Please make me laugh!

[susie_flo]

Yesterday's Metro reviewed a novel called 'Instructions For Living Someone Else’s Life' with the following statement... "Some books make you snort involuntarily with laughter; others you have to put down for a proper belly laugh, wipe away tears and then return to. This is in the latter category"

It made me realise that I am positively gagging for a book that makes me laugh out loud.  The last one that gave me quite a few unexpected laughs was Catherin O'Flynne's excellent tragicomic novel, 'What Was Lost'. 

I remember laughing a lot when I was a teenager.  There were countless books and films that made my cheeks and stomach muscles ache.  One problem with getting older is that it becomes increasingly hard to find things new or surprising...  which I think are key components of humour.  As a result I seem to crave increasingly dark and edgy humour which is hard to satisfy outside the realms of live stand-up (or the fantabulous Chris Morris).  

But for true belly laughs, I think I have to admit that there is no substitute for the purely juvenile.   Ask yourself which book and/or film has given you the most all-time laughs.  A good film test is this... does it make you laugh out loud even when you are all alone?  I asked myself this question today and came to the rather sheepish conclusion that my funniest film is probably the 1979 classic 'The Jerk', which I re-watched by myself a few months ago and still snorted involuntarily through most of it. 

Truly funny books are trickier to pin down.  I seem to recall John O'Farrell making me laugh quite a bit, and when I was a teenager Tom Sharpe made me laugh til I cried.  (I wonder if I would find his novels even remotely funny if I read them again today?)

Obviously humour is a very personal thing...   but I really fancy a few laughs, so any personal recommendations will be warmly received.  

Comments

[sushidog.livejournal.com]

Wall-E made me laugh out loud, although I wans't alone at the time. Still, worth watching, I reckon!

[the-meanest-cat.livejournal.com]

Ah - thanks for that. I'm hearing a lot of good things about Wall-E.

[sara-lou.livejournal.com]

The last books that made me giggle a little bit were, I'm afraid, the Shopaholic series...

The shame.

[the-meanest-cat.livejournal.com]

heh! Actually last Xmas my sister bought me a book called Shopaholic and Baby... is that one of them? I haven't read it yet - in fact I'd forgiotten all about it. Maybe I should rediscover chick lit - I think jenny Colgan and India Knight both used to make me laugh.

[sara-lou.livejournal.com]

Oh yes, India Knight does... I think Jenny Colgan just made me want to go and scour my brain though.

(It is one of them, yes.)

[steer.livejournal.com]

Oooh... I think "The man with the two brains" is funnier than the Jerk although both are very good.

I recently got recordings of the Radio Series of Chris Addison's Civilisation and The Ape that got Lucky. They both really had me laughing out loud.

Books though... hmm... that's a tricky one. John O'Farrell is certainly very good. Clive James' autobiographies could have me rolling around with laughter. Bill Bryson definitely has some (few) laugh out loud moments too.
Stephen Fry occasionally has some chuckles but never really laugh out loud for me.

"1066 and all that" and the Molesworth books were good when I was younger, not sure they'd make me laugh now.

[the-meanest-cat.livejournal.com]

Thanks for those suggestions. I agree about Stephen Fry, most of the time he is wryly amusing rather than laugh out loud funny. I wonder whether the Chris Addison recordings will hit my funny bone... am certainly willing to give them a try.

G would agree with you about The Man with Two Brains! I enjoyed it, but it is hard to compete with "He hates these cans!" or "Don't call that dog Lifesaver - call him Shithead".

[steer.livejournal.com]

I read "three men in a boat" for the first time recently but even though it's a classic it didn't really have me doing much more than snorting derisively occasionally.

Oh, just occasionally, Garrison Keillor makes me laugh aloud.

[rosamicula.livejournal.com]

I feel the same way about Tom SHarpe. I am loathe to reread them in case they don't work anymore.

Please update us on any belly-laugh material you find!

[steer.livejournal.com]

Not connected but
http://www.technologyreview.com/Infotech/21152/?a=f

This must appeal to both your artist and geek sides!

[the-meanest-cat.livejournal.com]

Ooh yes! It's like the introduction of print on demand books - basically taking a very expensive technology and making it available on a one-at-a-time service basis to the hoi polloi. (A lot of artists are using print on demand these days to make coffee table books of their art work.) THis is like a version for 3D creators.

[kissmeforlonger.livejournal.com]

Books don't work as well for me - though Clive James's autobiographics are really hilarious. Radio still makes me laugh - News Quiz, I'm sorry I haven't a clue (which they're repeating) and Just a minute. I'm planning to go and see a couple of comedians later in the year - Frankie Boyle (after seeing Mock the Week) and maybe Dylan Moran.

Every time I want a laugh I think of the 'rave' episode of Spaced.

[the-meanest-cat.livejournal.com]

Ooh - that's two votes for Clive James autobiographies. I might give them a try.
I agree about Spaced - one of the funniest sitcoms ever made. I miss it terribly, though I know they were right to quite before it went downhill.