Comedic / Funny Non-FIction

[El Chichon]

Does someone know some non-fiction books that make you laugh a lot?

It is maybe possible to write a funny biography, but the biographies I read are mostly about political leaders and I can’t remember much laughing while reading.

It is not that I can’t laugh. I just finished a fictional comic and laughed a few times. I wonder if it is maybe a kind of inappropriate affect; I merely laughed because I was ashamed of the main character. Is that the only way a book can be funny?

Psychiatric case studies sometimes make you laugh, but on the whole they are rather depressing.

Long long ago I read a book by Desmond Morris that maybe made me laugh. I am uncertain if the funny parts were totally non-fiction. The same holds for Günter Wallraff.

I read about a funny book about grammar, but because the book review I read about it was negative, I didn’t try if it worked with me.

By reading funny books I hope to improve my mood.

 

[Meadow337]

I'm really not sure what you are asking for.

 

[El Chichon]

I'm really not sure what you are asking for.

My idea also doesn’t go further than were I am asking for: something that is non-fiction and makes me laugh. I can be everything. The most unclear term is non-fiction. A lot of fiction is sold as non-fiction. I mean a veridical description of reality, not fiction placed in a real context or funny exaggerations or ill-founded responses to reality.

Non-fiction naturally handles about important things and how can that be at the same time funny? Is fiction only funny because you know it is untrue?

Maybe some biographies are very funny or some undercover journalism or descriptions of funny experiences someone has had; Misunderstandings and the like. I don’t know.

Why should a comic be fiction?

 

[Conscious Bob]

My idea also doesn’t go further than were I am asking for: something that is non-fiction and makes me laugh. I can be everything. The most unclear term is non-fiction. A lot of fiction is sold as non-fiction. I mean a veridical description of reality, not fiction placed in a real context or funny exaggerations or ill-founded responses to reality.

Non-fiction naturally handles about important things and how can that be at the same time funny? Is fiction only funny because you know it is untrue?

Maybe some biographies are very funny or some undercover journalism or descriptions of funny experiences someone has had; Misunderstandings and the like. I don’t know.

Why should a comic be fiction?

There are non-fiction comics but what humour there is in them is incidental because the point is at least in my experience they're not meant to be primarily funny.

The only non-fiction comic that I know that could be described as biographical, albeit loosely is The Beats by the late lamented Harvey Pekar and while Harvey Pekar's back catalogue is humorous I wouldn't call it LOL funny.

 

[Meadow337]

I'm not sure the OP meant comics but non-fiction comedy. I think.

Biographies by comedians are often written humerously.

 

[El Chichon]

Excuse me. “Comics” is the wrong word. I meant “comic literature”.

 

[Richard Hannay]

So- correct me if I'm wrong- but you're discussing books which aren't humorous historical fiction written around historical figures and historical events (i.e. Flashman, Blackadder etc.) but instead are talking about factual things in a comedic manner (like autobiographies or children's history books or "novelty" books with titles like 101 Fun Facts About Physics)- yes?

Regardless, I think your point about fiction being the only way humour can be enjoyed is interesting. Comedy is based on the misfortune of others, whether it be slipping on the banana skin or getting one's comeuppance, but when we know that the events described actually happened we feel slightly guilty about it. We need that distance that fiction brings in order to truly appreciate it. We can laugh at Bertie Wooster or General Melchett, because they are merely caricatures of a certain historical stereotype, but we have trouble laughing at actual individuals.

I'm sorry if I'm merely reiterating what has already been posted, but I just wanted to make it clear in my head.

 

[DATo]

The Groucho Letters by, (you guessed it) Groucho Marx

"I don't have a photograph. I'd give you my footprints, but they're upstairs in my socks." - Groucho Marx

"Outside of a dog a book is man's best friend. Inside of a dog it's too dark to read." - Groucho Marx

 

[Meadow337]

Born Standing Up and An Object of Beauty - Steve Martin

Stories I Only Tell My Friends - Rob Lowe (not a laugh a minute but has some good moments)

Always Looking Up and Lucky Man - Michael J. Fox - an emotional rollercoaster - one minute you are laughing the next in tears. on the whole uplifting.

 

[Conscious Bob]

Excuse me. “Comics” is the wrong word. I meant “comic literature”.

Get the question right, the answers come right in...

 

[sparkchaser]

Bill Bryson makes me laugh and his stuff is definitely non-fiction.

David Sedaris is great as well. More memoirs and anecdotes than non-fiction but still funny.