comic novels
Humorous long-form stories
Comic novels are works of fiction written primarily to amuse, using humor as the dominant mode rather than mere seasoning.
The tradition runs from Cervantes through Fielding to Wodehouse and beyond.
Unlike novels that happen to contain funny moments, comic novels make laughter their central purpose: She was reading a comic novel on the train and kept snorting out loud.
- bumbling heroClumsy yet successful main character
- fish out of waterOne in alien circumstances
- tragicomedyGenre blending sorrow and mirth
- social satireHumor exposing societal absurdities
- satireMockery exposing vice
parody · send up · irony · unreliable narrator · farce · mistaken identity · wordplay · running gag · absurdism · dark humor · P.G. Wodehouse · exaggeration · slapstick · Terry Pratchett · humorous dialogue · caricature · ridiculous · lampoon
- comedyjokes, humor, puns, sarcasm, stand-up
- fictionfiction, novellas, short story, fairy tales, fables
- comedy writingjoke, jokes, satire, parody, sarcasm
- British comedyMonty Python, Fawlty Towers, Blackadder, Mr. Bean, The Office
- humor booksjoke books, one-liners, wisecracks, limericks, roast jokes
- light readinghumor, jokes, page turners, mysteries, thrillers
comic novelstragedies
Dramas with fatal endings
tearjerkers · weepies · dystopian novels · dark fiction · cautionary tales