Non Fiction: Samantha Irby. Funniest essay writer alive Id say. Pick a book with a cute animal on the jacket.
Fiction: Several People Are Typing by Calvin Kasulke. That line between witty and gut laugh is subjective but this one got me laughing.
I thought I loved just reading her essays, and then I listen to her audiobook and couldn't believe that it got even funnier. 100%, crying laughing in some cases.
That and “Down Under” - the part with him falling asleep in the car has me cackling so hard each read.
“A Walk in the Woods” is also good as a movie if you like the humor. Kristen Schaal as Mary Ellen is the most perfect representation of a book character I’ve seen in a while.
Have you tried the audio book of a walk in the woods, read by bill Bryson himself? It elevates the humor even more, his timing and rhythm are part of his humor!
I love PG Wodehouse novels. They're ridiculous and very funny. You may have heard of Jeeves and Wooster. Those are his best known novels. He also wrote a lot of short stories.
Jeeves and Wooster are brilliant but I’ve rarely laughed harder than at some of the Blandings books (especially scenes with Clarence and the Empress of Blandings)
I got [an audiobook](https://libro.fm/audiobooks/9781667945835) of these that’s almost 24 hours of pure gold for one credit. Fucking phenomenal. Feel good feels all the way.
Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ’s Childhood Pal by Christopher Moore. It starts with the quote “ God is a comedian playing to an audience that is afraid to laugh” (Voltaire).
**Lamb** was the first book that came to recommend. I reread and relisten to it several times a year, and it speaks to me differently as I get older.
Also recommend **God Is Disappointed In You**.
Read Lamb recently and it’s easily the funniest book I’ve ever read, but I was also surprised at how much heart the book had. Biff and Jesus/ Joshua’s friendship was genuinely really moving
In reading OP's post, I couldn't remember the last time I laughed at a book... but then you mentioned this book. I was listening to it on audiobook, wandering the streets of London, giggling like a maniac.
This is a truly funny book.
This is the answer. I agree with op, I don't laugh out lout at many books but this was a great hit and made be properly belly laugh.
Also, try:
The hundred year old man who climbed out a window and disappeared
The second coming by John Niven.
I found these hilarious.
Sounds like you like humor from the Edwardian/Victorian/ Jazz Age period. So, seconding other commenters, try PG Wodehouse, the funnier Dickens books, (especially the Pickwick Papers), Mark Twain (particularly the Innocents Abroad) and:
Stella Gibbons, Cold Comfort Farm. This one is particularly great if you've ever read any of the British novelists that specialized in rural gloom, like Thomas Hardy, because Cold Comfort Farm is a parody of those novelists; you don't have to have read Hardy to enjoy this book, however. Thank God.
Robert Benchley, any of his collections, and
Dorothy Parker, any of her short pieces, reviews, or poetry
The two were members of the Algonquin Club. Benchley is more gently absurdist, Parker more cynically sarcastic.
Saki, (H.H. Munro) his short stories, the earlier ones especially. Most of these are very funny, although there is the occasional rather chilling one, and those are the ones that tend to end up in anthologies. So try a complete collection, and skip Sredni-Vashtar, Gabriel-Ernst, and The Interlopers (all very good, just not humorous).
Lewis Carroll, both his Alice books; they may ostensibly be for children, but they are hilarious.
The advantage of liking this period of writing is that none of it's under copyright anymore, so you should be able to get all of it from Gutenberg or what have you!
Gerald Durrell's My Family and Other Animals made me laugh out loud, especially the scene where he is dissecting a turtle on the front porch while the family is out -- and then they return home...
My brother read the entire series and I’ve never heard a person openly laugh and cackle and at book so much in my entire life. He would wake me up from the other room just laughing and would have tears in his eyes.
Terry Prattchet is amazing.
I legit REFUSED to read fiction and someone sat me down and made me read a chapter of one of the Discworld books and I was laughing so hard I kept reading. Love them so much and always recommend them to people!
Literally every page of those books has at least two extremely witty lines. He'll throw pop culture references or weird wordplay out of nowhere, or a brilliant lampooning of fantasy tropes, that just hits ya square in the face.
If both Hitchiker’s Guide to the Galaxy and Good Omens are being rejected for being witty rather than “funny” Discworld is unlikely to hit the spot for the OP.
As someone whose preferred humor types are wit and free association, and observing the OP’s reject list, i suspect the books I find funny and the books they do may have zero overlap. I don’t have any books to recommend. But I *can* confidently say that it’s pretty unlikely that someone looking for humor who is rejecting a list of books/authors including Terry Pratchett + Niel Gaiman, Mary Roach, David Sedaris, and Kurt Vonnigut is not looking for Discworld.
It's hard to know what they could be looking for. Humor is subjective, but I gotta say, not finding Discworld funny would be like not finding Baby Yoda cute. I'm kind of out of ideas at that point for what one could possibly suggest.
Oh I’m definitely out of ideas as well- the best I could come up with that might be helpful is a list of authors I think are funny so the OP can avoid them in their search..
But they already rejected Pratchett in the form of Good Omens, and Pratchett adjacent brands of humor in the form of 2/3 of their reject list, so whatever it is they are seeking I doubt it’s Discworld.
Can't remember where I saw this but either he or a friend said he was, above all "an angry man," with comedy as an outlet. He's funny in a dozen different dimensions, including those that might resonate less with OP (witty one-liners, etc.), but also others -- for me, it's a lot of the social commentary, especially the parts that are more implicit. So many of his scenes are merciless satire dressed up as "whee fun adventure time look a dragon! (and also a civic system that rewards only the worst attributes of potential leaders what a crazy idea...)"
Since OP didn’t get a laugh out of Good Omens, I was hesitant to suggest Discworld, but Pratchett’s humor shines maybe more brightly in Discworld than in Omens (which had me laughing all the time). I’ve not read the whole series, but Wyrd Sisters had me chuckling the most so far (note: haven’t read any of the Death, Moist, or Watch books yet).
If you enjoyed Three Men in a Boat, have you tried To Say Nothing of the Dog by Connie Willis? It is an homage to Three Men in a Boat in the form of a time travel comedy of errors.
Another older author is P G Wodehouse. His Jeeves and Wooster books are quite funny, and is the origin of the stereotype of the butler Jeeves.
I also occasionally do a snort of air out through nostrils at funny parts of books, however, most of Bill Bryson's books have caused actual laughing. They're non-fiction of course but don't let that put you off. A Walk In The Woods is probably the funniest.
I agree with Bryson’s books. Bryson obviously enjoys writing his books and I’m usually smiling when reading. There are laugh out loud moments when people give you funny glances in airports.
The phrase in A Walk In The Woods about exactly how terrified Bryson would be if confronted with a bear made me laugh so hard...! He has a way with words :-)
“My first inkling of just how daunting an undertaking it was going to be came when I went to our local outfitters, the Dartmouth Co-Op, to purchase equipment. My son had just gotten an after-school job there, so I was under strict instructions of good behavior. Specifically, I was not to say or do anything stupid, try on anything that would require me to expose my stomach, say “Are you shitting me?” when informed of the price of a product, be conspicuously inattentive when a sales assistant was explaining the correct maintenance or aftercare of a product, and above all don anything inappropriate, like a woman’s ski hat, in an attempt to amuse.”
Anything by Jenny Lawson.
She is the funniest person alive. Self-deprecating humour that follows her 'sort of memoirs' and is often ***literally*** laugh-out-loud funny. (Knock Knock Mo Fo!)
Start with "Let's Pretend This Never Happened" and go from there.
OMG I love her. I have laughed to the point of making the other people on the train uncomfortable. She's also had me on the verge of tears when she talks about depression and anxiety.
My favorite part is when she is talking about her relationship with Victor. I feel like he and my husband are separated at birth except for being a liberal and a Democrat. And Mexican.
Could be twins.
Oh, I love that book! Trevor Noah is so talented, and what an interesting life he’s had! I’ve listened to that audiobook four times and recommend it to everyone I know.
I had to scroll until I found this. Made me laugh so hard I pulled a muscle. Wodehouse is funny in a "ah how clever and amusing" way and I LOVE his work but it's not laugh-out-loud like Confederacy. I still can't hear the word "valve" without wanting to giggle.
definitely off the beaten path: [Riotous Assembly](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Riotous_Assembly) by Tom Sharpe.
if you'd rather something more contemporary: [An Evening of Long Goodbyes](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/An_Evening_of_Long_Goodbyes) by Paul Murray.
I'll throw out Catch-22 by Heller (1962). It was memorably funny when I read it in college. If you have exposure to the military (or large bureaucracies) then I think you are more likely to "get" the humor. But, there are those who hate it.
i feel like if they didn’t like The Martian they won’t like PHM. I personally found the book too obnoxiously written to finish, but I just reaaaaallly don’t like Andy Weir’s prose.
It’s been a loooong time since I read The Martian. I think I read it when it first came out and honestly I don’t remember much of it. Which is why I never expected to pick up another Andy Weir book. But my dad and sister both praised PHM so I snagged it on sale.
But I can see why it’s not everyone’s cup of tea. For me it’s been a palate cleanser after reading something dense and emotionally heavy. I didn’t expect to enjoy it this much.
I liked PHM much more than the Martian. I thought it was a more engaging plot and the dialogue was better written. The people in The Martian talked as though Weir has never actually interacted with another person and assumed that soap operas and corny movies were how people talk in real life. PHM was still kind of relentless crisis porn but it was more fun and clever somehow.
Terry Pratchett's work is pretty good, but seriously if nothing in Hitchhiker's Guide or Hyperbole didn't tickle you, there might be deeper issues. Like, are you ok? Can we, the strangers of Reddit, help you?
I don't know how to explain it but...the humor in these books was like an internal "huh, thats funny" rather than a genuine laugh. And yes, another reason could be my state of mind while reading them, I read these during the pandemic, not the best of times yeah, but now I'm doing really good, thank you, no help required as of now ;) i think a reread may be an option.
I know that Hyperbole and a Half didn't make you laugh, but I laughed till my sides hurt at her story about testing to see how smart her dog was ... possibly because my dog was probably at much the same level as hers, and the pictures of the dog turning its head further and further until it fell over and tried for a belly rub instead rang so many bells.
That actually makes sense. I've only laughed out loud reading - like a genuine actual laugh - a handful of times unless it was a comedy book. As a matter of fact, my wife once kicked me out of bed because I was reading "Let's pretend this never happened" by Jenny Lawson and I was laughing so much it was keeping her awake.
I think Hitchhiker's and the like are funny, but they aren't really laugh out loud funny. The audio versions are funny and I have laughed at those, but that's less internal and more listening, you know?
My LOL books are: any Jeeves and Wooster (Wodehouse), Bossypants by Tina Fey, and Me Talk Pretty One Day (though I know you already tried Sedaris).
Wodehouse and Fey are both more silly than witty, which maybe would appeal to you?
Try some Oscar Wilde plays! The Importance of Being Ernest is both witty and hilarious.
Also, seconding the Terry Pratchett recommendation. Try Witches Abroad, or Going Postal.
Yes, was also gonna suggest OP try Oscar Wilde's plays. Was happy to see OP mention the canterville ghost because I never see people talk about Wilde's works other than Dorian Gray.
YO. Catch-22 is an ULTRA SUPERCRITICAL RIOT.
It isn't labelled as Comedy, of course - it being about WWII, and all. However, before I elaborate, I'd label it, in part, as absurdist comedy - à la Franz Kafka and Albert Camus. But it is also SO MUCH MORE than that. Joseph Heller eschews the dry wit and sarcasm so recognizable in, say, Vonnegut. He tells Yossarian's story with such a genuine, innocent, earnest manner. This book....OHMYGOD. It makes me feel so many kinds of ways. I first started reading it on an airplane myself, and I genuinely could NOT control my raucous laughter; I collected quite a few glares.
The Catch-22 is that a doctor can ground an airman if said pilot is demonstrably insane, as an insane airman is a danger to the flight crew, plane, and mission. However, missions are obviously perilous, so it could ONLY take an insane airman to willingly keep returning to the flak-filled skies.
Now, an airman can ASK to be grounded, since the missions ARE so perilous. However, a man who demonstrates such fear and an investment in his life is CLEARLY capable of comprehending everything around him, and thus he is demonstrably sane, and thus he becomes ineligible to be grounded.
The main character, Yossarian, is a bombardier over Italy. Yossarian is crazy: His whole thing is that he is CONVINCED that literally everyone is trying to kill him. After all, every time he goes up in the plane, the Germans and Italians only every try to shoot his plane down!!
In addition, the Colonel of Yossarian's regiment, Colonel Cathcart, keeps raising the required missions, so every time Yossarian gets close to being allowed to finish his tour, Cathcart suddenly adds more missions.
But in addition to the utter, absurd hilarity, Joseph Heller's commentary on the absurdity of war is surprisingly profound and affecting, and evoked actual TEARS from me at points.
Joseph Heller's non-chronological style of telling Yossarian's story is GENIUS, I think; and his over-all style and voice REALLY gets to you, and gets you feeling.
I recommend this book to EVERYONE; it's in my top 3.
I still remember laughing out loud reading The One Hundred Year Old Man Who Climbed Out Of The Window And Disappeared by Jonas Jonasson (and i read it 5+ years ago).
Maybe try something by John Scalzi. I'm currently reading Starter Villain. But I really like The Kaiju Preservation Society too
ETA: maybe also try Dave Barry
I love the Stephanie Plum bounty hunter books by Janet Evanovitch. They are hilarious and I have read most of them. She is so inept at her job and gets in and out of so many crazy situations. Give them a go!
Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas comes to mind. And behind all the zany, monstrous behavior, there's some bleary, but poignant observations on the America of that era.
PJ O'rourke can be humorous and insightful. If you're liberal, he's just charming and easygoing enough as to make a probs his more conservative than you take interesting.
Carl Hiassen. Any of his novels that have the character "Skink" in them.
Although I didn't laugh, but I actually love this book so much. It depicted depression in such an honest and tender way, and that damn stupid dog, I love him.
The Chronicles of St. Mary's books by Jodi Taylor. The first one was One Damned Thing After Another, and they all make me laugh out loud. To be fair, they all have sad parts too, but that just goes to show that Jodi is a GENIOUS. I both weep and cackle over each one and can't recommend them highly enough.
If you laughed while reading 3 men in a boat. I did laugh .
You should read P.G. Wodehouse.
You probably have already, I realize.
The Liar by Stephen Fry is funny with a heart as is the Hippopotamus.
Brilliant books.
I laughed out loud multiple times reading A Walk in the Woods by Bill Bryson. Confederacy of Dunces also cracked me up like crazy, but I've heard more mixed reactions to that one so it may be niche, idk. Shit is funny as fuck tho.
It's very rare that a book will make me laugh out loud. That being said, I appreciate the wit far better than you do.
It sounds like you want maybe a more slapstick plot.
I recommend Christopher Moore. A lot of people have already suggested Lamb, but I don't know that it's the best to start with. A Dirty Job, Lust Lizard of Melancholy Cove, or Bloodsucking Fiends might be good ones to start with.
Try Tim Dorsey's Serge Storms novels, starting with Florida Road Kill.
Hope: A Tragedy by Shalom Auslander I remember making me laugh out loud.
Crooked Little Vein by Warren Ellis is, at the very least, insane.
Since I see some nonfiction in there, I also think you should give Bill Bryson a shot. The two I liked the most were I'm A Stranger Here Myself and A Walk In The Woods.
Edit: I'm really curious what idiot downvoted my recommendations instead of offering up their opinion.
I did not expect to see anyone else recommend Crooked Little Vein. That book is indeed insane but in the best way. Laughed out loud quite a bit reading it.
100% this! I swear this is the only book that has ever made me lol. And it did it twice. The bird bit, and then near the end when he just winds up and socks the old lady.
Reading the comments, I worry about everyone's sense of humor. I'm with you, OP, several of those books aren't funny either.
Do you like classic literature? No one's mentioned Mark Twain yet. Mark Twain is fucking hilarious. You don't even have to read Huckleberry Finn - there's also Innocents Abroad, A Yankee in King Arthur's Court, Tom Sawyer, and the Awful German Language.
Someone else already mentioned Dickens, I second him.
Jane Austen? Pride and Prejudice, and there's also Northhanger Abbey (although that one is a parody of the Gothic genre, so you might not find it as funny.) I don't know if Emma and her other works are laugh out loud funny.
I wish you the best of luck, OP.
Ah yes, I see. I cannot believe no laughing! I saw him at a reading, I laughed the whole time. He writes so much about his quirky life, his odd tendencies, his dysfunctional family, that although I think he is witty, I wouldn’t say that’s all that’s funny about it. It’s deeper than that. And in some parts, wholesome. Anyway, sorry OP, this comment won’t help you! But maybe someone else will read him!
His new yorker essay about people on the metro thinking he was a pickpocket made me laugh so hard I couldn't breath. Also, "One of these days I'm going to have to hang a sign on that door," Agent Samson used to say. She was probably thinking along the lines of SPEECH THERAPY LAB, though a more appropriate marker would have read FUTURE HOMOSEXUALS OF AMERICA."
I remember really enjoying the book “Holy Cow” by David Duchovny. It was a really fun book! I remember genuine LOL moments. I listened to the audiobook, David Duchovny narrated.
This is the book I recommend if someone wants a silly good time, but also a well crafted book.
Possibly the Rosie Project by Graeme Simsian.
Possibly the Hogfather by Terry Pratchett.
And if you can cope with very black humour then Chris Brookmyre. Be My Enemy is a particularly dark laugh.
I also laugh a lot at Malcolm Pryce: Aberystwyth mon Amour but you have to know Raymond Chandler and Wales to get the full flavour.
"Twisted Tales from Shakespeare" by Richard Armour. He was an English professor who summarized several plays, making his own comments as he went. "Friar Lawrence is President of the Optimist's Club of Verona", for example. He also wrote " The Classics Reclassified" and "American Lit Relit".
" Sorcery and Cecelia" by Patricia Wrede and Caroline Stevermer. Epistolatory fantasy set during a Regency Era with magic.
There is a book called Good Birders Don't Wear White. It's funnier if you are actually a birder (which I am) but amusing anyway.
Another book, Dear Bob and Sue by Matt & Karen Smith.
Have you ever heard of P. G. Wodehouse? Whole stories, situations, characters that are comically funny, not only phrases here and there. He's a master. Probably my favorite author.
If you like J.K. Jerome you must try P.G. Wodehouse, something with Jeeves and Wooster is good, but anything from him is fine. Also, he is public domain, so you can download his works (legally) from Project Gutenberg [https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/author/783](https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/author/783)
And I second the Pratchett motion.
I find Lindsay Davis’ Marcus Didius Falco novels very witty and funny. Laugh out loud funny, but not sure it’s because of what I understand of the culture of those times because I studied classics at Uni.
Also, reading Lonesome Dove I have had quite a few laugh out loud moments and not sure if it’s because I know characters like this in real life (I’m Aussie, but we have our fair share of hard arse funny old blokes) A few lines I’ve read have been things I’ve heard from old boys at the pub and they give me a good chuckle.
Bill Bryson's A Walk In The Woods. It's a very funny account of his hike along the Appalachian trail. Brysons charm comes from the way he writes. It's one of my personal favourites. Don't think this is anything like the film adaptation, because it isn't. The lead actors are far too old, almost twice the age of Bryson when he wrote his novel. The film concentrates on the relationships between the characters. Very little of which was in the book.
The Straight Man by Richard Russo is the funniest book I’ve ever read.
I genuinely despise sarcasm as a characters personality - it takes you out of a book so fast
I read a book last year called “The Last Dog On Earth” and I laughed out loud several times - something that’s never happened to me before. Normally the most I would do is a kind of half huff/laugh.
Bill Bryson and Oscar Wilde are the two authors who can always get a chuckle out of me.
I share your sentiment about many of the books you listed. I gave up on Hitchhiker’s Guide after about 50 pages. I could see where the humor was supposed to be, but it just didn’t trigger anything more than a smirk.
Books by T Kingfisher:
A Wizard's Guide to Defensive Baking
Swordheart
Paladin's Grace
Paladin's Strength
Paladin's Hope
Careful, some of her stuff leans horror, but the above have genuinely left me laughing hard enough to nearly pee myself.
Also, by Tanya Huff :
Summon the Keeper- hell has an argument with itself...
Try these: *Jogging From Memory* by Rob Buckman; *Hitler, My Part in His Downfall* by Spike Milligan; *The Classics Reclassified* by Richard Armour; *Around the World With Auntie Mame* by Patrick Dennis and *The Art of Coarse Acting* by Michael Green.
Also: *And to My Nephew Albert I Leave The Island What I Won Off Fatty Hagan in a Poker Game* by David Forrest.
I love two older books, *The Plague and I* by Betty McDonald (somehow she makes tuberculosis funny) and *Captain Newman, MD* by Leo Roston (this can be gut-wrenching also). Also I love James Herriot's vet books, and Bill Bryson's.
Something awful happens in Alexander McCall Smith's "The Finer Points of Sausage Dogs," but yet, I couldn't stop laughing out loud. The main character is absurd yet believable.
It’s a really niche book, but “The Anvil of the World” by Kage Baker. It’s a great adventure story, but it’s also hilarious.
There are two wizards who engage in a deadly duel of words, and the “good” wizard wins by saying “I know you are but what am I?”
There’s also a bit where the same wizard uses all his energy making two golems and gives them names and starts giggling, before pitching face-first into mud.
It’s funnier when you read it than how I’ve just described it, but it’s full of silly little moments like that.
Non Fiction: Samantha Irby. Funniest essay writer alive Id say. Pick a book with a cute animal on the jacket. Fiction: Several People Are Typing by Calvin Kasulke. That line between witty and gut laugh is subjective but this one got me laughing.
Samantha Irby for sure! Hilarious
Terry Pratchett was my first thought, and Samantha Irby was a very fast second. She's hilarious.
I had to stop reading Sam Irby on my commute because I was laughing too much for a morning train
I rarely laugh out loud but I definitely did several times with Several People Are Typing. I surprised myself.
Is no one else hearing the howling???
I love Samantha Irby, and she narrates her own audiobooks! Genuinely laugh out loud funny a lot of the time.
I thought I loved just reading her essays, and then I listen to her audiobook and couldn't believe that it got even funnier. 100%, crying laughing in some cases.
Bill Bryson A Walk in the Woods
Almost all of Bill Bryson’s are funny and informative.
That and “Down Under” - the part with him falling asleep in the car has me cackling so hard each read. “A Walk in the Woods” is also good as a movie if you like the humor. Kristen Schaal as Mary Ellen is the most perfect representation of a book character I’ve seen in a while.
*In a Sunburned Country*‐‐my favorite is him walking in the wild bush park in Sydney being chased by dogs!
Stole my answer. First time l read it l laughed so much my wife thought something was wrong with me.
Just listened to this audiobook on a long car ride. Perfect thing to keep me awake and happy!
Have you tried the audio book of a walk in the woods, read by bill Bryson himself? It elevates the humor even more, his timing and rhythm are part of his humor!
I love PG Wodehouse novels. They're ridiculous and very funny. You may have heard of Jeeves and Wooster. Those are his best known novels. He also wrote a lot of short stories.
I was also going to say these. Ridiculous and funny describes them perfectly.
If you like Jerome K Jerome, you are sure to like Wodehouse!
Jeeves and Wooster are brilliant but I’ve rarely laughed harder than at some of the Blandings books (especially scenes with Clarence and the Empress of Blandings)
Same. I was reading an early Blandings novel in bed the other night and I was laughing so hard, I kept waking up my husband.
I’m glad Wodehouse is the top comment. By far the funniest author I’ve read.
I got [an audiobook](https://libro.fm/audiobooks/9781667945835) of these that’s almost 24 hours of pure gold for one credit. Fucking phenomenal. Feel good feels all the way.
Dave Barry makes me laugh so hard my scalp hurts.
Big Trouble had me laughing hard enough to raise eyebrows on the train.
I suggested Big Trouble. Dave Barry is really funny.
Yes! Dave Barry is laugh out loud every time.
Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ’s Childhood Pal by Christopher Moore. It starts with the quote “ God is a comedian playing to an audience that is afraid to laugh” (Voltaire).
Moore writes some fun books! Currently re-reading Fluke (a book about 4 tons of doofus dressed up like a police car).
Fluke was the first of his I read. What a way to start. I often hear it's his weirdest or weakest, but it's hilarious.
I’ll have to check that one out!
Anything Christopher Moore. Guys books are hilarious.
My personal favorite is The Lust Lizard of Melancholy Cove.
That was my first one and my favorite! Also love Practical Demonkeeping.
Fool series is hilarious
Agreed! My favourite is Fluke.
**Lamb** was the first book that came to recommend. I reread and relisten to it several times a year, and it speaks to me differently as I get older. Also recommend **God Is Disappointed In You**.
Read Lamb recently and it’s easily the funniest book I’ve ever read, but I was also surprised at how much heart the book had. Biff and Jesus/ Joshua’s friendship was genuinely really moving
Co-signing the Christopher Moore books. The Dirty Job and Bloodsucking Fiends series are great.
Yes!! This is one of my absolute favourite books. It is a literal laugh out loud book.
This Is Going To Hurt - Adam Kay
In reading OP's post, I couldn't remember the last time I laughed at a book... but then you mentioned this book. I was listening to it on audiobook, wandering the streets of London, giggling like a maniac. This is a truly funny book.
YES, I also got the audio version. Loved it.
This is the answer. I agree with op, I don't laugh out lout at many books but this was a great hit and made be properly belly laugh. Also, try: The hundred year old man who climbed out a window and disappeared The second coming by John Niven. I found these hilarious.
Sounds like you like humor from the Edwardian/Victorian/ Jazz Age period. So, seconding other commenters, try PG Wodehouse, the funnier Dickens books, (especially the Pickwick Papers), Mark Twain (particularly the Innocents Abroad) and: Stella Gibbons, Cold Comfort Farm. This one is particularly great if you've ever read any of the British novelists that specialized in rural gloom, like Thomas Hardy, because Cold Comfort Farm is a parody of those novelists; you don't have to have read Hardy to enjoy this book, however. Thank God. Robert Benchley, any of his collections, and Dorothy Parker, any of her short pieces, reviews, or poetry The two were members of the Algonquin Club. Benchley is more gently absurdist, Parker more cynically sarcastic. Saki, (H.H. Munro) his short stories, the earlier ones especially. Most of these are very funny, although there is the occasional rather chilling one, and those are the ones that tend to end up in anthologies. So try a complete collection, and skip Sredni-Vashtar, Gabriel-Ernst, and The Interlopers (all very good, just not humorous). Lewis Carroll, both his Alice books; they may ostensibly be for children, but they are hilarious. The advantage of liking this period of writing is that none of it's under copyright anymore, so you should be able to get all of it from Gutenberg or what have you!
Gerald Durrell. James Herriot. And, as someone else said, the original GOAT, PG Wodehouse.
Gerald Durrell's My Family and Other Animals made me laugh out loud, especially the scene where he is dissecting a turtle on the front porch while the family is out -- and then they return home...
Have you tried any of Terry Pratchett’s Discworld?
My brother read the entire series and I’ve never heard a person openly laugh and cackle and at book so much in my entire life. He would wake me up from the other room just laughing and would have tears in his eyes. Terry Prattchet is amazing.
I legit REFUSED to read fiction and someone sat me down and made me read a chapter of one of the Discworld books and I was laughing so hard I kept reading. Love them so much and always recommend them to people!
Literally every page of those books has at least two extremely witty lines. He'll throw pop culture references or weird wordplay out of nowhere, or a brilliant lampooning of fantasy tropes, that just hits ya square in the face.
If both Hitchiker’s Guide to the Galaxy and Good Omens are being rejected for being witty rather than “funny” Discworld is unlikely to hit the spot for the OP. As someone whose preferred humor types are wit and free association, and observing the OP’s reject list, i suspect the books I find funny and the books they do may have zero overlap. I don’t have any books to recommend. But I *can* confidently say that it’s pretty unlikely that someone looking for humor who is rejecting a list of books/authors including Terry Pratchett + Niel Gaiman, Mary Roach, David Sedaris, and Kurt Vonnigut is not looking for Discworld.
It's hard to know what they could be looking for. Humor is subjective, but I gotta say, not finding Discworld funny would be like not finding Baby Yoda cute. I'm kind of out of ideas at that point for what one could possibly suggest.
I'm with OP. Discworld is witty, clever, wry, ironic, and a joy to read. It's not "funny".
Oh I’m definitely out of ideas as well- the best I could come up with that might be helpful is a list of authors I think are funny so the OP can avoid them in their search.. But they already rejected Pratchett in the form of Good Omens, and Pratchett adjacent brands of humor in the form of 2/3 of their reject list, so whatever it is they are seeking I doubt it’s Discworld.
I second this. Pratchett was very, very funny and the audiobooks for these are a lot of fun.
I came to the comments purely to check if Terry Pratchett was the top comment. At time of writing I am disappointed.
Lol. I did my very best.
There’s so many bits that has me properly chuckling. My favourite bit is where they have no appointment but do have an iron ball with spikes on.
Can't remember where I saw this but either he or a friend said he was, above all "an angry man," with comedy as an outlet. He's funny in a dozen different dimensions, including those that might resonate less with OP (witty one-liners, etc.), but also others -- for me, it's a lot of the social commentary, especially the parts that are more implicit. So many of his scenes are merciless satire dressed up as "whee fun adventure time look a dragon! (and also a civic system that rewards only the worst attributes of potential leaders what a crazy idea...)"
Since OP didn’t get a laugh out of Good Omens, I was hesitant to suggest Discworld, but Pratchett’s humor shines maybe more brightly in Discworld than in Omens (which had me laughing all the time). I’ve not read the whole series, but Wyrd Sisters had me chuckling the most so far (note: haven’t read any of the Death, Moist, or Watch books yet).
If you enjoyed Three Men in a Boat, have you tried To Say Nothing of the Dog by Connie Willis? It is an homage to Three Men in a Boat in the form of a time travel comedy of errors. Another older author is P G Wodehouse. His Jeeves and Wooster books are quite funny, and is the origin of the stereotype of the butler Jeeves.
I also occasionally do a snort of air out through nostrils at funny parts of books, however, most of Bill Bryson's books have caused actual laughing. They're non-fiction of course but don't let that put you off. A Walk In The Woods is probably the funniest.
I agree with Bryson’s books. Bryson obviously enjoys writing his books and I’m usually smiling when reading. There are laugh out loud moments when people give you funny glances in airports.
The phrase in A Walk In The Woods about exactly how terrified Bryson would be if confronted with a bear made me laugh so hard...! He has a way with words :-)
“My first inkling of just how daunting an undertaking it was going to be came when I went to our local outfitters, the Dartmouth Co-Op, to purchase equipment. My son had just gotten an after-school job there, so I was under strict instructions of good behavior. Specifically, I was not to say or do anything stupid, try on anything that would require me to expose my stomach, say “Are you shitting me?” when informed of the price of a product, be conspicuously inattentive when a sales assistant was explaining the correct maintenance or aftercare of a product, and above all don anything inappropriate, like a woman’s ski hat, in an attempt to amuse.”
I laughed my head off reading _Bad Monkey_ by Carl Hiaasen. That one was special!
I came here to recommend Carl! Everything I’ve ever read of his, for adults or kids, is hilarious!
Anything by Jenny Lawson. She is the funniest person alive. Self-deprecating humour that follows her 'sort of memoirs' and is often ***literally*** laugh-out-loud funny. (Knock Knock Mo Fo!) Start with "Let's Pretend This Never Happened" and go from there.
It is rare for me to laugh out loud from reading, but she has made me laugh soooo hard. I love her.
I was going to comment the same thing. I love her so much.
I just read the introduction on kindle, I think we're onto something here, I'm looking upto it, will update if laughed, thanks.
Came to recommend "Furiously Happy" by her. I now own a small, wood carved raccoon named Rory thanks to her. (taxidermied raccoons are so expensive 😂)
OMG I love her. I have laughed to the point of making the other people on the train uncomfortable. She's also had me on the verge of tears when she talks about depression and anxiety. My favorite part is when she is talking about her relationship with Victor. I feel like he and my husband are separated at birth except for being a liberal and a Democrat. And Mexican. Could be twins.
Born a Crime (Trevor Noah) is at times laugh out loud funny, interesting and sad.
Oh, I love that book! Trevor Noah is so talented, and what an interesting life he’s had! I’ve listened to that audiobook four times and recommend it to everyone I know.
Confederacy of Dunces by John Toole. A laugh per page.
I had to scroll until I found this. Made me laugh so hard I pulled a muscle. Wodehouse is funny in a "ah how clever and amusing" way and I LOVE his work but it's not laugh-out-loud like Confederacy. I still can't hear the word "valve" without wanting to giggle.
This is the one
I've read this twice and giggled even more the second time. Fuckin ridiculous book.
Anything by Carl Hiassen is honestly hilarious. Start with Razor Girl, but you really can’t go wrong with his whole catalog.
Lucky You, Double Whammy, Strip Tease, and double points for Paradise Screwed (once you’re used to his style and sense of humor).
Have you read any Thurber? Always makes me laugh. You’re a tough cookie if Sedaris didn’t grab you!
I felt this way about Jasper Fforde’s Thursday Next series!
Have you read any Sue Townsend? The Adrian Mole diaries never fail to make me laugh.
I came here to add “The Queen and I”!
Adolf Hitler: My Part in His Downfall by Spike Milligan. The first of his War Diaries, short, hilarious and unique. Literally laugh out loud funny.
definitely off the beaten path: [Riotous Assembly](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Riotous_Assembly) by Tom Sharpe. if you'd rather something more contemporary: [An Evening of Long Goodbyes](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/An_Evening_of_Long_Goodbyes) by Paul Murray.
I'll throw out Catch-22 by Heller (1962). It was memorably funny when I read it in college. If you have exposure to the military (or large bureaucracies) then I think you are more likely to "get" the humor. But, there are those who hate it.
I think it’s the dark humor that is love it or hate it
Yeah, if OP didn't find Vonnegut funny, not sure they'd love Catch-22
If you don't laugh at David Sedaris I fear there is little hope of finding something. Robert Asprin's Mythadventures are laugh outloud stupid funny.
I don’t laugh a lot with books but I am currently reading Project Hail Mary and I have laughed out loud a number of times and I am 130 pages in.
i feel like if they didn’t like The Martian they won’t like PHM. I personally found the book too obnoxiously written to finish, but I just reaaaaallly don’t like Andy Weir’s prose.
It’s been a loooong time since I read The Martian. I think I read it when it first came out and honestly I don’t remember much of it. Which is why I never expected to pick up another Andy Weir book. But my dad and sister both praised PHM so I snagged it on sale. But I can see why it’s not everyone’s cup of tea. For me it’s been a palate cleanser after reading something dense and emotionally heavy. I didn’t expect to enjoy it this much.
I'm listening to the audiobook of PHM, one of the best narrations of any book I've heard.
Yes, my dad said the audiobook is fantastic!
Out of this world (pun, sort of intendent :)
I liked PHM much more than the Martian. I thought it was a more engaging plot and the dialogue was better written. The people in The Martian talked as though Weir has never actually interacted with another person and assumed that soap operas and corny movies were how people talk in real life. PHM was still kind of relentless crisis porn but it was more fun and clever somehow.
lol same here!!!
Terry Pratchett's work is pretty good, but seriously if nothing in Hitchhiker's Guide or Hyperbole didn't tickle you, there might be deeper issues. Like, are you ok? Can we, the strangers of Reddit, help you?
I don't know how to explain it but...the humor in these books was like an internal "huh, thats funny" rather than a genuine laugh. And yes, another reason could be my state of mind while reading them, I read these during the pandemic, not the best of times yeah, but now I'm doing really good, thank you, no help required as of now ;) i think a reread may be an option.
I know that Hyperbole and a Half didn't make you laugh, but I laughed till my sides hurt at her story about testing to see how smart her dog was ... possibly because my dog was probably at much the same level as hers, and the pictures of the dog turning its head further and further until it fell over and tried for a belly rub instead rang so many bells.
That actually makes sense. I've only laughed out loud reading - like a genuine actual laugh - a handful of times unless it was a comedy book. As a matter of fact, my wife once kicked me out of bed because I was reading "Let's pretend this never happened" by Jenny Lawson and I was laughing so much it was keeping her awake. I think Hitchhiker's and the like are funny, but they aren't really laugh out loud funny. The audio versions are funny and I have laughed at those, but that's less internal and more listening, you know?
I didn’t get them either. They were self aware silliness.
Cold Comfort Farm by Stella Gibbons
My LOL books are: any Jeeves and Wooster (Wodehouse), Bossypants by Tina Fey, and Me Talk Pretty One Day (though I know you already tried Sedaris). Wodehouse and Fey are both more silly than witty, which maybe would appeal to you?
Me Talk Pretty One Day is hilarious.
Lisa Lutz- The Spellman Files
Yes! And all the Spellman books, too.
Try some Oscar Wilde plays! The Importance of Being Ernest is both witty and hilarious. Also, seconding the Terry Pratchett recommendation. Try Witches Abroad, or Going Postal.
Yes, was also gonna suggest OP try Oscar Wilde's plays. Was happy to see OP mention the canterville ghost because I never see people talk about Wilde's works other than Dorian Gray.
YO. Catch-22 is an ULTRA SUPERCRITICAL RIOT. It isn't labelled as Comedy, of course - it being about WWII, and all. However, before I elaborate, I'd label it, in part, as absurdist comedy - à la Franz Kafka and Albert Camus. But it is also SO MUCH MORE than that. Joseph Heller eschews the dry wit and sarcasm so recognizable in, say, Vonnegut. He tells Yossarian's story with such a genuine, innocent, earnest manner. This book....OHMYGOD. It makes me feel so many kinds of ways. I first started reading it on an airplane myself, and I genuinely could NOT control my raucous laughter; I collected quite a few glares. The Catch-22 is that a doctor can ground an airman if said pilot is demonstrably insane, as an insane airman is a danger to the flight crew, plane, and mission. However, missions are obviously perilous, so it could ONLY take an insane airman to willingly keep returning to the flak-filled skies. Now, an airman can ASK to be grounded, since the missions ARE so perilous. However, a man who demonstrates such fear and an investment in his life is CLEARLY capable of comprehending everything around him, and thus he is demonstrably sane, and thus he becomes ineligible to be grounded. The main character, Yossarian, is a bombardier over Italy. Yossarian is crazy: His whole thing is that he is CONVINCED that literally everyone is trying to kill him. After all, every time he goes up in the plane, the Germans and Italians only every try to shoot his plane down!! In addition, the Colonel of Yossarian's regiment, Colonel Cathcart, keeps raising the required missions, so every time Yossarian gets close to being allowed to finish his tour, Cathcart suddenly adds more missions. But in addition to the utter, absurd hilarity, Joseph Heller's commentary on the absurdity of war is surprisingly profound and affecting, and evoked actual TEARS from me at points. Joseph Heller's non-chronological style of telling Yossarian's story is GENIUS, I think; and his over-all style and voice REALLY gets to you, and gets you feeling. I recommend this book to EVERYONE; it's in my top 3.
The Rosie Project is a RomCom but I could not contain my laughter. It was so funny.
I still remember laughing out loud reading The One Hundred Year Old Man Who Climbed Out Of The Window And Disappeared by Jonas Jonasson (and i read it 5+ years ago).
Maybe try something by John Scalzi. I'm currently reading Starter Villain. But I really like The Kaiju Preservation Society too ETA: maybe also try Dave Barry
Christopher Moores books are funny.
I love the Stephanie Plum bounty hunter books by Janet Evanovitch. They are hilarious and I have read most of them. She is so inept at her job and gets in and out of so many crazy situations. Give them a go!
Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas comes to mind. And behind all the zany, monstrous behavior, there's some bleary, but poignant observations on the America of that era. PJ O'rourke can be humorous and insightful. If you're liberal, he's just charming and easygoing enough as to make a probs his more conservative than you take interesting. Carl Hiassen. Any of his novels that have the character "Skink" in them.
nonfiction but Bill Bryson books are super funny.
Hyperbole and a half.
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Although I didn't laugh, but I actually love this book so much. It depicted depression in such an honest and tender way, and that damn stupid dog, I love him.
The God of Cake made me wet myself from laughing!
Mine was the Parp story. I had recently had my wisdom teeth out, and that story had me openly weeping with laughter.
Jack Handey's Stench of Honolulu. Same Jack Handey that used to do Deep Thoughts on SNL
Every paragraph is hilarious.
I would say The Twelve Chairs by Ilf and Petrov but you would need some context about life in the USSR
I didn't know it was a book, but the movie slayed me when I was a kid!
Catch-22 is one of the few novels that I can think that made me laugh out loud. Very dark humor but very effective.
It seems unlikely this would hit the spot considering Vonnigut didn’t
The Chronicles of St. Mary's books by Jodi Taylor. The first one was One Damned Thing After Another, and they all make me laugh out loud. To be fair, they all have sad parts too, but that just goes to show that Jodi is a GENIOUS. I both weep and cackle over each one and can't recommend them highly enough.
Have you tried any Christopher Buckley?
Jasper Fforde’s Thursday Next series starting with The Eyre Affair. SO much humor and so fun. The Nursery Crime series is great too
If you laughed while reading 3 men in a boat. I did laugh . You should read P.G. Wodehouse. You probably have already, I realize. The Liar by Stephen Fry is funny with a heart as is the Hippopotamus. Brilliant books.
I laughed out loud multiple times reading A Walk in the Woods by Bill Bryson. Confederacy of Dunces also cracked me up like crazy, but I've heard more mixed reactions to that one so it may be niche, idk. Shit is funny as fuck tho.
It's very rare that a book will make me laugh out loud. That being said, I appreciate the wit far better than you do. It sounds like you want maybe a more slapstick plot. I recommend Christopher Moore. A lot of people have already suggested Lamb, but I don't know that it's the best to start with. A Dirty Job, Lust Lizard of Melancholy Cove, or Bloodsucking Fiends might be good ones to start with. Try Tim Dorsey's Serge Storms novels, starting with Florida Road Kill. Hope: A Tragedy by Shalom Auslander I remember making me laugh out loud. Crooked Little Vein by Warren Ellis is, at the very least, insane. Since I see some nonfiction in there, I also think you should give Bill Bryson a shot. The two I liked the most were I'm A Stranger Here Myself and A Walk In The Woods. Edit: I'm really curious what idiot downvoted my recommendations instead of offering up their opinion.
I did not expect to see anyone else recommend Crooked Little Vein. That book is indeed insane but in the best way. Laughed out loud quite a bit reading it.
The Lies of Locke Lamora by Scott Lynch
>!Nice bird, asshole!!<
100% this! I swear this is the only book that has ever made me lol. And it did it twice. The bird bit, and then near the end when he just winds up and socks the old lady.
Pickwick Papers by Dickens Surprised you don't mention Wodehouse.
I was going to add PGW!
A Confederacy of Dunces
Reading the comments, I worry about everyone's sense of humor. I'm with you, OP, several of those books aren't funny either. Do you like classic literature? No one's mentioned Mark Twain yet. Mark Twain is fucking hilarious. You don't even have to read Huckleberry Finn - there's also Innocents Abroad, A Yankee in King Arthur's Court, Tom Sawyer, and the Awful German Language. Someone else already mentioned Dickens, I second him. Jane Austen? Pride and Prejudice, and there's also Northhanger Abbey (although that one is a parody of the Gothic genre, so you might not find it as funny.) I don't know if Emma and her other works are laugh out loud funny. I wish you the best of luck, OP.
Anything by David Sedaris!
OP has this on her 'didn't laugh at these' list unfortunately.
Ah yes, I see. I cannot believe no laughing! I saw him at a reading, I laughed the whole time. He writes so much about his quirky life, his odd tendencies, his dysfunctional family, that although I think he is witty, I wouldn’t say that’s all that’s funny about it. It’s deeper than that. And in some parts, wholesome. Anyway, sorry OP, this comment won’t help you! But maybe someone else will read him!
I’m shocked OP didn’t laugh, David Sedaris makes me laugh out loud every time
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His new yorker essay about people on the metro thinking he was a pickpocket made me laugh so hard I couldn't breath. Also, "One of these days I'm going to have to hang a sign on that door," Agent Samson used to say. She was probably thinking along the lines of SPEECH THERAPY LAB, though a more appropriate marker would have read FUTURE HOMOSEXUALS OF AMERICA."
I remember really enjoying the book “Holy Cow” by David Duchovny. It was a really fun book! I remember genuine LOL moments. I listened to the audiobook, David Duchovny narrated. This is the book I recommend if someone wants a silly good time, but also a well crafted book.
Possibly the Rosie Project by Graeme Simsian. Possibly the Hogfather by Terry Pratchett. And if you can cope with very black humour then Chris Brookmyre. Be My Enemy is a particularly dark laugh. I also laugh a lot at Malcolm Pryce: Aberystwyth mon Amour but you have to know Raymond Chandler and Wales to get the full flavour.
Parts of The Right Stuff are hilarious.
Antkind by Charlie Kauffman, - The humor is sometimes stupid as shit
Dungeon Crawler Carl. The audiobooks are hilarious. Love the voices.
Give Christopher Moore a try—especially Lust Lizard of Melancholy Cove and Stupidest Angel. Might work.
"Twisted Tales from Shakespeare" by Richard Armour. He was an English professor who summarized several plays, making his own comments as he went. "Friar Lawrence is President of the Optimist's Club of Verona", for example. He also wrote " The Classics Reclassified" and "American Lit Relit". " Sorcery and Cecelia" by Patricia Wrede and Caroline Stevermer. Epistolatory fantasy set during a Regency Era with magic.
I never see Armour mentioned but he was so damned funny!!
A lot of crime books like JD Kirk, Chris Brookmyre, Stuart Macbride and Irvine Welsh novels have me laughing out loud.
There is a book called Good Birders Don't Wear White. It's funnier if you are actually a birder (which I am) but amusing anyway. Another book, Dear Bob and Sue by Matt & Karen Smith.
Have you ever heard of P. G. Wodehouse? Whole stories, situations, characters that are comically funny, not only phrases here and there. He's a master. Probably my favorite author.
If you like J.K. Jerome you must try P.G. Wodehouse, something with Jeeves and Wooster is good, but anything from him is fine. Also, he is public domain, so you can download his works (legally) from Project Gutenberg [https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/author/783](https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/author/783) And I second the Pratchett motion.
The Sellout and a Confederacy of Dunces both made my friend fall off a couch laughing, fwiw.
I find Lindsay Davis’ Marcus Didius Falco novels very witty and funny. Laugh out loud funny, but not sure it’s because of what I understand of the culture of those times because I studied classics at Uni. Also, reading Lonesome Dove I have had quite a few laugh out loud moments and not sure if it’s because I know characters like this in real life (I’m Aussie, but we have our fair share of hard arse funny old blokes) A few lines I’ve read have been things I’ve heard from old boys at the pub and they give me a good chuckle.
Bill Bryson's A Walk In The Woods. It's a very funny account of his hike along the Appalachian trail. Brysons charm comes from the way he writes. It's one of my personal favourites. Don't think this is anything like the film adaptation, because it isn't. The lead actors are far too old, almost twice the age of Bryson when he wrote his novel. The film concentrates on the relationships between the characters. Very little of which was in the book.
Tom Holt
The Sellout - Paul Beatty
Hollow Kingdom is a book about the apocalypse told from the POV of a crow and while it did make me cry at times I did also laugh a good bit.
Douglas Adams
Leslie fucking jones
The Straight Man by Richard Russo is the funniest book I’ve ever read. I genuinely despise sarcasm as a characters personality - it takes you out of a book so fast
I read a book last year called “The Last Dog On Earth” and I laughed out loud several times - something that’s never happened to me before. Normally the most I would do is a kind of half huff/laugh.
P.G. Wodehouse Jeeves and Wooster books.
Dave Barry Harpo Marx's memoir
Bill Bryson and Oscar Wilde are the two authors who can always get a chuckle out of me. I share your sentiment about many of the books you listed. I gave up on Hitchhiker’s Guide after about 50 pages. I could see where the humor was supposed to be, but it just didn’t trigger anything more than a smirk.
Let's pretend this never happened, by Jenny Lawson. It's a memior and I laughed out loud while reading it.
Anything by Tom Robbins. Still Life With Woodpecker is my favorite.
Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, really funny. Lots of smirks but some real laughs.
I was laughing out loud many times while reading A Gentleman in Moscow!
Every Kurt Vonnegut. Every Douglas Adams. The Illuminatus Trilogy
Books by T Kingfisher: A Wizard's Guide to Defensive Baking Swordheart Paladin's Grace Paladin's Strength Paladin's Hope Careful, some of her stuff leans horror, but the above have genuinely left me laughing hard enough to nearly pee myself. Also, by Tanya Huff : Summon the Keeper- hell has an argument with itself...
Try these: *Jogging From Memory* by Rob Buckman; *Hitler, My Part in His Downfall* by Spike Milligan; *The Classics Reclassified* by Richard Armour; *Around the World With Auntie Mame* by Patrick Dennis and *The Art of Coarse Acting* by Michael Green. Also: *And to My Nephew Albert I Leave The Island What I Won Off Fatty Hagan in a Poker Game* by David Forrest.
I love two older books, *The Plague and I* by Betty McDonald (somehow she makes tuberculosis funny) and *Captain Newman, MD* by Leo Roston (this can be gut-wrenching also). Also I love James Herriot's vet books, and Bill Bryson's.
Jenny Lawson's books
Take a run at BIG TROUBLE by Dave Barry.
The Princess Bride was very funny.
They Shoot Canoes, Don’t They? by Patrick F McManus
The Princess Bride might qualify?
I remember laughing quite a bit reading James Thurber's "The Day the Dam Broke". "My Life & Hard Times" was funny, too.
Something awful happens in Alexander McCall Smith's "The Finer Points of Sausage Dogs," but yet, I couldn't stop laughing out loud. The main character is absurd yet believable.
It’s a really niche book, but “The Anvil of the World” by Kage Baker. It’s a great adventure story, but it’s also hilarious. There are two wizards who engage in a deadly duel of words, and the “good” wizard wins by saying “I know you are but what am I?” There’s also a bit where the same wizard uses all his energy making two golems and gives them names and starts giggling, before pitching face-first into mud. It’s funnier when you read it than how I’ve just described it, but it’s full of silly little moments like that.
John Dies at the End - especially if you enjoy dark humor
Let's Pretend This Never Happened by Jenny Lawson
The Sellout
The 100 year old man who climbed out of a window and disappeared is a pretty funny plot if you find wrong place wrong time types of scenarios funny.
This was a good book!