Laughs Needed ASAP

Groucho_MarxI’m looking for funny and I need your help! I’ve exhausted my current humor collection. You can only watch and read the same funny things so many times.

And we all know that it’s very important for people who are trying to get healthy to do a lot of laughing. I think it’s because laughing sends the signal to your body that you are jolly and should therefore live forever. Like Santa Claus.

Barrett and the cats are doing their part to keep me entertained — Barrett makes me laugh whenever he gets a free minute and the cats have perfected their humorous bed climbing antics. Harpo likes to sit at the top of the bed frame and taunt Pumpkin who then climbs the bed curtains with a lot of gusto and style much like Errol Flynn only to get whapped in the face by Harpo’s claws when he gets close to the top which then causes Pumpkin to do a quick sneak attack by whipping to the other side and nipping Harpo on the butt. This is really quite hilarious and can go on for quite some time. They never seem to learn each others’ tricks.

As the cats and Barrett can’t entertain me 24-7 what with Barrett working and the cats doing important things like napping, I need some funny stuff to read or watch. Ideas for pretty much any form of entertainment are welcome and tv series or prolific authors that will keep me going for a while are especially appreciated.

Here’s a list of some things I’ve found funny recently (by no means a complete list just what came to mind today) because it’s usually easier to look at something someone likes and then say oh, if you like that you might like this etc. and so on:

Books — Jeeves and Wooster, Calvin and Hobbes, Paddington Bear, and Meg Cabot  and Louise Rennison novels. I’m reading Portrait of Dorian Gray right now and I thought it was going to be funny like The Importance of Being Earnest but either it isn’t an Oscar Wilde comedy or I’m missing something. Possibly because I’m reading it via Stanza on a tiny iPhone screen?

Movies — Keeping Mum and Death at a Funeral both cracked me up and lately I’ve gotten a kick out of old comedies like Bringing Up Baby

TV — Jeeves and Wooster (they are funny both in print and on screen), Gilmore Girls, Buffy the Vampire Slayer and sometimes Bones (I shut my eyes during the gross parts)

Glancing over this list, it looks like I’m a sucker for banter.

If you have any idea, please post in the comments!

Bridget

27 replies on “Laughs Needed ASAP”

  1. -The British comedian Eddie Izzard is humorous to me, especially “Dress to Kill” (you can see clips of it on YouTube)

    -The Blackadder series starring Rowan Atkinson, especially III (Regency Period)

    -The Empress of Mars, by Kage Baker

    -The first two Adrian Mole Diaries by Sue Townsend

    I’ll let know know of more ideas as I think of them.

  2. Hey Bridget-

    Frank Portman’s “King Dork” kept me giggling between coughs when I had post-conference bronchitis.

    Flight of the Conchords on YouTube can radically alter my brain chemistry for the better.

    Hope that ups the laugh count.

  3. Oh man, Wodehouse is the funniest author I’ve read. 🙂 Try getting some of his books on CD (I especially recommend read by Jonathan Cecil) if you’re not up to reading, or if you just want the added perk of an upper crust British accent! 🙂

  4. Jasper Fforde! Either his nursey rhymes series (trust me, it is awesome) or his Thursday Next series.

  5. This never fails me, even on the really down and depressed days. Watching videos of laughing babies in YouTube – you can’t help but laugh with them. My favorite is the one with the baby laughing his heart out when he sees paper being ripped. It was made into an AIG commercial several years ago (I think his name is Ethan). That video never gets old. 🙂

  6. Have you ever read the Olga da Polga books by Michael Bond? They are totally hilarious. Olga da Polga is a guinea pig, and when she gets excited she says, “Wheeeeeeeee!” just like guinea pigs really do.

  7. Wasn’t Bringing up Baby the best? Recently watched The Three Musketeers, Richard Lester’s version with Michael York, and it has the most hilarious juggling polar bear you’ve ever seen. Found out the movie was originally planned for the Beatles. Speaking of which, I still think Help is a load of fun. We watched The Thin Man the other night. The one with Myrna Loy. Lots of silly sobbing gangsters drunk and trying to call their mothers. The Harold Lloyd silent films are outrageous! The old Sid Caesar TV shows are collected on video and are pretty nonstop laughs. Did you ever read I Capture the Castle, by Dodie Smith? The bear coat scene had me laughing out loud. I’ll try to think of more! –E.

  8. Bridget– let me know if you need more Calvin and Hobbes et al. I recently gathered up my entire Calvin and Hobbes, Bloom County, Far Side, and Peanuts collections from my mom’s house and my sister. You’re more than welcome to borrow some!

  9. TV: Arrested Development (you’ve probably already seen it, but isn’t it time to fall in love all over again?). Chuck (mindless, but funny). Fawlty Towers. 30 Rock. Don’t know if you like Cartoon Planet-ey type stuff, but The Venture Brothers is hilarious.

    Movies: Some Like It Hot, Mars Attacks, Hot Fuzz, Shaun of the Dead, Stranger than Fiction, Much Ado About Nothing (Branagh).

  10. I gotta agree with Emily, Sid Caesar’s Show of Shows had one of the best writing staffs ever assembled for comedy.

    Sifl and Olly, two sock puppets created by Liam Lynch:

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=owouynBXC4g

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QeqA2F9kQ70&feature=related

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FOfa6JEIVkk&feature=related

    OTHER WINNERS:

    TV – It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia – Full Episodes on Hulu, but you have to get an account.

    TV – SeaLab 2021 – Especially season 2!!!

    http://www.adultswim.com/video/?episodeID=8a25c3921372a4080113733dde0f00cf

    Books – Anything by Pratchett, Douglas Adams

  11. Books (all children’s)
    Diary of a Wimpy Kid — if you’ve been through junior high, this HAS to make you laugh!
    Squids Will Be Squids by Jon Scieszka and Lane Smith
    Where The Sidewalk Ends by Shel Silverstein
    Frankenstein Makes a Sandwich by Adam Rex

    Movies
    The Dinner Game (in French with subtitles, very funny , worth the subtitles)
    Mon Oncle (old French, mostly physical comedy, don;t even need the subtitles)
    My husband recommends Black Adder (but not Season 1) if you like Jeeves and Wooster (with Hugh Laurie and Rowan Atkinson)
    I’d also check out old Bill Cosby comedy albums — classic, but funny
    We’re also big Daily Show fans if you like political comedy.
    I’ll keep thinking…

  12. I’m running out of room on my hold list at the library! At least I can get by with all of the YouTube and online suggestions while I wait for my hold list to free up some spots. 15 holds is really not enough.
    Emily, I don’t suppose you have Sid Caeser on dvd? The library only has it on video and we don’t have a vcr. I can try netflix and see if they have it there. I am a huge Harold Lloyd fan and we used to go to all of the screenings in Madison but I haven’t seen any here — is there a place that does silent films in Portland?
    Dave, does Pratchett write more than one kind of book? I swear I read a book of his earlier this year that was chock full of dead bodies.
    Matt, I would LOVE to borrow from your collection. I haven’t read most of those in a while and I know my Calvin and Hobbes collection has some holes.
    Thanks everyone for all of your fab suggestions!

  13. Hrm…

    In that case, I recommend The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents by Pratchett.

    Also, I see you have a snap of Groucho Marx in this article. The Marx Brothers catalog is solid, if not formulaic.

  14. Try Pratchett’s Wee Free Men series. Tiffany Aching learns she is a witch when she uses her little brother (“Me wanna sweetie”), as bait to wack a vicious green-haired Jenny on the head with a frying pan. Then she is infested by a race of tiny blue men who like nothing more than fightin’, drinkin’, and stealin’!

    I loved David Yoo’s Stop Me if You’ve Heard This One Before, and it doesn’t get checked out no matter how hard I try to push it.

    In the moving picture realm, hows about Steve Martin as The Jerk? Also, major dittos on Flight of the Conchords, Marx Bros. and Jasper Fforde. He’s Ffabulous!

  15. Thanks, Dave — Amazing Maurice looks way more fun than Nation. We watched the Marx Brothers so much we named our cat after Harpo Marx, but it’s been a while. It might be time to revisit.

    I don’t know how I missed David Yoo’s book, Lisa. I’ll have to check it out!

  16. Bridget,

    I’ve been following your blog since I found out about you at the SCBWI conference this past spring. My busy 16-month-old sometimes makes it a challenge for me to comment, but she’ asleep right now, thank goodness! Have you ever watched The Office? It’s totally wrong in so many ways and makes me laugh out loud all the time. If I think of any more I’ll send them your way.

    Sara

  17. If the issue is dead bodies, that’s fair. We can work around that.

    But if the issue is Death, as concept and entity, maybe hold off on The Wee Free Men, Hatful of Sky, or Wintersmith (and hopefully I Shall Wear Midnight).

    If you like skit type humor, Reno 911! has a killer writing staff and awesome bits.

  18. Hey Bridget,

    Coming in late, as usual. But fun is always good, right? Love many of the suggestions here. Calvin and Hobbes! And Kliban.
    We are currently watching Freaks and Geeks (available on Netflix) which is a sick but funny series which reminds me of The Office, but at high school.
    Cute Overload is almost always good for an instant, non-narrative, laugh. For instance, the kitty workout:

    http://cuteoverload.com/2009/09/09/1-and-2-and/

  19. Do either of your cats have long hair? To cut down on hairballs, we took one of our cats in for a lion cut. Then we just looked at her and laughed nonstop for at least a week.

    I know it sounds cruel, but our 15-year-old kitty has been much more active and sprightly (is that a word?) since getting her haircut, so we think she’s fine with it.

    So, there’s one more source of humor. It’s not cheap, but you might be able do it yourself if you’re good at that kind of thing.

  20. Get Fuzzy always makes me laugh.

    If you like Gilmore Girls, you might like Veronica Mars too – I got into it recently.

    Also, The Monarch of the Glen is a fun little series – not hilarious, but lighthearted and fun.

  21. A couple of late suggestions – Gerald Durrell’s My family and other animals is a semi-autobiographical account of his childhood with his eccentric family and a wide variety of wildlife and pets on Corfu in the 30s. It’s the perfect cheery book – funny and makes you feel like you’re living on a sunny island.

    Connie Willis’ Bellwether and To Say Nothing of the Dog are very funny without the serious overtones of some of her other novels. The former is about chaos theory and fads and the latter is a lovely time travelling book that pays homage to the Victorian era, English mysteries of the 1930s and Jerome K Jerome’s masterly Three men in a boat, to say nothing of the dog (another extremely funny book, quite Wodehouse-like at times).

    And yesterday I read The true meaning of Smekday by Adam Rex – you’ve might have read it before but if not, it’s great fun and made me laugh out loud a lot.

  22. Hi – if you like Bringing up Baby, you may also want to try some of Preston Sturges’ movies – esp. The Lady Eve. And The Awful Truth (with Irene Dunne and Cary Grant) is great!

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