BS: greatest written comedy

Subject: RE: BS: greatest written comedy
From: Dave Hanson
Date: 22 Sep 04 - 05:59 AM

Gilbert O'Sullivan isn't funny ?

eric

Subject: RE: BS: greatest written comedy
From: Sam L
Date: 21 Sep 04 - 09:21 AM

Another Gogol fan!
I wouldn't disqualify plays, they're written, and also performed. Not everyone likes reading them, but still, there they are. I guess you'd have to allow movie and t.v. scripts, if you actually were reading them.

Subject: RE: BS: greatest written comedy
From: GUEST,James
Date: 21 Sep 04 - 08:21 AM

Books.........Cold Comfort Farm by Stella Gibbons, Dead Souls, Gogol.
Three Men In A Boat, Jerome Jerome,The Wisdom of Shepherds by Rhett Ellis(unintentionally), Lots of things by Stephen Leacock...Tristam Shandy.

Film..Monty Python, The Holy Grail.

Theatre...Gilbert and Sullivan

Subject: RE: BS: greatest written comedy
From: muppett
Date: 21 Sep 04 - 04:53 AM

The hitch hiker's guide to the galaxy is back on the radio tonight (the 2nd book I think) radio 4 6.30pm.

Subject: RE: BS: greatest written comedy
From: Dave Hanson
Date: 21 Sep 04 - 04:42 AM

Twinkle twinkle little star.
Now I know just what you are.
A lump of rusting rocket case.
A rubbish tip in outer space. [ Spike Milligan ]

eric

Subject: RE: BS: greatest written comedy
From: Teresa
Date: 21 Sep 04 - 03:05 AM

"Twinkle, twinkle, little bat,
How I wonder what you're at.
Up above the world so high,
Like a teatray in the sky ..."

_Alice's Adventures in wonderland_

;)

T

Subject: RE: BS: greatest written comedy
From: Bert
Date: 21 Sep 04 - 02:58 AM

Hasn't ANYONE heard of Lewis Carroll?

Subject: RE: BS: greatest written comedy
From: HuwG
Date: 21 Sep 04 - 01:01 AM

If the criteria here is purely "written" comedy, then several of the suggestions above must be disqualified as they are visual or recorded humour, rather than written. For example, Monty Python's films, Monty Python and the Holy Grail", and Life of Brian are probably the most hilarious films I will ever see, but these originated as film scripts, designed to be seen rather than read. (Also, the remarkable slapstick skills of the Pythons and the supporting cast contributed to much of the humour).


Likewise, Toms Stoppard's play and film, Rosenkrantz and guildenstern are dead is meant to be seen on stage rather than read.

If the criteria is restricted to that which causes the reader to guffaw suddenly when alone or in company, then obviously Spike Milligan's works must rank high. Also, Wodehouse, Jerome K. Jerome, Thurber and Twain. I have always enjoyed Garrison Keillor's stuff, even without hearing his lugubrious tones over BBC Radio 4.

May I nominate british author Michael Green, who wrote some hilarious books forty years ago on the subjects of coarse golf, rugby, sailing, acting and moving house.

Subject: RE: BS: greatest written comedy
From: Sam L
Date: 20 Sep 04 - 06:49 PM

Death of a salesman? M.Ted? It has a very funny side, yes, but I'm of the camp that thinks it's almost as good as it's supposed to be. Conrad's Heart of Darkness is hilarious, and Murder In The Cathedral always reminds me of Monty Python. In this vein, Raymond Carver is also hilarious, maybe my most favorite. Italo Calvino in a sunnier way.
Any theories about what's funny? I'm beginning to form a few. I think when one laughs it presupposes a sharing--even if the person is not present with whom you mean to share the laugh. (Laughing alone and to oneself is a cliche' tradition of the madman.) Any other theories?

Subject: RE: BS: greatest written comedy
From: M.Ted
Date: 20 Sep 04 - 04:19 PM

Nearly anything by Joyce Carol Oates--all of the original Sherlock Holmes stories, and of course, "Death of a Salesman"--

Subject: RE: BS: greatest written comedy
From: dick greenhaus
Date: 20 Sep 04 - 11:02 AM

Greatest? Humor isn't a competitive event, unlike Irish fiddling and pop folksinging. I will suggest, though, that Twain's piece on Jemes Fenimore cooper and the Skinner/Kimbrough book "Our hearts were young and Gay", as well as almost anything by Stephen Leacock managed to render me helpless with laughter.
    Leacock, who is largely forgotten today, was responsible for gms like "He jumped on his horse and rode off madly in all directions"

Subject: RE: BS: greatest written comedy
From: Steve Latimer
Date: 20 Sep 04 - 09:01 AM

I'm a golf nut. Wodehouse wrote some hilarious golf stories.

Subject: RE: BS: greatest written comedy
From: GUEST,F.O.Kite
Date: 20 Sep 04 - 07:32 AM

"Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines"

Subject: RE: BS: greatest written comedy
From: Big Al Whittle
Date: 20 Sep 04 - 06:28 AM

Seasons Greetings by Alan Ayckbourn
Any one of a dozen scenes in Mike Leigh's Life is Sweet

Subject: RE: BS: greatest written comedy
From: darkriver
Date: 20 Sep 04 - 02:54 AM

With one exception, I've found all the above suggestions very funny as well. I recently read Thurber's "The Car We Used to Push" to my 14-year-old, and we both ended up on the floor when I got to the Get-Ready Man during the production of King Lear.

Some of PG Wodehouse's funniest effects are achieved only because they are printed--they'd make little sense read aloud. I'm thinking of Bertie's tendency to use initials.

I dunno if I'd laugh now, but I remember thinking Tom Robbins's Another Roadside Attraction very funny.

(The exception I mentioned above is Confederacy of Dunces. My reaction was strange: I read it, and could see what O'Toole was doing, but I just couldn't laugh at it. It seemed too strained or something.

Doug

Subject: RE: BS: greatest written comedy
From: Rt Revd Sir jOhn from Hull
Date: 20 Sep 04 - 12:36 AM

thats not funny, its rubbish.

Subject: RE: BS: greatest written comedy
From: Teresa
Date: 20 Sep 04 - 12:00 AM

Pardon?

er um, the URL goes in there, too, John. :)

t

Subject: RE: BS: greatest written comedy
From: John Hardly
Date: 19 Sep 04 - 10:38 PM

Of course, there's always this guy

Subject: RE: BS: greatest written comedy
From: bflat
Date: 19 Sep 04 - 10:00 PM

How about Arsenic and Old Lace and The Importance of Being Earnest? Wonderful comic timing! I like everything Mel Brooks puts his name on.

Ellen

Subject: RE: BS: greatest written comedy
From: GUEST,SueB
Date: 19 Sep 04 - 03:59 PM

Yes! Dave Barry! for the girls, especially, Dave Barry's Guide to Guys. Earlier stuff is better.

Subject: RE: BS: greatest written comedy
From: John Hardly
Date: 19 Sep 04 - 08:22 AM

You're all so erudite.

Dave Barry.

Subject: RE: BS: greatest written comedy
From: MBSLynne
Date: 19 Sep 04 - 07:47 AM

I second Terry Pratchett...anything by Terry Pratchett...everything by Terry Pratchett. The other books that made me laugh out loud frequently were the "All Creatures Great and Small" ones by James Herriott and Gerald Durrell's books.

Subject: RE: BS: greatest written comedy
From: s6k
Date: 19 Sep 04 - 06:16 AM

derek & clive

Subject: RE: BS: greatest written comedy
From: Dave Hanson
Date: 19 Sep 04 - 03:55 AM

I am not the Messiah,
oh yes you are and I should know I've followed a few.
Allright I am the Messiah.............now FUCK OFF

Subject: RE: BS: greatest written comedy
From: The Fooles Troupe
Date: 19 Sep 04 - 03:40 AM

Mel Brooks has a long history of written and performed comedy - I remember him from the 1970's. It's kind of sad that he is only likely to be remembered for the longest fart in cinema - in the movie 'Blazing Saddles' - Let us have a minute's slience and hold our noses for 'The Spaw of the Cinema'.

Subject: RE: BS: greatest written comedy
From: Teresa
Date: 18 Sep 04 - 11:53 PM

I've read so many good ones ... but ok, faves off the top of my head:

I did love "A Confederacy of Dunces"

Anything by Eliot Fintushel, very bizarre sense of humor.

Eric Flint's "Joe's World" fantasy-spoof series, beginning with "The Philosophical Strangler" ... lots of nods to Joseph Conrad and a spoof of an Icelandic saga ...

Ok, if anyone remembers the name of this one and the author ... kind of stream-of-consciousness with the author gradually taking letters out of the alphabet a chapter at a time and then putting them back in again.

All I can think of for the moment ... oh, and _Kind Hearts and coronets_ is one of my favorite movies of all time.

T

Subject: RE: BS: greatest written comedy
From: Bert
Date: 18 Sep 04 - 11:24 PM

Right on there S&R. You can't read wilt without laughing out loud.

Then there's Trapp's War by Brian Callisson. Although that gets a bit serious further on.

And any of the Dover books by Joyce Porter. Particularly the climax of Dover Goes to Pot. The heroine is standing on the ledge threatening to jump and Dover goes out onto the ledge and says "Jump you silly bitch!"

Subject: RE: BS: greatest written comedy
From: frogprince
Date: 18 Sep 04 - 11:14 PM

I had never heard of Monty Python before I saw "The Holy Grail", so I had no idea what hit me. I sat there with aching ribs and tears running down my face. "Young Frankenstein" is right up there for me, too. And I second the vote for "Dr. Strangelove": a masterpiece of vicious, frightening, hilarious genius.

Subject: RE: BS: greatest written comedy
From: Steve Latimer
Date: 18 Sep 04 - 10:40 PM

I loved Douglas Adam's Hitchicker's Guide "trilogy".

I have just got around to Catch 22, I have to admit it has been a long time since I have laughed out loud so much reading a book.

While I was in High School I had a book called Bert Fegg's "Nasty" Book of Knowledge". It was by the Python crew. I remember reading it alone at lunch, tears streaming down my face, unable to breathe or explain to anyone what I was laughing at. I loaned it out to someone and I didn't get it back. I don't think it's still in print. I wonder if it would seem as funny now.

'Spaw, I read all the Groucho and Harpo Books. I too would have loved to have been a fly on the wall at the Algonquin Round Table.

Steinbeck's "Cannery Row" and "Tortilla Flats" were some pretty funny books, especially compared to his more serious works.

John Irving always makes me laugh.

Subject: RE: BS: greatest written comedy
From: s&r
Date: 07 Sep 04 - 12:28 PM

Wilt by Tom Sharpe had me in stitches

Subject: RE: BS: greatest written comedy
From: GUEST,ClaireBear
Date: 07 Sep 04 - 11:44 AM

Farley Mowatt's The Boat Who Wouldn't Float, which is also a ripping good adventure yarn.

Subject: RE: BS: greatest written comedy
From: PoppaGator
Date: 07 Sep 04 - 10:54 AM

A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole -- hands down!

For an interesting article on the long (and so-far failed) effort to make a film out of this Pulitizer-Prize winning novel, click here.

Subject: RE: BS: greatest written comedy
From: The Fooles Troupe
Date: 07 Sep 04 - 09:26 AM

Chris Langham, who worked with Spike Milligan for a while, has been doing lots of very good clever subtle stuff - some for the BBCTV.

We in Aus got to see his 'ultimate cooking show' recently, and just now has started a new (for us) series of 'People Like Us'. The actors he uses in this show are brillant - sort of like a parody of 'Reality TV'... :-)

I had the opportunity to see him live some years ago, and he was very good live. If you walked into his show after he had started - well you never did THAT again... :-)

Robin

Subject: RE: BS: greatest written comedy
From: alanabit
Date: 07 Sep 04 - 09:12 AM

I enjoyed Douglas Adams a lot too. I think he had a very unusual style of humour. What a shame he had to die so early.

Subject: RE: BS: greatest written comedy
From: muppett
Date: 07 Sep 04 - 09:03 AM

The Hitch hiker's guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams, both the Book and the radio version were brill, but it didn't quite do it for me on the tele, a film version is in the making as well, lets hope that's better.

Subject: RE: BS: greatest written comedy
From: alanabit
Date: 07 Sep 04 - 06:45 AM

I can't recall which Wodehouse book it comes from, but my favourite line fron any book comes from him. Wooster has just left the room with his nose in the air after a row with his terrifying aunt:
       "It is not possible to combine dignified sauntering with tripping over a cat."
       Why can't we all write like that?

Subject: RE: BS: greatest written comedy
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 06 Sep 04 - 11:39 PM

When I was a kid we had two books that in particular came out often for bedtime reading. One was a collection of poems, edited by Louis Untermeyer, called Rainbow in the Sky. The other was a collection, edited by Bennett Cerf, called Houseful of Laughter. My kids find most of it just as funny as we did. That's where the Thurber bit came from that I posted above.

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: greatest written comedy
From: catspaw49
Date: 06 Sep 04 - 09:18 PM

I must admit to thinking that the Show of Shows and all its people were the funniest and cleverest. They are classics of comedy---but prior---who can forget the early Marx Bros.   

Yours very truly,

Rufus T Firefly


Obviously not I.

Regards,

Hugo Z. Hackenbush

Subject: RE: BS: greatest written comedy
From: Bill Hahn//\\
Date: 06 Sep 04 - 07:43 PM

I must admit to thinking that the Show of Shows and all its people were the funniest and cleverest. They are classics of comedy---but prior---who can forget the early Marx Bros.   

Yours very truly,

Rufus T Firefly

Subject: RE: BS: greatest written comedy
From: GUEST,fred miller
Date: 06 Sep 04 - 07:25 PM

Huck Finn was the first big book I ever read, at 9 or 10. A little too early, maybe, it messed me up.

Subject: RE: BS: greatest written comedy
From: SINSULL
Date: 06 Sep 04 - 07:11 PM

Not the greatest but a very funny read: Jerry Dellafamina's (SP?) "From Those Wonderful Folks Who Gave You Pearl Harbor", about advertising.

Subject: RE: BS: greatest written comedy
From: GUEST,Jim Dixon
Date: 06 Sep 04 - 06:17 PM

Among Mark Twain's essays, I like "The Awful German Language" and "How I Edited an Agricultural Paper." Among his short stories and sketches, "Buck Fanshaw's Funeral" and "The Blue Jay Yarn." "Innocents Abroad" is hilarious in places. "Huckleberry Finn" is not all funny, but it can be appreciated on many levels, and can be read several times during a lifetime. It's not too early to start now.

I agree that "Catch-22" is the world's funniest novel, but I'm afraid much of the dark humor will be over the heads of kids. It's all about hypocrisy, really.

Subject: RE: BS: greatest written comedy
From: catspaw49
Date: 06 Sep 04 - 10:41 AM

One other thing.......It's starting to be seen in this thread.

There are two times I would have loved to be the mouse in the corner or the fly on the wall. First during the days of the Algonquin Round Table and the other during the meetings of the writing staff Sid Caesar's "Your Show of Shows."

Spaw

Subject: RE: BS: greatest written comedy
From: Jeanie
Date: 06 Sep 04 - 10:26 AM

I'll second P.G.Wodehouse, too, and add Dorothy Parker - I love the type of humour and writing style of both Everything done with a wry smile. As far as stage comedies are concerned, the one I laughed at the most and was left aching from was "Noises Off" by Michael Frayn. Certainly not "high-brow" - just plain, good old, well-constructed farce. As for columnists, the late John Diamond was brilliant. I always used to read his pieces first.

- jeanie

Subject: RE: BS: greatest written comedy
From: catspaw49
Date: 06 Sep 04 - 10:26 AM

If I had to pick one book that consistently makes me laugh even after dozens of readings, it's a collection of shorts by Woody Allen called "Without Feathers."

I also love the writing of George Kaufman, S.J.Perleman, and even Groucho. There is something in all of them where the logical often becomes insane and the insane completely logical that appeals to my canted mind.

Spaw

Subject: RE: BS: greatest written comedy
From: Paco Rabanne
Date: 06 Sep 04 - 08:55 AM

Anything by P.G.Wodehouse.

Subject: RE: BS: greatest written comedy
From: greg stephens
Date: 06 Sep 04 - 08:53 AM

For very parochial humour(I think only British people would find them funny, and maybe only English) I suggest "England their England" and "Cold Comfort Farm".
   For more univeral humour, Thurber, or any late night post by Sir JOhn from Hull.

Subject: RE: BS: greatest written comedy
From: M'Grath of Altcar
Date: 06 Sep 04 - 07:27 AM

Puckoon - Spike Milligan - laughed until my face ached - Spud Murphy - the man with a face like a potato.

Subject: RE: BS: greatest written comedy
From: Sttaw Legend
Date: 06 Sep 04 - 07:17 AM

Adolph Hitler my part in his downfall
Mussolini his part in my downfall
Puckoon
Essential Spike Milligan
Lady Chatterley's Lover according to Spike Milligan
Goon Show
The Bible the Old testament according to Spike Milligan
Rommel gunner who

plus and many others

Subject: RE: BS: greatest written comedy
From: ard mhacha
Date: 06 Sep 04 - 07:01 AM

Spike Milligan a very funny man, both peculiar and the ha ha variety.

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.