Book That Made You Laugh

Discussion in 'Humor Books' started by sky_pink, May 8, 2004.

  1. maryjaneguitargurl

    maryjaneguitargurl I am just like you.

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    haha porky the pig raping elmo fudd ..i think that was his name but anyways that joke about rape is funny.. ws funny ahah
     
  2. prairiepixie

    prairiepixie Member

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    ~*hey ~ absolutely loved so many of the beforementioned ~ tom robbins makes me pee my pants so gosh darned funny.... heehee*
     
  3. SunLion

    SunLion Lifetime Supporter Lifetime Supporter

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    Some great ones have been mentioned. The book "Being There" (which was also a movie) is also quite funny. I forget the author's name, but he's from eastern Europe, as I recall, and his book "Blind Date" is a bit darker.

    Overall, I'd say about 90% of all the laughter I experience comes from stories linked from fark.com, which exists primarily as links to the funniest new stuff on the Internet.
     
  4. Polka Dots and Strip

    Polka Dots and Strip Member

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    Adolf Hitler: My Part in his Downfall by Spike Milligan has to be one of the funniest books ever.

    And along with everyone else: Hitchhikers guide to the galaxy is genius
     
  5. bukowskifan4768

    bukowskifan4768 Member

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    If you love his books you should catch the movie that just opened recently. You can also pick up a cd from it with readings from http://www.bukowskicd.com/.

    outta here
     
  6. tiki_god7

    tiki_god7 Member

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    sideways stories from wayside school, I remembe getting in trouble for laughing out loud in third grade
     
  7. weep

    weep Senior Member

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    The Giggler Treatment by Roddy Doyle!

    Seagulls man, seagulls!!!
     
  8. velvet

    velvet Banned

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    Basically everything by Douglas Adams is briliant.. I was shocked when I found out he died.. it's such a loss! I loved Hitchhikers Guide ofcourse.. but Last Chance to See (his journey with a biologist to countries to see endagerd species) and The Salmon of Doubt (all the stuff that was found on his computer after he suddenly died.. short stories, interviews, unfinished works.. great collection) are both great books as well.. I can really recommend them. The latter has an introduction by Stephen Fry by the way.

    Oh, I didn't read through all the posts in this thread because it are many.. so sorry if someone already said something very similar!

    I just finished Alice in Wonderland from Lewis Carrol, which is pretty amazing as well, though not 'haha-funny' :)
     
  9. Ole_Goat

    Ole_Goat Member

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    Modern Manners (An Etiquette Book for Rude People) by P.J. O'Rourke

    Chapter 7, Drinking, Alcohol and Young People:

    Alcohol is very important for young people because it provides a sort of "liquid adulthood." If you are young and you drink a great deal it will spoil your health, slow your mind, make you fat--in other words turn you into an adult.
     
  10. FreakyJoeMan

    FreakyJoeMan 100% Batshit Insane

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    God Bless You, Dr. Kervorkian by Kurt Vonneguet. It's a series of conversations that Kurt had with dead people at the Pearly Gates.

    Starship Titanic by Douglas Adams. My first introduction to Adams, I read it when I was about eleven, I thought it was very entertaining, and deafinately left me wanting to read Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.
     
  11. Moominpappa

    Moominpappa Member

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    In alphabetical order, because

    a) I'm anally retentive
    b) I'm looking at my bookshelves as I write this

    Joan Aitkin - Arabel & Mortimer
    George MacDonald Fraser - The Flashman series and Pyrates
    Kenneth Grahame - The Wind in the Willows
    Eric Idle - Hello Sailor
    Garrison Keillor - Radio Romance
    Spike Milligan - The Goon Show scripts, Vols 1 - 7 of his autobiography, Puckoon
    Graham Oakley - The Church Mice childrens books
    Terry Pratchett - personal favourites are "Guards, Guards". "Equal Rites","Wyrd Sisters", "Witches Abroad","Soul Music","Men at Arms", "Interesting Times, "Carple Jugulum", "The Fifth Elephant" and "Thief of Time". The characters are all now like old friends, - I read the new books just to catch up on the gossip.
    Ronald Searle - Down with skool

    And upstairs beside the kids bed will be - "Theres a hippopotamus on our roof eating cake" and "Mog on Fox Night", as well as the Asterix & Obelix stories, ("I'm not fat, I'm just big-boned")

    I've tried not to mention all the cartoon anthologies by Schulz, (Peanuts\Snoopy) :) and Larsson, (Farside) as well as Steve Bell, (known to UK readers for his "If" cartoons), or tie ins like Monty pythons Papperbook.

    Foe me, Hitch-hikers guide worked better as the original BBC radio broadcasts - listen if you get a chance. They still sound funny and fresh today. Conversely, I saw the film of Catch 22 first, hated it and that coloured my reading of the book - paricularly as I'd read both Spike Milligan's first two volumes of his war-time experiences, and MASH and all three books seemed to convey a similar message so much better.

    There you have it, a mixture of laugh out loud and whimsy, gags with punchlines, observational humour and whimsy - enjoy!
     
  12. cauan

    cauan Member

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    It's something like:

    How to educate your parents...it's very sarcastic and ironic.
    It's in Portuguese and i don't remember the author.
     
  13. Silverstar

    Silverstar Member

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    Hide and seek -Dennis Potter-
     
  14. BraveSirRubin

    BraveSirRubin Members

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    "Zholtaya Strela" (The Yellow Arrow) By Vladimir Peleven.

    Wonderfully psychological, philosophical, and also yet, so bloody funny book.




    "Master and Margarita" By Bulgakov.... a worthy mention.
     
  15. cherryiceangel

    cherryiceangel Member

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    Most books by Edward Gorey...they crack me up everytime I read them.
     
  16. FreakyJoeMan

    FreakyJoeMan 100% Batshit Insane

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    Oh yeah, Big Trouble by uhhh...I forget
     
  17. OSF

    OSF SeƱor ******

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    Fuunniest book I have read: Naomi Klein's No Logo
     
  18. hippielaura

    hippielaura Member

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    The funniest book for me would have to be 'Book' by Whoopi Goldberg. She cracks me up!
     
  19. bjorky

    bjorky Member

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    I'm going to have to read those again! Thanks for the reminder.
     
  20. SunLion

    SunLion Lifetime Supporter Lifetime Supporter

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    I'm presently re-reading the book A Man In Full by Tom Wolfe, better known for Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test, The Right Stuff, and Bonfire Of The Vanities. It is hilariously funny, joyously stuffed with irony, and though the plot isn't simple to explain, it's not at all hard to follow. It's my favorite of anything I've read by Wolfe.

    Tom Wolfe loves to show the downfall of the mighty. In this fictional story, the main character is Charlie Crocker, a millionaire Atlanta redneck whose empire is beginning to collapse. Faced with a funny but brutal trashing by a bank who wants repayments on loans, he has to make a drastic decision- and the result is the layoff of employees.

    At the other end of the spectrum is a struggling working man with kids, just trying to get by and make good decisions in life- and he is laid off, has a really bad day, bad luck, and ends up in prison. His description of prison life is creepy and undoubtably rather accurate.

    While this poor character is in jail, in constant fear of rape, unable to call home to his wife who says she "will wait for him" because prison gangs control the phones, the elite of the city champion a homosexual prison art exhibit, showing their tolerance.

    Add into this some serious racial content (one character is an African American businessman, Roger White II, who is nicknamed "Roger 2 White," some political content, throw-away relationships, an arrogant sports superstar chased by (or raped by, depending on which story you believe) white daughter of Atlanta's wealthiest bigot and all sorts of other things, and you have seriously funny material.

    In the end, Charlie Crocker crosses paths with the young man whose life was pretty nearly destroyed by his business decisions. By then, the young man is becoming obsessed with Greek Stoic philosophy, and Crocker is recovering from surgery. What happens is surprising, unless of course you've ever read anything by Tom Wolfe!

    I think "A Man In Full" is Wolfe's latest work; it's probably his best, too. I strongly recommend it if you like the sort of humor that's a bit elaborate, but well constructed and brilliantly executed.
     

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