5 Reasons It’s Impossible to Find Funny Books

[xg4bx]

"#4. "Funny" Is Slapped on the Jacket of Almost Every Novel Ever Written

No novel ever written is completely devoid of jokes, so, as a result, the description on the back or inside cover of almost every novel says something like "At equal times heartbreaking, intense and totally funny, this book is a must-read" or "Exhilarating and sexy, with a great sense of humor!" Go into a bookstore and pick up any novel, and I guarantee you one out of every three will have either "surprisingly hilarious" or "flat out funny!" slapped on there. The government should honestly be able to step in and legislate the number of times publishing houses can advertise their books as "funny." The back of my copy of Jonathan Franzen's The Corrections says "surprisingly funny," and I guess there are a few funny lines, but at the end of the day, it's a book about Parkinson's disease and an entire family that suffers from depression."


Read more: 5 Reasons It’s Impossible to Find Funny Books | Cracked.com http://www.cracked.com/blog/5-reason...#ixzz1khfX0oCS



salty language warning.

[sgraffwriter]

Funny, to me, is more relevant in the form of visual media for some reason. I don't often laugh when I read things that are funny, but when I hear them said out loud or see them (in the form of physical comedy, for example), then I find myself laughing.

[HappyMartin]

To me it's like saying "5 reasons there are no people in New York". I find lots of funny books. I mean, how subjective is humor. No way you can legislate what is funny.

[banjobama]

I found this to be pretty much true. I find dry, wordy stuff funniest. Stuff that makes fun of itself, on TV or in a books, I'll laugh at. I feel like this kind of humor is becoming less and less popular, though... it's hard to do well, in my opinion.

[Kumabjorn]

I feel for the poster & blogger. Some funny novels, Dave Barry come to mind, does make me laugh out load at times but usually they are kind of thin when it comes to plot and characters. Finding that combination of interesting plot, believable characters and funny descriptions are rare indeed.

Humor is highly subjective. Take the list of funny books at the end of that article. "The long dark tea-time of the soul," was wretched in my humble opinion. Yet I couldn't stop laughing while reading "Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency" (same author, same style, some of the same characters). I also tend to prefer children's literature because the authors tend to take a "laugh with" approach. I never understood why people think that laughing at others, particularly in difficult circumstances, is funny. Of course, the majority of adults would beg to differ. :/

[dmcounts]

Funny?

Joe R. Lansdale's Hap Collins and Leonard Pine series are some of the funniest mysteries I have ever read.

A lot of action and some of the best humor out of Texas there ever was.



don

[Apache]

Christopher Moore, Carl Hiiason and Gregory Mcdonald have written some extremely funny books.
Apache

[RainingLemur]

It's not completely impossible, just seems that way. The last few funny books I've read have been by people that I like to listen to and laugh at (Forrest Griffin is one of them, dude always cracks me up).

#3 on that list reminds me why I love George Carlin's books. They're not memoirs...they're just the transcribed versions of his routines. Same with some of Dennis Miller's "Rant" books.

[wvcherrybomb]

Carl Hiaasen and Dave Barry

[tecweston]

David Sedaris is one of the funniest authors around. I like to get his stuff in audiobooks though, because hearing him do the voices and the inflections is half the comedy.

[bbqncigars]

I'm always on the look out for the literary equivalent of the movie "Blazing Saddles". Something that is humorous on different levels every time. Such gems are, unfortunately, rare. I would heartily recommend Dave Barry's piece on colonoscopy for an only slightly graphic bit of humor.

[apbschmitz]

A lot of work that's intended to be funny leaves me cold, whereas a book like The Last Werewolf, which surely wasn't intended to be humorous in that Dave Barry-ish way, strikes me as deeply comical. It's more in the lightness of approach, the ridiculousness of the premise.

[carpetmojo]

Try " Some Experiences of an Irish RM" - you might have to talk yerself into a used copy from Amazon, but you'll never regret it, bejaysus......

Hopefully.....

[sonofpendragon]

I tend not to buy and therefore not read full-blown comedic / humorous books, I don't laugh at them. But I do like a good solid tale, even tragic in essence, which has some good funny parts to it. That seems to me to be more natural.