Reading in times of conflict, no matter how you choose to define it, can serve two important functions: education and self-medication. comedy books have always been a means to those ends, and 2021 introduced a number of titles that offer much-needed information and entertainment. came works of fiction designed solely to make the reader laugh and feel good, non-fiction about the process of eliciting laughter, and titles from comedians about how they manage to be funny and stay funny even in the toughest of times. /p >
maybe it’s because we were still sheltered in place and cooped up for much of the year, but it looks like we as a society are reading more in 2021. maybe we’d exhausted all of our screen entertainment options since the part of the pandemic that occurred in 2020, but it seems as if we have more time and opportunities to enjoy a book this year, at least more than we have in the past.
here, then, are the top ten books of the year that are about comedy, are comedy, or were written by comedy people or people close to comedy about comedy-type things.
You are reading: Best comedy books 2021
10.
Writing a novel in the second person, in which the protagonist is literally “you,” is both difficult and awkward, and doesn’t look much beyond choose-your-own-collective-childhood adventure books. in i’m not a wolf, sheehan fully commits and elevates the concepts of you’re there and interactive fiction to absurd heights. here, the reader is a wolf, although he masquerades as a human and enjoys a prosperous and successful life while he desperately tries to keep his wolf status a secret from him at all times. it’s like a video game, but much more fun and somehow funnier too.
9.
As a writer for The Onion and The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, Spyra’s comedic imprint has shaped several of our highest-profile comedic institutions, but in a big way she shows her full sensibility, unfiltered and drifting to its absurd extremes. Spyra, in other words, has hit it big here (sorry), unlike the characters in her wonderful, unpredictable, and comically stunning stories, who keep boldly pursuing her dreams only to have it all go wrong. take her bride-to-be, willing to do whatever it takes to lose a little weight, even plunge her life into chaos and terror. and then there is the little boy who, after a magical snowman comes to life, endures that experience as if it were real, and is far from capricious. The comedic essays that seem to get it right are the ones that take a familiar or relatable premise and exploit it, and Spyra is clearly an expert at this.
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8.
here’s a book that’s a comedy book, but also provides a thoughtful critique of the predominant comedy of our age: internet comedy. and it’s written by a person who does a lot of great internet comedy. brunson exposes the context of online humor in essays on how she and her generation live their lives almost entirely online, opening up the idea that comedy can be as democratized as the digital world. It’s a fascinating look at how culture and commerce intersect, as well as the implications of Brunson’s takeover of the goofy, self-conscious meta comedy, much of it pioneered.
7.
marshall is a regular contributor to some of the internet’s biggest humor sites, especially reductress and belladonnas, and this is her first foray into a collection of comedic essays. these tales share a common thread of death and darkness, and are written from the assumption that everyday life is not mundane, but aggressively (and hilariously) cruel. Each story is a boldly high concept, and Ella Marshall pulls it off every time. highlights include the story of an elderly serial killer who decides to murder his high school nemesis when he moves into his nursing home, the saga of a man dating after his wife is killed in the witch trials from salem and a piece about a chuck e. cheese haunted by the ghost of princess diana. Penny Saving Tips is just an amazing and deeply funny book from a singular and forward-thinking comedic voice.
6.
Obviously, racism isn’t funny, but calling it out (ridiculing people for saying and doing racist things) can be extremely funny, especially when the people exposing are Ruffin and his sister Lamar. Ruffin is the most captivating of all late-night TV hosts, and Amber Ruffin’s show, alternately light-hearted and provocative, is just about the only show in the genre that routinely features skits and discusses racial issues. You’ll never believe what happened to Lacey is a consequence of that: bluntly presented but also incredulously mocked examples of times when the authors, two black women, have encountered blatant and casual racism. every comedy points out the absurdities and cruelties of life; the great comedy strikes back without fear.
See Also: Sarah Jio – Book Series In Order
5.
We probably have enough books on comedy scenes and moves that took place in new york, chicago and los angeles that it’s absolutely refreshing to get this one about the innovation that came out of the great minneapolis-st. paul in the 70s and 80s. strait celebrates and carefully details the unique comedy of figures like louie anderson and joel hodgson, who could only have come from a middling, semi-isolated town.
4.
Finally, a first-hand account from one of the few titans of 20th-century American comedy yet to publish a memoir, which also serves as a history of modern humor. Brooks is a human journey from borscht belt artists to early television and 1970s renegade cinema. All About Me! It’s entirely in the familiar, always rushing, supremely confident voice of Brooks, his boisterous bark in your ear as he forcefully recalls every untold story of every major project he’s worked on, like Sid Caesar’s sketch shows, Get Smart, The producers, the fiery saddles and the youngsters. frankenstein, as well as less heralded but still influential things like space balls.
3.
Each new arrival from Simon Rich, a former SNL writer whose works inspired the series Mums Looking for Women and Miracle Workers, is cause for celebration. his long tales are often high concept with premises that anyone else would make cheesy and embarrassing. he is unfailingly, unconsciously intelligent, with joy pervading his work. that’s the case with this book too, which also has a whole line of literary comedy sketches or word caricatures written by new husbands and fathers trying to account for the resulting changes. this is most iconic in a story about an abandoned laser disc player and a snappy, noir detective novel written from a baby’s point of view.
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