Which episode in any Agatha Christie novel has used humour most effectively?

GriseldaGriselda
in General Agatha Christie discussions
Too long to be considered as a quote, and extremely hilarious, I'd urge fellow posters to read the passage in Act 1, Chapter 4, of Three Act Tragedy in which Egg Lytton Gore is explaining to Mr Sattterthwaite her friendship with Oliver, her views on money, and her feelings on relationships. AC amusingly conveys what Satterthwaite interprets as "the crude, arrogant childishness of her." I particularly enjoy when one minute she says Oliver wants to get rich, and the next minute says she can't be a communist like him! She is so ebulliently confident , but so simplistic. The passage when she interviews Mrs Dacres's mannequin, Doris, is also very funny in the dialogue. What an ear AC had!

Comments

  • GriseldaGriselda
    What does everyone think is the funniest character, or the funniest situation?
  • Tommy_A_JonesTommy_A_Jones Gloucestershire, United Kingdom

    Bobby Jones is the Funniest Character, the Bit in A Murder Is Announced when Miss Hichcliffe and Miss Murgatroyd are reconstructing the Crime is a Funny bit which comes to mind

  • AnubisAnubis Ontario, Canada
    In Lord Edgware Dies, Poirot makes the comment that a certain bit of reason offends the intelligence, to which Japp responds that it doesn't offend his. Poirot stifles a comment. 
    In MORA, Poirot says of his friend Captain Hastings that he thought all women good and most of them beautiful — Poirot is amused at Hastings' naivete.
  • GriseldaGriselda
    Yes, the Hastings interchanges are brilliant, Anubis; and so well done by ITV. I am going to ask for the boxed set of Poirot for Christmas and try to spend some of all the 12 days watching episodes. I feel sheepish, Tommy, but I can't remember who Bobby Jones is. Yes, that was enthral lint with Hinch and Murgatroyd.
  • taliavishay-arbeltaliavishay-arbel
    Doesn't Bobby Jones appear in "Why didn't they ask Evans?"

  • GriseldaGriselda
    Oh yes, he does. Yes, that is an engaging romance. Is your favourite romance, Tali, the one with Midge?
  • Tommy_A_JonesTommy_A_Jones Gloucestershire, United Kingdom

    Bobbby Jones is the 4th Son of The Vicar of Marchbolt and he and Lady Derwent are the Sleuths in Why Didn't they Ask Evans

    I am confused, Hastings doesn't appear in MORA I think you mean Dr Shephard

  • taliavishay-arbeltaliavishay-arbel
    Yes, Griselda, I think it is. The whole book "The Hollow is one of my favourites, but the Midge-Edward romance is my top favourite - her wisdom, her realization and acceptance of the fact that she doesn't have to be his dream, she has to be his reality and bringer of happiness - that is sublime.
  • GriseldaGriselda
    Yes, I do agree, and believe that they are such an admirable couple. There is a lot of good sense presented on the theme of marriage in Agatha Christie's books. I would forgive a dramatist who adapted The Hollow and devoted more focus to Midge and Edward. I don't know why, but although I sort of surmised what kind of a person the sculptress was, I had to to draw on my experience and fill in a good deal using my imagination. She didn't really come out of the pages as a flesh and blood person, not like Jacqueline or Linnet, or any of the females in Death on the Nile. I wasn't sold on the reason for the appeal of the cheating husband. I realised that AC had met and studied such people, and I trusted completely that her instincts were correct about how they would behave in any given situation. There was a deep truth there which evaded me. Did you like the Lennox character in The mystery of the Blue Train? She was quite natural and unaffected like the one in Sparkling Cyanide, and Midge.
  • GriseldaGriselda
    Overall, I think that Murder at the Vicarage contains the highest comedy quota of any series AC, closely followed by The Moving Finger with its jokes about romance at the characters' expense. The vicar in MatV is hilarious, in a gentle way, and the jokes about the vicar and his lady quite charming in a very dry and subtle way. Jokes at Chief Inspector expense are probably the main theme across all AC novels.
  • luismkluismk Bariloche,Rio Negro, Argentina
    The man in the brown suit is very funny, For example, Sir Eustace, Guy Paggett are very funniest characters
  • GriseldaGriselda
    Yes, I agree. I think Murder At The Vicarage is also very funny. The way the vicar describes things is excellent.
  • luismkluismk Bariloche,Rio Negro, Argentina
    Yes, of course, Mr and Mrs Clements are greats characters too !!
  • Tommy_A_JonesTommy_A_Jones Gloucestershire, United Kingdom
    Aswell as the ones already mentioned, Cat Among The Pigeons uses Humour and The Bundle Books and Why Didn't They Ask Evans and Dumb Witness with Hastings telling us what Bob is thinking.
  • GriseldaGriselda
    Yes, Hastings is hilarious - also in Peril at End House, which I found strangely dark, and interesting in the way it portrayed these modern and degenerate young gentry folk who have too much time and money, and no sense of responsibility. I guess Hastings is the most heartwarmingly, dear and funny character of them all.
  • GKCfanGKCfan Wisconsin, United States

    “That is what I mean. A bath! The receptacle of porcelain, one turns the taps and fills it, one gets in, one gets out and ghoosh - ghoosh - ghoosh, the water goes down the waste pipe!"
    "M. Poirot are you quite mad?"
    "No, I am extremely sane.”


    ― Agatha Christie, Evil Under the Sun
  • Tommy_A_JonesTommy_A_Jones Gloucestershire, United Kingdom
    The Murder of Roger Ackroyd lends itself to Humour Caroline is very Funny aswell as The Doctor's Dismissal of her and the Mah Jong game.
  • Madame_DoyleMadame_Doyle USA
    Dr. Pauncefoot Jones in They Came to Baghdad is the character who strikes me as most humorous.  It's pretty obvious she was having some fun with an archeologist character.
  • GriseldaGriselda
    Edward Sweetman (is it) in A Murder is Announced is funny in his courtship of Philipa. In fact romantic couples come in for a lot of humour. The couple who run the country house bed and breakfast in Mrs McGinty's Dead are very humorous - the examples of terrible cooking. AC was very good at observing people, and at remembering dialogue and reproducing it. The fact that she maintains the Poirot character so true to himself in so many different situations is remarkable. I doubt she gets the credit she should for her characterisation. He is such a unique man, and she just knows him so deeply. He and his discomfort - what a cause of hilarity. Can someone tell me, please, is the AC autobiography funny?
  • Tommy_A_JonesTommy_A_Jones Gloucestershire, United Kingdom
    I think Patrick, Emma, Edward, Bunch and The Easterbrooks are all Highly Amusing Characters, SPOILER ALERT!!! The way Patrick ribs the Mitzi, the way Bunch offends a waitress and the fact Edward is writing a book far removed from his Political Ideals are all very funny bits, I also agree, Mrs McGinty's Dead is also Humorous in parts, I don't remember The Autobiography being funny I am afraid, I might remember it  wrong though, I can think of Funnier Autobiographical Books Definitely.
  • GriseldaGriselda
    I just wondered if AC was a humorous wit like Stephen Fry or someone, or whether she could just slip into character and be funny. But some of the humour just suggests her true views on things in life, gently mocking them. I think she pokes fun at young people, such as Egg in Three Act Tragedy, especially when Egg says, first, that Oliver wants to make a lot of money, and, then, a minute later, that he is  communist.I wonder what AC was actually like; a laugh a minute, or stern and forbidding. IF THIS WEB SITE WAS ENERGETICALLY MONITORED, a moderator would step in at this point and declare, "Funny you should say that, so-and-so great nephew, in their correspondence with their friend said that Agatha Christie ....blah, blah ..blah." As it is we are left to postulate and praise with little electrifying input. I don't kind printing the same quote over and again as stimulation.
  • Tommy_A_JonesTommy_A_Jones Gloucestershire, United Kingdom
    I would think Agatha Christie's wit was more like Joyce Grenfell who I would have liked to see as Dolly Bantry, If they went as far as making Miss Marple see the Murder On The Train in 4.50 From Paddington they could have stretched it further and have Joyce discover the Body when on a Train like Elspeth did or instead of Miss Mareple co-opt Lucy she could have co-opted Dolly played by Joyce or she could  have played Lucy
  • GriseldaGriselda
    Yes, that's a good scheme. You wouldn't have the same romance, but it would be very watchable.
  • PeterJKHPeterJKH

    One of the funniest episodes IMHO is the following. In "The Capture of Cerberus" (12 Labours), Poirot meets Vera Rossakoff in the subway. He is going up the stairs, she is going down, and he asks her where he can meet her. She says "In Hell". Poirot does not know what to make of it, so he asks Miss Lemon "If someone was asking you to meet her in hell, what would you do?". And without missing a beat, or even lifting an eyebrow, Miss Lemon responds "Well, the most sensible thing to do would be to place a telephone call and make reservations"... I always found that hilarious.

    (Obviously Miss Lemon knew what Poirot did not: The Hell is a popular nightclub).

  • GriseldaGriselda
    I like the descriptions of Inspector Slack in Murder at the Vicarage, and of him not being at all slack - as his surname. I'm particularly fond of the section in The Murder of Roger Ackroyd when Poirot enlightens Major Blunt to the fact that Flora likes him and not Ralph. I like AC's gentle poking fun at characters.
Sign In or Register to comment.