Maggie's Farm

We are a commune of inquiring, skeptical, politically centrist, capitalist, anglophile, traditionalist New England Yankee humans, humanoids, and animals with many interests beyond and above politics. Each of us has had a high-school education (or GED), but all had ADD so didn't pay attention very well, especially the dogs. Each one of us does "try my best to be just like I am," and none of us enjoys working for others, including for Maggie, from whom we receive neither a nickel nor a dime. Freedom from nags, cranks, government, do-gooders, control-freaks and idiots is all that we ask for.

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Friday, October 20. 2023

Books that keep you laughing

What books or authors can keep you laughing out loud, even if you feel grumpy?


My personal top two are Carl Hiassen and the Jeeves books. Also, Peter deVries.


What about you? 




Posted by Bird Dog in The Culture, "Culture," Pop Culture and Recreation at 14:53 | Comments (53) | Trackbacks (0)

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Bless Me Father by Neil Boyd
#1 Becky on 2023-10-20 15:38 (Reply)
Had to bust out Bela Fleck doing Cripple Creek for morale maintenance, the Eddie Van Halen of banjo.
The dirty limerick books is pretty funny, obviously not G rated.
Some Chaucer or Shakespeare, the Greeks myths have some funny parts, 100 Years, The Battle of Kursk, these are a few of my favorites.
Not Sure on the Dante's Inferno LARP we are living through but no logic or reasoning certainly is hell.
#2 Fractured Kaleidoscope on 2023-10-20 15:42 (Reply)
Anything by Patrick McManus.
#3 benniebob (Link) on 2023-10-20 16:29 (Reply)
Plus one for Pat McManus.

I first read "A Fine and Pleasant Misery" while on a cabin floor waiting for dawn to head out for 10 days into the Boundary Waters. I had to strangle myself to keep the laughter from waking the others.

An incredible cast of characters over the years, including Rancid Crabtree, and of course Strange (formerly Stranger) the dog.
#3.1 Blackwing1 on 2023-10-21 13:15 (Reply)
PJ O'Rourke and Dave Barry
#4 Assistant Village Idiot on 2023-10-20 16:32 (Reply)
Anything by Terry Prachett.
#5 JLawson (Link) on 2023-10-20 16:48 (Reply)
I travelled for work for 15 years, flying nearly one million miles in the process. I can't count the number of times I laughed until I cried reading Discworld novels on airplanes, to the point that fellow passengers would ask me about the books, hoping for a similar respite from their cares and woes. I've gone thru almost all the late Sir Terry's work now, but reread them as special treats, especially the Tiffany Aching series.
#5.1 Bruce Abbott on 2023-10-21 07:48 (Reply)
"A Sort of a Saga" by Bill Mauldin

The only book that made me not just laugh to myself, but actually laugh out loud while being by myself.
#6 John Hyland on 2023-10-20 17:10 (Reply)
Ogden Nash still makes me laugh
#7 Robert Jones on 2023-10-20 18:05 (Reply)
(from memory, "The Hunter")

"The hunter crouches in his blind,
'Neath camouflage of ever kind.
And conjures up a quacking noise,
To lend allure to his decoys.
This grown up man, with pluck and luck,
Is hoping to...outwit a duck."
#7.1 Blackwing1 on 2023-10-21 13:21 (Reply)
Confederacy of Dunces, John Kennedy Toole
#8 3AXBAT on 2023-10-20 18:06 (Reply)
Donald Westlake, especially the Dortmunder books. Thank you, Bleeding Heart Sisters of Eternal Misery.
#9 Jerryskids on 2023-10-20 18:27 (Reply)
The Peter Principle, especially when I'm feeling grumpy.
#10 Slow Learner on 2023-10-20 18:34 (Reply)
Anything by Jean Shepard.
#11 Sixtyville on 2023-10-20 19:04 (Reply)
yes indeed. He is good.
#11.1 feeblemind on 2023-10-21 14:25 (Reply)
Also, Daniel Gallery's Navy humor books.
#12 Sixtyville on 2023-10-20 19:11 (Reply)
Cryptonomicon, Neil Stephenson
#13 eeyore on 2023-10-20 19:16 (Reply)
“What advice do you, as the youngest American fighting man ever to win both the Navy Cross and the Silver Star, have for any young Marines on their way to Guadalcanal?"
Shaftoe doesn't have to think very long...
"Just kill the one with the sword first."
"Ah...Smarrrt—you target them because they're the officers, right?"
"No, fuckhead!" Shaftoe yells. "You kill 'em because they've got fucking swords! You ever had anyone running at you waving a fucking sword?"

I think this was Stephenson’s most brilliant book, although I love his other stuff, as well.
#13.1 Chadd Newman on 2023-10-20 19:55 (Reply)
Candide by Voltaire of course. The lady with a buttock lost in an castle attack is my favorite character.
#14 Ugalygirl on 2023-10-20 20:24 (Reply)
Here is a link to confederacy of dunces on YouTube read by someone who narrated the book brilliantly https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iQudlUHN7hU&t=27s

someone mentioned gene shepherd and I happen to agree but I would also include Jerome K Jerome 's three men in a boat

I would also recommend 14,000 things to be happy about by Barbara Ann kipfer it's not a comedy book and she is not a comic author but the book will definitely lift your spirits
#15 Robert Moffett (Link) on 2023-10-20 21:00 (Reply)
yes, three men in a boat!
#15.1 Tom Huddle (Link) on 2023-10-22 13:31 (Reply)
Alice in Wonderland.
#16 Erasmus on 2023-10-20 21:11 (Reply)
Mark Twain’s Roughing It. A few favorite parts:

- The visit to Salt City
- The old man, who when he was the right amount of drunk, would tell a meandering story that always started with a few words about his father and a goat, leapt to topic after topic, none of which were ever resolved, including a tale about a man who worked in a carpet mill and died when he got caught in the machinery that wove him into the carpet. His widow decided it was best to roll up the carpet and bury him in it, but unfortunately, the local church was too narrow, so the carpet had to extend through two side windows.

Eventually, the old man drifts off into a happy sleep mid story.

Another incident occurred when heavy rains caused a farm on a hillside to slide on top of the next farm down the hill. The entire town turned out to attend the trial to decide which farmer had rights to the land.
#17 Rosco on 2023-10-20 22:35 (Reply)
My cousin told me that her initial teaching assignment was with what today would have been called special ed students. One thing she did to capture their interest was to read to them from Roughing It. A number of her students read Roughing It on their own-- to the complete surprise of the principal and other teachers.
#17.1 Gringo on 2023-10-21 13:38 (Reply)
Jenny Lawson- Let’s Pretend This Never Happened (A Mostly True Mamoir) Laugh out loud funny!!
#18 AIM on 2023-10-20 23:38 (Reply)
Three Men in a Boat (To Say Nothing of the Dog), Jerome K. Jerome.
#19 Thomas Doubting (Link) on 2023-10-20 23:49 (Reply)
One of our favorites!
#19.1 LP on 2023-10-21 17:01 (Reply)
Jeeves and Uncle Fred

The Hitchhiker books

Patrick McManus—he wrote laugh-out-loud funny essays about hunting, fishing, camping, and growing up dirt poor in Depression-era Idaho.

All the classic humorists already mentioned—that stuff is classic for a reason.

He’s not normally thought of as a humorist, especially now that he’s into pain-wracked, Trump-deranged old age, but Stephen King, of all people, slipped a comic horror story, “The Sun Dog,” into his collection Four Past Midnight. It’s about a con man who has been selling fake psychic artifacts, spirit photographs and such, for decades. Then he comes into (stolen) possession of a REAL psychic artifact, a camera that takes pictures of a deadly parallel universe—and he can’t GIVE the damned thing away, even as it becomes increasingly clear that his life depends on doing so. This sounds grim just in this bare-bones plot summary, but the way it’s told had me laughing through 7/8 of it.
#20 Princess Cutekitten on 2023-10-21 00:04 (Reply)
R.M. Koster's "The Dissertation". Astonishing ...
#21 Dex Quire (Link) on 2023-10-21 05:47 (Reply)
Erma Bombeck is hands down the funniest author I have ever read. My kids know when I’m reading one of her books because it sounds like I’m crying! When I read her I’m laughing till tears roll down my face!
Probably my favorite is titled something like ’when you look like your drivers license it’s time to go home’ .
Bombeck is without a doubt the funniest-read aloud author I’ve ever read.
Xdr
#22 Xdr on 2023-10-21 07:35 (Reply)
Title of the Bombeck book is: ‘When you look like your passport photo, it’s time to go home.
HILARIOUS.
#22.1 Xdr on 2023-10-21 07:39 (Reply)
One of my favorite Bombeck lines was about the women in her kaffeeklatsch group who had nothing to contribute to the conversation- the proverbial bump on the log. She was included in the group because she was the only one who could find the car in the parking lot. That comes up every time I have difficulty finding the car in the parking lot.

Good suggestions from everyone.
#22.2 Gringo on 2023-10-21 13:34 (Reply)
I just turned 64 and FINALLY got a decent driver’s license photo. All my previous ones made me look like a female child molester, if there is such a thing. So never give up hope—your next driver’s license photo may actually resemble you!
#22.3 Princess Cutekitten on 2023-10-24 00:54 (Reply)
Roughing it by Mark Twain, three men in a boat by Jerome K Jerome, and definitely Wodehouse books with Jeeves
#23 Eric Peterson on 2023-10-21 07:42 (Reply)
Kingsley Amis, Lucky Jim
#24 Bryan on 2023-10-21 08:49 (Reply)
Mark Twain's Letters From the Earth and A Pen Warmed Up in Hell.
#25 John Fisher on 2023-10-21 08:51 (Reply)
Haven't read them in years, but the series of MASH books were laugh out loud funny.
#26 Bob D on 2023-10-21 10:20 (Reply)
"It Takes A Village Idiot" by Jim Mullen.

I'll often chuckle when I read a funny book, but this one made me laugh out loud, over and over. It's the story of the author, a proud Manhattanite, whose life makes a 180 when his wife buys a fixer-upper weekend home in rural upstate New York. There is the standard fish out of water stuff, of course, but his (always affectionate) description of the locals is an absolute hoot. As a rural dweller myself, I recognize every single one of those people. The book is funny, insightful, and sometimes poignant too.
#27 VT Farmer on 2023-10-21 10:33 (Reply)
Catch 22, the book. The movie was mediocre. Also any of the PJ O'Rourke books.
#28 indyjonesouthere on 2023-10-21 11:08 (Reply)
Many, many years ago when I was young I worked as a psychiatric attendant in a mental hospital. One night while alone in the nursing station I read Catch 22. I still remember the pain from laughing so hard and chuckle at the thought.
#28.1 Capt Craig (Link) on 2023-10-21 17:09 (Reply)
The Flashman series (by George MacDonal Fraser). Historical fiction that is educational as well as hilarious,
#29 Scooter T on 2023-10-21 11:31 (Reply)
The Koran.
#30 Maniac on 2023-10-21 11:41 (Reply)
I can't believe I forgot to mention the hitchhiker's guide to the Galaxy. I would place it at the top. Absolutely brilliant all the way through. I'm also surprised no one else mentioned it.
#31 Robert Moffett (Link) on 2023-10-21 13:43 (Reply)
The House of God. By Samuel Shem.
#32 Old MD on 2023-10-21 22:15 (Reply)
Three Men in a Boat by Jerome K. Jerome.
#33 Fred Z on 2023-10-22 10:11 (Reply)
Evelyn Waugh's Decline and Fall probably the funniest but Scoop and Black Mischief as well.
#34 Tom Huddle (Link) on 2023-10-22 13:33 (Reply)
The Dog Who Wouldn't Be, by Farley Mowatt, reputed to be Canada's greatest writer
#35 Gwynne on 2023-10-22 17:39 (Reply)
I don't know if his dog could actually climb ladders, but it makes a good story.
#35.1 Gringo on 2023-10-22 17:49 (Reply)
Mark Twain for me. I remember one quote from The Innocents Abroad where he related a camel got hold of pages of his written accounts of his travels for his paper back home. He said even the camel found parts very hard to swallow.
#36 Rand on 2023-10-22 19:47 (Reply)
Dan Jenkins. Dead Solid Perfect, Semi-Tough and others. And...this name may bring some jeers, but Christopher Buckley's early stuff, like Little Green Men and Thank You for Smoking was very sharp and funny.
#37 Poboy on 2023-10-22 20:19 (Reply)
Why not? Patrick McManus’s dog Strange climbed a tree 🌳.
#38 Princess Cutekitten on 2023-10-22 21:49 (Reply)
Malcolm Bradbury's Why Come to Slaka? is a guidebook for visitors to a fictional East Bloc country, loosely based on Communist Romania.
#39 PubliusII on 2023-10-23 00:33 (Reply)
Michael Malone, Handling Sin
Tibor Fischer, The Thought Gang
#40 Donald Wacome (Link) on 2023-10-25 13:06 (Reply)

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