Do you like volumes of comic essays that you’ll end up reading in one sitting? how about funny and embarrassing memoirs, unpredictably silly novels, or behind-the-scenes accounts of classic comedy movies? Are you interested in comic strips, hipster spoofs, diaries of a genius, and fictional movie novelizations? then give it a beep: read a book.
the stinker breaks looseby mike sacks
You are reading: Funniest books of 2017
can a book be extremely innovative and comfortably familiar? well yes, of course it can, if it’s written by the right person. Mike Sacks is a comedy historian, a walking comedy encyclopedia, and also writes great short-form comedy. however, stinker let loose is a novel. or is it actually a novelization. You see, in the ’70s, ’80s and ’90s, part of the marketing plan for a movie was to tell the movie in novel form. that’s the comfortably familiar part; the innovative part of stinker lets loose is that it’s a novelization of a movie that doesn’t really exist, a raw, sex-charged action-comedy that’s a mix of every sense but loose and smokey and the bandit. took a joke, a funny idea, and stretched it out to 200 pages. is an incredible feat of humorous writing.
holiday countryby john hodgman
this is far from hodgman’s first book. the daily show‘s correspondent, actor, podcast host, and business promoter has already published three rambling books consisting entirely of false “information.” In Holiday Land, Hodgman drops the act and invites readers to see the real me of him, or at least a real version of himself that he chooses to present. this is a collection of memories/essays with the continuous line of giant and strange houses. to his youth, it’s a huge old house in a college town, and later, with his experiences, he’s a semi-reluctant tourist in massachusetts and maine.
what are we doing with our lives?by chelsea marshall and mary dauterman
This is a great idea for a book that makes me jealous. what are we doing with our lives? captures the spirit of the current age and the past ten years by knowingly sending a trust-funded brooklyn-style reverie with the anthropomorphic trappings of richard scarry’s occupied city. is subtitled “the most honest ‘children’s’ book of all time” because while most picture books would have you think that adulthood will be a series of non-stop wonders where everyone is happy, they have a place and They get along, Marshall and Dauterman don’t. t avoids the representation of “meh” (“miranda prefers to retreat to her phone when she gets anxious”) and wtf (a mayonnaise stand at the farmers market serves “‘deconstructed mayonnaise’: a hard-boiled egg and a little vinegar for a cool twelve bucks”).
Theft by Find: Diaries (1977-2002) by David Sedaris
You know how you meet that guy who loves a band so much he owns and actually listens to endless outtakes, alternate cuts, and even studio talk selected from the making of the band’s most popular album? draw on find is the hardcore sedarishead’s equivalent of that. Most people know that Sedaris is an obsessive chronicler: how else could he collect book after book of amazing and true stories from his own life if he hadn’t written them all? well, now here are those diaries, the raw material that led to the classic tales of nakedness and I’ll speak pretty one day. It’s not always fun and it’s not even always interesting, but it’s a powerful look at the artistic process of sedaris.
letterman: the last giant of late nightby jason zinoman
the new york times staff comedy critic delves into an icon that has somehow never received the full, meaningful biography, with all its flaws. (maybe it’s because letterman is famous for his self-loathing and loneliness). In any case, Zinoman outlines not only the biographical details, but also why Letterman is important, quantifying his clear influence on just about any good modern comedy.
unratedby anna faris
unqualified is also the name of the faris podcast, which finds scary movie star, smiley face and the house bunny fervently delivering advice to listeners about their relationship problems. Faris often claims he doesn’t know what she’s talking about, but she does, and this book is proof. it is primarily a memoir of faris’s romantic triumphs, failures, and highly relatable experiences that allow him to empathize with others. particularly endearing and funny: the story of elementary school faris’s attempt to make an ambivalent boy like him by buying him ice cream for lunch; and that of a college-age faris who crashes frat parties by posing as a hostile teenager.
Devour! by joseph fink and jeffrey cranor
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welcome to night vale is objectively the best fictional podcast of all time, so over-the-top in its depictions of strange events in a spooky desert town that it’s ridiculously funny, all delivered on a facade expressionless that never cracks. Creators Fink and Cranor deliver more theater of the mind in this, the second novel in Night Vale. the limitations of the podcast, or rather the lack of limitations of the prose, allow them to delve into why nightvale is the way it is with this endearingly lovecraftian nightmare.
mustache anticsby jay chandrasekhar
comedy and music are always related and compared because they both have a great appreciation for bricolage: you can and almost have to break into comedy to be successful. For the broken lizard comedy troupe from little Colgate University, distinguishing themselves was making feature films with audacity and feature quality. His first (and even better) is Super Troopers, the cult episodic hit about piss-poor Vermont cops. Company member Jay Chandrasekhar directed the film, his first stop on the road to becoming one of the busiest comedy directors in the world of television, and in Mustachioed Antics details the adventures films of him; Particularly fascinating (and even inspiring) are his behind-the-scenes stories about creating super soldiers.
mom presents: i think these guys are greatby hana michels and alex firer
It’s like your own sassy mom writing a magazine and printing it out on her laser printer. Which is to say that the book uses atrocious fonts like papyrus and comic sans to detail the jerks and jerks she thinks are real hunks (who she’s also been dating since the divorce). it’s completely ridiculous and wonderful.
we rate the dogsby matt nelson
nelson is the owner of @werateddogs, one of the most delicious twitter feeds in recent times. Sure, everyone loves pictures of dogs on the internet, but Nelson found a way to present them in a new way that’s also absurdly funny. call it “enthusiasm comedy”. In this collection of Nelson’s top posts on the best doggos and puppies, every dog gets at least a 12 (on a scale of 1 to 10). your dog will enjoy chewing on this book.
the midnight confessions of stephen colbert
with the exception of that guy who thinks everything is “cool and amazing, oh my god!” late-night talk shows have become a nightly source of catharsis from the probably maddening political news of the day. Leading the way is stephen colbert and his late show writers, because colbert has the wittiest, funniest political humor since he honed it over a decade on the colbert report. That’s all well and good, but you forget that these late-night shows were, and after the first 15 minutes, still chock-full of goofy, innovative bits of pure comedy. Like his late show predecessor david letterman had his “top 10”, stephen colbert and company have “midnight confessions”. It’s basically just dumb, weird, dark phrases framed in a first-person voice. this beautifully bound volume made to look like some kind of church book collects the best, such as “when he was a boy, he had many imaginary friends. they were real people. I just imagined they were my friends.”
comics for a strange world: a book of poorly drawn linesby reza farazmand
badly drawn lines is a webcomic, but no, read on. there are plenty of webcomics, yes, and many have self-deprecating titles. but badly drawn lines is not badly drawn at all. Farazmand’s style is as charming as Mo Willems’s and as funny as adventure time’s visuals. also, the writing is brutally funny and all over the place when it comes to the subject, bringing the panel’s comic strip into the 21st century. I mean, a man who has his son arrested for plagiarism? decaying computers that are becoming new computers? that’s some life in helllevel.
not a genius by nate dern
dern is responsible, both directly and indirectly, for much of the comedy you consume every day: he was creative director at ucb and is now a writer and senior editor at funny or die. here we have dern’s first book, a cheery collection of his many comic essays, short pieces of fiction, absurd lists, and outlandish scenarios. (highlight: a spin class taught by walt whitman).
is canada real?by j.c. villamere
you can’t make fun of canada you trite fool: only canadians can make fun of canada. Villamere’s book is part of the encyclopedia of Canadian pop culture, junk culture, and unexplained cultural icons. examining them, she tries to define what it means to be Canadian, both to non-Canadians and to herself. (Villamere is Canadian, by the way, so he can make fun of the smallest bum. if you don’t know what that is, you’re lucky you’re not Canadian).
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being a parent is weirdby ben falcone
when i took this i thought it was going to be a bunch of crazy stories about falcone raising two young daughters with his wife, melissa mccarthy. That would have been nice, but there’s actually very little of it: aside from modest missives about his own endearing anxiety about trying to raise the kids right, the Dad in the title refers to Falcone’s father. The book is largely a light-hearted memoir about Falcone’s childhood in the ’70s and ’80s and how his quirky, nontraditional, carefree father taught him how to be not only a thoughtful parent, but also a good guy.
it’s funny until someone loses an eyee (then it’s really funny) by kurt luchs
You’ve read luchs’ work on all the usual elite comedy channels: the new yorker, the onion, mcsweeney’s and maybe on his own comedy site, the big gem. This is a collection of his best comic essays, but it is not like the other volumes of comic essays. Luchs’s humor is more situational and observational (even literary) than oriented towards jokes and laughter. he will take your presumption and escalate things to their ridiculous end. for example, with kafka’s convention, finally gives the man behind the castle and proof the parody he needs.
one day we’ll all be dead and none of this will matter by scaachi koul
Before Koul was one of the funniest and sharpest online article writers (the New Yorker, Jezebel), she was the daughter of Indian immigrants growing up in the semi-rural reaches of Calgary, Alberta. Her essays on balancing old and new identity, individuality and family, family expectations and personal goals are very prescient and often funny and heartbreaking all at the same time.
the uncomfortable thoughts of w. kamau bell
they canceled it totally biased with w. kamau bell too soon. his sharp-witted progressive identity comedy would be a welcome sight in today’s horrific political and social climate. There is necessarily a lot of that exploration of oneself and how it fits into the larger culture in this life story of Bell. His book reads like a social history of America for the past 40 years… which he then shreds with insight and precision.
From time to time, the splitsider humor section forgoes its weekly comedy essay in favor of an excerpt from a comedy book. here are the ones we had the pleasure of showing this year:
the best american emailsfrom amanda meadows. In the 20th century, it was quite common for letters from a famous statesman or author to be collected and published, as they should be, because they are carefully and beautifully written. But electronic correspondence is the medium of our age, and Meadows presents an esteemed collection of spoofs that poke fun at all the nonsense we write to each other a thousand times a day.
goodbye words by joe berkowitz. this is the author’s account of his time involved in the competitive gaming circuit words and puns. yes, that’s one thing, and it’s fascinating.
man vs. boy by doug moe. Through a series of essays, rants, diagrams, and illustrations, moe (a ucb veteran) reveals that being a father is a beautiful, poignant, Sisyphean farce.
The Official Bowieverse Handbook by alex firer and kenny keil. This fun bowie keepsake features all the bowie characters major tom, ziggy stardust, the skinny white duke etc as superheroes, doctor whovillains or dungeon crawlers. and dragons… or maybe all three.
danger… with a hard g by matthew david brozik. A spoof of those pulpy old private eye novels starring harrison “danger” bennett as a violence-averse detective on an absurd case. there are also like five groan-worthy puns per page, which is a pretty good rate.
paul ryan magazine edited by james h. folta and andrew lipstein. the editors rectified the talents of the stars of the onion, collegehumor and late-night television for a good cause: mercilessly mocking the iron-pumping, profit-reducing orator from the house’s medicaid, paul ryan. It also makes fun of magazines, because each new spread is an immediately familiar parody of a different magazine, only the content is always about Paul Ryan.
brian boone edits the splitsider humor section.
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