Are We Canning the Laughs?: A Brief Investigation of the Current Landscape of Humorous YA Literature

Meet our Contributor: Natalie Tate

Natalie Tate is a Brigham Young University master's student whose interests include children's literature, young adult literature, folktale studies, and environmental criticism. She received her undergrad in English from BYU and a master of library science from Texas Woman's University. She is currently the editing director of Whirligig, a new BYU children’s magazine, and loves to spend her free time with her two best friends (who also happen to be her husband and 20-month-old son).

Are We Canning the Laughs?: A Brief Investigation of the Current Landscape of Humorous YA Literature by Natalie Tate

From my earliest days as a reader, I was drawn to books that made me laugh. I remember having my mother read Sandra Boynton’s Blue Hat, Green Hat over and over. I couldn’t get enough of the turkey who—oops!—inevitably wore his clothes wrong. As a teen, I read every single book Janette Rallison penned. I read her humorous rom-coms, especially It’s a Mall World After All, over and over again. And a love of humor continues to stay with me through my adult years. On our honeymoon, my husband and I read Three Men in a Boat (To Say Nothing of the Dog) together, sometimes laughing so hard together that we cried. But as I’ve reflected on humorous contemporary teen novels, I’ve mostly come up dry. 

​My youngest sister, still a teen, asked me recently about humorous young adult books similar to My Lady Jane. She confided that this was the type of funny that she wanted to read more of but that it seemed impossible to find. What I think she was looking for, and what I’ve constrained my search to find, is books in which humor is a major element—books that, if giving a summary, inevitably include the word “funny” in the description. (Although I realize that my definition of what constitutes a “funny” book is somewhat simplistic, I feel that it serves my purposes within this brief investigation.) I had a hunch that my sister was on to something when she expressed the difficulty of her funny YA book search. Where were the funny books for teens? And that’s what led to this investigation into the world of humor in contemporary young adult literature.

Has the Funny Dwindled?

Back in 2000, librarian Teri Lesesne opined that younger readers had an ample array of humorous literature, but that it was in “terribly short supply” for middle-grade and high school students (p. 60). That was 26 years ago, and for middle-grade students in the decades since then, humorous literature has become particularly notable. For example, bestsellers include Jeff Kinney’s Diary of a Wimpy Kid, Raina Telgemeier’s Smile, Lincoln Peirce’s Big Nate, Dana Simpson’s Phoebe and Her Unicorn, Tom Angleberger’s Origami Yoda, and Rachel Renée Russell’s Dork Diaries. Yet, while humorous literature for middle-graders has become plentiful, I haven’t noticed a similar shift in young adult literature.

In 2010, librarian Alison Follos opined that “humor is the missing ingredient in middle and high school education” but that it’s not the type of book with which teachers and librarians “overload [their] stacks” (p. 37). In a short article from Kirkus in 2018, one YA editor wrote of fond memories of humorous YA lit from her youth, but remarked that these days, “funny young adult books are strangely thin on the ground” (Simeon, para. 2). And in the recent 2022 SLJ article “Show Me the Funny,” Emily Mroczek-Bayci remarked that “doom, gloom, and romance” are what take up most of the shelves in the YA section, leaving little room for anything else, let alone humor. The librarians cited in her article beg publishers for more humorous YA lit, feeling it has dwindled over the years (pp. 30–32). The professionals—librarians, publishers, and reviewers alike—all articulate a lack of humorous young adult literature as both a present reality and as a problem to be solved.

Is It Because Teens Don’t Like Humorous Books Anymore?

To tackle this first possibility, I looked for any recent studies that could tell me about teens’ reading preferences regarding humor. Unfortunately, data is limited. The most recent “evidence” purporting teens’ preference for humor is from 2022, and the evidence is anecdotal. Librarians point to the enormous popularity of humorous middle-grade books—for example, the Diary of a Wimpy Kid series, which has spent hundreds of weeks at the top of the NYT bestsellers list—and argue that kids’ love of humor doesn’t suddenly disappear when they hit teenage status (Mroczek-Bayci, 2022, p. 30).

The next discussion of humor and teens that I found was from an entire decade earlier. A casual 2012 report looked at twelve- to eighteen-year-olds in one book club who self-selected books to review. The books that teens said were funny were more than twice as likely to be reviewed as the books they said were sad. Since self-selection implies favoritism, the author determined that the teens were drawn to funny literature (Herald, p. 216). In 2009, Publisher’s Weekly surveyed teens to determine their reading preferences. Sadly, the survey failed to ask about humor. However, in a subsection asking about favorite elements of graphic novels and manga, teenage responders picked humor as their second favorite element, only defeated in the polls by romance (Fitzgerald, p. 23). While there’s scholarly literature about teens’ relationship with humor from the ‘80s, ‘90s, and ‘00s, it seems to have almost completely disappeared in the last 15 years. Why have scholars stopped surveying teens to determine what they like to read? 

One possibility is that we’ve pivoted to sales numbers to determine young adult preferences. Yet, there may be serious issues with this approach: According to WordsRated statistics from January 2023, 55% of YA lit buyers are over 18 years old. And lest one believe this crowd is buying YA lit for the teens in their lives, 78% of them say they’re buying it for themselves. If publishers, librarians, teachers, authors, and scholars are looking to sales to determine what teens like, they’re making a mistake. What they’re really seeing is the reading preferences of adults. In fact, of the YA lit buyers over 18, 51% are between 30 and 45 years old (Curcic, “YA consumer structure”). Maybe it’s naïve to believe that publishers should consider something more than sales statistics when determining what YA lit to offer. And yet, shouldn’t young adults’ book tastes be important to YA publishing divisions? Teens’ book preferences seem to be ignored or, at best, only partially considered. Noting this lack of teenage preferences should be important for us, especially if we are hoping to listen to and be respectful of teenage wishes.

Is It Because Publishers Don’t Want to Publish Humorous Books?

I begin this section with an anecdote from a colleague who is a published author. This colleague wrote a funny story that he submitted to publishers, but none of them chose to pursue his manuscript. The response was either, “I thought it was hilarious, but the rest of my team didn’t get it,” or “My team thought it was funny but I didn’t get it.” If everyone at the table doesn’t find the manuscript funny, publishers may fear that it won’t land with teens. But humor isn’t one-size-fits-all. Young adult author David Lubar explains it well:

Tragedy is universal. Comedy is subjective. If a novelist throws a dog under the wheels of a truck, every reader will feel sad. If the truck is an Oscar Mayer Weenermobile, some people might find that funny. If the hot dog truck swerves, misses the dog, and runs over a pack of PETA members, a different group of readers might be amused (Gill, 2007, p. 63).

If publishers are waiting for the funny book that pleases everyone, they’re going to be waiting for a long time. 

And yet, as stated earlier, unabashedly humorous middle-grade fiction is immensely popular. In an article published in February of 2024, Publisher’s Weekly observes the year’s trending topics in books for children and YA. Unsurprisingly, “books with humor have been popping” (O’Sullivan, 2024, “Tracking trends”). Yet, PW only mentions this trend with an eye toward picture books and middle-grade graphic novels. Although unabashedly humorous books for teens would surely be written differently than unabashedly humorous books for middle-grade kids, if humor is trending in middle-grade, I can’t help but wonder why publishers don’t see its potential popularity for teens.
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Admittedly, I had difficulty finding answers to this question. One lead was an editorial piece about humorous novels for adults published in the UK. The editorial opined that despite humorous literature’s “enormous popularity with readers,” publishers are cautious. Why? Because while humor can be funny, some people can also find it offensive (Larman, 2020, para. 4). An author writing a character who tells an off-color joke may be criticized as sharing their character’s viewpoint. No publisher wants to be accused of promoting hate speech, an allegation that could spin out of control and cause serious damage to the reputation of a publishing house.

And yet, if causing offense is the worry, Alleen and Don Nilsen—the godparents of academic humor studies in the US—believe that this can be avoided. In their “Humane Humor Rules,” they provide the following guidelines:

A. Never target the victim,
B. Always target an individual’s strength, not weakness,
C. Never target a quality that a person can’t change (such as gender, ethnicity, etc.),
D. For tragedies and major embarrassments, allow for emotional and temporal distancing,
E. Don’t offend your audience; sometimes self-censoring is necessary  (Wilkie, p. 116).
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It’s true—humor can hurt and demean others but, if used appropriately, laughter can also be healing. 

Is It Because Librarians Don’t Like Humor?

Recently, I attended a lecture about teaching YA lit to college students. The professor talked about a new difficulty in her YA lit class—namely, that a large percentage of students didn’t manage to read the required YA books, citing seasonal depression and the books’ triggering content. All of the books on the professor’s required list addressed important issues like the Holocaust, rape, and racism. All of the books were also well-respected pieces of YA lit. Reassuring her students that all of the books ended hopefully didn’t seem to help.  Another colleague at the lecture, knowing that I was studying funny YA lit, asked if I knew of any funny books that could mitigate the effects of so many serious, difficult books. “Is there actually any funny YA out there that’s literary enough to add?” the lecturing professor asked. She seemed surprised when I told her that there were several I could recommend. 

The sentiment that funny books are neither educational nor literary isn’t new. In her 2010 article, librarian Alison Follos dared other librarians to help change the perception that humor is lesser literature. “Clever wit,” she added, “often addresses the most compelling themes” (p. 37). Take Libba Bray’s Beauty Queens, for example. The author self-describes the book as a discussion of misogyny, corporate influence in American politics, the commodification of society, society’s homogenization, and the effects of these topics on teens’ “self-esteem, racial and cultural identity, sexual orientation, gender expectations, and unrealistic norms of beauty” (Herald, 2012, p. 217). Hearing this list of heavy topics, you might assume that Bray wrote a very heavy piece of fiction. Yet, according to the review journals, this book was a clever, funny literary success, its difficult themes written in a highly readable story about teen beauty queens stranded on an island (Dobrez, 2011; Heppermann, 2011; Kirkus, 2011; Publisher’s Weekly, 2011; Tran, 2011).

In exploring librarians’ perceptions of humorous YA lit, I also decided to take a look at Printz Award winners and honor titles. The Printz Award is one of the most prestigious awards for YA books, awarded yearly by the American Library Association to a title that exemplifies literary excellence. Since its establishment in 2000, the award has had 27 winners and 111 honor titles. I wanted to know how often, if ever, the Printz had been awarded to funny books. Since I couldn’t read each title myself, I used professional book reviews and reader reviews from Goodreads to decide whether the books I hadn’t already read merited a place on the funny list. I looked at top reader tags like “funny” and “humor” to determine whether readers thought that humor was a major element in each title.

I found that in the award’s 25-year history, two humorous YA books were winners: Going Bovine in 2010 and American Born Chinese in 2007. Additionally, ten humorous books were honor titles over the years: Grasshopper Jungle in 2015, Dodger in 2013, Tales of the Madman Underground in 2010, both The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks and Nation in 2009, Repossessed in 2008, An Abundance of Katherines in 2007, both Fat Kid Rules the World and The Earth, My Butt, and Other Big Round Things in 2004, and Angus, Thongs, and Full Frontal Snogging in 2001. In total, twelve funny YA books have managed to make it to the top of a prestigious literary list. The Printz committees responsible for recognizing these titles didn’t find humorous YA lit synonymous with lesser literature. Yes, funny and literary YA books do exist and are acknowledged by the librarian community.

I did find it interesting to compare the frequency of humorous lit that made the list in the ‘00s (7 titles) with the past ten years (0 titles). The difference felt substantial. But librarians have already proved that they would give the Printz to humorous titles that merited it. I suspected that the lack of humorous titles winning the Printz in the past ten years may have had more to do with a decrease in the number of humorous books being published than from librarians’ sudden distaste for humor. 

Is It Because Authors Aren’t Writing Humor?

In editor Laura Simeon’s short article from 2018, she began with recent news regarding the Wodehouse Prize. The Wodehouse Prize is arguably the most prestigious award given to authors of humorous literature for adults. In 2018, the judges announced that no book submitted that year had been funny enough to merit a place on the shortlist, let alone declared the winner. Simeon wondered if the lack of humorous literature (such as her favorite book as a teen, The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole Aged 13¾ was “a sign of our times” (para. 1). A discussion of the 2018 Wodehouse prize ordeal found in The Guardian posited another interesting insight: that while lighthearted, carefree Wodehousian comedy is on the decline, authors are still writing books that have funny parts—they’re just primarily about dark and unhappy subject matter (McAloon, 2018, para. 2). It felt to me like Simeon and The Guardian were saying something important.

To test this theory, I decided to study the YA books of fiction that I’d read with publication dates from within the last 15 years—196 books in total. Then, I starred books that I’d reviewed that included words like “laughed,” “funny,” and “humor.” There were 19 YA titles that included something I found funny—this amounted to 11% of the 196 books. Of these 19 titles, 9 included difficult subject matter: death of parent(s), cancer, antisemitism, gun violence, depression, grief, body shaming, racism, islamophobia, ableism, physical abuse, verbal abuse, poverty, and death of a friend. Of the other 10 titles, 7 were recommended for middle-graders and younger teens. Only 3 humorous YA titles recommended for teens of all ages did not include difficult subject matter, two of them written by the same authors (Appendix).

The humor found in the young adult books that I’d been reading seemed to corroborate The Guardian’s insight: Authors had been writing humor in the past 10 years—I just hadn’t noticed because the books were primarily focused on dark subject matter. Of course, YA lit that tackles difficult subject matter with a sprinkling of humor isn’t anything new. For example, Staying Fat for Sarah Byrnes, a humorous YA novel about two wisecracking outcasts—one who is dealing with serious parental abuse—was a hit in 1993. The Pigman, another humorous YA novel, again about two funny teen outcasts who tragically burn bridges with their only adult friend, was published in 1968. I could add many, many others. YA lit that tackles difficult subjects with humor may be on the decline, but it doesn’t seem to be endangered. This is wonderful news! Author Joan Bauer notes that humor can breach topics that are “fiercely serious” and can bring teens “hope and redemption” (Lesesne, 2000). It’s comforting to know there are recently published books for teens that find humor, even in trying circumstances. Teens, and all of us, can appreciate a little uplift in difficult situations. 

Yet lighthearted, carefree humor for teens of all ages (for example, books like A Semester in the Life of a Garbage Bag or Angus, Thongs, and Full-Frontal Snogging) seems to have become exceedingly difficult to find since the 2010s. Some might argue that this type of YA literature doesn’t provide a mirror to the realities of a contemporary teen’s life, that it’s not as important for teens as funny YA lit that addresses hard topics. But sometimes, teens may want a break from the mirror and from the “death, doom, and depression” of other books. They want to laugh without reservations. If we take away humorous YA escapism, we take away an outlet (Cart, 1998; Vanesse, 2000). 

Curiously, several authors known in the past for their humorous YA escapism have disappeared from the YA sphere. Gordon Korman’s last YA novel, The Juvie Three, was published in 2008. Since then, he’s continued writing funny novels, but each one is firmly entrenched in middle grade. Janette Rallison, whose YA rom-coms were in high demand in the ‘00s, seems to have left YA behind and moved exclusively into adult chick lit. Maybe these authors and others like them got tired of writing YA and were looking for something new, or maybe publishers or the market itself pushed them out. In any case, there’s a hole on the shelf. Teens need authors and publishers to reinstate humorous YA escapism.

Areas for Further Study and Concluding Thoughts

Admittedly, my investigation of the current humorous YA lit climate has been brief and incomplete. Still, it has raised important questions: Where are the current studies about teens’ reading preferences? Is it possible for teen preferences to be given priority in the current market? Why the seeming reluctance to publish light, escapist humor in YA lit despite its enormous popularity for middle- and grade-school students? We still have work to do to answer these important questions. I’m grateful to the many teachers, librarians, and scholars in the past who have dedicated their time to understanding humorous YA lit. Now it’s our turn to fill the gap. 

References

Cart, M. (1998). Carte blanche: What’s so funny? Booklist, 95(8), 742.

Curcic, D. (2023, January 30). Young adult book sales statistics. WordsRated. https://wordsrated.com/young-adult-book-sales/

Dobrez, C. (2011). Beauty queens. Booklist, 107(18), 46.

Fitzgerald, C. (2009). What do teens want? Publisher’s Weekly, 256(43), 22–26.

Follos, A. M. G. (2010). Taking humor seriously. Library Media Connection, 28(4), 36–37.

Gill, D. (2007). True talent: An interview with David Lubar. Teacher Librarian, 34(5), 62–63.

Heppermann, C. M. (2011). Beauty queens. Horn Book Magazine, 87(4), 140–141.

Herald, D. T. (2012). A funny thing happened. Voice of Youth Advocates, 35(3), 216–218.

Kirkus Reviews. (2011). Beauty queens. Kirkus Reviews, 79(8), p. 677.

Larman, A. (2020, May 5). Where is the Waugh or Wodehouse of our time? The Critic. https://thecritic.co.uk/where-is-the-waugh-or-wodehouse-of-our-time/

Lesesne, T. S. (2000). A passion for humor: An interview with Joan Bauer. Teacher Librarian, 27(3), 60–62.

McAloon, J. (2018, May 17). Fiction remains funny – the best comedy is found in dark, unhappy novels. The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/books/2018/may/17/fiction-wodehouse-prize-comic-novels

Mroczek-Bayci, E. (2022). Show me the funny. School Library Journal, 68(6), 30–33.

O’Sullivan, J. (2024, February 2). What’s ahead for kids’ books in 2024? Publisher’s Weekly. https://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/childrens/childrens-industry-news/article/94246-2024-children-s-publishing-outlook.html
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Publisher’s Weekly. (2011). Children’s books: Fiction. Publisher’s Weekly, 258(45), 39–44.

Simeon, L. (2018, June 17). Where are all the funny YA novels? Kirkus Reviews. https://www.kirkusreviews.com/news-and-features/articles/where-are-all-funny-ya-novels/

Tran, A. (2011). Beauty queens. School Library Journal, 57(7), 92–93.

Vanesse, D. (2000). On taking ourselves too seriously, and other tragic mistakes. The ALAN Review, 27(2), 27–28. https://doi.org/10.21061/alan.v27i2.a.7

Wilkie, I. (2021). Short interviews. Comedy Studies, 12(1), 115–119. https://doi.org/10.1080/2040610X.2020.1850099

Book References 

Angleberger, T. (2010). The strange case of origami Yoda. Amulet.

Barnes, J. (2009). Tales of the madman underground. Viking Books for Young Readers.

Boynton, S. (1984). Blue hat, green hat. Boynton Bookworks.

Bray, L. (2009). Going bovine. Delacorte Books for Young Readers.

Bray, L. (2011). Beauty queens. Scholastic.

Crutcher, C. (1993). Staying fat for Sarah Byrnes. Greenwillow Books.

Going, K. L. (2003). Fat kid rules the world. Penguin Books.

Green, J. (2006). An abundance of Katherines. Dutton Books for Young Readers.

Hand, C., Ashton, B., & Meadows, J. (2016). My lady Jane. HarperTeen.

Jenkins, A. M. (2007). Repossessed. HarperTeen.

Jerome, J. K. (1889). Three men in a boat (to say nothing of the dog). J. W. Arrowsmith.

Kinney, J. (2007). Diary of a wimpy kid. Amulet.

Korman, G. (1987). A semester in the life of a garbage bag. Scholastic.

Korman, G. (2008). The juvie three. Hyperion Book.

Lockhart, E. (2008). The disreputable history of Frankie Landau-Banks. Little, Brown Books for Young Readers.

Mackler, C. (2003). The earth, my butt, and other big round things. Candlewick Press.

Peirce, L. (2010). Big Nate: In a class by himself. HarperCollins.

Pratchett, T. (2008). Nation. Doubleday.

Pratchett, T. (2012). Dodger. HarperCollins.

Rallison, J. (2006). It’s a mall world after all. Walker Books for Young Readers.

Rennison, L. (1999). Angus, thongs, and full frontal snogging. Piccadilly Press.

Russell, R. R. (2009). Dork diaries: Tales from a not-so-fabulous life. Aladdin.

Simpson, D. (2014). Phoebe and her unicorn. Andrews McMeel.

Smith, A. (2014). Grasshopper jungle. Dutton Books.

Telgemeier, R. (2009). Smile. Scholastic Graphix.

Townsend, S. (1982). The secret diary of Adrian Mole, aged 13¾. Methuen Books.

Yang, G. L. (2006). American born Chinese. First Second.
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Zindel, P. (1968). The pigman. Bantam Books.

Appendix
​YA Books with Heavy Themes and Humor that I’ve Read (Published in the Last 15 Years):

Blum, I. (2022). The life and crimes of Hoodie Rosen. Philomel Books.

Bowling, D. (2017). Insignificant events in the life of a cactus. Sterling Children’s Books.

Ellis, A. D. (2014). The end or something like that. Dial Books.

Feder, T. (2020). Dancing at the pity party: A dead mom graphic memoir. Dial Books.

Murphy, J. (2015). Dumplin’. Balzer + Bray.

Nayeri, D. (2020). Everything sad is untrue: (A true story). Levine Querido.

Reilly, K. J. (2021). Four for the road. Atheneum Books for Young Readers.

Schmidt, G. D. (2023). The labors of Hercules Beale. Clarion Books.

Stevenson, N. (2015). Nimona. HarperTeen.

Appendix
Funny YA Books I’ve Read (Published in the Last 15 Years):

Craft, J. (2018). New kid. Quill Tree Books. (Younger teens)

Craft, J. (2020). Class act. Quill Tree Books. (Younger teens)

Fahmy, H. (2021). Huda F are you? Dial Books.*

Hand, C., Ashton, B., & Meadows, J. (2016). My lady Jane. HarperTeen.*

Hand, C., Ashton, B., & Meadows, J. (2021). My contrary Mary. HarperTeen.*

Martín, P. (2023). Mexikid. Dial Books. (Younger teens)

Morita, K. (2020). I’ve been killing slimes for 300 years and maxed out my level. Yen Press. (Younger teens)

Muth, J. J. (2019). Stanislaw Lem’s the seventh voyage. Graphix. (Younger teens)

Santat, D. (2023). A first time for everything. First Second. (Younger teens)
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Stroud, J. (2021). The outlaws Scarlett and Browne. Knopf Books for Young Readers. (Younger teens)