Comedy & Humor

It's a beautiful day in Newport, Rhode Island, when Phoebe Stone arrives at the grand Cornwall Inn wearing a green dress and gold heels, not a bag in sight, alone. She's immediately mistaken by everyone in the lobby for one of the wedding people, but she’s actually the only guest at the Cornwall.

One of the hottest stand-ups working today, Nate Bargatze brings his everyman comedy to life in this hilarious collection of personal stories, opinions, and confessions.

#1 New York Times bestselling author Fredrik Backman returns with an unforgettably funny, deeply moving tale of four teenagers whose friendship creates a bond so powerful that it changes a stranger’s life twenty-five years later.

A brilliant, action-packed reimagining of Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, both harrowing and darkly humorous, told from the enslaved Jim's point of view

The top 10 list is populated. The sponsorship program is open. The difficulty is ramping up. The first three floors were nothing compared to what Carl and Donut now face....

Another instant classic from Carl Hiaasen—laugh-out-loud funny, tackling the current chaotic and polarized American culture (following in the path of Squeeze Me), with two wonderful Hiaasen heroes.

From author Rupert Holmes comes a devilish thriller with a killer concept: The McMasters Conservatory for the Applied Arts, a luxurious, clandestine college dedicated to the fine art of murder where earnest students study how best to “delete” their most deserving victim....

A semi-famous artist announces her plan to drive cross-country, from LA to NY. Thirty minutes after leaving her husband and child at home, she spontaneously exits the freeway, checks into a nondescript motel, and immerses herself in an entirely different journey.

Chemist Elizabeth Zott is not your average woman. In fact, Elizabeth Zott would be the first to point out that there is no such thing as an average woman. But it’s the early 1960s and her all-male team at Hastings Research Institute takes a very unscientific view of equality.

Comedian Trevor Noah offers listeners a glimpse into his childhood during apartheid in South Africa in this award-winning memoir.

Seconds before the Earth is demolished to make way for a galactic freeway, Arthur Dent is plucked off the planet by his friend Ford Prefect....

From New York Times bestselling author Christopher Moore comes a hilariously deranged tale of a mad scientist, a famous painter, and an undead woman’s electrifying journey of self-discovery.

From the wildly popular podcast Giggly Squad, best friends Hannah Berner and Paige DeSorbo share hilarious and heartwarming advice on how to take life a little bit less seriously.

One part memoir, one part comedy special, one part crazy first date. Just you and Matt between the covers. What could be better?

Award-winning comedian Zarna Garg turns her astonishing life story into a hilarious memoir, spilling all the chai on her wild ride from escaping an arranged marriage and homelessness in India to carving her own path in America and launching a dazzling second act in midlife.

America’s most beloved wiseass finally tells his life story with all the humor you’d expect from a man who made a career out of making fun of pretty much everything.

Dan has accidentally "Noclipped" into the Backrooms—a bizarro, extra-dimensional Alice-in-Wonderland world, overrun with horrific nightmare creatures known as the Dwellers. No one ever gets out.

Hey you guys, it’s Leslie. I’m excited to share my story with you....

Looking at real estate isn’t usually a life-or-death situation, but an apartment open house becomes just that when a failed bank robber bursts in and takes a group of strangers hostage....

Award-winning content creators Kim and Penn Holderness are on a mission to reboot how we think about the unfortunately named "attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder." As always, they are doing it by looking in the mirror, because they don't just study ADHD; they live it.

The beloved comedy sensation packs a hilarious punch with real talk about what it’s like to be a woman today—from rebelling against the latest diet trends to dealing with perimenopausal mean girls and attending rock concerts in middle age.

Comedian Pierre Novellie was on stage when a heckler suggested he was autistic. Usually, this disruption would be water off a duck's back but two things made this heckler different: first, he was himself autistic. Second, he turned out to be absolutely right....

White lies. Dark humor. Deadly consequences… Bestselling sensation Juniper Song is not who she says she is, she didn’t write the book she claims she wrote, and she is most certainly not Asian American....

This is the definitive biography of Lorne Michaels, the man behind America’s most beloved comedy show.

Traumatized by the bombing of Dresden at the time he had been imprisoned, Pilgrim drifts through all events and history, sometimes deeply implicated, sometimes a witness....

Nate Bargatze used to be a genius. That is, until the summer after seventh grade when he slipped, fell off a cliff, hit his head on a rock, and “my skull got, like, dented or something.” Before this accident, he dreamed of being “an electric engineer, or a doctor that does brain stuff, or a math teacher who teaches the hardest math on earth.” Afterwards, all he could do was stand-up comedy.* But the “brain stuff” industry’s loss is everyone else’s gain because Nate went on to become one of today’s top-grossing comedians, breaking both attendance and streaming records.

Finding joy and laughter in the mundane can be challenging at times, but Hannah Berner and Paige DeSorbo have mastered the art of not taking life too seriously. Brought together under the bright lights of reality television, these best friends bonded in incredibly intense circumstances. They quickly came to realize that one of the bedrocks of their friendship is their shared experience with social anxiety. As their friendship deepened, they found themselves constantly devolving into laughter, earning them the nickname “The Giggly Squad,” and with that, their superpower was born.

Most people don’t even notice them—three tiny figures sitting at the end of a long pier in the corner of one of the most famous paintings in the world. Most people think it’s just a depiction of the sea. But Louisa, an artist herself, knows otherwise and she is determined to find out the story of these three enigmatic figures. Twenty-five years earlier, in a distant town, a group of teenagers find refuge from their difficult home lives by spending their days laughing and telling stories out on a pier.

When Dorothy’s obnoxious date is found dead in a hotel freezer, it not only ruins a gorgeous cheesecake but threatens the elaborate St. Olaf-themed wedding Rose is hosting.

“The afternoon of September first, dishwater-gray and rainy, a man named Dale Figgo picked up a hitchhiker on Gus Grissom Boulevard in Tangelo Falls, Florida. The hitchhiker, who reminded Figgo of Danny DeVito, asked for a lift to the interstate. Figgo said he’d take him there after finishing an errand.” Thus begins Fever Beach, with an errand that leads—in pure Hiaasen-style—into the depths of Florida at its most Floridian: a sun-soaked bastion of right-wing extremism, white power, greed, and corruption.

Vienna, 1911. Gustav Klimt, the most famous painter in the Austrian Empire, the darling of Viennese society, spots a woman’s nude body in the Danube canal. He knows he should summon a policeman, but he can’t resist stopping to make a sketch first. And as he draws, the woman coughs. She’s alive! Back at his studio, Klimt and his model-turned-muse Wally tend to the erstwhile-drowned girl. She’s nearly feral and doesn’t remember who she is, or how she came to be floating in the canal. Klimt names her Judith, after one of his most famous paintings, and resolves to help her find her memory.

How does the son of a Presbyterian minister wind up winning a Pulitzer Prize for writing a wildly inaccurate newspaper column read by millions of people? In Class Clown, Dave Barry takes us on a hilarious ride, starting with a childhood largely spent throwing rocks for entertainment—there was no internet—and preparing for nuclear war by hiding under a classroom desk. After literally getting elected class clown in high school, he went to college, where, as an English major, he read snippets of great literature when he was not busy playing in a rock band (it was the sixties).

From actor, comedian, writer, and host of the hit history podcast SNAFU, Ed Helms brings you an absurdly entertaining look at history’s biggest blunders.

Sir Lenny Henry has had a long and successful career as a comedian, impressionist, actor and presenter. Having starred in several plays in the West End and on radio, he was inspired to complete an MA in screenwriting and in 2011 penned his first radio drama, Corrinne Come Back and Gone, which opens this collection. He continued his writing career with three more Radio 4 plays and nine episodes of his comic monologue series Lenny Henry’s Rogues Gallery. Collected here for the first time, listen to these poignant and humorous original dramas.

Set up the deckchair, pop a hanky on your head and order an ice-cream with a flake, as you settle in for a hilarious trip to Llantwit-on-Sea. It’s the 1950s, the Great British holiday is booming and recently widowed Eirlys Richards runs a lively boarding house in this Welsh seaside town. Promenade Rock is a sunny seaside comedy that will have you in stitches. Listen now to the hilarious complete series, available to download for the time.

Lucy and Ethel. Laverne and Shirley. Dorothy, Sophia, Blanche, and Rose. Chicken-Fried Women is a celebration of them: the women who raised us, taught us to cook and clap back. The ones who prayed for us, raged at us and humbled us a notch or two when we needed it. These are the women who have encouraged us, teased us, chastised us, and mortified us. And as they fill up the seats around our table, we realize we wouldn’t have it any other way.

In the early 1970s, Poe is living a nomadic life, hopping trains, sleeping rough, and juggling to feed himself. He eventually settles in Philadelphia and masters his street act before ever-growing crowds. When one of his fellow buskers presents him with an opportunity—a bank heist—he should have refused, an innocent bystander is killed, and he splits town a felon.

Joybird Martin—an Uber driver with cheerfulness to spare—desperately wants to be a life coach. She’s so sunny about her chances that even her snarky father—a has-been TV writer with a failed third marriage—can’t dim her light. So when he shows up broke on her doorstep, Joybird takes him in with no questions asked, trying to find a balance between her bright optimism and his sarcastic pessimism. It works, and she continues sharing her earnest wisdom with her Uber riders.

At sixty-three years old, million-dollar lottery winner PJ Halliday would be the luckiest man in Pondville, Massachusetts, if it weren’t for the tragedies of his life: the sudden death of his eldest daughter and the way his marriage fell apart after that. Since then, PJ spends both his money and his time at the bar, and he probably doesn’t have much time left—he’s had three heart attacks already. But when PJ reads the obituary of his old romantic rival, he realizes his high school sweetheart, Michelle Cobb, is finally single again.

After thirty years of friendship, Pam dreams of her perfect retirement with Nancy, Shalisa, Marlene, and their husbands—until their husbands pool their funds for an investment that goes terribly wrong. Suddenly, their golden years are looking as dreary as their marriages. But when the women discover their husbands have seven-figure life insurance policies, a new dream forms. And this time, they need a hitman.

Enka meets Mathilde in art school and is instantly drawn to her. Mathilde makes art that feels truly original, and Enka—trying hard to prove herself in this fiercely competitive world—pours everything into their friendship. But when Mathilde’s fame and success cause her to begin drifting away, Enka becomes desperate to keep her close.

Ever since she was a child, Cléo, the French-American daughter of two academics, has had only one obsession: becoming a famous singer. Over the years, to everyone’s surprise but her own, she overcomes every obstacle and becomes a global superstar with millions of dollars, countless awards, and several Los Angeles villas to her name. But as any celebrity will tell you, getting to the top is one thing; staying there is another. Now thirty-three years old, Cléo is taking her first real vacation in years, on a remote island with no one else in sight.

It started out like any other morning for the Fact Checker. The piece, “Mandeville/Green,” didn’t raise any red flags. There were more pressing stories that week—it being 2004 New York City and all. “Mandeville/Green” was a light, breezy look at a local farm called New Egypt, whose Ramapo tomatoes were quickly becoming the summer’s hottest produce. At first glance, the story seemed straightforward, but one line made the Fact Checker pause: a stray quote from a New Egypt volunteer named Sylvia making a cryptic reference to “nefarious business” at the farmer’s market.

"Selbsthilfe ist wie ein Lichtschwertkampf. Im Film sieht's top aus, aber in echt hackt man sich garantiert was ab." Self-Help boomt! Egal, ob Depression oder Herzprobleme, ob eine Karriere oder Selbstvertrauen aufgebaut werden sollen, Kindheitstraumata überwunden oder Familienkatastrophen gemanagt werden müssen – es gibt immer ein Buch von einem Mental Coach, das die Lösung aller Probleme verspricht. Maxi Gstettenbauer hat Hunderte dieser Bücher gelesen. Er weiß, wie man Freunde gewinnt und Menschen beeinflusst. Er weiß, wie man reich wird und die eigenen Überzeugungen reframed.

Cultivation is all fun and games. Until someone kills Merlin. Apparently, the only logical response to this fairly important change to Arthurian lore is for me to be reincarnated into Dark Age Cornwall. But don't worry, I have an absolute understanding of feudal power dynamics, Qi cycling, and anti-Saxon spell flinging. Oh, I also lie a lot. There's just the smallest chance that our timeline is doomed.

Sexy. Scandalous. Dodgy. If you were of the mind that history is boring, you haven’t been paying attention. Meet Katie Kennedy, aka The History Gossip. Incorporating British slang and pop culture references and infused with her signature deadpan humor, Katie offers a delightful fusion of Drunk History and Horrible Histories, making learning about the past an absolute riot.

I'm willing to admit that I shouldn't read spicy scenes in public. But in my defense, the opportunity rarely rises elsewhere. As a single mom and farm owner, my time is stretched thinner than horse hair. Besides, I'd reached a pivotal peak in the story and couldn't put it down. That is, until someone bumps into me. My phone launches into the air like a base hit, but the device is caught before smashing into the ground. It comes as no surprise, considering the guy is a professional baseball star.

Derrymore Academy circa 2007 is home to teenagers who have their eyebrows shaped and their sweet sixteens tented. Their first kisses arrive around the same time as their boating licenses and they celebrate getting their braces off with Mediterranean vacations. It is here that Emery Hooper, adopted at birth into the country club set, thrives. The one blight on her otherwise perfect life? Lilah Chang. The Chinese-American student is the embarrassing epitome of every Asian stereotype Emery despises—and is inexplicably determined to become Emery's friend.

What would you do if you thought your coworker was getting away with murder—literally? Dolores dela Cruz has been dying to spot one in the wild, and he fits the mold perfectly: strangler gloves, calculated charm, dashing good looks that give a leg up in any field . . . including fields of unmarked graves. The new office temp is definitely a serial killer.

Rodney Dangerfield's fidgety delivery, self-deprecating humor, and catchphrase, "I don't get no respect," made him a comedy icon in nightclubs, on television, and in movies. But Rodney's long road to stardom was as rocky as his real life. That's when he decided to give comedy one last shot . . . Back in the clubs and thanks to a fortuitous prime-time set on The Ed Sullivan Show, at the age of forty-five, the newly christened Rodney Dangerfield was an "overnight" success. It was the greatest second act in the history of show business.