What Is The Funniest Fantasy Book of All Time?

I would say "Guards! Guards!" by Terry Pratchet .... I literally had to stop reading several times because I was laughing too much 😂 ..... Amazing book.

Although I would just put any Discworld book here .... That one is just my favourite of the bunch

The Chronicles of Master Li and Number Ten Ox.

Normally I would have said just pick a Discworld book at random, but lately I’ve got to give it to Orconomics.

I have to go with Good Omens. It has the characteristic humor of Terry Prattchet with the amazing storytelling of Neil Gaimen. It just does t get much better than that.

Wow, no mention of Hitchikers Guide to the Galaxy.

I know it's ostensibly Sci-Fi, but is also the funniest steing of words ever committed to paper.

I doubt this will win, but I laughed so often and loudly while reading Clockwork Boys by T. Kingfisher that my partner asked me "what are you reading?" I've never laughed so much about a book before.

(ETA: sample sentence about the character Slate, who's a petty criminal: "[city-state] was nominally a democracy, in much the same way that Slate was nominally a taxpayer". That line lives rent-free in my head).

"Fool" by Christopher Moore.

Based off of Shakespeare's "King Lear". Pocket is one of my favorite characters in all of fantasy, and his pal Drool caused me to uncontrollably drool from laughing on several occasions.

Lamb, the Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal by Christopher Moore

Tooth and Claw by Jo Walton has my vote. It's a parody of sentimental Victorian novels where all the characters are dragons, and I think part of what makes it great is that manages to:

1. Work as a legitimate example of what it is parodying. It keeps what is fun about sentimental Victorian novels - characters end up with people they romantically fit through a series of suprising twists and developments. The characters are relatable and developed well enough that you actually care about what happens to them (which I think is also part of what makes it funny).
2. Be extremely funny. This is extremely subjective, but I think this is the book that I've laughed out loud the most while reading.
3. Has insight into/critiques of what it is parodying. It points out some of the shit wrong with Victorian morality by taking it to literal extremes. The nobility grow more powerful by eating the corpses of commoners, and women turn scarlet by having sex.

I think stories need to do all three things to really work as a parody/satire, and it's really hard to pull off well - Tooth and Claw is the best example I've read.

Honorable mentions: Discworld by Terry Pratchett, Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut

The Night Life of the Gods by Thorne Smith. Bridge of Birds by Barry Hughart The Discworld novel of you choice (mine is Going Postal or Mort or Small Gods)

Does dungeon crawler carl count? I’m loving the audiobook so far.

Kings of the Wyld got me really good a few times.

The Wee Free Men by Terry Pratchett - the introduction of the Feegles is perfection. Their interactions with Tiffany and the rest of the world had me crying with laughter.

Any Terry Pratchett novel

The John Dies At The End series.

Myth Conceptions

Dark Tea Time of the Soul. The opening line is my favourite ever. "It can hardly be a coincidence that no language on Earth has ever produced the expression 'As pretty as an airport"

Witches Abroad

I dunno but I'd bet money on it being by Sir Terry Pratchet

Iron druid chronicles did it for me, the audiobook version. One time I was driving and something funny hit me so hard I had to pull over to finish laughing. I had tears and couldn't couldn't see lol

Does Jitterbug Perfume count as Fantasy?

A Dirty Job, and Lamb were both funny, author Christopher Moore

Artemis Fowl and Percy Jackson had me laughing out loud all the time as a kid. I should go back and see how they held up.

How are these all not Princesses Bride?!?

It is criminal no one has mentioned Dark Lord of Derkholm by Diana Wynne Jones.

The book lampoons the pants off of fantasy tropes years before TVtropes was a thing. Almost all of Jones' fantasy has an element of dry humor to it. ::whispers quietly:: I like her better than Pratchett

I'm still reading it, but The Blacktongue Thief so far is the funniest fantasy book I've ever read. I've read some Discworld books, and there are some laughs in them, but The Blacktongue Thief is nearly constant humor.

Stephen King's short story Revenge of Lardass Hogan was so funny when I read it as a teenager; I thought I was literally going to die laughing.

I started to panic that I could not stop laughing, in fact, and that, for some reason, made me laugh harder.

Later, when Thinner came out, I remember thinking during that half an hour of laughing that Stephen King had somehow cursed me with laughing (Laugher) and that I would die from laughing, and this ALSO made me only laugh harder.

I was the only one home (I used to read Stephen King books all summer as cheap entertainment, since we were poor) during this episode, and it was a bit scary that I could die laughing and no one would be there to help me.

I was sure I'd broken a rib for about a month afterward- I hadn't, but I was sore for a week. It wasn't remotely as funny when I saw it in the movie for some reason.

Good Omens. No contest!

I loved Zelazney's "Forever After."
It's a novel that takes place *after* to BBEG of the setting is defeated by the greatest warriors in the land using the most powerful magical tools mortalkind could wield.
Thing is, gathering these epic-level magical artifacts has a price: their reality-bending powers conflict with one another, and cause time and space to start breaking down, so the world slowly becomes a chaotic mishmash of different eras and realities, like turning your sealed bottles of wine into root beer to seeing a sauropod outside your medieval palace to said palace turning into a baseball diamond.
That's why those super powerful artifacts are hidden away in the first place, turns out.
So, the book is basically one final set of quests to hide the artifacts of power before reality tears itself apart.

Bored of the Rings, when I first read it as a teen.

Lies of Locke Lamora

To break up all the Terry Pratchett recommendations (which I very much agree with), I'd suggest the Murderbot Diaries by Martha Wells.

I usually read my backlit kindle in bed, in the dark, while my husband is falling asleep. I've definitely woken him up from early slumber a few times while reading the Murderbot Diaries because I couldn't manage to suppress my laughter (he took it in stride and demanded that I share the jokes).

Lies of Locke lamora series, kings of the wyld, and shadow of the gods had me laughing at times as well!

Lamb by Christopher Moore

With honorable mentions to:

Too Many Curses by A. Lee Martinez

Divine Misfortune by A. Lee Martinez

Fool by Christopher Moore

Discworld Series by Terry Pratchett

The Antidote by Oliver Burkeman

How about the princess bride?

'Of all time' is a bit of a stretch, but the following work for...a certain niche audience.

Kim Newman, The Hound of the D'Urbervilles is extremely funny. He's better known for Anno Dracula which is played pretty straight.

Susannah Clarke, Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell, very funny footnotes, I was laughing constantly throughout.

Steven Brust, The Khaavren Romances, is a parody of Alexandre Dumas and the idea that he was paid by the word. For example:

Khaavren said, “My good Tazendra, it seems to me that you are unusually silent.”

“Well, I am,” she said.

“Then tell me, for I am curious, what accounts for this uncharacteristic quietude?”

“I reflect,” pronounced Tazendra.

“Ah! You reflect. Pel, Tazendra has been reflecting.”

“That is right,” said Pel. “And well she should.”

“And yet,” said Khaavren, addressing himself once more to the Dzurlord, “I should like to learn upon what you reflect.”

“Just this,” said Tazendra. “We are leaving the city.”

“The Horse!” said Khaavren. “I think we are.”

“I was wondering-“

“But you just said you were reflecting.”

“Oh, I was, I assure you. Only-”

“Yes?”

“My reflections transformed themselves into wonderings.”

“Well,” said Khaavren, “mine have been known to do the same.”

“It has happened to me,” admitted Pel.

“I never wonder,” said Aerich.

“But then,” resumed Khaavren, “you say your reflections gave over to wonderings on some subject about which you had questions?”

“Yes,” said Tazendra, “you have hit it exactly.”

“And what did you wonder?”

“Just this: we are leaving the city-”

“You had already reached the point while you were merely reflecting.”

Would Good Omens count? I chuckled quite a bit reading it.

Definitely something by Terry Prachett

Discworld by Terry Pratchet…no not any particular book, all of them.

Good Omens by the same Terry Pratchet and Neil Gaiman

Malazan Series by Steven Erickson and Ian C Esselmont (very different kind of humor and definitely not laugh out loud most of the time, but amazing humor nonetheless)

First Law Series by Joe Abercrombie

Gentlmen Bastards by Scott Lynch

All very different kinds of humor, but Terry Pratchet is the most laugh out loud humor.

Myth adventure series by Robert Asprin, amazing series, very funny and satirical

The Dresden Files is pretty consistent with humor.

I'd put down soul music by Pratchett, but lots of other disk world ones are superb as well.

If you are more into slap stick, both skulduggery pleasant and grave of empires were highly amusing as well.

Technically sci-fi, but Red Shirts by John Scalzi is one of my favs. It's a great Star Trek parody and is pretty funny

I liked Myth Adventures but I only read the first 8.

https://www.goodreads.com/series/42225-myth-adventures

This definitely won't qualify over some actual fantasy/comedy books, but Once and Future King by T.H. White has some of the funniest lines of any book I have ever read. Obviously, most of it is not that and keeps a fairly serious or philisophical tone, but when there are humorous moments, they are incredibly witty and great comedy.

Cugel the Clever.

I would argue for the Dungeon Crawler Carl book series

There's always Robert Asprin's MYTH series. These are books that never let story or plot get in the way of a good pun!

I always default to Discworld, and while it’s hard to choose one, I recently re-read The Fifth Elephant, and was fucking wheezing.

Is Dungeon Crawler Carl considered fantasy? While it definitely has some darker moments, it’s also probably the most I’ve laughed reading a book.

I personally love the dry humour of Malazan and Midnight Tides has to be the funniest of the series

Serpent of Venice! This book cracked me up in multiple occasions

Beware of Chicken book 1 is up there for me. Not quite trad fantasy though I spose.

Kendermore

Another Day, Another Dungeon by Greg Costikyan.

It’s definitely a Terry Pratchett book. But I have a hard time choosing just one.

Grunts by Mary Gentle.

A company of Orcs raid a dragon's hoard and are cursed to become obsessed by what they steal. The dragon isn't a fan of gold, but instead collects military equipment from our world.

So it's Warhammer 40,000 book so YMMV based on your sense of humor and some might not even consider it fantasy but Brutal Kunnin' is great. It's about the Orks who are the quintessential comic relief of the galaxy and the absolute dumpsterfire that is your typical Ork warfare.

Spoiler

The Discworld series imo

"The mis-enchanted sword" and "With a Single Spell" by Lawrence Watt-Evans were a lot of fun.

The Hollow Chocolate Bunnies of the Apocalypse was pretty funny.

Robert Asprin’s Myth series

It's either "Guards Guards!" or "Dungeon Crawler Carl" for me.

Drawing of the Dark by Tim Powers. Of course I have to admit it's very erudite and I love jokes I get later - usually. I still say read it. You won't notice most of the jokes you don't understand Spoiler

Arthur Rex by Thomas Berger

Jurgen by James Branch Cabell

Fancies and Goodnights by John Collier (The kindle edition is split into two volumes.)

Grunts by Mary Gentle

Finn Fancy Necromancy by Randy Henderson

Johannes Cabal the Necromancer by Jonathan L. Howard

The Stupidest Angel: A Heartwarming Tale of Christmas Terror by Christopher Moore

What in God's Name by Simon Rich

I love Comedy Fantasy. There are so many good suggestions here. I've read so many.

The outright funniest, crying laughing, having to stop every few paragraphs to wipe away tears and catch my breath, oh my god I am actually going to pee myself kinda funny was a novella called Beerlympian by Shayne Silvers. It's a short story about a stag night for one of the main characters and what they all get up to, and I felt like I couldn't breathe. I laughed so hard. You could read it as a standalone, but you wouldn't get some of it without the backstory, really.

Right now, I'm reading The Imperfect Cathar series by C.N. Rowan and there are parts of it that have had me wheezing, but it's also as harrowing in places as it is funny in others. Excellent read, though.

Rivers of London. Very snarky, extremely British.

Sixteen Ways to Defend a Walled City by KJ Parker, and the whole of the "series", which are only loosely related, and operate as three slightly connected stand alone stories, all of which are excellent!

“This Quest is Bullshit” by J. P. Valentine and the rest of “This Trilogy is Broken” (there are 4 books) was a great time.

It’s sci fi fantasy but the locked tomb trilogy is pretty hilarious - and riveting reading to boot

Not the funniest, but I must mention A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur' Court

Orconomics is a contender

All my favorite already mentioned except Tom Holt's Who's Afraid of Beowulf? And Flying Dutch

Dungeon Crawler Carl had me cackling through each book.

The Table of Less valued knights by Marie Phillips

I haven't seen it mentioned, so if you're making a list, look into Sebastian de Castell's The Greatcoats series. Good comedic timing, slapstick humor, and still a good story. I don't generally laugh out loud or even chuckle at books, but those got me chuckling a few times.

Good Guys by Eric Ugland is pretty damn funny

Lies of Locke lamora series, kings of the wyld, and shadow of the gods had me laughing at times as well!

Cracked Pot Trail is a Malazan novela that had me laughing start to finish.

Tom Robbins, Jitterbug Perfume.

For me Ryria Revelation series was the most funniest. The Greatcoats series also has some puns and wits in it.

Whichever Terry Pratchett book is his funniest lol.