The funniest classic novel?

Ulysses
Symposium
Aristophanes
Shakespeare here and there (not just the puns)

I understand everything in your list except the Symposium, please explain how it is funny.

Robinson Crusoe.

Yeah, Don Quixote is the funniest book I've read

I don't think I can. Near the end is where I laugh (I've read it 3 or 4 times). When Socrates and Alcibiades interact and exclaim "Good God!" it gets to me. Like the buildup of Alcibiades sitting next to Agathon and then seeing Socrates there, and then afterwards when Socrates cries for help, i laugh out loud.

Thirding Don Quixote, specifically the Penguin Classics translation. One of the funniest books I've ever read, regardless of time period.

I too find it odd that everyone always references the windmill scene, when it's like on page 50 of a 900-page book. One of my favorites is the hammer-mill being mistaken for a monstrous creature made of metal.

Moby Dick is quite cheeky at times

Are the english translations of Don Quixote done on Classical English or Modern English
Also
>translation

SERPENT!

Dead Souls!

The reason why the the Windmill scene is the most referenced and more Iconic is because is the first real instance of Don Quijote's madness making him distort reallity aswell as it starts the dynamic dialogues between Sancho and Don Quijote. In other words, is not its comedic value what makes that chapter so important in the book, but the fact that "La aventura de los molinos de viento" inaugurates the leitmotivs of the novel.

Anyway,the hammer-mill is incredibly funny. I also laughed incredibly when Don Quijote acts deliberatly like a Madman (emulating Amadís de Gaula) to pay tribute to Dulcinea in Sierra Morena.

Notes From Underground
Dostoevsky successfully tells jokes, knows the joke landed and then in-character has the narrator chastise the reader for laughing. It works as a legitimate, if one-sided, conversation.

>when it's like on page 50 of a 900-page book.

That's exactly why it's referenced a lot

>At Swim-Two-Birds
>classic
It's good but it's definitely not a 'classic'

The second part is funnier

>all these plebs pretending tristram shandy is funny

Tristram Shandy & Don Quixote

Tristram Shandy was a book that made me really laugh a few times throughout

>hobby horses and noses are funny

Is it worth trying to read the Spanish version of Don Quixote as a first time reader with only basic knowledge of the language?

The funniest part of Don Quixote is where he chastises Sancho for constantly telling proverbs then starts speaking in them himself.

Or when they start telling a proverb about shit.

>16
The ending was funny, but I don't get how it qualifies for funniest books.

It doesn't really lose in translation beyond puns.

the proverbs blew my mind when i read it as a kid, had no idea what sort of novel i was reading and i suddenly realized the novel was supposed to be funny. sancho is the greatest character to ever exist.

I feel like it'd work rather well in a TV series type Netflix thing for a very niche audience, my ideal casting would be:
Peter Capaldi as Don Quixote
Danny Devito as Sancho Panza

i believe there's a near eternal project going on at the hands of terry gilliam, he's been trying to make a don quixote for a long fucking time. i'd say cheech and chong came the closest to an unintentional modernized quixote, it's the first thing that comes to mind.

Well, yeah. Part One is a dialectic against the philosophical and political trends of the era, while Part Two is a series of proverbial responses to the very texts that gave rose to those trends (notably Chernyshevsky's 'What Is To be Done?')
Hearing a 40 year old rant and rave in sarcastic disgust is good stuff, but the same man half his age being reduced to borderline madness in his outrage is just golden.

They are.

But also the playing around with pages, chapters, three books before he is born, a new introduction, Toby in general, the theology in general.

The Golden Ass.
I mean. It starts with the title.

Symposium

>WE HAVE /C U M/ FOR THE GOLDEN ASS

The Penguin is a blend of both. It uses Classical English for certain words that don't have a modern equivalent, but it's written in Modern English for the most part. The translation process for it is fascinating, as they had to translate both the words and the implied meanings into equivalent English, while maintaining the context of the humor. There's a huge preface detailing how they did it, it took them years to get it right.

Divine Comedy

I loved that too, or the few days Sancho believes he is governing an island. Seriously so many wonderfully memorable moments.

How about when Don Quixote charges after those monks who are performing a funeral ceremony? Had a couple giggles there too.

Agreed that the Penguin translation is phenomenal.

Definitely the chowder chapter.

Catch-22

Aristophanes' use of crude puns, word-play and blunt fart/piss/scatological jokes are actually very funny. High brow immaturity.

Candide by Voltaire

The Overcoat was funny
And though it's not a classic, Infinite Jest is the funniest book I've read

Both those scenes were so hilarious I was crying. I think the windmill scene is funny but it is far overshadowed by every other great part of that novel. But like the one dude said it is probably because it's 50 pages in and so many people probably only ever get about 200 pages into the book or so. Of course if you only read that far in that is the part that will stick out not the Don and Sancho vomiting on each other that book reads like a buddy comedy film.

Tommy boy is pretty close as well.

Pickwick Papers