Saturday 27 April 2013

"Laugh out loud funny..."

How I hate that expression! It has the same affect on me as canned laughter on a TV programme: it's like an instruction to be amused, especially when it's emblazoned on the cover of a novel, and (for me) immediately removes any tendency to be thus entertained.

I've just tried to read such a novel, twice, but couldn't stomach it at all. The author tried SO hard to be funny, and the more she tried, the more unamused I became. Different sections were almost labeled "laugh here", thus removing any amusement that might have been found in them. Few things are more subjective than humour; one person's funny book is another's dull/pretentious/ incomrehensible read. I really think it's better not to label books in this way at all; if it's funny, people will find out for themselves, and the surprise element - suddenly finding the book one is reading is very funny when the reader least expects it - simply adds to the  humour.

I remember, as a child, reading Three Men in a Boat. I didn't know it was meant to be funny, and when I got to the part where "Harris trod in the butter", I wept with laughter. Why? I've no idea. As I said, humour is so subjective. Having said all that, the funniest book I have ever read (fairly recently), known to be humorous,  proved to be just wonderful.  Once again, I was crying with laughter. Others to whom I have recommended it have been puzzled/bemused, although some have loved it.

So I won't spoil it for you by telling you what it was. But if you really want to know, you can email me...

22 comments:

  1. That's funny as I have just finished reading The Woman Who Went to Bed For a Year by Sue Townsend. Just as with the book you read, it had 'Laughed out loud' and 'I laughed until I cried' on the front. Did I? Not at all - in fact I found it rather tedious with forced humour. Mind you, it takes a lot for a book to make me laugh such as Ernest's ashes being taken on on a trip on the bus! - I still chuckle about that, Frances.

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    1. Wnedy, I think there's a fine line between being funny and trying too hard, isn't there? That passage from Dead Ernest was just the way that particular character behaved. I don't think I set out to be funny. As a writer, you will know how characters sometimes just take over and become themselves. But I'm glad you enjoyed it!

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  2. I also think that humour is subjective, and I prefer for it to be visual. I find it hard to laugh at words, but easy when there's a good comedy programme on TV or a movie. It seems then to come alive. Maybe though I simply haven't found the right book as yet to make me laugh?

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    1. Hi, Sharon. I find it hard to believe that you have never found anything written to be funny. There must have been something, somewhere...?

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  3. Yes, humour is highly subjective - and sometimes I find a book (or film) not funny at all, and at the same time I think it would make me laugh if it caught me in a different mood.
    Right now I can't remember who it was, but years ago I read a satirical article about "funny" books. The author said he suspected that, when the excerpts of reviews on the back of the book said "This book is [...] hilarious!", the left-out words were "not at all". Maybe he's right in some instances :-)

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    1. I do agree about the mood, Meike. That is essential!

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  4. I also read "Three Men In A Boat" many years ago and I thought it was very funny. There was something about smelly cheese that really amused me.
    If a book is telling you it is laugh out loud funny, it usually isn't.
    Oh, I just read the comment above about the newest Sue Townsend book. Her book "Adrian Mole" made me laugh out loud on the train in England in 1985!

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    1. That's the only bit of Three Men in a Boat that I can remember, Kay!

      I think I must be the only person in the country (world?) who hasn't read Adrian Mole...

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  5. Canned laughter drives me mad. I also tend to avoid any book that tells me how I will respond to it.

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    1. Hi, Libby. Yes - I can't understand why we have canned laughter at all. It's quite infuriating!

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  6. Oops, I forgot about Adrian Mole! I read it so long ago and laughed a lot.

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  7. Not only is what people laugh at subjective, but also when they laugh - sometimes you're just in the mood for a giggle and sometimes everything's just flatter. When you're giddy, almost everything is funny!

    p.s. LOL

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    1. LOL...Hmmmm. It's sopmething I've never understood. I do wish somebody woudl explain it to me...

      As for mood, drunk is a good start!

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  8. If the publishers did a cover blurb now for The Brothers Karamazov or The Idiot (for examples) only a few people in deep depression would read them. Somehow, though, I think on the whole we tend to see through the blurb and treat it with a pinch of salt. After all the author is probably finding the blurb just as cringeworthy as many of the potential audience.

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    1. I think that the blurb does arouse expectations, even adverse one. Well, it certainly does with me. After all, the entire book cover (if it's a book cover we're talking about) is there to advertise something about its contents. Parhaps plain covers would be the answer...?

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  9. PS I re-read Three Men in a Boat recently. I found it even more humorous than when I first read it many decades ago.

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  10. I laughed out loud at Bill Bryson's Note from a Small Island. Must read Three Men in a Boat if it's that funny, but then again if I'm expecting to laugh, I may not.

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  11. I was just going to say exactly the same as Wendy did about Sue Townsend's 'The Woman Who Went to Bed for a Year'. It said 'laugh-out-loud funny' on the front, and I've always found her other stuff funny, so this was a big disappointment. But the reviews are really, really mixed. It's obviously a Marmite book - you love it or you hate it.

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    1. How strange - I've just reviewed a book for Amazon Vine, and labeled the review "Marmite book" (I hated it!).

      But I do love Marmite. Oh, and your blog!

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  12. Three Men in a Boat is one of my favourite books ever and it still makes me laugh or at least smile every time. I've been rereading and relistening it innumerable times for about forty years...

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