Books on writing humor

Serena Casey · Feb 23, 2008

Howdy all - this is my first time poking my head in the humor writing forum. It seems like every couple months or so I get the itch to try a different form of writing! I've been trying to inject as much humor as possible in my blogs, but I'd like to learn how to be more effective at it.

I know that all I need to know can probably be found right here at AW, but I wondered if you can recommend any books on how to write humor. (I like cozying up with a book more than with my laptop.)

Thanks!

plaidearthworm · Mar 10, 2008

Hey, just dropped in and saw your post. I found a lot of humor writing books on Amazon, from Comedy Writing Secrets to The Comic Toolbox. The Idiot's Guide to Comedy Writing looked like its own punch line, but it could be very good, I don't know. Honestly, I've read very few books on writing humor, and the ones I read didn't leave much of an impact. I've always loved funny stuff, and just read the work of people that I thought were funny: Dave Barry, Patrick MacManus, Bill Cosby, Douglas Adams, Terry Pratchett, etc. I read it all and then found my own, uniquely weird voice.

stormie · Mar 10, 2008

I once read a book where each chapter was written by various humor writers on how to write humor (I remember Dave Barry was one of them). I didn't find it very informative. I think the best bet is to read the humorists and see how they do it.
Just my two cents!

Ken · Mar 10, 2008

...also old cartoons like Tom & Jerry and Daffy Duck. You won't find better examples of humor, anywhere.

Serena Casey · Mar 13, 2008

Hey, somehow I missed that there were replies to this topic. Thanks for the suggestions! I did wonder whether I'd learn more by reading humorists rather than reading about humor. I've read most of Dave Barry's stuff, which absolutely kills me, and Patrick McManus. I'll try the others too. I'm just afraid if I don't understand the techniques involved I'll end up copying someone else rather than injecting my own humor. But I'm probably overthinking it.

Thanks again

JeanneTGC · Mar 13, 2008

I'm with the others who say to read the humorists and learn from them. In addition to Dave Barry and Patrick McManus, you may want to try:

Robert Benchley
Dorothy Parker
P.J. O'Rourke
James Thurber
Drew Carey
Tim Allen
Bill Cosby
Chris Rock
Terry Pratchett
Douglas Adams
Oscar Wilde
Rita Rudner
Jean Kerr
Bill Engvall

There are plenty of others, too. Good luck and enjoy the reading!

Serena Casey · Mar 13, 2008

Ooh, great list, Jeanne. I've got to go to the library tomorrow...

AmyDoodle · Mar 13, 2008

One of Patrick McManus's books is a how-to book. I forget right now which one it is. I've got my reference shelf books packed in boxes while I rearrange stuff & it's killing me.

Also read P.S. Wall. She's the best with a drop-dead punchline that I ever read. She has two books that are collections of the columns she wrote before she started writing novels: My Love is Free but the Rest of Me Don't Come Cheap and If I Were a Man, I'd Marry Me. I read them both every year or so.

AmyDoodle · Mar 13, 2008

JeanneTGC said:
Robert Benchley
Dorothy Parker
P.J. O'Rourke
James Thurber
Drew Carey
Tim Allen
Bill Cosby
Chris Rock
Terry Pratchett
Douglas Adams
Oscar Wilde
Rita Rudner
Jean Kerr
Bill Engvall

Omigosh, so many classics--Please Don't Eat the Daisies and Penny Candy (Jean Kerr), although written a while back, will never grow old. Nobody beats Pratchet, IMHO, for plotwork and humor combined. You can read him on so many different levels. I love all the ones with the witches best--Granny Weatherwax rules! I love to hear or watch Bill Cosby; he's got superb timing and delivery. All of these are different, but it's an enticing ~~smorgasborg~~, ~~smrgasbo~~, buffet to choose from!

Oh, and the annual Benchley contest is going on right now!

(And don't forget to check out Jeanne's blog. She's a very funny kitty.)

JeanneTGC · Mar 13, 2008

And remember -- any woman who lives in or around Sugar Tit KNOWS from humor!

*throws kisses to another Pratchett fan...he IS the MAN...and I LOVE Granny*

stormie · Mar 14, 2008

Erma Bombeck.

Yeshanu · Mar 14, 2008

Thanks, stormie.

I'm currently reading How I Write, by Janet Evanovitch. It's not about writing humour specifically, but she has a lot of humour in her work, and I've learned a lot in a very short time.

Another one I'd recommend is The Comedy Bible: From Stand-up to Sitcom--The Comedy Writer's Ultimate "How To" Guide by Judy Carter. I've had that one for a while, and periodically re-read. Lots of exercises.

Cassie88 · Mar 14, 2008

Just received used copy of Russell Baker's Book of American Humor. Includes such writers as Woody Allen, Robert Benchley, Mark Twain, Erma Bombeck, Garrison Keillor, Roy Blount, Jr., Groucho Marx, Calvin Trillin, E.B. White, James Thurber, Tom Wolfe, and Russell Baker and so many others. Highly Recommend.

AmyDoodle · Mar 14, 2008

JeanneTGC said:
And remember -- any woman who lives in or around Sugar Tit KNOWS from humor!

*throws kisses to another Pratchett fan...he IS the MAN...and I LOVE Granny*

And they've torn down the Sugar Tit abandonded gas station. How will I ever find my way home?

Granny would know!

Ken · Mar 14, 2008

Better bring a wheelbarrow tomorrow, Serena

AmyDoodle · Mar 16, 2008

Okay, found it! "The Deer on a Bicycle: Excursions into the Writing of Humor" is the Patrick McManus book on humor writing.

All I had to do was unpack the right box!

Serena Casey · Mar 16, 2008

Well, I started small. I got a Jean Kerr book and a Dave Barry I hadn't read. If I get more than two books at a time, I end up running out of time, forgetting to renew, and owing the library insane amounts of money. Like one time it was $.07. Can you imagine? Kidding. Anyway, thanks for digging up the McManus book, Amy. That will definitely be next on my list, since Patrick M. was one of the first humor writers I was introduced to (along with Erma Bombeck).

Thank you to everyone who made suggestions. I can't wait to tear into these!

AmyDoodle · Mar 16, 2008

You're smart, Serena. I'm the world's worst at getting 70 zillion books out of the library, managing to read one before the rest is overdue and ending up with my mug shot on the library bulletin board. Your way is much better. And you're starting off with some of the best!

plaidearthworm · Mar 20, 2008

AmyDoodle said:
Okay, found it! "The Deer on a Bicycle: Excursions into the Writing of Humor" is the Patrick McManus book on humor writing.

All I had to do was unpack the right box!

Can you believe it? The one Patrick McManus book I haven't read. I've got to get it! The first time I read his work, I laughed so hard my husband thought I was having a fit. I'm reading 'Making Money' by Pratchett right now, and the backrub scene with Gladys the Golem and Moist von Lipwig had me snorting and giggling in public today.

AmyDoodle · Mar 29, 2008

Pratchett is forever responsible for causing me to embarrass myself. After all this time, he'll still catch me off guard and there I go on a snortfest.

MichaelDeVere · Apr 8, 2008

I read this one book by some dead guy named Homer.

It wasn't really all that funny.

It was still better than that Sumerian comic strip. I never did really appreciate Assyrian humor.

Angela_785 · Apr 30, 2008

AmyDoodle said:
Okay, found it! "The Deer on a Bicycle: Excursions into the Writing of Humor" is the Patrick McManus book on humor writing.

All I had to do was unpack the right box!

Oh, I read this one just the other day. The author has such a natural humor about everyday things--I admire that ability. It's kind of an 'old fashioned humor'--it would be interesting to see something along these lines but more current, don't you think?

AmyDoodle · May 5, 2008

Yeah, McManus has a kind of hands-in-the-pockets guy-observing-things kind of humor. He's still writing and has turned some of his collections of humor into a one-man stage presentation. Hugely successful.

tammay · May 17, 2008

Great thread! I'm starting to experiment with humor so this is very helpful. I'm a big classic literature freak, so I love Jeanne's list.

I'm still researching, but here's a list that I came up with just by looking on Amazon

Classic Humor
Joseph Heller, "Catch 22"
John Kennedy Toole, "A Confederacy of Dunces" (I'm actually reading this right now and it's great.)
Evelyn Waugh
Voltaire (not sure about this one...)
P.G. Wodehouse
Nancy Mitford

Contemporary Humor Writers (fiction)
Christopher Moore (reading "A Dirty Job" right now and so far I like it a lot)
Nick Laird
Jasper Fforde
David Sedaris
Richard Russo
Jane Smiley
Flann O'Brien
Barbara Pym (read "Quartet in Autumn" - kind of a tragicomedy)
Ann Tyler
Muriel Spark
Martin Amis
Terry Southern
Robert Clark Young

Most of these haven't been "tested" yet by me since I just started getting into this. I was mainly looking for humor fiction, especially contemporary and literary fiction. I also feel that it's better to learn from the writers and see what they do than to read a how-to book

Tam

DWSTXS · May 17, 2008

AmyDoodle said:
And they've torn down the Sugar Tit abandonded gas station. How will I ever find my way home?

Granny would know!

'Don't Bend Over in the Garden Grandma, Cause You Know Them Potatoes Got Eyes!'

Books on writing humor

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