Humor Writers a la mode

[Zeno]

Humor is a vast subject and no more so than when hogtied by over analyses or long-winded explanations wrapped in academic anagogic. But that is an aside, and to start a post (or a paragraph) with an aside is to distract the reader unnecessarily with silliness before getting to the meat of the buffoonery.

There is a vast amount of writers that can be lumped together under the simple label of humorist, or that at least dabbled in this art form, using humorist in its broadest sense. This would include comedy and burlesque writers, satirists, and similar ilk. But this leads into the main point of this post, - Favorite Humorist Writers. American humorists or at least of western tilt would be the most fitting for this forum. Please do not turn this into a “who is the best” type thread. That is not the intent. The intent is to mention and name who you enjoy most among the many humorists that have come and gone or still linger on this cesspool of a planet and add to the jest and farce of the human experience and make life a tweak more bearable. This we share and all will gain.


There where a large number of very good humorist that were connected with the The New Yorker (or the Algonquin Round Table (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Algonquin_Round_Table)) in the early part of the 1900’s but the stand outs that I enjoy most are James Thurber, Dorothy Parker, and Robert Benchley. Thurber is the one I’ve read the most and I consider some of his stuff among my favorites, his short piece “Preface to a life” is something that jiggles and loosens the tensions of life and makes it seem that you are not alone among the bewildered and botched.

I have often quoted P.G. Wodehouse in posts that I inflict on this website. If you have not read a P.G. Wodehouse novel you should be shot and then hung from the nearest bridge by a piano wire. His “Jeeves and Wooster” and “Blandings Castle” ( Uncle Fred in the Springtime is a favorite) set of novels is top fair.

Some justly famous humorists that I will mention and I have thoroughly enjoyed (and just to get some of the obvious names into the air) are: Mark Twain, Oscar Wilde, Noel Coward, Quentin Crisp, Ambrose Bierce, and H.L. Mencken. Much good humor writing is also found in PUNCH (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Punch_magazine), a famous British humor magazine (now defunct).

Of Twain’s vast humor output his short story “Journalism in Tennessee” is one of my favorites.

On that note, I will leave the rest up to the readers and posters here to add to the humor enlightenment that I eagerly anticipate and the gem writers to be revealed and fawned over. I have purposely left out older or ‘classical humorist’ to help narrow down so large a field.




One horse-laugh is worth ten thousand syllogisms. It is not only more effective; it is also vastly more intelligent. – H.L. Mencken


-Zeno

[adsman]

Kingsly Amis. 'Lucky Jim' is one of those books which I can reread every couple of years and still die laughing.

[Los Feliz Slim]

I can remember grabbing Woody Allen's "Without Feathers" from my Dad's library when I was very young, reading it, not getting it at all, but continually re-reading it. I think it is largely responsible for my taste in humor running towards the absurd, and it's very easy to see Woody's influence on a wide range of more recent comedians.

[ QUOTE ]
How wrong Emily Dickinson was! Hope is not "the thing with feathers". The thing with feathers has turned to be my nephew. I must take him to a specialist in Zurich.[/i]

[Georgia Avenue]

The thing is, good humor is often very stupid, and good writing usually is not. A lot of the funniest stuff gets written by nameless drudges at the Onion or at Punch's sucessor, the National Lampoon. I just bought the Phat Phree's book, Look At My Striped Shirt (http://www.amazon.com/Look-My-Striped-Shirt-Confessions/dp/0767924185) which has stuff you cannot find on the internet, and it is far more hilarious than it should be.

PJ O'Rourke's Modern Manners is still the funniest book I've ever read, as well as my guiding and permanent life philosophy.

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“It’s better to spend money like there’s no tomorrow than to spend tonight like there’s no money.”

· “Guns are always the best method for private suicide. Drugs are too chancy. You might miscalculate the dosage and just have a good time.”

· “A hat should be taken off when you greet a lady and left off for the rest of your life. Nothing looks more stupid than a hat.”



· “Never refuse wine. It is an odd but universally held opinion that anyone who doesn’t drink must be an alcoholic.”

· “A woman should dress to attract attention. To attract the most attention, a woman should be either nude or wearing something as expensive as getting her nude is going to be.”

“We must be as obsequious as possible to famous people and do everything in our power to make them like us. Fame is a communicable disease. And if you get screwed by someone who’s got it, you may catch it yourself.”

"Never be unfaithful to a lover, except with your wife.


Never fight an inanimate object.


Never wear anything that panics the cat."


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[Pudge714]

I have always really enjoyed Dave Barry. He doesn't take himself to0 seriously and is a very good satirist.
Link to one of his more famous and the piece that got me interested in reading more of what he wrote, sorry for the crappy quality.
http://www.davebarry.com/natterings_files/daveHOWTOARGUE.pdf


While not a humour writer in the same vain as others who have been listed I really enjoyed "Deep Thoughts" by Jack Handey.
http://www.cco.net/~jpete/deepthou.htm

[Los Feliz Slim]

[ QUOTE ]

“It’s better to spend money like there’s no tomorrow than to spend tonight like there’s no money.”

[/ QUOTE ]

This reminds me of a saying that I lived by in college: "Pot gets you through times with no money better than money gets you through times with no pot." I've always attributed that to the Phabulous Phurry Phreak Brothers, but I could be wrong.

[4_2_it]

The Borowitz Report (http://www.borowitzreport.com/) is usually more hit than miss for me.

The Onion's 9/11 issue's (http://www.theonion.com/content/index/3734) story about the hijackers in hell is pretty good.

[NajdorfDefense]

PJORourke is the funniest writer working the past several years. Dave Barry is right up there - most people don't know he won the Pulitzer Prize for Commentary:
http://www.davebarry.com/gg/newyork.html

'We're riding in a cab from La Guardia Airport to our Manhattan hotel, and I want to interview the driver, because this is how we professional journalists take the Pulse of a City, only I can't, because he doesn't speak English. He is not allowed to, under the rules, which are posted right on the seat:

NEW YORK TAXI RULES

1. DRIVER SPEAKS NO ENGLISH.

2. DRIVER JUST GOT HERE TWO DAYS AGO FROM SOMEPLACE LIKE SENEGAL.

3. DRIVER HATES YOU.'

[Potvaliant]

I'd put S.J. Perelman right behind Twain and Thurber at the top of the list of American humorists, with P.J. O'Rourke and Dorothy Parker not far behind. (Edit : duh. Woody Allen too.)

Some writers I find very funny (though I wouldn't call them humorists per se) :

T.C. Boyle (At least his earlier work, before he got too full of himself; "Budding Prospects" is still one of the funniest books I've ever read, and "Water Music" has moments of comic brilliance.)

Douglas Adams (Seemingly effortless, intelligent humor. No matter how many times I read him, his wit still sneaks up on me.)

Terry Pratchett (The jokes are easier, and even nerdier than Adams', but it works.)

George Saunders (He's only written a couple of books of short stories and a few slim novels, but it's all really absurd and cool and funny. "CivilWarLand in bad decline" is one of my favorite recent books.)

Joseph Heller (Catch-22 probably made me laugh harder than any book I've ever read.)

I'm probably forgetting a couple; I might be back here.

[alebron]

Joe Queenan from GQ hates everything. Including himself. I can't find a link, but I thought his best bit was when he learned that Dan Aykroyd had never seen any of his own films.

Famous for the quote that the three scariest words in the English language were "starring Dan Aykroyd", Queenan then forced himself to watch every movie Dan had ever made, continuously, and documented the experience. The article had me in tears.

[Zeno]

GA & ND: I have a few of P.J. O'Rouke's books and thoroughly enjoyed his Holidays in Hell (reports from hellholes around the world) and Parliament of Whores (P.J. explains the U.S. Government).

4 2 it: The Onion is superb and I have The Onion's Finest News Reporting, Volume One. Here is a sample article that I liked because it was so twisted, my kind of humor: New Study Revels: Babies Are Stupid (http://www.onion.demon.co.uk/theonion/other/babies/stupidbabies.htm)


This brings me to the subject of anthologies of humor which can be a great source to learn about not so well known humorists and authors that you may not have suspected that engaged in humor writing on a small scale. E.B. Whites Subtreasury of American Humor (http://www.amazon.com/Subtreasury-American-Humor-E-White/dp/0897609379/sr=1-1/qid=1170895503/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/102-1002496-6515319?ie=UTF8&s=books) is just one example. Somewhat old-fashion but still very good.

-Zeno

[jbrent33]

Carl Hiassen (http://www.carlhiaasen.com/) is my favorite humorist. You might know him as the author of the classic Demi Moore vehicle "Striptease" All of his books are equally awesome, but if I had to pick one it would probably be Sick Puppy. Here is a review:
[ QUOTE ]

From Publishers Weekly
Florida muckraker Hiaasen once again produces a devilishly funny caper revolving around the environmental exploitation of his home state by greedy developers. When budding young ecoterrorist Twilly Spree begins a campaign of sabotage against a grotesque litterbug named Palmer Stoat, he gets much more than he bargained for.


Stoat is a political fixer, involved with a bevy of shady types: Dick Artemus, ex-car salesman, now governor; Robert Clapley, a crooked land developer with an unhealthy interest in Barbie dolls; and his business expediter, Mr. Gash, a permed reptilian thug with ghastly musical tastes: "All morning he drove back and forth across the old bridge, with his favorite 911 compilation in the tape deck: Snipers in the Workplace, accompanied by an overdub of Tchaikowsky's Symphony No. 3 in D Major."


After a wave of preemptive strikes centered on a garbage truck and a swarm of dung beetles, Twilly ups the ante and kidnaps both Palmer's dog and his wife, Desie, who finds Twilly a great deal more interesting than her slob of a husband.


In doing so Twilly uncovers a conspiracy (well, more like business as usual) to jam a bill through the Florida legislature to develop Toad Island, a wildlife sanctuary, in a deal that will make a mint for all the politicos concerned. Chapley wants Twilly silenced and dispatches Mr. Gash. Palmer wants his wife and dog back and asks Dick Artemus to help in the rescue without derailing the bill.


Who should be called upon but the good cop/bad psycho duo of Trooper Jim Tile and ex-Governor Clinton Tyree, aka Skink or the Captain, whose recurring appearances throughout Hiaasen's novels have made for hysterical farce.


While there may be nothing laughable about unchecked environmental exploitation, Hiaasen has refined his knack for using this gloomy but persistent state of affairs as a prime mover for scams of all sorts. In Sick Puppy, he shows himself to be a comic writer at the peak of his powers. 200,000 first printing; first serial to Men's Journal; Literary Guild alternate; simultaneous audiobook. (Jan.)
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc

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[adsman]

Hiassen's earlier stuff was much better. Tourist Season and Skintight spring to mind.

[Phat Mack]

Robert Letham isn't known as a humorist, but his book, Motherless Brooklyn, had me laughing so hard on a flight to Vegas a couple of weeks ago that the stewardess good-naturedly threatened to confiscate it.

Just to be ornery, I'll nominate Anthony Powell. If Marcel Proust's publisher got tired of waiting for him to finish Remembrance of Things Past, fired him, and turned the project over to P.G Wodehouse, he'd have wound up with AP's Dance to the Music of Time. Nothing much happens for the first 500 pages, but several jokes are set up for the delivery of their punch line 2-3000 pages later. Not recommended for anyone under 50, as they won't understand the magnitude of the jokes that life is getting ready to play on them.

[Zeno]

Before this thread settles into the sunset, I wish to mention a few books that most humor aficionados would enjoy, especially the more cranky: The Portable Curmudgeon, The Portable Curmudgeon Redux, The Traveling Curmudgeon all edited by Jon Winokur, and The Book of Poisonous Quotes, compiled by Colin M. Jarman. Jon Winokur is coming out soon with a "The Big Curmudgeon" so that may be a better pick up than the separate books. I assure all that the above books, that include quotes from a whole host of humorists and others, are well worthwhile.

On a last note, The Oxford Dictionary of Humorous Quotations is a pleasent book to have and can get you through many a dull afternoon or night.

It's an odd job, making people laugh. - Molière


-Zeno

[NajdorfDefense]

[ QUOTE ]
Hiassen's earlier stuff was much better. Tourist Season and Skintight spring to mind.

[/ QUOTE ]

Agreed, tourist Season and Double Whammy are terrific.

[NajdorfDefense]

Most people know Confederacy of Dunces and Catch-22, one of the alltime greatest, funniest books is J.P. Donleavy's The Ginger Man. A few decades back but piss-your-pants funny.

[Grifter]

I don't know if he would be classified as a 'Humorist' but David Foster Wallace seems to constantly make me laugh. His essays in "Consider the Lobster" consist of academic musings on pop culture (sort of like a hyperliterate Chuck Klosterman,) and in the first essay, which happened to be about the AVN awards, I found myself laughing out loud at least once a page. I haven't read his novels yet, but perhaps someone else can vouch for thier humor.

[KJS]

Seems pretty overexposed right now but no one gets me laughing like David Sedaris.

KJS

[KJS]

[ QUOTE ]
I don't know if he would be classified as a 'Humorist' but David Foster Wallace seems to constantly make me laugh.

[/ QUOTE ]

He was one of the first I thought of too. His bit in "Supposedly Fun Thing..." about the conflict between the customer is always right and the customer should never carry his own luggage is awesome.

KJS

[Potvaliant]

[ QUOTE ]
I don't know if he would be classified as a 'Humorist' but David Foster Wallace seems to constantly make me laugh. His essays in "Consider the Lobster" consist of academic musings on pop culture (sort of like a hyperliterate Chuck Klosterman,) and in the first essay, which happened to be about the AVN awards, I found myself laughing out loud at least once a page. I haven't read his novels yet, but perhaps someone else can vouch for thier humor.

[/ QUOTE ]

His first book of short stories ("Girl With Curious Hair") is good, and parts of "Infinite Jest" are very funny (if you don't mind working through the other 900 pages), but I think his essays are much, much more enjoyable.

He tries too hard to play postmodern games and try pretentious experiments in his fiction, imo.

He's a very, very talented writer though.

[theBruiser500]

Richard Russo, Nobody's Fool.

[Phat Mack]

[ QUOTE ]
I don't know if he would be classified as a 'Humorist' but David Foster Wallace seems to constantly make me laugh. His essays in "Consider the Lobster" consist of academic musings on pop culture (sort of like a hyperliterate Chuck Klosterman,) and in the first essay, which happened to be about the AVN awards, I found myself laughing out loud at least once a page. I haven't read his novels yet, but perhaps someone else can vouch for thier humor.

[/ QUOTE ]

Good pick. Zeno would like "A Supposedly Fun Thing That I Will Never Do Again." I still laugh thinking about the little girl hustling him at chess, after which he vents his spleen at the ping pong table. Or the women in the desert tent at the state fair who think his "Harpers" credentials are from "Harper's Bazaar," and nearly feed him to death.

[HeavilyArmed]

[ QUOTE ]
PJ O'Rourke's Modern Manners is still the funniest book I've ever read, as well as my guiding and permanent life philosophy.


[/ QUOTE ]

Few finer. Explore the rest of his work as well, it might rub off.

[BennyProfane]

[ QUOTE ]
I don't know if he would be classified as a 'Humorist' but David Foster Wallace seems to constantly make me laugh. I haven't read his novels yet, but perhaps someone else can vouch for thier humor.

[/ QUOTE ]

Infinite Jest is veeeery funny. It's more ambitious than his essays and does not hide that it's trying to be Art-with-a-capital-A, but there is a lot of humor in the book.

[piradical]

Could it have been Mr. Natural?

[centaurmyth]

For my money, I'd have to say, Immanuel Kant. Grounding for the Metaphysics of Morals was laugh-out-loud redonkulous. For those of you who haven't had the pleasure of reading this one, put it on you a-priority list.

[NajdorfDefense]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
I don't know if he would be classified as a 'Humorist' but David Foster Wallace seems to constantly make me laugh.

[/ QUOTE ]

He was one of the first I thought of too. His bit in "Supposedly Fun Thing..." about the conflict between the customer is always right and the customer should never carry his own luggage is awesome.

KJS

[/ QUOTE ]

His essay on the #100 ranked tennis player was hilarious as well. Much of his work is extremely funny, esp Infinite Jest and most of the nonficiton essays.

[maurile]

Dave Barry and P.J. O'Rourke are my two favorites. Woody Allen has also written some funny stuff (collected in Without Feathers and Side Effects). I love H.L. Mencken. And Oscar Wilde should get a lot more love than he does as a humorist.