Funny Novels

Scoop

Evelyn Waugh

Evelyn Waugh turns his master wit to the world of journalism. A reporter is forced to cover the civil war that has erupted in the African nation of "Ishmaelia."
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Little Green Men

Christopher Buckley

There is a government UFO conspiracy! Majestic 12, however, is really a bureaucratic plot to keep the defense and space exploration dollars flowing by fostering belief in ETs. But they pick on the wrong man when they abduct the pompous television pundit John Oliver Banion. Banion has a close encounter with the Ufology subculture before publicly spearheading the "Millennium Man March" on D.C.
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Sellevision

Augusten Burroughs

Set in the world of a TV shopping channel, this book reads like a comedic soap opera. Multiple storylines follow the hosts of the Sellevision Network. There's Max, a gay host whose member accidentally gets exposed on air. And Peggy Jean Smythe who receives increasingly threatening emails from a fan who complains about the hair growing from her ears. And don't miss the tacky products and third-tier celebrity endorsements.
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The Midden

Tom Sharpe

Timothy Bright is already on the run when he unwittingly smokes a hallucinogenic toad. In a total daze he speeds through the English countryside on a motorcycle, crawls naked into the bed of a chief constable, and ends up regaining consciousness in a strange mansion called Middenhall.
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The Old Limey

H. W. Crocker III

When his goddaughter goes missing, a very proper British general comes out of retirement and heads for a strange and exotic corner of the globe: Southern California, where he encounters a Jamaican drug gang, a Mexican drug gang, black nationalists, and two beach babes.
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Syrup

Maxx Barry

Michael George Holloway is a man who knows what he wants out of life: fame, wealth, and glamour. So he changes his name to Scat and pitches an idea for a soda named "Fukk" to a dark-haired, beautiful, and too-cool-for-this-world marketer for Coca-Cola who goes by the name of 6. But neither of them suspects that Scat's roommate Sneaky Pete is ready to thwart them at every turn. A hilarious look at the cutthroat world of corporate marketing.
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Hitchhiker's Guide to The Galaxy

Douglas Adams

Betelgeuse native Ford Prefect is enjoying his visit to earth. Unfortunately, this "mostly harmless" planet is about to be demolished to make way for an intergalactic highway. Ford and his earthling buddy Arthur Dent are able to escape and navigate their way through the strange cosmos with the help of that remarkable tome The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. Funniest science-fiction novel ever!
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The Mackerel Plaza

Peter DeVries

Brilliant send-up of liberal Christian theology—of all things. Reverend Mackerel, the oh-so-progressive pastor of People's Liberal, assures his flock that "It is the final proof of God's omnipotence that he need not exist in order to save us." The widower clergyman is busy trying to keep his parishioners from naming a plaza after his wife when a woman comes along to shake up his life and a miraculous event comes along to shake up his "faith." An unlikely topic for humor results in a very funny work of fiction.
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The Great Pursuit

Tom Sharpe

A raucous take on the world of book publishing. An aspiring-but-talentless author is convinced to take credit for a popular-but-dirty novel.
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The Pursuit of Love

Nancy Mitford

Uncle Matthew hunts his children with bloodhounds and the Radlett girls hunt down potential husbands in this look at the mores of the English upper class. Reads like a twisted Jane Austen novel.
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Death Rat!

Mike Nelson

A down-and-out historian tries writing a thriller about a six-foot rat. Unfortunately, poor Pontius Feeb looks like "a sloppy caricature of Gorbachev without the wine stain." So he hires a ruggedly handsome hunk to be his front man. The resulting confusion culminates with an entire town in Minnesota desperately awaiting the mystical appearance of a giant rodent. A novel from the host of Mystery Science Theater 3000.
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Auntie Mame

Patrick Dennis

When 10-year-old orphan Patrick arrives in Manhattan to live with his Auntie Mame, little does he know that he's in for the ride of his life. When the bohemian Mame sets her sights on something, she plunges head first—whether it's enthusiasm for "progressive" education (all nude!), faking equestrian skill, writing her memoirs, or trying to cope with a houseful of beastly children displaced by the war. A fun tale of a whirlwind life.
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A Confederacy of Dunces

John Kennedy O'Toole

New Orleans resident Ignatius J. Reilly feels out of place in his own time and longs for the glories of the middle ages. Reilly lives with his mother, fills countless notebooks with his ruminations upon medieval topics, and recoils at a society populated by such as Protestants and libertines. Suddenly he's faced with the most outrageous of modernity's indignities: He has to get a job! He endures employment at a decrepit clothing manufacturer, before ending up pushing a hot dog cart. Considered by many to be the best humorous novel ever written.
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Pigs Have Wings

P. G. Wodehouse

Kidnapping. Mistaken identity. Private detectives. More kidnapping. Who would have thought the competition for fattest pig at the Shropshire Agricultural show could turn so ruthless! When the devious Sir Gregory Parsloe threatens the reign of Lord Emsworth's pig, Emsworth's mercurial brother Galahad decides to take preemptory action.
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Catch-22

Joseph Heller

Any combat pilot who is insane will be relieved of duty if he puts in a request—except that putting in such a request proves that the pilot is sane and therefore ineligible to be relived of duty. A thoroughly surrealistic look at military life during WWII. The novel that introduced the 'catch' phrase into the English language.
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Lucky Jim

Kingsley Amis

His girlfriend is completely neurotic. The head of his department is an overbearing twit. Academic life isn't going as well as "Lucky" Jim Dixon had hoped.
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Lucky You

Carl Hiassen

Two ignorant rednecks dream of starting an all-white militia to resist the imminent U.N. invasion. One day they get some good news—they've bought a winning Florida lottery ticket; soon followed by bad news—they'll have to split the jackpot with another winner. The two hicks know what they have to do: Thwart this obvious government plot against them by getting their hands on that other ticket. But to do that they'll have to make their way to the tiny town of Grange—a mystical tourist attraction featuring such shrines as a statue that weeps scented tears, a road stain Jesus, and a man who keeps his "stigmata" fresh with some help from Black-and-Decker.
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Coyote Blue

Christopher Moore

When your horribly ugly secretary is shagging a Native American trickster god on her desk, you know that this is not your typical vision quest! Yuppie salesman Samuel Hunter (née Samson Hunts Alone) thought he had abandoned his Indian heritage and all that mystical mumbo jumbo when he fled the reservation. But his shape-shifting spirit guide Old Man Coyote just has to show up to "help" Sam get the girl of his dreams. Put away the peyote and pick up this witty take on Native American mythology.
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