Changes

|title=Dead Funny

|author=Robin Ince and Johnny Mains (editors)

|publisher=Salt Publishing

|date=October 2014

|summary=A surprisingly competent portmanteau of chilling writing, taking bright sparks out the comedy limelight and putting them – and us – into a much darker environment.

}}

In a world of nightmares, disasters, death and ignominy there is a book called ''Dead Funny''. Invented purely to satisfy the remit built into its title, it collects some horror stories written by comedians, both household names and those more up-and-coming. Like all horror books it comes out at the time of year best suited for horror – Halloween, when we read with the darkest corners in our rooms, with the longest evenings outside – but is only suited for Halloween because it is a worthless, hellish piece of dross. It never excites, it is the most self-serving vanity project, and the only funny thing about it is that some idiot ever decided it was worth publishing. Now I know you know, courtesy of those bright shiny stars alongside this review, that this volume, Dead Funny, is not ''that'' Dead Funny. But just bear in mind the horror story this could have been, if these pages were not so surprisingly adept at taking those said nightmares, disasters, deaths and ignominy and presenting them to us so competently.