Catch 22. I've read it perhaps a dozen times and will likely read it again soon. And it always has the same impact. Heller was a keen observer of life, as well as a voyeur of the future of America.
Of course most of Wodehouse is a given, but every time I reread Brideshead Revisited I laugh out loud at what a sardonic treasure Charles Ryder’s father is:
“My dear boy, how good to see you again so very soon. How long have you been away?”
Jan 21, 2022·edited Jan 21, 2022Liked by Roy Edroso
Oh, there's several: Thurber always yields delights: but Terry Pratchett's long project to send up the tropes of fantasy that morphed into a keen view of modern life, Diskworld, always gets me to crack up somewhere in any of the whole corpus: as well as nod sadly. "Small Gods" is my most recent reread...He's so stuffed with gags, I never know where it will strike me funny.
J Kennedy Toole's "A Confederacy of Dunces", Stella Gibbon's "Cold Comfort Farm" will always drag out a chuckle: : and the image of Good Scout Wesley rolling the corpse of his Confederate ancestor ("General Flintrock Poker Sash") out the side door to get to the Coke machine first at his mother's long delayed Teacher college graduation, not knowing the "General" had expired, in Flannery O'Connor's "A Late Encounter with the Enemy",(which contains as good rendition of the falsity of Southern Heritage and it's relationship to Hollywood movies as one might wish) stays in my mind.
O'Brian's columns were very funny and hold up amazingly well. My favorite was the series about the Brother, a pompous know it all who keeps everyone in his sister's boarding house completely under his thumb. As far as writers who make me laugh goes, Kingsley Amis consistently makes me laugh out loud. Girl, 20, is hysterically funny in my opinion, so much so I've read it twice.
For me it's "My Life and Hard Times" which always gets a laugh no matter how often I read it. Particularly "The Night the Bed Fell." Then there is "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas." Certainly the first third, same with the movie.
Jan 21, 2022·edited Jan 21, 2022Liked by Roy Edroso
In addition to numbering the jokes, there should be numbered phrases that recall a certain time and region when/in which the risibles would jocularly nudge the extended joke/story along. Twain did it a lot. My old boss, who grew up in Indiana, could quote James Whitcomb Riley (he called him 'Jim") for hours, and what I enjoyed the most were the turns of phrase that stretched but did not break the boundaries of the journey. I cannot bring a single one to mind right now, but "to be well and truly" works. I'll toss this one on the pyre:
"so much more than merely"
to kickstart this assembled moblet – add yer own below.
As if his acting, standup and banjo artistry aren’t enough, Steve Martin’s “Pure Drivel” has a laugh out loud line on every page. Sure, it’s the same line but it’s really funny.
Many books made me laugh out loud, but I haven't revisited any of them to see if they still do. Catch-22 was one of the few I can remember, and, besides Thurber, writers like P.G. Wodehouse (e.g., "The Truth About George"), J.P. Donleavy ("The Unexpurgated Code") and almost anything by S.J. Perelman made me laugh the first time around. My problem is my old brain is such a sieve these days I just can't remember them.
My dad had a completely different (and far less funny) ending for the Old Comedians' Club (nobody laughs at "36" and the guest asks why--"He's not telling it right"). The only Myles columns I know, the Keats and Chapman stories, always work https://www.google.com/books/edition/The_Various_Lives_of_Keats_and_Chapman/gEVbJ-pexT4C?hl=en Mortimer's examples below, and the weird moments in Pynchon novels where he becomes uncontrollably silly, like the "Chinese joke" in V.
oh my gosh, my granddad used to tell a version of the Old Comedians' Club joke - one that takes place in a prison, where the guys are yelling out numbers in the cafeteria to uproarious laughter. an old con tells a confused newbie that the guys yell out numbers from a joke book since they're not allowed to tell jokes. the newbie yells "47!" and the room falls silent. the old con shakes his head and says "i guess some guys just can't tell a joke."
Take this with a big ol’ helping of salt, but several of the footnotes in INFINITE JEST do that for me. Two in particular: (1) Avril’s letter to Orin about springtime at the academy and a bumblebee so large it sounded like a tuba; and (2) Orin’s responding with a form letter from his football team about reponses to fan letters, signed “Jethro Bodine.”
I'd completely forgotten, but Woody Allen's collections of stories were hilarious. Before the fall, of course. And I did read some of those more than once and still laughed. One story I can actually remember is "The Kugelmass Episode" where a professor gets magically transported into "Madame Bovary."
Catch 22. I've read it perhaps a dozen times and will likely read it again soon. And it always has the same impact. Heller was a keen observer of life, as well as a voyeur of the future of America.
Of course most of Wodehouse is a given, but every time I reread Brideshead Revisited I laugh out loud at what a sardonic treasure Charles Ryder’s father is:
“My dear boy, how good to see you again so very soon. How long have you been away?”
“15 months.”
“Really? It seems a much shorter time.”
Oh, there's several: Thurber always yields delights: but Terry Pratchett's long project to send up the tropes of fantasy that morphed into a keen view of modern life, Diskworld, always gets me to crack up somewhere in any of the whole corpus: as well as nod sadly. "Small Gods" is my most recent reread...He's so stuffed with gags, I never know where it will strike me funny.
J Kennedy Toole's "A Confederacy of Dunces", Stella Gibbon's "Cold Comfort Farm" will always drag out a chuckle: : and the image of Good Scout Wesley rolling the corpse of his Confederate ancestor ("General Flintrock Poker Sash") out the side door to get to the Coke machine first at his mother's long delayed Teacher college graduation, not knowing the "General" had expired, in Flannery O'Connor's "A Late Encounter with the Enemy",(which contains as good rendition of the falsity of Southern Heritage and it's relationship to Hollywood movies as one might wish) stays in my mind.
O'Brian's columns were very funny and hold up amazingly well. My favorite was the series about the Brother, a pompous know it all who keeps everyone in his sister's boarding house completely under his thumb. As far as writers who make me laugh goes, Kingsley Amis consistently makes me laugh out loud. Girl, 20, is hysterically funny in my opinion, so much so I've read it twice.
For me it's "My Life and Hard Times" which always gets a laugh no matter how often I read it. Particularly "The Night the Bed Fell." Then there is "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas." Certainly the first third, same with the movie.
In addition to numbering the jokes, there should be numbered phrases that recall a certain time and region when/in which the risibles would jocularly nudge the extended joke/story along. Twain did it a lot. My old boss, who grew up in Indiana, could quote James Whitcomb Riley (he called him 'Jim") for hours, and what I enjoyed the most were the turns of phrase that stretched but did not break the boundaries of the journey. I cannot bring a single one to mind right now, but "to be well and truly" works. I'll toss this one on the pyre:
"so much more than merely"
to kickstart this assembled moblet – add yer own below.
Edited to add: "42!"
I heard a variant of the "Old Comedians' Club" told in a MST3K movie (in the movie itself IIRC), but can't remember which one.
Ooh, that works too! Behold:
"Ancient MST3K Fanclubbers Home"
"S313!" one calls, & the parlor rings with guffaws."
Nice, no?
Max Shulman's "The Feather Merchants"- or, actually, anything by him pre-Dobie Gillis...
As if his acting, standup and banjo artistry aren’t enough, Steve Martin’s “Pure Drivel” has a laugh out loud line on every page. Sure, it’s the same line but it’s really funny.
Many books made me laugh out loud, but I haven't revisited any of them to see if they still do. Catch-22 was one of the few I can remember, and, besides Thurber, writers like P.G. Wodehouse (e.g., "The Truth About George"), J.P. Donleavy ("The Unexpurgated Code") and almost anything by S.J. Perelman made me laugh the first time around. My problem is my old brain is such a sieve these days I just can't remember them.
"Something to Say" helped my 17-year-old self recognize that the tortured writer shtick was lame.
My dad had a completely different (and far less funny) ending for the Old Comedians' Club (nobody laughs at "36" and the guest asks why--"He's not telling it right"). The only Myles columns I know, the Keats and Chapman stories, always work https://www.google.com/books/edition/The_Various_Lives_of_Keats_and_Chapman/gEVbJ-pexT4C?hl=en Mortimer's examples below, and the weird moments in Pynchon novels where he becomes uncontrollably silly, like the "Chinese joke" in V.
oh my gosh, my granddad used to tell a version of the Old Comedians' Club joke - one that takes place in a prison, where the guys are yelling out numbers in the cafeteria to uproarious laughter. an old con tells a confused newbie that the guys yell out numbers from a joke book since they're not allowed to tell jokes. the newbie yells "47!" and the room falls silent. the old con shakes his head and says "i guess some guys just can't tell a joke."
Take this with a big ol’ helping of salt, but several of the footnotes in INFINITE JEST do that for me. Two in particular: (1) Avril’s letter to Orin about springtime at the academy and a bumblebee so large it sounded like a tuba; and (2) Orin’s responding with a form letter from his football team about reponses to fan letters, signed “Jethro Bodine.”
I'd completely forgotten, but Woody Allen's collections of stories were hilarious. Before the fall, of course. And I did read some of those more than once and still laughed. One story I can actually remember is "The Kugelmass Episode" where a professor gets magically transported into "Madame Bovary."
Red Sky at Morning where the kids come across the body of a decomposing horse in the ditch.
Definitely has the element of action involved with the humor.