“Laugh out loud funny”...

...is the one description that really puts me off a book. It’s the literary equivalent of canned laughter, and is guaranteed to make me fail to find any amusement in a book. Humour is totally subjective. You either find a book, or a joke, funny, or you don’t, but you shouldn’t have to be told in advance. You need to find out for yourself. A funny passage in a book (for me) comes as a kind of delightful surprise, and being told that it’s going to be funny spoils that surprise. As for LOL at the end of messages, don’t get me started....

We Don’t all find the same things funny,  just as we don’t  all love the same pieces of music or even the same sunset. A few years ago, I read the funniest book I think I’ve ever read, and was literally howling with laughter most of the way through. I’ve no idea why that particular  books has stayed with me, but it hit a big funny bone, and I remember it with great pleasure (and gratitude towards the author). But I won’t tell you the title, because if you were to read it in the future, I would already have spoilt it for you.

"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...

Not funny

I've just been reading an author's description of her own novel. Hilarious, she says it is. Just hilarious.

Now why is it that saying one's own book is hilarious kills the joke stone dead? Surely it's for other people to say whether or not the writing is that funny; not the author. It's a bit like over-use of exclamation marks; it just doesn't work.
But then I find that any book that's labelled "laugh-out-loud-funny" just isn't. Humour should be a wonderful discovery the reader makes for him/herself.

But I'm probably just being a curmudgeon. We old people are like that sometimes. Especially when we (or one of us) have/has tripped over and injured ourselves this morning. We old people do that. We fall over.

Which reminds me of a story of my (doctor) son's. Years ago, he was admitting an elderly patient to hospital. One of the questions he had to ask was whether or not the patient had had any falls.

Son: Have you had any falls?
Elderly man (after a long, thoughtful pause): Well, I fell off a wood pile during the war.

I shall now go and apply more arnica to my wounds and try to cheer up. I might even look for something hilarious to read.