Laughing Gas

By: P. G. Wodehouse

Narrated by: Jonathan Cecil

Joey Cooley is a golden-curled child film star, the idol of American motherhood. Reginald, Third Earl of Havershot, is a boxing blue on a mission to save his wayward cousin from the fleshpots of Hollywood. Both are under anesthetic at the dentists when something strange happens - and their identities are swapped. Suddenly Joey can use his six-foot frame to get his own back on his Hollywood persecutors. But Reggie has to endure everything Joey had to put up with in the horrible life of a child star - including kidnapping.

Public Domain (P)2012 AudioGO

A Freaky-Friday story

I am a Wodehouse fan, and this novel does not let me down. It follows what today is a common comeidic formula -- switching bodies -- and adds to it. I am not enough of a scholar to say when this formula was first used, but if Wodehouse was not one of the first, he did it in his own unique way with equally charming characters.

A fun summer listen.

A fantastic place to start for those new to PGW!

This is a great place to start if you have been ordered, like many of friends and acquaintances, to give Wodehouse a shot. Seriously, I almost envy you on your journey into the world of Wodehouse. If the books weren't so satisfying on repeated rereads and relistens, I probably would envy you. But even after half a dozen times through these stories I still find them as funny, fresh, enlivening, and as beautiful as ever.

The story is as great as it is timeless; boy meets girl, girl tricks boy so boy falls in love, boy gets souls swapped with literal boy only to discover that girl isn't who she seems, boy (figurative) realizes the one for him was the one he let get away, but now it may all be too late! Ahhhhh, the classic tale!

The first chapter may be one of the most enjoyable first chapters of any book I have ever read. Wodehouse was a master of framing his story, creating convoluted plots, writing memorable characters, creating beautiful prose, and making up wonderfully ridiculous (yet somehow believable) sounding names for people.
This story proves Wodhouse's mastery of each of these points.

Jonathan Cecil is absolutely amazing. THE best narrator of audiobooks perhaps ever. Though I suppose he typecasted himself by practically only doing Wodehouse books... But he does them wonderfully.

Cecil is brilliant. He shines in this book because his sense of comedic timing is absolutely spot-on. The voices are wonderful as well, but for me, Cecil's ability to read Wodehouse's complex and compound sentences with the proper emphasis and just the right amount of top-spin make him the voice I hear in my own head when I read one of Wodehouse's books myself.

If I could, I would give this 10 stars so it would magically appear on "your recommendations" for every single Audible user. Listening to Cecil reading Wodehouse should be prescribed in place of anti-anxiety medicine.

Seriously. Buy this book.
You can thank me later.

Hilarious old school British humor

Terribly funny old school British humor with plenty of diction eccentricity and malaprop. Of course the plot is ridiculous, but the reader really shouldn’t care. Just go with the patently absurd fun.

Wodehouse writes Freaky Friday!

The switching of bodies and perspectives is unusual for Wodehouse. But that man could tell any sort of story. I would’ve liked to have heard him try on aliens.
This is a lot of fun, and just like his other works I’m sure I will listen to it again.

My Favorite PGW/Cecil

Why? It contains all the Elements essential to a good PGW tale, BUT he threw in the impossible scenario. While all the others are a stretch of the imagination, Laughing Gas's 4th or 5th Dimension switch is fantasy, yet PGW wove it so masterfully into a believable story, that even the ending was a smooth transition back to reality. My fav words? " the idol of American motherhood."