Light Relief

12 posts / 0 new

Thu, 2013-01-17 21:14

Light Relief

Paedophilia, homelessness, secularism, racism, immigration... it's all gone a bit heavy round here!

Now I may just be a newly returned old stager, with old-stager views and no regular barstool, and I may be out of step with your new-fangled modern ways, but I can't help feeling that it's time for a bit of light relief...

So nominations please for your favourite funny book and and the line from it that you most wish you'd written... I'll start the ball rolling with the obvious - Hitchikers Guide, and the line "..They hung in the air in exactly the same way that bricks don't". Simple, clever and stylish.

Can anyone beat it?

Thu, 2013-01-17 21:34

Kilb50

Portnoy's Complaint by Philip Roth. "Now you know the worst thing I have ever done. I fucked my own family’s dinner.”

Thu, 2013-01-17 21:39

alex_tomlin

Good topic! Tough to choose though, I remember reading the four (as it was then) Hitchhikers books over and over again and there were hundreds of lines to choose. There's not many books that make me laugh out loud. Catch 22 is darkly funny but I can't think of specific quotes, just lots of funny scenes. I may have to muse on this. Is there a shortage of funny books?

Thu, 2013-01-17 22:03

Parson Thru

Memory fails me these days, but Konstable Els being pursued into a fitting-room by a bomb-carrying ANC ostrich had me searching for dry underwear. Thanks Tom Sharpe.

Parson Thru

Thu, 2013-01-17 22:05

scratch

Tom Sharpe's "Wilt". Wilt, after trying repeatedly to extricate himself from an inflated sex doll; "He just couldn't get the pesky thing off". Badly miss-quoted but I guess that you get the drift.

Thu, 2013-01-17 22:18

Cloven Hoof

Ah, Tom Sharpe! I forgot him! The Throwback was awesome, packed full of great lines. "what was bad for the goose necessitated some risk to the gander" always sticks in my mind :)

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http://www.amazon.co.uk/Satanic-Diaries-Krister-Jones/dp/1909224340/
www.thesatanicdiaries.net
www.facebook.com/thesatanicdiaries

Fri, 2013-01-18 09:25

alex_tomlin

Thanks FTSE. The bit I was thinking of was the Doc willing the plane he was supposed to be in not to crash so he could survive. But I'm actually remembering the film specifically for that. Maybe I'm due a re-read of Catch 22. A lot of other Joseph Heller books were pretty funny and dark at the same time. Ditto Kurt Vonnegut (Jr) - Breakfast of Champions was pretty funny. I remember laughing at Spike Milligan's endless war diaries when I was younger.

Fri, 2013-01-18 09:39

maggyvaneijk

Fantastic topic. I haven't read a good funny book in ages. Although last week I read a hilarious book about a wealthy Jewish boy from a prominent family in Amsterdam who, very much against his mother's wishes, is only attracted to big beautiful African women. It's a Dutch book so I doubt anyone has read it. I will steal some of these suggestions though.

Fri, 2013-01-18 10:01

luigi_pagano

Anything by P G Wodehouse.

Fri, 2013-01-18 11:31

#10

Cloven Hoof

Talk of Spike Milligan's diary has reminded me of Clive James's first diary 'Unreliable Memoirs'. One of the few books that actually made me laugh out loud :) The part where he describes a doomed go-cart trip down a steep hill is maybe the funniest thing I've ever read. Utterly brilliant!

.........................
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Satanic-Diaries-Krister-Jones/dp/1909224340/
www.thesatanicdiaries.net
www.facebook.com/thesatanicdiaries

Fri, 2013-01-18 12:13

#11

tcook

I'm glad Stan suggested Spike - for me Puckoon is the one that has me roaring every time. And don't forget Flann O'Brien - The Third Policeman is a work of unrestrained genius. So good that I think I'll re-read now it in the next week or so.

Fri, 2013-01-18 13:57

#12

alex_tomlin

Puckoon! Random talk about trousers - good call.