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The Funny Side: 101 Humorous Poems
In her introduction to The Funny Side: 101 Humorous Poems, editor Wendy Cope laments the invention of the term "light verse", arguing instead that the best funny poems deliver spice and substance both. In this diverse assemblage of witty yet weighty poems, she more than proves her point. As painlessly as a dentist pulls a tooth while turning up the gas, normally cheerless subjects--alcoholism, suicide, mortality, love gone wrong--leave us chortling with delight. In Connie Bensley's "Mr and Mrs R and the Christmas List", for instance, the tiresome chore of sending Christmas cards is the perfect vehicle for expressing anger over an affair gone sour:
Ah, that heart-stopping momentAlong with the relatively solemn, Copes includes the best of the purely whimsical. In the especially keen-witted "Three Riddled Riddles" by Martyn Wiley and Ian McMillan, the tiresomely ubiquitous riddle poem is transformed into something infinitely more interesting:
by the kitchen sink, when he took off
his spectacles and fiercely kissed me.
But all that lasted less than a week
And what I recall more vividly
is Mr R's good advice:
Always plunge your lemons in hot water
before you squeeze them.
One more year perhaps.
I taste like a grapefruit.Parodies like John Witworth's ("They f-ck you up, do publishers..."), jocular jabs (a news item proclaiming the remains of Rameses II were "met"at Orly airport leaves Edwin Morgan no choice but to pen an imaginary conversation between Mme and mummy), and the inclusion of humorist immortals Dorothy Parker and Ogden Nash all add up to a devilishly clever collection. As Simon Rae instructs in "Ode on a Goal":
I swim like a chair.
I hang on the trees
and people tap my face,
rake my soil
and tell me jokes.
Who am I?
Answer: I've really no idea.
Savor simply the sublime control--Martha Silano
Like angels performing rock 'n' roll
On the dance-floor of a pinhead. Extol
That goal!
159 pages, Paperback
First published January 10, 1998
3 people are currently reading
154 people want to read
About the author
Wendy Cope
63 books422 followersWendy Cope was educated at Farringtons School, Chislehurst, London and then, after finishing university at St Hilda's College, Oxford, she worked for 15 years as a primary school teacher in London.
In 1981, she became Arts and Reviews editor for the Inner London Education Authority magazine, 'Contact'. Five years later she became a freelance writer and was a television critic for 'The Spectator magazine' until 1990.
Her first published work 'Across the City' was in a limited edition, published by the Priapus Press in 1980 and her first commercial book of poetry was 'Making Cocoa for Kingsley Amis' in 1986. Since then she has published two further books of poetry and has edited various anthologies of comic verse.
In 1987 she received a Cholmondeley Award for poetry and in 1995 the American Academy of Arts and Letters Michael Braude Award for light verse. In 2007 she was one of the judges for the Man Booker Prize.
In 1998 she was the BBC Radio 4 listeners' choice to succeed Ted Hughes as Poet Laureate and when Andrew Motion's term of office ended in 2009 she was once again considered as a replacement.
She was awarded the OBE in the Queen's 2010 Birthday Honours List.
Gerry Wolstenholme
February 2011
In 1981, she became Arts and Reviews editor for the Inner London Education Authority magazine, 'Contact'. Five years later she became a freelance writer and was a television critic for 'The Spectator magazine' until 1990.
Her first published work 'Across the City' was in a limited edition, published by the Priapus Press in 1980 and her first commercial book of poetry was 'Making Cocoa for Kingsley Amis' in 1986. Since then she has published two further books of poetry and has edited various anthologies of comic verse.
In 1987 she received a Cholmondeley Award for poetry and in 1995 the American Academy of Arts and Letters Michael Braude Award for light verse. In 2007 she was one of the judges for the Man Booker Prize.
In 1998 she was the BBC Radio 4 listeners' choice to succeed Ted Hughes as Poet Laureate and when Andrew Motion's term of office ended in 2009 she was once again considered as a replacement.
She was awarded the OBE in the Queen's 2010 Birthday Honours List.
Gerry Wolstenholme
February 2011
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Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews
January 27, 2015
Wendy Cope’s Introduction to this book is a valuable eye-opener to the art of defining the editor’s perennial dilemma: what to select for inclusion, & what not to. She flatly points out that comic verse is different from satiric verse, from humorous, from light, etc… one quickly realises how so very many different terms have been used in the past in oft-unsuccessful attempts to define the response of the reader. Ms Cope chooses funny verse, as in playful.
This collection is a charmingly amusing reminder that what one generation may find side-splittingly funny, will inevitably be found merely amusing by another. Ms Cope has selected a goodly spread. Personally I very much liked James Fenton throwing his life into a skip, and Gavin Ewart’s “The Meeting” (so true); neither of which I had come across before. Kit Wright’s “How to Treat the Houseplants” has long been one of my favourites to read out aloud. Some inclusions are succinct: Stevie Smith’s “The American Publisher” comprises just two lines. Robert Graves’, “Welsh Incident”, is brilliant to read with a soft Welsh lilt. This longer, but not over-long, poem works up to wreak a wonderful surprise sting with its tail; refreshingly relieving taut anticipation.
This collection is a charmingly amusing reminder that what one generation may find side-splittingly funny, will inevitably be found merely amusing by another. Ms Cope has selected a goodly spread. Personally I very much liked James Fenton throwing his life into a skip, and Gavin Ewart’s “The Meeting” (so true); neither of which I had come across before. Kit Wright’s “How to Treat the Houseplants” has long been one of my favourites to read out aloud. Some inclusions are succinct: Stevie Smith’s “The American Publisher” comprises just two lines. Robert Graves’, “Welsh Incident”, is brilliant to read with a soft Welsh lilt. This longer, but not over-long, poem works up to wreak a wonderful surprise sting with its tail; refreshingly relieving taut anticipation.
June 18, 2024
Quick read. 2.5 stars, not 3 - some good poems, some very dull.
Faves were:
- Money
- from Shorts
- There Was a Young Bard of Japan
- The Skip
- The Pessimist
- Rat, O Rat…
- To an American Publisher
- How to Treat the House-Plants
Faves were:
- Money
- from Shorts
- There Was a Young Bard of Japan
- The Skip
- The Pessimist
- Rat, O Rat…
- To an American Publisher
- How to Treat the House-Plants
April 16, 2008
"Humorous" might be overstating the case: "droll" is more like it. For example:
When he came in
she gave him a flower
called "Welcome Home Husband
However Drunk You Be".
I am not drunk, he said;
this is not my home,
I am not your husband.
"Three mistakes
do not change the name of a flower"
She replied.
I should also mention that the compiler Wendy Cope once saved civilization by reducing T.S. Eliot's The Waste Land to a taut, resonant limerick:
In April one seldom feels cheerful;
Dry stones, sun and dust make me fearful;
Clairvoyants distress me,
Commuters depress me—
Met Stetson and gave him an earful.
When he came in
she gave him a flower
called "Welcome Home Husband
However Drunk You Be".
I am not drunk, he said;
this is not my home,
I am not your husband.
"Three mistakes
do not change the name of a flower"
She replied.
I should also mention that the compiler Wendy Cope once saved civilization by reducing T.S. Eliot's The Waste Land to a taut, resonant limerick:
In April one seldom feels cheerful;
Dry stones, sun and dust make me fearful;
Clairvoyants distress me,
Commuters depress me—
Met Stetson and gave him an earful.
June 5, 2015
It's not light verse, it's not laugh-out-loud funny or nonsense verse, it is more about playfulness and personal taste. A good selection of poems, some very well known, others less so. Specially enjoyed Liz Lochhead's 'Men Talk' and Simon Armitage's 'Very Simply Topping Up the Brake Fluid', but maybe that's just because I was in a mood for gender wars.
March 18, 2013
I should probably have dipped into this rather than reading it all in one go, but I'm moving house soon and need to finish my library book pile! Some pleasantly droll poems, a few of which I knew, some Ogden Nash I'd not read, and some that was just a bit ho-hum. Slightly disappointing.
March 12, 2020
Wendy Cope dislikes the term "light verse" because she feels it implies the included poetry can never be serious. Presumably she doesn't take the matter lightly, given that she is considered (or dismissed as) a brilliant (but) light verse poet, with works such as Making Cocoa for Kingsley Amis to her credit. Flippant is fine with her, but that shouldn't be the be-all and end-all of "humorous" poems. Her choices for this anthology range from the frivolous to the suicidal; light or dark in subject, they are all amusing in their expression.
The poems are strung together in unobtrusive clumps of themes. The anthology kicks off with Richard Armour's Money:
That money talks
I won't deny.
I heard it once,
It said goodbye.
followed by Hilaire Belloc's Fatigue:
I'm tired of Love: I'm still more tired of Rhyme.
But Money gives me pleasure all the time.
And so you leap in - you've just read the first two pages of the book. But in case you think that all the pieces are going to be so short, the next is the anonymous Strike among the Poets:
In his chamber, weak and dying,
While the Norman baron lay,
Loud, without, his men were crying
'Shorter hours and better pay.'
and so on for seven stanzas of young Lochinvar and the boy on the burning deck and other worthies all demanding shorter hours and better pay.
Segue to the next poem, Harry Graham's two full pages of Poetical Economy:, this being an example:
When I've a syllable de trop,
I cut it off without apol.:
This verbal sacrifice, I know,
May irritate the schol.;
But all must praise my dev'lish cunn.
Who realize that Time is Mon.
Most of the poems will be known to aficionados of, yes, light verse - the older pieces by Thomas Hood and Lewis Carroll and so on are relatively well known. But I found several delightful surprises: the excerpts from D. J. Enright's Paradise Illustrated: A Sequence:
'Why didn't we think of clothes before?'
Asked Adam,
Removing Eve's.
'Why did we ever think of clothes?'
Asked Eve,
Laundering Adam's.
Kit Wright's (lengthy) The Orbison Consolations:
Only the lonely
Know the way you feel tonight?
Surely the poorly
Have some insight?
Oddly, the godly
Also might,
And slowly the lowly
Will learn to read you right.
And then there's Edwin Morgan's The Mummy, on the arrival of Ramses II at Orly airport in 1976... but that one's too complicated for this post. You'll have to find it yourself.
It seems that Faber put out other books in this series in the late 1990s: By Heart - 101 Poems to Remember, edited by Ted Hughes, and Sounds Good - 101 Poems to be Heard, edited by Christopher Reid. I need to get them as well.
The poems are strung together in unobtrusive clumps of themes. The anthology kicks off with Richard Armour's Money:
That money talks
I won't deny.
I heard it once,
It said goodbye.
followed by Hilaire Belloc's Fatigue:
I'm tired of Love: I'm still more tired of Rhyme.
But Money gives me pleasure all the time.
And so you leap in - you've just read the first two pages of the book. But in case you think that all the pieces are going to be so short, the next is the anonymous Strike among the Poets:
In his chamber, weak and dying,
While the Norman baron lay,
Loud, without, his men were crying
'Shorter hours and better pay.'
and so on for seven stanzas of young Lochinvar and the boy on the burning deck and other worthies all demanding shorter hours and better pay.
Segue to the next poem, Harry Graham's two full pages of Poetical Economy:, this being an example:
When I've a syllable de trop,
I cut it off without apol.:
This verbal sacrifice, I know,
May irritate the schol.;
But all must praise my dev'lish cunn.
Who realize that Time is Mon.
Most of the poems will be known to aficionados of, yes, light verse - the older pieces by Thomas Hood and Lewis Carroll and so on are relatively well known. But I found several delightful surprises: the excerpts from D. J. Enright's Paradise Illustrated: A Sequence:
'Why didn't we think of clothes before?'
Asked Adam,
Removing Eve's.
'Why did we ever think of clothes?'
Asked Eve,
Laundering Adam's.
Kit Wright's (lengthy) The Orbison Consolations:
Only the lonely
Know the way you feel tonight?
Surely the poorly
Have some insight?
Oddly, the godly
Also might,
And slowly the lowly
Will learn to read you right.
And then there's Edwin Morgan's The Mummy, on the arrival of Ramses II at Orly airport in 1976... but that one's too complicated for this post. You'll have to find it yourself.
It seems that Faber put out other books in this series in the late 1990s: By Heart - 101 Poems to Remember, edited by Ted Hughes, and Sounds Good - 101 Poems to be Heard, edited by Christopher Reid. I need to get them as well.
November 6, 2021
Reading through this anthology of 101 humorous poems - The Funny Side - I hoped to find a collection of writing I could use in class - to build up the pleasure of reading poetry - with teenagers. Whilst the occasional poem might prove useful, most of these collected poems didn’t fulfil my needs.
I expected that the humour might arise from wordplay, from nonsensical phrasing, through idea or perspective, and/ or through the tone and intention of the poems. This collection promised to be lightly entertaining, but I found many of the poems were only slightly engaging. Of course this is also question of taste. I guess I hoped that the humour with grow out of a hint of gravitas - with some skin in the game.
I responded to the poems that explored a theme - like identity, mental health, absurdity, or death with humour. To list a few poems I particular enjoyed: Margaret Atwood’s Siren Song, Lewis Carroll’s Poeta Fit, Non Nascitur, Hugo Williams’ Desk Duty, Liz Lochhead’s Men Talk, James Fenton’s The Skip, Benjamin Franklin King’s The Pessimist, along with Kit Wright’s The Orbison Consolations and How To Treat the House Plants.
I expected that the humour might arise from wordplay, from nonsensical phrasing, through idea or perspective, and/ or through the tone and intention of the poems. This collection promised to be lightly entertaining, but I found many of the poems were only slightly engaging. Of course this is also question of taste. I guess I hoped that the humour with grow out of a hint of gravitas - with some skin in the game.
I responded to the poems that explored a theme - like identity, mental health, absurdity, or death with humour. To list a few poems I particular enjoyed: Margaret Atwood’s Siren Song, Lewis Carroll’s Poeta Fit, Non Nascitur, Hugo Williams’ Desk Duty, Liz Lochhead’s Men Talk, James Fenton’s The Skip, Benjamin Franklin King’s The Pessimist, along with Kit Wright’s The Orbison Consolations and How To Treat the House Plants.
April 24, 2020
Fun, light-hearted poems. I laughed more the first half - second half were less funny.
January 18, 2022
A quick read for a pick me up in these difficult times. Some brilliant verses, some not quite so, but a laugh somewhere proving suitable for all tastes.
April 19, 2024
Some old friends, but a wonderful multitude of new, witty, inventive discoveries. Some excellent limericks.
Read
January 31, 2025Meh.
June 29, 2025
bought this in a charity shop YEARS ago and finally gave in and read it… maybe should’ve just left it, definitely not for me xoxo
August 21, 2025
Not my cup of tea. Most of the poems were too British or too old for me to truly enjoy. There were a couple that made me laugh, but not enough to want to reread or keep this book on my shelf, so into the donation bin it goes.
April 20, 2014
This is a cracking collection. I love these Faber anthologies - for the introductory essays almost as much as the poems.
Wendy Cope's defence of funny poetry, and her rebuttal of the term 'light verse' to describe it, is worth reading. She points out that a poem can deal with a big subject - love, death, depression, betrayal - and still be funny. And that sometimes a blackly funny poem about depression is just what you need.
As usual in these anthologies, there were some old friends it was nice to see again and some very welcome new acquaintances.
Wendy Cope's defence of funny poetry, and her rebuttal of the term 'light verse' to describe it, is worth reading. She points out that a poem can deal with a big subject - love, death, depression, betrayal - and still be funny. And that sometimes a blackly funny poem about depression is just what you need.
As usual in these anthologies, there were some old friends it was nice to see again and some very welcome new acquaintances.
June 14, 2016
As a light read, this collection of poems was fantastic. A very poignant foreword from Wendy Cope about the nature of funny poetry and some absolutely smashing examples. I particularly enjoyed 'The Orbison Consolations' by Kit Wright, and indeed had never heard of him before which was another great feature of this book - it introduced me to some great names I had not heard of. Naturally there will always be a few in the collection that the general reader won't take to but in spite of this I still think there was too much Ogden Nash included.
June 30, 2014
An enjoyable collection put together by the splendid Wendy Cope. Better perhaps at showing the breadth of what may count as humorous poetry than planting a smile or giggle-punch to the gut every time (I seem to remember 'The Nation's Favourite...." doing a better job of that... or even some of Cope's own work). There were several old and not so old friends it was good to meet again and I was glad to see WS Gilbert included.
November 1, 2018
Actually 3.5*
I felt the poems started strongly and quite funny, but petered out towards the end.
I felt the poems started strongly and quite funny, but petered out towards the end.
Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews