The Black Adder

by Glenn Yeffeth

Adams shares Curtis's gift for absurdist humor where characters remain perfectly composed while the universe collapses around them. Like Baldrick's innocent logic, the comedy here emerges from characters taking ridiculous situations with complete seriousness—the deadpan delivery is everything.

by Pelham Grenville Wodehouse

Wodehouse practically invented the formula that Curtis perfected: a bumbling protagonist paired with a vastly more competent sidekick who solves problems through elaborate schemes. The verbal wit and physical comedy share DNA, though Wodehouse was doing this in the 1920s—you'll recognize the comedic DNA running through centuries of British humor.

by William Goldman

Goldman's novel does something clever that the Black Adder also attempts: it's a swashbuckling adventure that constantly winks at its own tropes. The humor comes from characters who are genuinely heroic or villainous, but the narrative voice keeps reminding you not to take any of it too seriously—meta-comedy wrapped in genuine adventure.

by Joseph Heller

Here's the curveball: Heller's 1961 war novel shares the Black Adder's core insight that bureaucratic absurdity is funnier than any punchline. Where Curtis uses historical settings for comedy, Heller uses them to expose how institutions grind people down—same dark humor about power and incompetence, but with genuine stakes underneath the jokes.

by Terry Pratchett

Pratchett's Discworld novel operates in Curtis's wheelhouse—historical and mythological settings become vehicles for contemporary satire, with characters who are simultaneously ridiculous and oddly wise. The dialogue crackles with the same kind of verbal sparring you loved, and Pratchett has that same ability to make you laugh at a joke while also making you think about what it means.