Comedy movies ruled in every past decade that you can remember, but we’ve since seen most of the industry moving away from them. That sucks, but it doesn’t mean that comedy is gone. Let’s look at this absence as an opportunity.
Most great comedy is born from written text, so why not use your newfound time to read some of the best comedy novels ever written?
A Confederacy of Dunces is the holy grail of modern comedy novels if there is one. It tells the story of Ignatius J. Reilly, a man smart man who’s also plagued by enormous laziness and personality quirks that make him a fun character to read about, maybe not one you’d like to deal with. To make matters better, Reilly has the propensity to make equally wacky characters gravitate towards him in his supposed quest to get a job.
The story behind this novel is nearly as interesting as the work itself, as it was only published 11 years after the death of author John Kennedy Toole, and over 15 years after being written. Dunces spent a few years getting more popular via word of moth, and only then became a huge hit that all comedy writers must read.
Ignatius J. Reilly’s physical description and smartass wit might remind you of pretty much every main character in every successful animated sitcom in existence. It’s likely we have to thank Ignatius for having inspired all following generations of popular comedy.
If you’re wondering why the supposed all-time great comedy book never became a major movie, well, the answer might be a curse. Now, while I don’t believe in curses, it’s true many directors have tried adapting A Confederacy Of Dunces to the big screen ever since its release, but big or small accidents always ended up derailing the production.
Joseph Heller’s Catch 22 soared high enough to have its name become synonymous with any dilemma too powerful to get out of.
The specific dilemma posed by the novel states that If you’re clinically insane, you are unfit to serve in the war. If you ask to have a psychological evaluation, however, you’re already demonstrating enough sanity to serve in the war.
Catch 22 tells the story of John Yossarian, a WWII bombardier captain who tries to be discharged to no avail as the atrocities that he witnesses on a daily basis push him towards the limit. It doesn’t seem very funny when put like that, but Catch 22 does a marvelous job of picking apart all the bureaucracy that make war even more of a nightmare than it’s supposed to be.
Catch 22’s greatest achievement, in my opinion, is not just being hilarious. It’s managing to make you laugh while not trying to turn the entirely vile affair of war into a joke. There are a lot of great jokes here, but Catch 22 never fails to deliver a relevantly humane message.
Brett Easton Ellis’ American Psycho gained immense notoriety as its movie adaptation starring Christian Bale immediately became a cult classic, but the novel remains a poignant read.
Whereas the movie portrayed Patrick Bateman’s shell of a person as a creepy sociopath, the book does, well, the same thing, albeit in a much funnier way.
Bale gets a lot of deserved praise for his portrayal of Patrick Bateman. Still, over 20 years later, too many Internet memes portraying that character as a total chad show not everyone got the message. You’re much less likely to misinterpret the movie, as the satire elements greatly outweigh the scary parts, or the ones some can misunderstand as “badass”.
Critique of Bureaucracy seems to be a good foundation for a hit comedy book. Douglas Adams’ The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy tells the story of one man who loses his planet (Earth), because it was somehow located in a part of space someone designated for the construction of a new galactic highway.
Fortunately, right before getting crushed to death by space construction workers, he’s gets saved and taken on a journey through the galaxy even though he doesn’t own a ship. Many hail The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy as the greatest piece of sci-fi comedy every written, while some have a hard time enjoying Adams’ peculiar humor. Either way, it has undoubtedly inspired a lot of other great sci-fi comedy material, and is thus something completely worth checking out.
If you believe even most great artists will lose their mojo with age, then you should really read Terry Pratchett’s Night Watch, the 29th book in the Discworld series.
It follows Samuel Vimes, the leader of Ankh-Morpork’s city watch, as he’s sent back in time before capturing a notorious criminal responsible for the murder of various watchmen. Time travel is a complicated subject, one that can either make or completely break your story, but this is one of the greatest in the overall very good list of Discworld novels.
Please just be reminded that while you can read it if you’ve never read any other Discworld tale, Night Watch is the sixth book in the inner “City Watch” series, so you might want to check those out beforehand.
If you’re into stoner comedies, Fear And Loathing in Las Vegas is likely both the originator, and still one of the best outings in the genre.
Fear And Loathing in Las Vegas follows Raoul Duke and Dr. Gonzo on a road trip to Las Vegas in an attempt to “find the American Dream. When you know a story will involve Las Vegas at some point, your mind immediately pictures the wackiest moments taking place there. You’d be wrong. Fear And Loathing is equally hilarious and weird at all times, as well as way more though-provoking than you’d originally think.
Funniest of all, a lot of it isn’t made up, but merely an “enhanced” version of real-life events late author Hunter S. Thompson actually went through.
Going Postal tells the tale of Moist Von Lipwig, a con artist who’s saved from execution to endure a possibly even worse fate: managing Ankh-Morpork’s postal service. Naturally, he has to contend with the bonkers bureaucracies you’d expect from this job – even if it didn’t take place in an already magical wacky city – but also with a mystery pointing to a bigger conspiracy.
Remember when I made a big fuss about Terry Pratchett still being on a role when he delivered his 29th Discworld novel? Welp, Going Postal is his 33rd.
In My Year of Rest and Relaxation Author Ottessa Moshfegh talks about one of the most interesting proposition of all time: being able to sleep all the time, literally. The main character begins to try out a few interesting drugs and arrives at one that allows her to sleep the entire time. There’s only one caveat though, which is sleepwalking. That twist immediately turns the entire premise upside down, and the story is all the better for it.
If you’re tired, stressed out, or have arrived at a time of your life when you’re nonplussed about everyday’s busy activities, work or otherwise, then this one might be for you.
Kurt Vonnegut is one of the best when it comes to getting laughs out of serious scenarios. In Cat’s Cradle, he tells the story of John (or Jonah), a man who once set out to write a book about the bombing of Hiroshima and got interrupted by a very similar scenario taking place on his doorstep. That’s not a very promising synopsis for a funny book, especially one that also satirizes religion and the global arms race. Still, Cat’s Cradle more than delivers in the laughter department as we follow John in a relatively short sci-fi adventure where he finds faith in the form of a silly made-up religion.
If I try to make you see the greatness of The Princess Bride by only telling you the plot, you’ll just think I’m some idiot who’s never seen a Disney film. Though it seemingly tells the regular story of the hero who goes on an adventure to rescue a princess from an evil captor, Princess Bride does a great job of subverting all genre tropes in hilarious ways.
The immense popularity of the film made many forget The Princess Bride is actually the adaptation of a novel by author William Goldman. In all honesty, I do think the movie version to be superior, but that’s one of my favorite films of all time. Still, if you’re looking for one of the funniest works of fantasy ever written, you should totally give this one a try.
