John Swartzwelder

Swartzwelder is a comedic genius who wrote some of the best Simpsons episodes sitting by himself in a diner and chain-smoking (when the diner banned smoking, he bought the booth and sat in it at home). You can see it in his first novel too; the whole thing is basically a series of excellent one-liners that surprisingly cohere into a plot, although that really wasn't necessary for the book to be enjoyable.

The jokes are pure and abstract, with almost no political or moral content—the opposite of 'clapter comedy' where the audience claps to indicate that they agree with you.… (more)