Funniest book you've ever read...

I've definitely got your back in this brawl, F_B.

 

I'll second both of Ragu's recommendations but particularly Tom Sharpe since pretty much everyone knows Hiassen. And Sharpe is laugh out loud, gut clutching funny

"Wilt" is fabulously funny and a great anti-academic satire but "Blott on the Landscape" is equally so. BBC made a mini-series of the latter I believe.

I would be surprised if any of this stuff is still in print.

 

Wodehouse has no peer. Alan Coren. Patrick McManus, even if "the outdoors" for you is walking from the front door to your car. And how quickly we forget: Dave Barry.

 

After thinking about this thread for an hour, or so, I don't think think I've ever read a funny book.

 

Sedaris is the funniest guy I've read. Rooster at the Hitchin' Post made me cry in a Barnes & Noble and that was before they asked me to stop disturbing people with my laughter.

To add a couple to the "book" list by my favorite author:

"A Prayer for Owen Meany" by John Irving. It's hilarious in spots.

The World According to Garp. Funny as hell throughout.

 

One of my favorites.

And ... has anyone read either of Chelsea Handler's books?

 

Mr Himself,

At Swim Two Birds was a bit beyond me but almost everything else in the FO'B/MnaG canon is great/hysterical. Best of Myles isn't the worst place to start ... just the notion that he was knocking off all his columns getting lousy drunk on stroke-of-noon pints gets me laughing.

The Ferris book was great.

o-<

 

And doing it while still holding a 9-5 -- well, a 9-12:30 -- in the Irish civil service.

 

Mr Himself,

Precisely.

o-<

 

i know: this is a bit off-track. but timothy ferriss' "coming of age in the milky way" is filled with so many over-the-top loony personalities -- tycho brahe, johannes kepler -- that i found myself giggling out loud throughout. you've got to have a great touch to make a history of stargazing hilarious, but ferriss does it.

 

The BBC did do a mini-series of Blott, and a movie version of 'Wilt' was made with British comedy duo Mel Smith and Griff Rhys Jones in the two lead roles.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0097891/

Those who are fans of Wodehouse might want to look into the BBC Radio recordings done with Michael Hordern as Jeeves and Richard Briers as Bertie Wooster. I grew up listening to those, and they are spectacularly well done.

Here's a link if anyone's interested.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Code-Woosters-Audio-P-G-Wodehouse/dp/1846071364

 

Waiter Rant