Giving a funny book as a gift is trickier than it sounds. First, because a lot of “funny” books aren’t. Second, because humor is slippery ground: what makes your best friend laugh can leave your sister completely cold, or worse, make her say “that’s nice” in that particular voice usually reserved for bad gifts and unattractive babies. So you need to aim carefully. Not necessarily “the smartest book in the world,” or “the most literary,” but the one that triggers that slightly embarrassing laugh you get when you realize you’re reading something deeply dumb, and loving every second of it. If you’re looking for a funny book to give an adult, for a birthday, Christmas, a Secret Santa, or just to let someone know you’ve correctly diagnosed their issues, here’s a selection that deserves a spot on a nightstand.

1. A Fake Survival Guide for Deranged Cat Owners

Some people have a cat. Others live inside a complex psychological relationship with a small passive-aggressive predator they call “my son.” Is My Cat Gay? was written for exactly these people. The concept is simple and, frankly, healthy: imagine your cat developing increasingly absurd behaviors (they become woke, racist, a city snob, a player, a conspiracy theorist, a K-pop fan) and then offer alarming signs, solutions, and increasingly ridiculous conclusions to help you survive it. The book works especially well as a gift if the person:

• owns a cat;
• already refers to said cat as a toxic roommate;
• or has a sense of humor damaged enough to appreciate a fake guide to “the 100 worst things your cat could become.”

In other words: it’s a great pick for anyone who loves cats, absurd jokes, and social diagnoses applied to animals that eat plastic.

2. An Absurdist Humor Collection, Because the Brain Deserves Some Abuse Sometimes

The ideal funny book isn’t necessarily one that tells a story. Sometimes what you want to give is something you can open anywhere and that immediately triggers the reaction: “who wrote this, and why did nobody stop them?” Absurdist humor collections, fake guides, dumb lists, ultra-short satirical texts: all of this works extremely well as a gift, especially for people who read in fragments, on the subway, in the bathroom, or at their desk while pretending to “make progress on a project.” The big advantage is that it removes the pressure of finishing a novel. You’re not handing someone homework. You’re handing them a steady stream of finely calibrated nonsense to make their commute more bearable.

3. A Book That Mocks Everyday Life With Just Enough Brutality

The best funny books tend to share one thing: they take something extremely mundane (work, relationships, family, life with a pet, social media) and push it just far enough to reveal how ridiculous it already was. A good comedy book doesn’t need to be “nice.” It can be a little mean, a little dry, even a little unpleasant, as long as it stays precise. What you’re chasing is that very specific feeling of laughing because a text just put words to something shamefully true.

4. A Gift Book You Can Open at Random Without Losing the Thread

If you’re giving someone a funny book, think about how they’ll actually use it. Most people aren’t going to settle into an armchair with a blanket, a cup of tea, and three free hours. They’re going to read:

• ten pages before bed;
• a chapter on the train;
• three paragraphs while waiting for an appointment;
• or a page in the bathroom, because we live in the real world.

That’s why “fragmented” funny books work so well: they let you dip in and out effortlessly, while keeping the instant payoff of the joke.

5. A Book You Can Give Without Knowing the Person’s Exact Taste

The huge advantage of a funny book is that it makes an extremely respectable backup gift. You don’t know exactly what the person reads? You have no idea if they like Icelandic thrillers, shame-fueled autofiction, or biographies of people who died in 1847? No problem. Get them something funny. Well-chosen humor has a massive edge over other genres: it asks for less commitment and creates less disappointment. Nobody will hold it against you if a book made them laugh, even if it wasn’t “deep.” Giving someone a big literary novel they couldn’t care less about, on the other hand, is a very elegant way of handing them homework.

6. A Book to Give Someone Going Through a Rough Patch

Let’s be honest: sometimes you’re not looking for a funny book because you want to give a clever gift, but because the person in front of you needs to think about something other than their inbox, their exams, their ex, or their boss. In that case, the goal isn’t “give a beautiful cultural object.” The goal is much nobler: short-circuit the brain for 20 minutes. A good funny book is a pocket-sized antidepressant, no prescription, no side-effects leaflet, and fewer side effects than a family dinner.

7. A Book That’s Not Afraid to Be Genuinely Dumb

There’s a common temptation to believe that, to be respectable, humor has to stay a little elegant, a little subtle, a little “clever.” That’s false. A good funny book can absolutely be sharp and refined. But it can also be flat-out dumb, as long as it’s dumb with real skill. What matters isn’t the nobility of the subject. It’s the precision of the shot. A joke about a conspiracy-theorist cat, a brother-in-law convinced he can single-handedly fix the economy, or a cat owner getting publicly humiliated by their own litter box can absolutely be more satisfying than a whole chapter of highbrow irony.

8. A Book That Makes You Want to Read Passages Out Loud

Very good test for a gift: will the person want to read excerpts to someone else? If yes, you’re probably onto something. The funny books that work best are usually the ones that make you say, “wait, listen to this, it’s so dumb.” They instantly create a little social scene: someone reads, someone laughs, someone else sighs and leaves the room. That’s exactly what you want.

9. A Book That Clearly Says: “I Thought of You, and Also a Little of Your Neuroses”

A good funny book, as a gift, is never neutral. There’s always a hint of subtext. It says:

• “this made me think of you”;
• “I know exactly what kind of person you are”;
• and sometimes even “I judge you a little, but with love.”

That’s exactly what makes a book like Is My Cat Gay? so practical to give: it lets you tell someone, “I know you’re locked in a psychological war with your cat, and I’ve decided to encourage the problem instead of helping you.”

Conclusion

The best funny book to give isn’t necessarily the one that won three awards, or the one the press calls “irresistible” with the enthusiasm of an intern under threat. It’s the one that lands exactly right: the perfect dose of absurdity, meanness, precision, and stupidity, for the right person. If you’re shopping for someone who loves cats, fake guides, absurdist humor, or books that fully own their own stupidity, Is My Cat Gay? checks a pretty alarming number of boxes. And honestly, at this point, it’s almost a public service.