It Made I Larf!

[Philip]

After a rather kind reviewer said that she had been moved to laugh out loud on a bus whilst reading one of my books, I wondered what books/stories have made you laugh out loud?

I would cite "The Hot Box", a short story by Patrick Campbell as a story I can't read without chortling.

[Kath]

Not a story, but Douglas Adams' The Meaning of Liff. I was uncontrollably helpless - more than I usually am, I mean.

[Jud]

Does giggling count as laughing out loud?

[Philip]

Jud (Disney Diva) wrote: "Does giggling count as laughing out loud?"

I think we can allow giggling ;-)

[Jud]

Agatha Christie frequently makes me giggle

[David]

Oh, far too many to list.

A coule of unusual ones though: Walk Don't Walk

Walk, Don't Walk by Gordon Williams, a writer more famous for The Siege of Trencher's Farm, made into a film known as Straw Dogs.

Walk, Don't Walk though is very funny.

Another is Q Clearance Q Clearance by Peter Benchley another very funny book, this time by the bloke who wrote Jaws.

[Philip]

Jud (Disney Diva) wrote: "Agatha Christie frequently makes me giggle"

Really? It's been a while since I read any.

[Philip]

Ignite wrote: "Not a story, but Douglas Adams' The Meaning of Liff. I was uncontrollably helpless - more than I usually am, I mean."

Douglas Adams was fantastic in all respects, although I've never been able to get to grips with Dirk Gently.

[Jud]

Yes! They are so old fashioned and subtly racist/sexist (it's the odd comment here and there is just hilarious)

[Philip]

David wrote: "Oh, far too many to list.

A coule of unusual ones though: Walk Don't Walk

Walk, Don't Walk by Gordon Williams, a writer more famous for The Siege of Trencher's Farm, made into a film known as Str..."

I'll have to check those out. In another place, David reminded me of the cheese story in Three Men in a Boat, which has to be one of the funniest things ever written.

[David]

Oh, Guy Bellamy The Nudists is another funny one. In fact, most of his books if you can get hold of them.

Anything by: Tom Sharpe, Alan Coren, David Nobbs, Peter Tinniswood, Tom Holt, Stephen Potter.

[T4bsF (Call me Flo)]

by Emma Kennedy The Tent, the Bucket and Me

by Sue Townsend The Queen and I

Both these books made me lol!! :0)))

[Jud]

Twilight had me laughing but not in the way I think you mean...

[Gingerlily - The Full Wild]

The Theatrical Tapes of Leonard Thynn

This book had me in tears of laughter. I was sitting in the middle of a shopping centre reading it and the climax was so utterly absurd I could barely breathe.

[Jim]

PG Wodehouse is the latest author to have me laughing out loud

[David]

Oh, yes. Wodehouse - great stuff. Evelyn Waugh too.
Island of the Sequined Love Nun made me laugh too.

I presume Pratchett and Admas are already on everyone's list.

Woody Allen's writings likeWithout Feathers, Getting Even too.

Books by Donaled E. Westlake such as Adios, Scheherazade & those featuring Dortmunder & Kelp likeThe Hot Rock.

Kurt Vonnegut books & Joseph Heller's
Catch-22. Jack Trevor Story - The Wind In The Snottygobble Tree

I'll shut up now.

[Jay-me (Janet)]

Definitely Pratchett. Don't particularly remember laughing at Douglas Adams or Tom Sharpe - they may have been funny (I can't remember) but certainly didn't make me laugh out loud as Terry Pratchett does.


Before that the ones I remember laughing at was when I borrowed my brother's Jennings books.Anthony Buckeridge

This one is one from my kindle days that I laughed at - just thinking about one of the parts in that made me laugh out loud (quite embarrassing when you are not reading at the time)

[Marc]

Tom Sharpe isn't funny...

This book however is

Tibor Fischer's books are usually pretty funny

[Philip]

Some great suggestions here. Forgot all about TP! I'm collecting PGW's books - he often makes me smile but onlh occasionally laugh out loud.

[Darren]

The only book to make me laugh out loud in public was a Terry Pratchett. I just don't display a sense of humour.

[Will]

I've been reading The Goon Show Scripts

Falling about laughing.

[David]

Philip wrote: "Some great suggestions here. Forgot all about TP! I'm collecting PGW's books - he often makes me smile but onlh occasionally laugh out loud."

I seem to remember that Gutenberg has a fair wodge of Wodehouse books in Kindle format. Well, worth a look.

[Patti (baconater)]

Bill Bryson.

Spider Robinson.

Darren Humphries.

[Darren]

Patti (baconater) wrote: "Bill Bryson.

Spider Robinson.

Darren Humphries."

I is honoured.

[Gingerlily - The Full Wild]

You is funny.

[Michael]

I remember laughing whilst reading a Sherlock Holmes story the first time I saw "he ejaculated" written down. It took me a few seconds to realise it was another way of saying someone shouted.

Unless, of course, the 19th century was full of tossers.

[Philip]

Michael wrote: "I remember laughing whilst reading a Sherlock Holmes story the first time I saw "he ejaculated" written down. It took me a few seconds to realise it was another way of saying someone shouted.

Unl..."

It's a school of thought, Michael.

[Philip]

Patti (baconater) wrote: "Bill Bryson.

Spider Robinson.

Darren Humphries."

I'd forgotten about Billy Bryson! His description of falling asleep as he's driven from an airport is a classic.

[Joo]

Tom Sharpe's Wilt stories.
And more recently (like decades) That Bear Ate My Pants! made me giggle a few times.

[David]

Spike Milligan's war memoirs, of course. Starting with Adolf Hitler: My Part in His Downfall.

The there's Oscar Wilde's plays.

Alan Bennett, saw his 'People' at Brum Rep a few weeks ago and that was very funny indeed.

[Marc]

if we're including plays, Dario Fo's political farces are very funny

[Philip]

Joo The Grand Inquisitor wrote: "Tom Sharpe's Wilt stories.
And more recently (like decades) That Bear Ate My Pants! made me giggle a few times."

I thought Tom Sharpe's first two novels, Riotous Assembly and Indecent Exposure were very funny indeed. I think the humour was given extra edge by his hatred of the regime and its inherent absurdity. Unfortunately, many of his following books followed a sort of template involving sexual perversity and class distinction which never achieved the same heights, in my opinion (mind you, I'd rather have his sales than mine!)

[Philip]

David wrote: "Spike Milligan's war memoirs, of course. Starting with Adolf Hitler: My Part in His Downfall.

The there's Oscar Wilde's plays.

Alan Bennett, saw his 'People' at Brum Rep a few weeks ago and that ..."

Yes, Spike Milligan's memoirs are excellent.

[David]

Marc wrote: "if we're including plays, Dario Fo's political farces are very funny"

I remember seeing Accidental Death of an Anarchist a few = well, quite a few years back. Before we had kids and the eldest is 24 now, so it must be... gulp... nearly 30 years ago.

I grow old.

[Jim]

Philip wrote: "I thought Tom Sharpe's first two novels, Riotous Assembly and Indecent Exposure were very funny indeed. I think the humour was given extra edge by his hatred of the regime and its inherent absurdity. Unfortunately, many of his following books followed a sort of template involving sexual perversity and class distinction which never achieved the same heights, in my opinion (mind you, I'd rather have his sales than mine!)
..."

Spot on, I enjoyed the others but he never reached the heights of his South African two

[Vanessa (aka Dumbo)]

For me it's Terry Pratchett, Tom Holt and more recently the Clovenhoof Clovenhoof books that really make me laugh.

[David]

Vanessa wrote: "For me it's Terry Pratchett, Tom Holt and more recently the Clovenhoof Clovenhoof books that really make me laugh."

Never heard of those Clovenhoof ones before - they intrigue me. I'll have to check them out. Thanks.

[Marc]

David wrote: "Marc wrote: "if we're including plays, Dario Fo's political farces are very funny"

I remember seeing Accidental Death of an Anarchist a few = well, quite a few years back. Before we had kids and t..."

we all do sadly...

[Philip]

Marc wrote: "David wrote: "Marc wrote: "if we're including plays, Dario Fo's political farces are very funny"

I remember seeing Accidental Death of an Anarchist a few = well, quite a few years back. Before we ..."

Don't knock it, it's better than the alternative ;-)

[Patti (baconater)]

ah now. I've tried Tom Sharpe. does nuttin for me.
Robert Aspirin Myth books. great stuff.

but im a sucker for puns.

[Gingerlily - The Full Wild]

Oh yes I love the Myth books as well.

[Patti (baconater)]

the later ones were a bit hit n myth

[Gingerlily - The Full Wild]

There was something mything....

[Patti (baconater)]

no strong females. rather mythoginistic

[Marc]

Patti (baconater) wrote: "ah now. I've tried Tom Sharpe. does nuttin for me.
Robert Aspirin Myth books. great stuff.

but im a sucker for puns."

little myth congeniality

[Jim]

I found his Phule's company wasn't as good as the Myth books

[Gingerlily - The Full Wild]

Jim wrote: "I found his Phule's company wasn't as good as the Myth books"

I still enjoyed them though.

[Jim]

For me they collapsed on the unreality of it all. The idea of a senior sergeant would be drinking and using live ammunition on a firing range just meant I could no longer suspend my disbelief.

[David]

David wrote: "I grow old"

Philip wrote: "Don't knock it, it's better than the alternative ;-) "

What alternative?

You mean setting up some secret experiments in a hospital in a search for an elixir of eternal youth? This result in a series of mysterious disappearances and unexplained deaths. Which, when a plucky and feisty junior doctor discovers what is going on, causes you to flee the country.

So you to set up a secret laboratory in the hollowed-out interior of a volcano on a deserted tropical isle in order to continue the experiment. Somehow, this makes all the governments of the the world to send their finest secret agents to your remote island base to destroy your serum, when they realise what its general use will cost them in pensions and free bus passes alone.

So you have to employ an army of minions to defend your base, even though none of them can shoot straight. Nor has any of them any experience in looking after the shoal of man-eating piranhas you keep in a pool in your office to dispose of those who question you or make disparaging remarks about your cat.

The when one of the secret agents - with impeccable dress sense and a devastating line in witty repartee arrives you know it is all over and...

Well, yes, I suppose you are right, after all. I mean the paperwork alone in such an alternative would be - I imagine - more than a little irksome.

[Jim]

You know David, there could be a novel in that....... :-)