This Is My Funniest: Leading Science Fiction Writers Present Their Funniest Stories Ever

by Mike Resnick

This collection of 29 short stories from masters of science fiction—each tale chosen by the authors as the funniest they have ever written—presents wildly hilarious stories accompanied by prefaces written by the authors providing valuable insight into their selection and themselves. Featured contributors include David Brin, Esther Friesner, Harry Turtledove, Connie Willis, and many more, with stories such as “Amanda and the Alien,” “Franz Kafka, Superhero!,” “Space Rats of the CCC,” “The Soul Selects Her Own Society,” and ”Too Hot to Hoot”.

Genres: Science Fiction, Humor, Anthologies, Fiction, Short Stories, Fantasy

432 pages, Paperback

First published September 10, 2006

About the author

Michael "Mike" Diamond Resnick, better known by his published name Mike Resnick, was a popular and prolific American science fiction author. He is, according to Locus, the all-time leading award winner, living or dead, for short science fiction. He was the winner of five Hugos, a Nebula, and other major awards in the United States, France, Spain, Japan, Croatia and Poland. and has been short-listed for major awards in England, Italy and Australia. He was the author of 68 novels, over 250 stories, and 2 screenplays, and was the editor of 41 anthologies. His work has been translated into 25 languages. He was the Guest of Honor at the 2012 Worldcon and can be found online as @ResnickMike on Twitter or at www.mikeresnick.com.

Reviews

[Joshua Hair · Rating 2 out of 5]

Sadly, I did not find much humor here. I really wanted to enjoy this collection but most of the stories just didn't do it for me. Some were okay. Others were hard to get through. Most were simply not funny, and when the title of the anthology is "This is My Funniest" I think that may be a major problem. Still, I plan to give number two a try in hopes that it hit the mark a little better than their first effort.

[Susan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some very, very funny stories here. Others clever. A few sort of "meh." Overall lots of fun.

[Kavinay · Rating 2 out of 5]

Laura Resnick's "The Capo of Darkness" is fantastic, the rest is hit or mostly miss.

[John Barclay · Rating 4 out of 5]

as always with collections like this, the stories are uneven, but some are great and are quite varied, and all have something to recommend them.

[Anne Patkau · Rating 2 out of 5]

** "This is my funniest" science fiction story selected by 28 authors plus editor Mike Resnick may have one story for everyone because of the variety, but I was disappointed overall. I try short fiction for new authors to follow, and found few. My criteria is "Do I like the characters and what they do, or at least cheer for them?", and "Does the style draw me in and hold me from start to finish?" Only Resnick's elves commercialized "Revolt of the Sugar Plum Fairies", and an adult-theme premature husband time-traveller spoof "Present" by Krystine Grayson aka Rusch, almost oblige. "Sweet Savage Sorcerer" a romance parody by Esther Friesen, I liked best until the unicorn died. I don't even like horses, but I first thought they killed him. Walter William's Scottish alien ghost "Ligdan and the young pretender" and Joe Haldeman's alien trading culture "A !Tangled Web" are unusual but go overboard on jargon. Michael Swanwick's con-man/ canine "The dog said bow wow" and Jack McDevitt's Olympic gone gods "Deux Tex" are part memorable but tail off.

[Diane · Rating 1 out of 5]

What a disapointment!

Up until now I have enjoyed everything I've read from Mike Resnick (either author or editor), and thought his touch as editor of this book would be golden. I love science fiction and love humor, how could I go wrong? Aaack! [Slap self on forehead!]

A few of the stories were genuinely funny, but most of them were marginal, and some left me wondering whether parts of the stories had accidently been deleted and no one had noticed. Or perhaps they had fallen into the pile of stories for this book from a pile of stories collected for The Most Pointless Short Stories Ever Published.

Perhaps the humor is in the fact that I bought it... a big practical joke on the science fiction readership community...

[Brandy · Rating 1 out of 5]

I think the joke is on the reader of this book. I am not a big science fiction book person but I like giving stuff a try and I thought funny ones would help me get into this kind of books.

I might have gotten 3 giggles out of the whole book. Some of the story felt like there was more to them but was cut short. Some of them was like how is this funny and some of them could have been put into a whole different section. Some didn't seem to even fall into a science fiction but more fantasy.

over all I am sad I spent money on this book and I will not be getting the 2nd one. I am going to see if the 2nd hand book store is willing to take this book off my shelf at home. *crosses fingers*

[Craig · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very nice collection of humor from some of the best-known writers in the field. Particularly interesting were some entries from authors not usually noted for being humorous, such as David Brin, Nancy Kress, and Joe Haldeman. Howard Waldrop's classic "Night of the Cooters" is included, and the title of William Tenn's story, "The Lemon-Green Spaghetti-Loud Dynamite-Dribble Day," is worth a chuckle on its own. My favorites were selections from Connie Willis, Orson Scott Card, Harry Harrison, Spider Robinson, and Robert Sheckley.

[Joseph Teller · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was not my favorite short story collection in SF, and I found many of the stories to not really be funny at all, leaving me wondering why they were included.

It has a some great names writing in it (Robert Silverberg, Harry Turtledove, David Brin, Harr Harrison, Spider Robinson, Joe Haldeman, but the choice of stories fails the title entirely.

[Cindy · Rating 2 out of 5]

I'll be honest - I expected more, a lot more, after reading the author list. Touted as "each tale chosen by the authors as the funniest they have ever written" many read liked the author had been clearing out their slush pile... There were some good ones but overall it was a disappointment.

[Chris · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fun and very varied. I'd read a few, but most of them were new to me.

The story introductions were hampered by not including the titles, and the bios at the end of the book were mostly lists of awards.

[Ronn · Rating 1 out of 5]

Truth be told, this book should be called "This Is Mildly Amusing". The copyright information page is funnier than most of the stories here.

These are almost all really good writers, but this stuff just isnt funny.

[Tim Hicks · Rating 3 out of 5]

Perhaps it's difficult to write a short story that's really funny. The contributors here, who have certainly demonstrated the ability to be funny in longer forms, just failed to impress me here. At best, the stories bring a gentle smile.

[Sheri Fresonke Harper · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fun humor collection with both science fiction and fantasy. Contains many older stories.

[Bronwen · Rating 3 out of 5]

some of the stories are very funny, some are just a chuckle, and some leave you wondering if the author knows the meaning of the word funny.

[Scott Coleman · Rating 4 out of 5]

So nice to read science fiction without needing a degree in physics...

[Howard Brazee · Rating 2 out of 5]

I love humor in books and movies - but very rarely like it when that's the total thing. Background humor works much, much better for me.