branch deserves more attention as it is the strongest one, to my mind, in any language. I'd like to be selective as much and miscellaneous as well. Here we go with the refreshments.

Robert Benchley. One of the explorers (along with the other masters - they will follow in "to be continued...") who had ploughed and cultivated the soil to exhibit this "treasure" of language. As soon as we experience the same things let's laugh with them. Ok?
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As a rule, I try not to look into mirrors any more than is absolutely necessary. Things are depressing enough as they are without my going out of my way to make myself miserable. But every once in a while it is unavoidable. There are certain mirrors in town with which I am brought face to face on occasion and there is nothing to do but make the best of it. I have come to classify them according to the harshness with which they fling the truth into my face. I am unquestionably at my worst in the mirror before which I try on hats. I may have been going along all winter thinking of other things, dwelling on what people tell me is really a splendid spiritual side to my nature, thinking of myself as rather a fine sort of person, not dashing perhaps, but one from whose countenance shines a great light of honesty and courage which is even more to be desired than physical beauty. I rather imagine that little children on the street and grizzled Supreme Court justices out for a walk turn as I pass and say "A fine face. Plain, but fine."

Robert Benchley.
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Has humour died here since 30-Aug-2009, 12:32? Threetrees.