L.J. Writes

Yeah, it's a joke amongst Discworld fans that we never tell people to start with the first books. ("This is when Discworld starts to get good!" is the response when a full-series read hits books 4-7, although I'd say even 4 & 5 are kind of weak, compared to what comes.) I actually started with one of the last in the series, which itself is a direct sequel to a slightly earlier book that I went on to read next, and only after that did I go back and start from the beginning. The first few books are fun fantasy parodies, but forgettable without their later context.

I'm surprised that's the "joke" that turned you off to Good Omens. The way I interpret that scene, it's not even much of a joke, but it's a very important thematic moment. The demons are describing their corruptions, with the first two talking about forcing holy people to have impure thoughts that will drive them away from holiness, and then Crowley talks about shutting off everyone's phones. There's a bit of humor in the contrast, where the phone thing seems weak in comparison, but then he explains that shutting off everyone's phones annoyed all the people within a major metropolitan area, which led to them all being mean to others who didn't deserve it. So he truly corrupted all those people, taking away all possible justification for the cruelties they inflicted of their own free will, simply by prodding them into typical human behavior. So what was a weak act becomes profound because he did more for Hell's cause than the guys who were using demon powers to basically mind-control people. And it reveals a lot about the story's perception of humanity, but not yet all of that perception.

I mean, if humor doesn't work for a person-- it is very British in Good Omens -- then it can indeed be annoying. (See my reaction to the humor in Avatar, and the episodes that rely too heavily on it.) But that scene in particular always struck me as transcending what you'd expect to find in a comedy/parody.