Books that make you laugh! (Novels)

Flann O'Brien has some good ones (at swim two birds etc) and I have read all the John Swartzenwelder ones too now. What are some funny books that you guys recommend?

Just about anything from Tim Dorsey.
Triggerfish Twist is probably my favorite. About a quarter bubble off. If you like Bubba's stuff, you'll probably like Dorsey.

Try as I might I cannot find a funnier author than P.G. Wodehouse, and I've tried hard. His Blandings Castle books are probably the most enjoyable I have ever read. I only have to look at them on the shelf and I giggle. He just has a way with words:
 

• "She looked as if she had been poured into her clothes and had forgotten to say 'when.'"
• “I could see that, if not actually disgruntled, he was far from being gruntled.” 
• "Alf Todd,’ said Ukridge, soaring to an impressive burst of imagery, ‘has about as much chance as a one-armed blind man in a dark room trying to shove a pound of melted butter into a wild-cat’s ear with a red-hot needle.’"

He was the world's master of ridiculousness. I think the plot of "Uncle Fred In The Springtime" is one of the most ridiculous (and the most complicated) I have ever read. I read it at least twice a year and never get bored of it. 

OK thanks. I will try all these recommendartions if I can get them thru Amazon. First up- Colin Bateman- comic crime capers. Dorsey sounds interesting too : "All of Dorsey's novels feature Serge Storms as the primary character. The character has several coexisting mental illnesses that render him obsessive, psychopathic, schizophrenic, and frequently homicidal, but Storms serves as the anti-hero in Dorsey's works due to his strong sense of moral absolutism and justice." Sounds like he could be a Cakewalk forum regular.

Hi,
 
There are some fun reads.
 
Spike Milligan wrote a whole bunch of books about his war stories, and they are totally nuts and fun to read!
 
Other than that, funny folks are not most of my reads, although I get a lot of fun laughs reading Carlos Castaneda, as some of the jokes by don Juan and the brood are very funny, and sometimes off the wall.
 
"Chuck-a-Muck". If you have never read it, it's Chuck Jones, that created Bugs, Daffy and the Road Runner, and some of the funniest stories ever. Get the hard cover. Those jels in the middle of it are far out and then some!
 
The stuff that Peter Cook and Dudley Moore were a part of, is very funny, and it is clever, and many times also shows the stuck up and off the wall education that they had in someof England's best and most famous universities, and the number of people they worked with that also became famous is insane, when so many of them ended up in theater, film, music ...
 
The Goons, are excellent reads, even the show scripts, of which there are 3 books I think. Very clever sound effects usage and seeing it written, sometimes is better than hearing it. However, I am not sure we are as good listeners at imagining things as the days of radio made us, which we are not today! The book by Mr. Grafton is magnificent. I have not read Harry Secombe's books. But reading Spike Milligan's "The Bed-Sitting Room" is ... different than seeing the film, and in this case, the film comes off better and more fun than the book.
 
Other than that, most humor comes from the Coffee House, though I'm not sure they consider it humor and think it's just another daw-sing application!

"Gillkerson (sp) On War".
It's a picture book.
I like pictures.
 
 
edit: Sorry; missed the 'novel' part.

You're going to wait a very long time...

Carl Hiaasen has written some delightfully funny crime novels with casts of extremely whacky characters.  For anyone wanting to check this author out, I'd suggest starting with Double Whammy, one of his earliest outings.

Moshkiae
Spike Milligan wrote a whole bunch of books about his war stories, and they are totally nuts and fun to read!
 

Oh yes Pedro, I have them all and regularly re-read them.
 
The film they made of Adolf Hitler: My Part in His Downfall is pretty good, but nowhere near as funny as the book.
 
 
 
 

Hiassen also had a woman thrown off a cruise ship by her husband and rescued by a bale of weed that floated her to a deserted florida key....after that is just gets whacky....
 
I was actually reading Hiassen while my wife was driving in the keys on Cardsound road and the character was also travelling on Cardsound road to dump a body or something.

Joe Heller's "Catch-22".
 
(plus, like Sharke said...anything by Wodehouse)
 

yorolpal
Joe Heller's "Catch-22".

+1 on Catch-22. 
 
Also, consider adding Duluth by Gore Vidal to this list.

Jasper Fforde for me is one of a very few that will genuinely make me laugh out loud.
 
Either 'The Fourth Bear' (my personnal favourite), or the Thursday Next series.
 
Anyone who can start a novel with "My father had a face that could stop a clock.  Literally." has to be on to a winner. 

On the humorous side my favourites are some finnish authors. Laughing through tears or being unsure whether it's OK to laugh or not are my favourite styles of humour.
 
Humour in litterature is very demanding to the translator. It's extremely hard to maintain the hooks of Wodehouse, for example, and you need to master english quite well to enjoy the originals.

backwoods
Flann O'Brien has some good ones (at swim two birds etc)

Love Flann O' Brien. I think I have just about everything by him. My favourite is The Third Policeman, I never saw the twist coming at the end.
 
The late lamented Iain Banks is great too, if you don't mind very dark humour.