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Who is the funniest author?

The funniest author was P.G. Wodehouse, according to an AbeBooks poll of British readers reported by The Christian Science Monitor (2009), because his jokes live in the sentences: words bent out of shape and comparisons you can picture.

Updated · Based on The Christian Science Monitor (February 23, 2009) and Westminster Abbey (September 20, 2019)

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AbeBooks asked 555 British readers for the funniest book they had ever read. Right Ho, Jeeves came first, Joseph Heller's Catch-22 second, and Wodehouse's Code of the Woosters made the top ten too. The UK's longest-running prize for comic fiction is named after him, and in 1936 the Mark Twain Society gave him a medal for his contribution to the happiness of the world. Mark Twain, whose name is on America's top humor prize, is the usual American pick, though many lines credited to both men need checking before you quote them.

The pick: P.G. Wodehouse

English novelist, 1881–1975, creator of Jeeves and Wooster

Took first place in AbeBooks' poll of the funniest books British readers had read, and the Bollinger Everyman Wodehouse Prize for comic fiction is named in his honor.

Also in the running

  • Mark Twain (American writer and humorist, 1835–1910): The Kennedy Center named its Mark Twain Prize for American Humor after him to honor one of the world's greatest humorists.
  • Joseph Heller (American novelist, Catch-22 (1961)): Catch-22 came second, behind Wodehouse, in AbeBooks' poll of British readers.
  • Douglas Adams (English writer, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (1979)): The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy came third in the same AbeBooks poll.
  • Terry Pratchett (English novelist, the Discworld series): Won the Bollinger Everyman Wodehouse Prize for comic fiction in 2012 with Snuff, after three earlier shortlistings.

What made them funny

Wodehouse's humor is in the sentences, not the plots. His plots are farce (stolen cow-creamers, broken engagements, a drunk guest giving out prizes at a school), but what readers quote are the lines: a word cut in half to make a new one, or a comparison so specific you can see it. The Oxford English Dictionary credits him with the first recorded use of "gruntled," according to the Wodehouse annotation project at Madame Eulalie. He made it by taking the "dis" off disgruntled.

Twain's humor was about getting the size of things wrong on purpose. Faced with a huge mistake, a newspaper reporting him gravely ill and possibly dying, he treated it as a small error and corrected it in the calm voice of a man fixing a typo. Both writers used the same lever: language a size too big or too small for the moment.

Techniques to take into your videos and sets

  1. 1. Use the word that doesn't exist

    What they did

    In The Code of the Woosters (1938), Bertie sizes up a man's mood and reports that "if not actually disgruntled, he was far from being gruntled." Wodehouse took a word that only exists in its negative form, dropped the "dis," and used what was left as if it had always been there.

    Why it works

    The listener knows the word is fake and knows exactly what it means at the same time. That double recognition is the laugh, and it makes the speaker sound precise when they are actually being ridiculous.

    Example (original, written by Shutap)

    After eleven takes, my hair wasn't disheveled, exactly. But no honest person would have called it sheveled.

    Try it

    Find a word in your story that only lives in the negative (disheveled, unkempt, nonchalant) and use its imaginary opposite in the very next sentence.

  2. 2. The simile you can see

    What they did

    Wodehouse's comparisons are pictures, not adjectives. In the same novel a character reacts "like a Pekingese taking a pill," an image the Madame Eulalie annotators connect to the Pekingese dogs Wodehouse kept himself.

    Why it works

    A general word (annoyed, reluctant) asks the audience to agree with you. A specific picture lets them watch it happen, and the second half of the comparison does the joke for you.

    Example (original, written by Shutap)

    My phone hit 1 percent mid-livestream and started dimming the screen like a diner at closing time, chairs already up on the tables.

    Try it

    Write down the adjective you were about to use, then replace it with one small scene: who, doing what, with which object.

  3. 3. The sentence that breaks its own rule

    What they did

    Quote Investigator traces the line "I always advise people never to give advice" to Wodehouse's story Tangled Hearts, collected in Nothing Serious (1950). The sentence breaks its own rule while stating it.

    Why it works

    The audience catches the contradiction a half-second after the speaker doesn't, and that gap makes the speaker look sincere and absurd at once. It's also short enough to work as a closing line.

    Example (original, written by Shutap)

    My only rule for the group chat is to keep messages short, which I explained to everyone across nine consecutive texts.

    Try it

    State a rule you hold, then describe yourself enforcing it in the exact way it forbids. Don't point out the contradiction.

  4. 4. Correct the big thing like a typo

    What they did

    In 1897, when papers reported he was gravely ill, Twain told the New York Journal, "The report of my death was an exaggeration." Quote Investigator found the original wording; the famous "greatly exaggerated" version came later.

    Why it works

    A calm correction of a wild claim makes the claim look silly without arguing with it. The smaller and more exact the correction, the bigger the original rumor looks by comparison.

    Example (original, written by Shutap)

    A comment says I've been cancelled. Small correction: one person unfollowed me, and it was my uncle, who then followed me again from his second account.

    Try it

    Take the most dramatic thing someone said about you and correct it with one tiny, exact fact, in the tone of a fact-checker.

Before you quote them

Both writers attract lines they never wrote. Twain's famous "Reports of my death are greatly exaggerated" is a later newspaper rewording; what he told the New York Journal in 1897 was shorter. Quote Investigator also found that the Wodehouse advice line appears only in the 1950 version of Tangled Hearts, not the 1948 magazine one. If you quote either writer in a video, check the line first.

Questions people ask

Who is the funniest author?
P.G. Wodehouse is the author most often named. In a 2009 AbeBooks poll of 555 British readers, reported by The Christian Science Monitor, his Right Ho, Jeeves was voted the funniest book they had read, ahead of Joseph Heller's Catch-22 and Douglas Adams's The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.
Who is the funniest American author?
Mark Twain is the usual American pick. The Kennedy Center named its Mark Twain Prize for American Humor after him to honor one of the world's greatest humorists. His 1897 correction about reports of his own death is still quoted today, usually in the wrong words.
Did Mark Twain say "Reports of my death are greatly exaggerated"?
Not in those words. Quote Investigator (2024) found that what Twain told the New York Journal in 1897 was "The report of my death was an exaggeration." The longer "greatly exaggerated" version is a later newspaper rewording that stuck.
Did Wodehouse invent the word "gruntled"?
He gets credit for its first recorded use. In The Code of the Woosters (1938), Bertie Wooster says a man was far from being gruntled, and the Madame Eulalie annotators note the Oxford English Dictionary cites Wodehouse for it. He simply dropped the "dis" from disgruntled.
Is there a prize for the funniest novel?
Yes. The Bollinger Everyman Wodehouse Prize, the UK's longest-running prize for comic fiction, is named after Wodehouse. Terry Pratchett won it in 2012 with Snuff after three earlier shortlistings, and Chortle reported the eight books on the 2025 shortlist.

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Sources

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