Who started making fantasy funny?

[Ken]

I love funny fantasy. Terry Pratchett is one of my favourite authors... he definitely influenced my writing.

I am also a fan of Harry Harrison (who remembers the Stainless Steel Rat?), Douglas Adams and Grant Naylor (writers of Red Dwarf).

But who started making fantasy funny? I'd love to discover some new (old) authors that I have maybe missed.

[Terri]

Piers Anthony (Xanth), Christopher Stasheff, Robert Asprin come to mind...

[Kevin]

Terry Pratchett

[Anna-louise]

for me like Kevin it was Terry Pratchett :)

[Tad]

For me it was Piers Anthony and Xanth. I think I got the first 3 books as a Science Fiction Book Club edition. While not humor, I also loved his Blue Adept series.

[Kate]

Harvard Lampoon wtih Bored of the Rings: A Parody was my first. Alan Dean Foster did some very humorous stuff in his Spellsinger series. After that, I discovered Aspirin's Myth books and Pratchett.

[Mosca]

How about Lewis Carroll?

How about Jonathan Swift?

How about Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra, author of Don Quixote?

And there's always Petronius Arbiter, author of The Satyricon?

Comedy has always been part of fantasy. Thank Heavens!

[S.J.]

How about Paul Dale with "The Dark Lord's Handbook"? THAT was extremely funny!

[Paul]

S.J. wrote: "How about Paul Dale with "The Dark Lord's Handbook"? THAT was extremely funny!"

Glad you thought so but I can't claim to have started making fantasy funny as Ken asked. I cut my teeth on Pratchett as a student when his first books appeared. Mort remains my favourite. I read too many Xanth books to remember all the wonderful/appalling puns. Bored of the Rings also did the rounds on campus.

Neil Gaiman shouldn't be overlooked.

[Barbm1020]

There was Jonathan Swift - remember Gulliver's Travels? Also a very funny movie with Jack Black as Gulliver.

[Ken]

In my mind Terry Pratchett is one of the very best, but he's certainly not the first. I'm not sure of all the dates here... Harry Harrison was early 60s and was, I think, one of the first funny men of the modern genre.

Going back a while, Don Quixote is a good call, so is Lewis Carroll if the Don isn't fantasy enough. I haven't read Petronius, but I strongly suspect I wouldn't find it funny!

Now, I'm off to try some of the suggestions.

[Traci]

Don't forget Gary Gygax. I would also throw Fritz Leiber into the mix. I wouldn't consider his stuff laugh out loud funny like some of these other authors, but his Lankhmar series is definitely light hearted and if you should give them a try.

[Forrest]

Subtly Funny: Fritz Leiber
Punny: Piers Anthony
Laugh out Loud Funny: Terry Pratchett
Self Parody Funny: Michael Moorcock

[Joseph]

Also Thorne Smith, who wrote Topper and The Night Life of the Gods, amongst other things, and L. Sprague de Camp's The Complete Compleat Enchanter.

And there's always A Midsummer Night's Dream . . .

[Barbm1020]

@Forrest, thanks for mentioning Fritz Leiber - how could I have forgotten?

[Shereen]

Forrest mentioned my three favourites:
Funny: Fritz Leiber (smart)
Punny: Piers Anthony (youthful)
Laugh out Loud Funny: Terry Pratchett (heartwarming)

[[deleted user]]

Tolkien's Farmer Giles of Ham is very amusing. I would also recommend Tom Holt.

[L. L.]

The first funny fantasy I recall reading was Piers Anthony's Xanth series. Terry Pratchett's Discworld novels quickly followed.

[Will]

Can't believe no one has mentioned Robert Rankin or Tom Holt, yet...

[A.L.]

Barbm1020 wrote: "There was Jonathan Swift - remember Gulliver's Travels? Also a very funny movie with Jack Black as Gulliver."
From what i seen that was a terrible film that misses the point of the political satire, but to be fair I have only seen a bit.

Yes Gullivers travels is funny but not in the laugh out loud way of Pratchett.

[Martin]

Traci wrote: "Don't forget Gary Gygax. I would also throw Fritz Leiber into the mix. I wouldn't consider his stuff laugh out loud funny like some of these other authors, but his Lankhmar series is definitely lig..."

I'd agree that they are fun to read and light-hearted, but I don't think they intended to be funny.
Terry Pratchett set out to write a "parody" of fantasy, in his disc-world series.

I agree that Jonathan Swift shouldn't be forgotten, but that's a bit of a generational thing. Gulliver's Travels is a political satire, which is rarely written today, but the Daily show comes to mind as a non-literal work. Satire was a way to protest current policies and leaders without doing so directly, which was a dangerous thing to do.
The question would be where you draw the line for fantasy (which is were these type of discussions tend to end up). Is a A Modest Proposal fantasy or what would you call it?

[Ken]

I'd like to refer back to the original question... who started making fantasy funny?

Will I start a poll using some of the suggestions here? Let democracy decide?

[Wastrel]

I haven't read him yet myself, but I'm assured that Aristophanes is still laugh-out-loud funny in places, even if you don't understand all the satire and celebrity-bashing.

Some of his plays involve a high degree of surrealism, if not outright fantasy. In Wasps, for instance, an old man trapped in his house by a giant net to save him from his addiction to voluntary jury service is able to turn into smoke to get out the chimney; later, he presides over a court case in which one dog sues another, calling household items (eg a cheese-grater, a pestle) as witnesses, before finally appealing to the judge by bringing in cute crying puppies. Other plays are more outright fantasies: Frogs sees the god Dionysus travelling through Hades to recover the soul of Euripedes, while Birds sees an Athenian inspire all the birds of the world to make a giant city in the sky.

[Michael]

For me it's Neil Gaiman and Christopher Moore they are wildly entertaining, and I think we need need more "light hearted fantasy" as it is escapism afterall.

[JohnViril]

For me it was Piers Anthony's "A Spell for Chameleon", which might have been the 4th fantasy author I read after Tolkien, Terry Brooks and Stephen R. Donaldson.

[Debbie's Spurts (D.A.)]

How far back do we get to go? Petronius? Or just the post 1950 books?

[Christopher]

Is humor less prevalent in fantasy as a genre in comparison to humor in other genres? It seems like most fantasy errs a bit too much on the solemn side of things, whereas its pretty easy to find humor sprinkled around in genres like mystery, thriller, etc.

[Amanda]

i dont know bout that one I mean Anne McCaffery had humor with in her books and so does her son only he adds a military side to it all

[DavidO]

Mosca wrote: "How about Lewis Carroll?

How about Jonathan Swift?

How about Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra, author of Don Quixote?

And there's always Petronius Arbiter, author of The Satyricon?

Comedy has alway..."

You, sir, win the thread, lol

[Michael]

Christopher wrote: "Is humor less prevalent in fantasy as a genre in comparison to humor in other genres? It seems like most fantasy errs a bit too much on the solemn side of things, whereas its pretty easy to find humor sprinkled around in genres like mystery, thriller, etc."

From many of the books I've seen I would say there is some truth in this.

[Christopher]

Michael wrote: "Christopher wrote: "Is humor less prevalent in fantasy as a genre in comparison to humor in other genres? It seems like most fantasy errs a bit too much on the solemn side of things, whereas its pr..."

It's an interesting reflection on fantasy (or perhaps those who write fantasy). I'd like to see more new humorous fantasy, but they're few and far between. Some new Pratchetts would be nice...

[[deleted user]]

Christopher wrote: "Michael wrote: "Christopher wrote: "Is humor less prevalent in fantasy as a genre in comparison to humor in other genres? It seems like most fantasy errs a bit too much on the solemn side of things..."

Pratchett still tells about very serious subjects, and very bad things happen to good people in his books. I would like to see something similar to first several books of Robert Lynn Asprin Myth books.

[Jon Snow]

Cmhepp wrote: "Definitely the "Myth" books by Robert Asprin were my introduction to fantasy with humour. And on a side note, I know it's science fiction but " The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" is still great..."

Neil Gaiman and Jim Butcher for me.

Cmhepp, you can win the new Myth book here:
http://bestfantasybooks.com/blog/give...

[Michael]

I like a "serious" book with some doses of humor. Think of it as drama with some clever funny lines more than a comedy with a laugh track all along the way.

[Jon Snow]

Michael wrote: "I like a "serious" book with some doses of humor. Think of it as drama with some clever funny lines more than a comedy with a laugh track all along the way."

Dresden Files by Jim Butcher is like that for me

[JohnViril]

I think Gulliver's Travel's qualifies as epic fantasy/comedy. Great satire before fantasy was recognized as a genre

[[deleted user]]

What about David Eddings? While not really laugh out loud funny, The Belgariad and some of his other works are pretty humourous.

[Bryan]

Jack Vance, man. Try reading Tales of the Dying Earth: The Dying Earth/The Eyes of the Overworld/Cugel's Saga/Rhialto the Marvellous without laughing out loud. I wasn't able to.

[Joseph]

And James Branch Cabell's books -- Figures of Earth, The Silver Stallion, etc. -- although they're more of the cynical/bitter school.

[Bruce]

L. Sprague de Camp is the man who added humor to modern fantasy and sci. fi. "Rogue Queen," is one of my all time favorites for humorous fantasy. Or the complete "Goblin Tower," trilogy. Or any of his "Krishna," novels. None of these are sidesplitting laughter books, but they do keep you chuckling at events.

[Bryan]

Joseph wrote: "And James Branch Cabell's books -- Figures of Earth, The Silver Stallion, etc. -- although they're more of the cynical/bitter school."

I read Jurgen by him, which was also really funny.

[Toni]

I would agree with Mosca's post, that funny has always been a part of fantasy (Aristophanes, of course, is pretty old, but Jonathan Swift and Cervantes are certainly well known examples even in our days, and Lewis Carroll too). For me, i enjoyed Douglas Adams (but he should count as Sci-Fi, not Fantasy, I'd say), and i dearly love Terry Pratchett -actually, he is the one why i started reading fantasy beyond Tolkien... Then, there is a German author, Walter Moers (for example The City of Dreaming Books (Zamonia 3) ), who writes hilarious books, many of which are well-suited for children, but some still are enjoyable by the adult reader.
Then, this leads me to the assumption, that funny fantasy in many cases is supposed to be "children's fantasy", as happens with the amazing Artemis Fowl series by Eoin Colfer (Who finished the final volume of The hitchhikers guide by Douglas Adams), but also with the Bartimaeus trilogy by Jonathan Stroud. Maybe adults are supposed to be more serious and thus have only serious fantasy to read? Thanks to Sir Terry Pratchett then, for changing that.

[Doug]

Ross wrote: "What about David Eddings? While not really laugh out loud funny, The Belgariad and some of his other works are pretty humourous."

What is funny about Eddings is that he somehow managed to get paid to write the same series twice. I mean the Belgariad et al, and the Ellenium et al are basically the same series.

In both, a party of heroes go on an epic quest to find a blue gem (orb of aldur vs. blue rose).

Both parties have a "rogue" (silk and talon)

In both cases, the protagonist ultimately must travel east to the "evil empire" to slay an evil god (torak vs. Azash)

Certain characters (Sephronia and Polgra for example) are virtually identical.

Good work if you can get it I guess. I bought all twelve books plus the two add ons, so who am I to complain.

[Daniel]

there's some good in-jokes in Ovid

:)

[Baelor]

Daniel wrote: "there's some good in-jokes in Ovid

:)"

The Greek elegists centuries prior were one of Ovid's major influences. So at least that far back. :P