Why are genuinely funny books so few and far between?
shameless self bamp
Novels that pivot on humor are probably a greater financial risk to publishing houses than serious ones.
>>6370879
Why moreso than in film or television?
>>6370887
When you're watching a bad comedy, you've only wasted an hour and a half of your life.
When you're *reading* a bad comedy, you piss away many times that.
>>6370809
Because humor in books is hard as hell. Books are a stripped down medium and can be interpreted differently from person to person. On the other hand, stand-up comedy is handled by the comedian; inflections, timing, etc. are all controlled/delivered by the comedian, not the audience.
What are some funny works of fiction?
>>6370908
Surely if you're watching or reading a bad comedy, you just stop?
>>6370924
Woodcutters by Thomas Bernhard
A Modest Proposal by Jonathan Swift (not exactly fiction, but it's hilarious)
>>6370924
Collected Prose of Woody Allen
Confederacy of Dunces
>>6370924
Pynchon
>>6370948
I remember I read a modest proposal to my English class expecting them to laugh
They didn't
It was very uncomfortable
>>6370977
What size cargo shorts do you wear?
>>6370991
I don't wear cargo shorts
>>6370924
Catch-22 and a lot of bullshit you find in second-hand bookshops, because big publishers aren't very keen on books that aren't strictly about a woman who goes on holiday and finds a dead body
>>6370943
No, because you have to see it out until the end, just to make sure you aren't missing something.
>>6370994
I see. What about your fedora, Target or Hot Topic?
>>6371059
Why is that fedora? I thought they'd genuinely enjoy it. I'm not a greasy neckbeard
>>6371086
>Expecting the average person to laugh at stale 18th century satire
You're out of touch
>>6370956
>Confederacy of Dunces
Absolute, complete and utter drivel. Confederacy of Dunces is the worst thing ever written in the entire history of the written word.
>>6371100
Ok, I admit I'm a little naive, but how is that fedora? Besides, his writing style and vernacular aren't incomprehensible
>>6371122
you found like a fedora-fag
Yesterday I was working and this fedora, aviator sunglasses boy walked in a full suit with running shoes and oversized DC sneakers, asked for a Large Cappuccino, then complained because it was too "heavy". I hate coffee-obsessed kids.
He was about 15 and you remind me of him lol
>fedora
Nice spook meme
>>6371147
ok, I guess? I don't really look like that at all, though. And I'm not an atheist
>>6371122
His writing style is sufficiently of its time and stuffy that the average person is going to struggle to see where the joke is. And the central premise isn't particularly funny today. Comedy suffers more than drama from the fact that it has to be fresh to remain funny and relevant, and 300 years of comedic changes hasn't left A Modest Proposal looking particularly fresh in the comedic sense.
Don't get me wrong, it's well executed satire and certainly a milestone in the development of that form of comedy, but it's not laugh out loud funny by any means.
>>6371118
It's not high art or anything, but it's pretty funny and Ignatius is a well constructed comedic character.
>>6371118
someone knows nothing about theology or geometry
>>6371156
I suppose you're right
>>6371156
>not laugh out loud funny
Speak for yourself. Maybe it's the ridiculously overblown French translation I've read, but the way Swift exposes his morbidly misanthropic idea of eating the poor's children as if it was a humanist, morally viable way of ridding Ireland of poverty is very funny.
Then again, I think Schopenhauer is a comic genius.
>>6371177
you sound insufferable.
anyway, don quixote is the funniest book. moby dick is pretty funny at times, also pretty much anything by mark twain.
>>6370924
FLANN O BRIEN
>>6371118
>implying Ignatius isn't /r9k/ foretelling
>>6371177
>I think Schopenhauer is a comic genius
>>6371197
Not him, he got, albeit unconsciously, lot /r9k/retins into thinking they have a profound view on society, that counts for something.
>>6371118
>Confederacy of Dunces is the worst thing ever written in the entire history of the written word.
The smart board.
>>6370924
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy springs to mind, not including the non-canon Eoin Colfer sequel
>>6371197
The French seem to think so, at least. They've published many books over the years dedicated to his best insults.
Schopenhauer could be writing about some difficult philosophical concept like the Fourfold Root of the Principle of Sufficient Reason, and then, a mere paragraph later, he'd become enraged and describe Hegel as a "flat-headed, insipid, nauseating, illiterate charlatan who reached the pinnacle of audacity in scribbling together and dishing up the craziest mystifying nonsense."
Also : "Les autres continents ont des singes; l'Europe a des Français. Ceci compense cela."
Funny stuff, at least to me.
>>6371183
>be reading moby-dick
>don't understand the reference to "pythagoras' maxim", obviously not talking about his theorem
>do a 'something' search
>mfw it was the original "beans make ya fart" joke
>>6371122
"fedora" is just a 4chanism for "bad" at this point, don't think about it too hard
Do parodies count as well?he had some OC too
>>6371118
the main character must remind you of someone
>>6370924
Fear and Loathing. Although, I guess that's technically non-fiction.
>>6372398
Karinthy made some parodies of non-hungarian literature(Shakespeare,Oscar Wilde etc.). It'd be really nice if someone translated those.
He managed to imitate their style very well and put it to good use in a funny context, without actually making fun of the author himself.
>>6371231
Can confirm. Just finished the entire series. Took me about a week and a half. Was cracking up the entire time.
Most people who consistently read books are too psychologically defensive to laugh at other peoples' wit and that's the only kind of humour really at play in any book.
One important factor is that humor, in any medium, tends to age rapidly.
>>6373054
I think Ambrose Bierce's humor is still effective in most of his dark humor stories. Even as a young kid he'd made me laugh out loud while reading.
I am one of them. Feels pretty good lol.
>>6370924
Airstophanes' works, Don Quixote, Gargantua and Pantegruel, Tristram Shandy, The Devil's Dictionary, The Taming of the Shrew, Gulliver's Travels, A Confederacy of Dunces, Pudd'nhead Wilson.
>>6373798
Bierce's humor is not intended to make you laugh, he said that himself. It's supposed to make you wince slightly, it's like drinking whisky.
>>6371118
I would love to hear your actual argument for that.
>>6370924
I found Steve Aylett's Beerlight novels pretty funny.
>>6370809
Because writing comedy is hard.
