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/lit/ - Literature

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Anonymous Sun Jul 29 15:19:31 2018 No.11538145 [Reply] [Original]

Whats the funniest book you've read?
any authors that do humor in a unique way?

>>	Anonymous Sun Jul 29 15:21:13 2018 No.11538154 Probably >The Important Of Being Earnest

>>	Anonymous Sun Jul 29 15:22:47 2018 No.11538167 Probably >The Importance Of Being Earnest by Wilde

>>	Anonymous Sun Jul 29 15:23:48 2018 No.11538174 >>11538145 Obligatory Confederacy of Dunces, Catch 22, and Flann O'brien posts just to get that shit out of the way. Nabokov is the funniest writer. Check out Pale Fire. Samuel Beckett is a close second.

>>	Anonymous Sun Jul 29 15:24:46 2018 No.11538178 >>11538145 Jorge Ibargüengoitia.

>>	Anonymous Sun Jul 29 15:26:46 2018 No.11538192 Hunter S Thompson's stuff makes me laugh until I can't breathe. Funniest thing of his I ever read was The Kentucky Derby is Decadent and Depraved.

>>	Anonymous Sun Jul 29 15:27:27 2018 No.11538196 >>11538145 Bob Honey Who Just Do Stuff. It's also a literary masterpiece, sorry haters.

>>	Anonymous Sun Jul 29 15:28:22 2018 No.11538202 Wake up sir was pretty funny

>>	Anonymous Sun Jul 29 15:29:23 2018 No.11538212 >>11538167 this, along with Molière and Aristophanes. Seems to me that it's harder for a novel to be funny, than for theatre plays.

>>	Anonymous Sun Jul 29 15:30:16 2018 No.11538215 >>11538202 Based Ames poster.

>>	Anonymous Sun Jul 29 15:31:40 2018 No.11538225 >>11538145 Tristram Shandy is the funniest novel in existence

Anonymous Sun Jul 29 16:16:23 2018 No.11538468

>>11538192
>The Kentucky Derby is Decadent and Depraved.
can confirm is hilarious
>>11538212
>Aristophanes
saw a production of Frogs once and laughed my fucking ass off

yes, Catch 22 is obligs.
He's not really canon but the funniest writer I've read is probably David Sedaris.
John Irving will make you laugh out loud but the same book can make you cry. Beware the ending of Owen Meany.

>>	Anonymous Sun Jul 29 16:18:53 2018 No.11538485 >>11538145 Infinite Jest, I'm pretty sure. William Gaddis' works are all funny as well

>>	Anonymous Sun Jul 29 16:19:16 2018 No.11538486 JR

>>	Anonymous Sun Jul 29 16:45:17 2018 No.11538607 CANDIDE

Anonymous Sun Jul 29 17:09:51 2018 No.11538715

Although it eventually becomes terrifying, Moby Dick is full of shit that makes me laugh out loud. From the early chapters detailing Ishmael and Queequeg's "marriage" to later chapters like A Squeeze of the Hand (Squeezing Sperm with your homies is transcendental) or The Cassock (Priest's Garments are made from Whale Penis lmao), the book is full of humor.

Favorite quote that makes me laugh: "Would that I could keep squeezing that sperm for ever! For now, since by many prolonged, repeated experiences, I have perceived that in all cases man must eventually lower, or at least shift, his conceit of attainable felicity; not placing it anywhere in the intellect or the fancy; but in the wife, the heart, the bed, the table, the saddle, the fire-side, the country; now that I have perceived all this, I am ready to squeeze case eternally. In thoughts of the visions of the night, I saw long rows of angels in paradise, each with his hands in a jar of spermaceti."

>>	Anonymous Sun Jul 29 17:13:33 2018 No.11538736 File: 12 KB, 512x288, images (14).jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google] Alice in Wonderland and through the looking glass

>>	Anonymous Sun Jul 29 19:11:04 2018 No.11539253 >>11538145 Inherent Vice is hilarious, GR too

>>	Anonymous Sun Jul 29 19:33:41 2018 No.11539332 >>11538145 Candide and master and margarita make me laugh wholeheartedly and purely; Kafka's the castle makes me laugh with a side helping of pain.

>>	Anonymous Sun Jul 29 19:34:41 2018 No.11539335 File: 107 KB, 1000x1427, 61Mybph+p1L.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]

>>	Anonymous Sun Jul 29 20:36:15 2018 No.11539596 File: 44 KB, 480x638, wh.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google] >>11538145 werner herzog conversations with paul cronin made me laugh out loud a few times.

>>	Anonymous Sun Jul 29 20:38:10 2018 No.11539607 >>11538167 This one is excellent but my favorite is Three Men in a Boat by Jerome

>>	Anonymous Sun Jul 29 20:40:24 2018 No.11539616 the Divine Comedy of Dante.

Anonymous Sun Jul 29 20:47:50 2018 No.11539646

find me a pomo meme writer who isn't funny
also
Flaubert (ending of Bovary is one of the funniest things I have read; the letters are even more incredible)
McCarthy is very underrated (tfw everyone buys JH a drink after saying he's never seen the preacher)
Faulkner (see ending of AILD)
Obviously Joyce and Beckett
Bernhard

>>	Anonymous Sun Jul 29 21:36:17 2018 No.11539818 >>11538736 Kek, "you are old father Williams" got me good

>>	Anonymous Sun Jul 29 21:41:05 2018 No.11539844 Catch 22 is the only book that has made me actually laugh out loud, but that's probably because I haven't read that many books that are genuinely funny.

>>	Anonymous Sun Jul 29 21:52:58 2018 No.11539886 Dickens is one of the funniest writers in the English language. Every scene with Mr. Skimpole in Bleak House had me dying, reminded me a lot of /lit/ (and myself 2bh)

>>	Anonymous Sun Jul 29 22:28:13 2018 No.11540004 >>11539886 funnier than Pickwick Papers?

>>	Anonymous Sun Jul 29 22:55:44 2018 No.11540093 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy "trilogy" >boo normie get out

>>	Anonymous Sun Jul 29 23:00:03 2018 No.11540109 Gogol and Bulgakov are fairly similar in style and both write very good "high-brow" comedies. Dead Souls and The Master and Margarita are two of my favorite novels, period.

>>	Anonymous Sun Jul 29 23:19:28 2018 No.11540163 >>11538145 Notes from underground, the autistic pettiness of the protagonist is hilarious yet central to the main theme. Also Aristophanes, I personally enjoyed reading Assemblywomen, the modern parallels are a huge bonus as well.

>>	Anonymous Mon Jul 30 01:36:21 2018 No.11540533 >>11540093 nah its pretty funny. people who are obsessed with it are a little lame, but the first two in the series are entertaining enough.

>>	Anonymous Mon Jul 30 03:01:24 2018 No.11540783 >>11538174 “Your talk," I said, "is surely the handiwork of wisdom because not one word of it do I understand.”

Anonymous Mon Jul 30 03:15:32 2018 No.11540813

Dead Souls is hilarious. The beginning of chapter 7 as it transitions from the narrator's monologue into Chichikov waking up makes me laugh my ass off every time.
The Confidence Man is also really funny. Wish more people had read it, I really think it's nearly as good as Moby Dick

Anonymous Mon Jul 30 03:16:24 2018 No.11540816

Dead Souls is hilarious. The beginning of chapter 7 as it transitions from the narrator's monologue into Chichikov waking up makes me laugh my ass off every time.
The Confidence Man is also really funny. Wish more people had read it, I really think it's nearly as good as Moby Dick

>>	Anonymous Mon Jul 30 03:24:42 2018 No.11540829 Don Quijote.

Anonymous Mon Jul 30 04:58:53 2018 No.11541031

>>11538145
Confederacy of Dunces
>“I am at the moment writing a lengthy indictment against our century. When my brain begins to reel from my literary labors, I make an occasional cheese dip.”

>“I suspect that beneath your offensively and vulgarly effeminate façade there may be a soul of sorts. Have you read widely in Boethius?"
"Who? Oh, heavens no. I never even read newspapers."
"Then you must begin a reading program immediately so that you may understand the crises of our age," Ignatius said solemnly. "Begin with the late Romans, including Boethius, of course. Then you should dip rather extensively into early Medieval. You may skip the Renaissance and the Enlightenment. That is mostly dangerous propaganda. Now that I think of it, you had better skip the Romantics and the Victorians, too. For the contemporary period, you should study some selected comic books."
"You're fantastic."
"I recommend Batman especially, for he tends to transcend the abysmal society in which he's found himself. His morality is rather rigid, also. I rather respect Batman.”

>>	Anonymous Mon Jul 30 05:05:28 2018 No.11541049 >>11540533 I'm more obsessed with Douglas Adams as a whole. If you read his essays you can tell he was extremely witty.

>>	Anonymous Mon Jul 30 05:08:20 2018 No.11541059 >>11540829 Yes. I would say Don Quixote, and Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas are the funniest books I've ever read, in totally different ways.

>>	Anonymous Mon Jul 30 11:41:17 2018 No.11541210 >>11540816 what translation?

>>	Anonymous Mon Jul 30 13:07:16 2018 No.11541500 File: 8 KB, 220x230, 1530573988003.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google] >>11541031

>>	Anonymous Mon Jul 30 16:02:26 2018 No.11542281 >>11538145 I always recommend Fool by Christopher Moore. A hilarious retelling of King Lear.

>>	Anonymous Mon Jul 30 16:16:38 2018 No.11542343 >>11538607 This.

Anonymous Mon Jul 30 16:20:42 2018 No.11542361

>funniest novel
God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater - Kurt Vonnegut
>funniest novella
Animal Farm - George Orwell
>funniest play
Waiting for Godot - Samuel Beckett
>funniest non-fiction
The Disaster Artist: My Life Inside The Room, the Greatest Bad Movie Ever Made - Greg Sestero & Tom Bissell

Anonymous Mon Jul 30 16:20:49 2018 No.11542362

>>11541210
Not him, but I read Magarshack and found it hilarious, but it is an old translation.

For what it's worth, I'd stay away from P&V for the more comedic works (Dead Souls, Master and Margarita, etc): their translations seem to be strictly literal and as such lose a lot of the comedy in the process.

>>	Anonymous Mon Jul 30 16:26:00 2018 No.11542381 >>11538145 Finnegans Wake

Anonymous Mon Jul 30 19:06:05 2018 No.11543029

Kafka is very funny in a unique, autistic way. Also, Wittgenstein. In PI, he just randomly throws weird puns in now and then, though most of them probably get lost in translation. For instance, he discusses whether a trunk, which is homonymous with tribe in German ("Stamm"), might have feelings and then he says that a tribe (although he was talking about trees) usually has a leader and that at least the leader must have feelings. And then he goes on with his investigations without acknowledging his stupid joke.

>>	Anonymous Mon Jul 30 19:07:25 2018 No.11543035 Catch-22 made me laugh out loud a few times, which no other book has done to me.

>>	Anonymous Mon Jul 30 19:18:00 2018 No.11543078 >>11538715 Yes to Moby Dick, I had no idea it was going to be funny and ended up laughing every couple of pages.

>>	Anonymous Mon Jul 30 19:21:54 2018 No.11543094 Serious answer: anything by Bill Bryson or Douglas Adams. There's a ton of proper literature with a sense of humour like everyone is mentioning in this thread, but in the quest for actual mirth I've never found anyone funnier than these two.

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