April is National Humor Month, which makes it a favorite among those who love to laugh like myself. I mean who wouldn’t love a month that starts out with April Fool’s Day and includes Laugh at Work Week and International Moment of Laughter Day? We’ve created a list of 50 of the funniest books from the last 50 years to help our readers make humor a high priority all month long.
- Don’t Point that Thing at Me, by Kyril Bonfiglioli
- Porterhouse Blue, by Tom Sharpe
- Without Feathers, by Woody Allen
- The Complete Compleat Enchanter, by Fletcher Pratt and L. Sprague de Camp
- The Grass is Always Greener Over the Septic Tank, by Erma Bombeck
- Cruel Shoes, by Steve Martin
- Tales of the City, by Armistead Maupin
- The World According to Garp, by John Irving
- The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy, by Douglas Adams
- A Confederacy of Dunces, by John Kennedy Toole
- Still Life with Woodpecker, by Tom Robbins
- They Shoot Canoes, Don’t They, by Patrick F. McManus
- The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole Aged 13 ¾, by Sue Townsend
- Republican Party Reptile, by P.J. O’Rourke
- Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Café, by Fannie Flagg
- Good Omens, by Neil Gaiman & Terry Pratchett
- Under the Frog, by Tibor Fischer
- Notes from a Small Island, by Bill Bryson
- A Supposedly Fun Thing I’ll Never Do Again, by David Foster Wallace
- Bridget Jones’s Diary, by Helen Fielding
- Do the Windows Open?, by Julie Hecht
- Big Trouble, by Dave Barry
- Me Talk Pretty One Day, by David Sedaris
- Lamb, by Christopher Moore
- Running With Scissors, by Augusten Burroughs
- Funny in Farsi, by Firoozeh Dumas
- I Shouldn’t Even be Doing This!, by Bob Newhart
- I Feel Bad About My Neck, by Nora Ephron
- Delete at Your Peril, by Bob Servant
- What I’d Say to the Martians: and Other Veiled Threats, by Jack Handey
- Wishful Drinking, by Carrie Fisher
- I was Told There’d be Cake, by Sloane Crosley
- Foreskin’s Lament, by Shalom Auslander
- Half Empty, by David Rakoff
- If You Ask Me (And of Course You Won’t), by Betty White
- Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me?, by Mindy Kaling
- Let’s Pretend This Never Happened, by Jenny Lawson
- Withering Tights, by Louise Rennison
- Bossypants, by Tina Fey
- Hyperbole and a Half, by Allie Brosh
- Ayoade on Ayoade, by Richard Ayoade
- Born a Crime, by Trevor Noah
- The Wangs Vs. The World, by Jade Chang
- You Can’t Touch My Hair, by Phoebe Robinson
- The Idiot, by Elif Batuman
- The Adulterants, by Joe Dunthorne
- I Can’t Date Jesus, by Michael Arceneaux
- Grown Ups, by Marian Keyes
- The Panic Years, by Nell Frizzell
- The Echo Chamber, by John Boyne
There are so many wonderful humorous books out there. I’m kind of bummed I had to limit the list to 50. Did I miss any of your favorites? The good news is that you can find all these books and more at your local HPB and HPB.com.