Is there a single word meaning "very funny book"?

Sometimes you read a book that has you convulsing with laughter from the moment you pick it up. For me, one of those books was Catch-22 by Joseph Heller. What do you call this?

Perhaps there isn't a single word or standard phrase for it but I'm convinced there is and I just can't remember it. It would be much like potboiler means a poor quality book, the kind of pulp rubbish people buy in airports.


The term doesn't really solely apply to books, but I would say that the book is a sidesplitter:

a joke that seems extremely funny

Similar words to this (to describe things that are very funny, though maybe not necessarily a book) are:

  • riot (or "laugh riot")
  • scream
  • knee-slapper
  • thigh-slapper