Books Sure to Make You Laugh

Though I have read exhaustively, this list is by no means exhaustive.  Let me know if you have any additional titles to nominate.  My rules, such as they are: (1) only one book per author, (2) no comic books (or else this would just be a list of Far Side, Calvin and Hobbes, and Bloom County anthologies), (3) no political humor (anyone can be funny talking about politics), and (4) the book had to actually make me laugh out loud, not just grin.  So, without further ado ...

1. The Princess Bride, William Goldman.  Believe me when I say the book is even funnier than the very funny movie adaptation.  Another good reason to read The Princess Bride? Turns out the story contains quotations suitable for almost any occassion.  There's the romantic, "This is true love: you think this happens every day?"; the useful, "Inconcievable!"; the wise, "You rush a miracle man, you get rotten miracles"; and the timely: "You fool! You fell victim to one of the classic blunders - The most famous of which is 'never get involved in a land war in Asia' - but only slightly less well-known is this: 'Never go against a Sicilian when death is on the line'!" If only some of our recent US President's had read the book.
2. Tourist Season, Carl Hiaasen. It's largely because of Carl Hiaasen that I had to make the rule limiting me to only one book per author, because otherwise Hiaasen's string of satiric novels would dominate this list. When I think Florida, I think baseball spring training and oranges. But when Hiaasen turns his satiric pen on the Sunshine State, he skewers corrupt politicians, stupid tourists, swindlers, hurricanes, alligators, plastic surgeons, crooked developers, mobsters, burned out celebrities, eco-terrorism, reality TV, real estate, endangered species, game fishing, greed, lust, and exotic road kill. You will laugh out loud, probably even as you're shaking your head in dismay over the fact that all too many of his most pointed barbs land too near the mark for comfort.
3. Lamb, Christopher Moore.  A retelling of the life of Christ by his best friend Biff.  Warning: read this in the company of someone tolerant, because you will not be able to resist the urge to share particularly hilarious passages with them.  What I found especially fascinating is that while Moore does a hilarious job of mining some of the more improbable biblical accounts for humor, the tale never becomes irreverent.  If anything, making Christ more human - complete with a sense of humor and a penchant for practical jokes - makes the parables more moving, and Christ's end all the more tragic.  Like Hiaasen, Moore is another author whose works would overwhelm this list if I allowed myself to list them all.  But just because I can't list them all doesn't mean you shouldn't read them all.
4. Screwball, David Ferrell.  This tale of a rookie phenom who may - or may not - also be a serial killer, is a fabulous sendup of Big Sports.  It's exchanges like the following (paraphrased) that will keep you begging for more:  "Maybe Sanchez is the killer?"  "What's he batting?"  "0 and 14."  "Oh yeah - he could definitely be the killer!"
5. The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid, Bill Bryson.  The laughs are a little more gentle in this retelling of the author's childhood, but no less frequent for that.  Bryson's gift is finding the humor in memories that are common to many of us. 
6. Fatherhood, Bill Cosby.  Along the same lines as Bryson, Cosby also mines the rich veins of childhood for humorous potential, striking vein after hilarious vein.
7. Our Dumb World, The Onion.  In the dictionary, if you look up the antonym of "political correctness," it probably lists this volume.  Ostensibly an atlas of the world, the folks from the staff of the satiric publication The Onion avail themselves of the opportunity to mock everything from corrupt politicians to starvation.  I guarantee that at times you'll feel guilty laughing ... but I also guarentee that you won't be able to help yourself.  (I find it helps if, after reading Our Dumb World, you donate something to charity to help alleviate the guilt.)
8. Naked, David Barry. 
9. Cold Comfort Farm, Stella Gibbons.  This comedic novel, penned in 1932, pokes fun at the melodramatic rural "romances" of the time: Wuthering Heights, Sussex Gorse, etc.  I dare you not to laugh at Gibbon's deliciously (and deliberately) overripe prose, such as this description of the brooding youngest son Seth: "He looked up as Judith entered, and gav a short, defiant laugh ....His voice had a low, throaty, animal quality, a sneering warmth that wound a velvet ribbon of sexuality over the outward coarseness of the man." 
10. The Importance of Being Earnest, Oscar Wilde.  No list of comedic novels is complete without a few entries representing England.  Any of P.G. Wodehouse's Jeeves novels might have sufficed, but have decided to give the nod to Oscar Wilde's masterpiece, The Importance of Being Ernest.  This incredibly clever, incredibly silly tale of a woman who will only agree to marry a man named Ernest is pure comic genius, with a droll little British accent to boot. 
11. Good Omens, Terry Pratchett. xxx
12. Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. xxx
13. Confederacy of Dunces. xxx