BS: greatest written comedy

Subject: RE: BS: greatest written comedy
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 06 Sep 04 - 05:43 AM

If greatest equals largest quantity then my vote, and I suspect a word count would confirm, would go to Terry Pratchett:-)

Cheers

DtG

Subject: RE: BS: greatest written comedy
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 06 Sep 04 - 02:11 AM

I looked around, but this little James Thurber gem doesn't seem to be online. It first appeared in The New Yorker.

The Little Girl and the Wolf

One afternoon a big wolf waited in a dark forest for a little girl to come along carrying a basket of food for her grandmother. Finally a little girl did come along and she was carrying a basket of food. "Are you carrying that basket to your grandmother?" asked the wolf. The little girl said, yes, she was. So the wolf asked her where her grandmother lived and the little girl told him and he disappeared into the woods.

When the little girl opened the door of her grandmother's house she saw that there was somebody in bed with a nightcap and nightgown on. She had approached no nearer than twenty-five feet from the bed when she saw that it was not her grandmother but the wolf, for even in a nightcap a wolf does not look any more like your grandmother than the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer lion looks like Calvin Coolidge. So the little girl took an automatic out of her basket and shot the wolf dead.

MORAL: IT IS NOT SO EASY TO FOOL LITTLE GIRLS NOWADAYS AS IT USED TO BE.

Subject: RE: BS: greatest written comedy
From: GUEST,GROK
Date: 06 Sep 04 - 01:07 AM

Fred,

The stories are too 'old' for the kids, but I think you'd enjoy them.

Here is a site for them if you haven't found it already.

available for listening to here online! Tell Me a story... ...

www.robertmunsch.com/storytime.cfm

Subject: RE: BS: greatest written comedy
From: GUEST,fred miller
Date: 06 Sep 04 - 12:42 AM

i'm not familiar with many of these things, thanks. some i know but didn't think of. it amazes me i didn't think of thurber, and though i read a lot of twain, i don't know all the stories. my kids are 8 and ten. thanks again.   fred

Subject: RE: BS: greatest written comedy
From: GUEST,GROK
Date: 05 Sep 04 - 10:32 PM

"The Marine Excursion of the Knights of Pythias" by Stephen Leacock.

"The Great Electrical Revolution" by Ken Mitchell.

Subject: RE: BS: greatest written comedy
From: GUEST,milk monitor
Date: 05 Sep 04 - 04:57 PM

Another vote for anything by Spike Milligan, even his funny little drawings and photo captions.

Have recently discovered Robert Rankin, thanks to the secondhand book market on the Embankment, and am working my way through The Brentford Trilogy.

Not Spike, but funny in a surreal kind of way.

Subject: RE: BS: greatest written comedy
From: Sttaw Legend
Date: 05 Sep 04 - 03:15 PM

Most things by Spike Milligan

Subject: RE: BS: greatest written comedy
From: Chris Green
Date: 05 Sep 04 - 02:01 PM

The Collected Prose of Woody Allen. Although his private life may not stand up to scrutiny, the man is a genius!

Subject: RE: BS: greatest written comedy
From: Jack the Sailor
Date: 05 Sep 04 - 01:01 PM

"Forrest Gump" the book was funny.

But does it have to be literature?

How about "Return of the Pink Panther"?
"Being There"?
"Dr. Strangelove"?
"Trading Places"?
"The Man Who Knew Too Little"?
"Big Fish"?
"Monty Python and the Holy Grail"?

Subject: RE: BS: greatest written comedy
From: CarolC
Date: 05 Sep 04 - 12:04 PM

For kids, Sideways Stories from Wayside School and Wayside School is Falling Down, by Louis Sachar. Although I have to admit that I laughed harder than my son did when I read these books to him (he was seven or eight at the time).

My favorite character was Sammy, the dead rat from the basement (all dressed up in his many layers of raincoats and galoshes).

Subject: RE: BS: greatest written comedy
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 05 Sep 04 - 11:52 AM

O. Henry's "The Ransom of Red Chief" is one my kids loved when they were small. As they got older (they're now 12 and 16, and we still read out loud on occasion) I enjoyed bringing them some more sophisticated stories like Roald Dahl's "Parson's Pleasure." That is one of my favorite all-time short stories, but I enjoy all of Dahl's work. The stories about the rat catcher, read in sequence, are positively agonizing, they're so well-crafted.

I also agree about Mark Twain. Huckleberry Finn is one of the funniest and also most thought-provoking novels ever written.

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: greatest written comedy
From: Peter T.
Date: 05 Sep 04 - 11:31 AM

It partly depends on the kind of comedy you like. I tend to go for the increasingly insane farce, where you get punchdrunk, which is hard enough to keep the bubble going on a stage, but to do it writing is hard, hard, hard --

(1) Catch 22 is the funniest book ever written;
(2) Several of Mark Twain's essays are insanely funny, especially when read aloud -- the two best may be "The McWilliamsons and the Burglar Alarm" and "The Great French Duel";
(3) One or two of S.J. Perelman's stories move into the insane bubble;
(4) The films, Twentieth Century, His Girl Friday, and Bringing Up Baby all have the same supersonic nutsy quality some of us love.

yours,

Peter T.

Subject: RE: BS: greatest written comedy
From: mack/misophist
Date: 05 Sep 04 - 11:23 AM

Jerome K Jerome - Three Men In A Boat

Subject: RE: BS: greatest written comedy
From: s6k
Date: 05 Sep 04 - 11:21 AM

derek and clive

Subject: RE: BS: greatest written comedy
From: Midchuck
Date: 05 Sep 04 - 11:06 AM

What khandu said.

"The Night the Ghost Got In"...

Subject: RE: BS: greatest written comedy
From: fat B****rd
Date: 05 Sep 04 - 11:06 AM

Puckoon

Subject: RE: BS: greatest written comedy
From: alanabit
Date: 05 Sep 04 - 06:50 AM

I am sure you are right, Amergim. It is some time since I read the comedies!

Subject: RE: BS: greatest written comedy
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 05 Sep 04 - 04:07 AM

I'm still in two minds over the Goon shows and the war memoirs of Spike Milligan (which had me thrown out of a train carriage for laughing out loud too often.....). I suppose that as the connecting link is Spike, almost anything he's written that was supposed to be funny. Some of his serious stuff has the opposite effect and reduces me to tears. Such a talented man, whether at his highest or lowest ebbs.

Then of course, there's Les Barker. But he won't thank me for it...

LTS

Subject: RE: BS: greatest written comedy
From: Amergin
Date: 05 Sep 04 - 03:52 AM

12th night

Subject: RE: BS: greatest written comedy
From: Bert
Date: 05 Sep 04 - 03:48 AM

How old are they?

Subject: RE: BS: greatest written comedy
From: alanabit
Date: 05 Sep 04 - 03:17 AM

I have still yet to read a book which made me laugh as much as "Huckleberry Finn".
There are some good one liners in "As You Like It" too. "Many a good hanging saved a bad marriage," is one of my favourites.

Subject: RE: BS: greatest written comedy
From: khandu
Date: 05 Sep 04 - 01:22 AM

James Thurber . . The Night The Bed Fell, University Days, et al

"For some reason it's important to me to pass a serious love of funny stuff to my unfortunate cursed spawn. "

My son would swear that was a quote from me!

ken

Subject: BS: greatest written comedy
From: GUEST,fred miller
Date: 05 Sep 04 - 01:10 AM

Hey kids! It's time again for Fred's fun threads! Okay!

I've been reading Nickolai Gogol's stuff to my kids. Weirdly, they got into his short play Marriage, and so, we're starting into The Government Inspector, which may be my favorite comedy ever written. Anybody have other favorite funny pages? For some reason it's important to me to pass a serious love of funny stuff to my unfortunate cursed spawn.