Patrick F. McManus was an author who also wrote humorous articles about nature, wildlife, his personal life, and I was sort of reminiscing about him just now. In some of his books, he had repeat characters whom you fell in love with who could be just the most cardboard 2D characters ever, but that’s what made them so funny. However, the word “humor” tamps down the kind of funny he brought me.
To this day I remember being a kid, lying on my stomach in bed, reading a chapter of his where McManus—reminiscing his own childhood—wanted to spend the night in a tent in the backyard of his parents house with his best friend and they both were suddenly aware of an axe-wielding axe murderer slowly breathing heavily just outside their tent. Just the idea of a murderer doing that, *not* murdering but just breathing and staring like a monster in a closet, kills me as I’m writing this. It was one of those hardest laughs a book has ever gotten me to.
I know it’s not novel or anything, but Calvin in *Calvin & Hobbes* is easily number uno for me. Bill Watterson would have me, as a grown adult, unable to breathe with some of the antics that kid would get up to. I also had a friend who loved C&H and we would read him together and both of us would die, in tears, augmenting the whole scenario because we both had the same sense of humor.
I’m having a hard time remembering any other characters or scenarios in books that would be hilarious to read about, and want to hear of more!
by mysteryofthefieryeye