Jorge has allowed me to laugh out loud, simply by pointing to some of the things I do on a daily basis.
After losing $30K for a planned African Safari (Bankruptcy liquidation/not us,Vantage Travel); the only way to get over the loss is to LAUGH (after crying). Then, last month we lost even more $$$ for a planned trip to India (missed connection plus). We are now laughing about our ability to NOT see the world. I hope we don't have another opportunity to laugh in May when we are scheduled to visit Japan. Laugher IS the best medicine.
If you can laugh about all that, then you truly understand the power of laughing. It helps to have a mate who sees the funny in you and in life, too, doesn't it?
Okay. Just received this by email from a subscriber and watched it while I drank my coffee. So funny. But put your coffee down BEFORE you watch: https://youtu.be/NMS2VnDveP8?si=t-SjRsbAu9_Mdb2k
Funny books are few and far between. Funny movies include Arthur with Dudley Moore, Liza Minnelli, and John Gielgud. So many laughs. Also Galaxy Quest. And 84 Charing Cross Road if you like subtler comedy with tears to come.
As for stand up, Eddie Izzard is the one who rules. Check out the early HBO specials like Dressed to Kill. His accent throws some people off, because he talks so fast, but it is so worth it. Humor about history, religion, sex roles (he's a transvestite) and language.
I laughed at all those movies and may put them on a list for a rewatch. And yes to Eddie Izzard. I try to catch his shows (never live, unfortunately) whenever I can. He's so quick, so piercing, and so full of heart.
‘1066 and All That’ by Stellar and Yeatman. Do cartoon strip collections count? We have a good few on our bookshelves, but explicitly funny novels, no. David Lodge has many funny scenes. The one my wife last laughed loud at, then read to me, was a few weeks ago whilst rereading a Martin Beck crime procedural set in Sweden by Maj Sjöwall and Per Wahlöö. 🐰
Yes, cartoons count. I've never read any of the works you've mentioned here so that means they go on to my TBR list under the subsection "Funny." Thank you,, Robert!
Glad about this Betsy. Where would we be without Doonesbury or Garfield on our bookshelf? From our side of The Pond we have The Perishers, Simon’s Cat and Quotable Cats, plus a few others. Turn to any page in any of them and we are guaranteed a laugh out loud moment. I will post a battered, fading, Garfield strip from my wife Susan’s pinboard above her desk to paperbagstories.substack.com before I go to bed and head it ‘For Betsy…’ It says all you really need to know about me and my wife! ❤️🐰
I laughed out loud yesterday. My daughter was holding open the front door to let her house chicken Cricket in out of the rain. Lola (one of three outdoor chickens) ran between my daughter's legs into the house. I started laughing out loud. My daughter kept trying to get Cricket it, but then Ida and Lizz (the other two hens) ran inside before she could get Cricket in. The outdoor hens used to come in sometimes to get out of the cold or rain, but haven't come in for ages. Yesterday they came in and began foraging for crumbs and eating Cricket's food. It was great fun. They stayed as long as they wanted, then lined up and marched back out the front door. Cricket got to eat alongside them for the first time (usually Ida pecks her).
Betsy this is wonderful. I have been doing the same trying to find things that give me a belly laugh and it’s the best therapy ever. And when you tell your famous closet story and I think back to it and read it I laughed out loud. I remember though that’s what made me love you because I was also famous for such things. For the reasons that I grew up with my mom’s southern humor from her side books by Fannie Flagg make me laugh a lot. Especially “Daisy Fay & The Miracle Man” & “Standing in the Rainbow”. When I was 14 “The Catcher & The Rye” had me in stitches.
This may not make you laugh, but it put a big smile on my face. "We ordered martinis from a waiter named Mitchell and reviewed the menus. To begin, Wallace ordered aspic, of all things, and I had the house salad--a terrific concoction of iceberg greens, cold blue cheese and warm red bacon. If I were a country, I would have made it my flag."
I totally get why this would make you smile. The writers who make me laugh out loud are often the ones who know how their pacing/timing and can surprise with an unexpected take on the ordinary.
--For fiction, anything by Carl Hiaasen (start with "Star Island.")
--For poetry, Billy Collins.
Then there's the old Lewis Carroll's nonsense poetry. (I once recited this as a wedding reception I was trapped at for two people I didn't particularly like: "Twas brillig and the slithy toves/did gyre and gimble in the wabe:/all mimsy were the borogroves/and the mome raths outgrabe.")
I'm just watching Bad Monkey on TV now which is based on a Hiassen novel. I read a bunch of his books years ago and I think I'll take another tour of Florida through his eyes. My son, on his visit, brought him up -- he loves reading him. I want to read some Billy Collins poems. Thank you!
OMG. I watched that old clip from "The Carol Burnett Show" Tim Conway and Harvey Korman and once Korman lost it...so did I. Great fun to laugh out loud at my kitchen table. Sometimes, but not often enough, my friends and I play games together and we all get to belly-laugh. Especially when we play "Ransom Notes." And my Thursday Writers group is always good for a few guffaws (as well as tears). Thanks, Betsy.
Funniest book I’ve ever read? Lucky Jim, an academic satire by Kingsley Amis. Just thinking about it cracks me up.
I can't wait to read it! Thank you, Rona.
Jorge has allowed me to laugh out loud, simply by pointing to some of the things I do on a daily basis.
After losing $30K for a planned African Safari (Bankruptcy liquidation/not us,Vantage Travel); the only way to get over the loss is to LAUGH (after crying). Then, last month we lost even more $$$ for a planned trip to India (missed connection plus). We are now laughing about our ability to NOT see the world. I hope we don't have another opportunity to laugh in May when we are scheduled to visit Japan. Laugher IS the best medicine.
If you can laugh about all that, then you truly understand the power of laughing. It helps to have a mate who sees the funny in you and in life, too, doesn't it?
Okay. Just received this by email from a subscriber and watched it while I drank my coffee. So funny. But put your coffee down BEFORE you watch: https://youtu.be/NMS2VnDveP8?si=t-SjRsbAu9_Mdb2k
Wonderful.
Funny books are few and far between. Funny movies include Arthur with Dudley Moore, Liza Minnelli, and John Gielgud. So many laughs. Also Galaxy Quest. And 84 Charing Cross Road if you like subtler comedy with tears to come.
As for stand up, Eddie Izzard is the one who rules. Check out the early HBO specials like Dressed to Kill. His accent throws some people off, because he talks so fast, but it is so worth it. Humor about history, religion, sex roles (he's a transvestite) and language.
I laughed at all those movies and may put them on a list for a rewatch. And yes to Eddie Izzard. I try to catch his shows (never live, unfortunately) whenever I can. He's so quick, so piercing, and so full of heart.
We saw him in San Diego years ago. So lucky!
‘1066 and All That’ by Stellar and Yeatman. Do cartoon strip collections count? We have a good few on our bookshelves, but explicitly funny novels, no. David Lodge has many funny scenes. The one my wife last laughed loud at, then read to me, was a few weeks ago whilst rereading a Martin Beck crime procedural set in Sweden by Maj Sjöwall and Per Wahlöö. 🐰
Yes, cartoons count. I've never read any of the works you've mentioned here so that means they go on to my TBR list under the subsection "Funny." Thank you,, Robert!
Glad about this Betsy. Where would we be without Doonesbury or Garfield on our bookshelf? From our side of The Pond we have The Perishers, Simon’s Cat and Quotable Cats, plus a few others. Turn to any page in any of them and we are guaranteed a laugh out loud moment. I will post a battered, fading, Garfield strip from my wife Susan’s pinboard above her desk to paperbagstories.substack.com before I go to bed and head it ‘For Betsy…’ It says all you really need to know about me and my wife! ❤️🐰
I laughed out loud yesterday. My daughter was holding open the front door to let her house chicken Cricket in out of the rain. Lola (one of three outdoor chickens) ran between my daughter's legs into the house. I started laughing out loud. My daughter kept trying to get Cricket it, but then Ida and Lizz (the other two hens) ran inside before she could get Cricket in. The outdoor hens used to come in sometimes to get out of the cold or rain, but haven't come in for ages. Yesterday they came in and began foraging for crumbs and eating Cricket's food. It was great fun. They stayed as long as they wanted, then lined up and marched back out the front door. Cricket got to eat alongside them for the first time (usually Ida pecks her).
🤣🤣🤣
This sounds like a Marx brothers movie with chickens. I loved it!
Thanks!
ps, yes, I'd love a free subscription to Bell's newsletter. And I watch kittens on youtube for humor and just cuteness
Check your email!
If you could spare one to Bell I’d love it!
Betsy this is wonderful. I have been doing the same trying to find things that give me a belly laugh and it’s the best therapy ever. And when you tell your famous closet story and I think back to it and read it I laughed out loud. I remember though that’s what made me love you because I was also famous for such things. For the reasons that I grew up with my mom’s southern humor from her side books by Fannie Flagg make me laugh a lot. Especially “Daisy Fay & The Miracle Man” & “Standing in the Rainbow”. When I was 14 “The Catcher & The Rye” had me in stitches.
This may not make you laugh, but it put a big smile on my face. "We ordered martinis from a waiter named Mitchell and reviewed the menus. To begin, Wallace ordered aspic, of all things, and I had the house salad--a terrific concoction of iceberg greens, cold blue cheese and warm red bacon. If I were a country, I would have made it my flag."
I totally get why this would make you smile. The writers who make me laugh out loud are often the ones who know how their pacing/timing and can surprise with an unexpected take on the ordinary.
I would love a subscription to Mr. Bell’s list, if you still have any available. Thank you so much.
Check your email!
--For fiction, anything by Carl Hiaasen (start with "Star Island.")
--For poetry, Billy Collins.
Then there's the old Lewis Carroll's nonsense poetry. (I once recited this as a wedding reception I was trapped at for two people I didn't particularly like: "Twas brillig and the slithy toves/did gyre and gimble in the wabe:/all mimsy were the borogroves/and the mome raths outgrabe.")
I agree, Collins can be very fuuny.
All the more reason for me to read some of his poems.
I'm just watching Bad Monkey on TV now which is based on a Hiassen novel. I read a bunch of his books years ago and I think I'll take another tour of Florida through his eyes. My son, on his visit, brought him up -- he loves reading him. I want to read some Billy Collins poems. Thank you!
New to substack here, learning how to navigate it. This was the first read I had today and was such a feel-good read, thank you!
I am so glad you found it and enjoyed it, Spencer! Good to have you here.
OMG. I watched that old clip from "The Carol Burnett Show" Tim Conway and Harvey Korman and once Korman lost it...so did I. Great fun to laugh out loud at my kitchen table. Sometimes, but not often enough, my friends and I play games together and we all get to belly-laugh. Especially when we play "Ransom Notes." And my Thursday Writers group is always good for a few guffaws (as well as tears). Thanks, Betsy.
Ransom Notes? That sounds like fun. I must learn more. Glad you had a giggle at the kitchen table, Judy. A good way to start the day.