Thursday, August 31, 2006

Let's Take a Breather...

The funniest movies ever. What are yours? Would you try to include several types and time periods? Or do yours all lean towards a certain kind of comedy?

For myself, I'd try to spread it out. I love those old madcap black and white comedies of the 40s and 50s. I sometimes like Woody Allen (Sleeper, anyone?). Mel Brooks (Young Frankenstein, Blazing Saddles) is great, as were many of the Abrahams-Zucker movies (Airplane, Police Squad).

I tend to think of 1980s comedies when I think of the comedies I laugh at the most and (perhaps more importantly) find the most quotable. The Jerk, Caddyshack, Stripes, Ghostbusters, Spinal Tap - they all make me laugh out loud. And, in a slightly earlier period, the Richard Pryor/Gene Wilder movies.

Of course, The Marx Brothers are high up on my list, as well. And, to a lesser degree, Abbott and Costello.

I don't tend to think of many 1960s, early 70s movies when I think of comedies, but there were a few - Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World, Cat Ballou, What's Up, Doc? and I couldn't leave out the Peter Sellers movies.

I'm not a huge fan of some of the classics - Buster Keaton, the Three Stooges, Charlie Chaplain and WC Fields just don't do it for me. Nor have I found many foreign films to be as funny as US films, probably just prejudice on my part. There are some tremendous exceptions, though (Monty Python movies and The Gods Must be Crazy, for example).

So, if I had to choose the ten funniest movies ever, they would be (roughly in this order):

10. What's Up, Doc?
9. Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein
8. Blazing Saddles
7. Harvey
6. The Jerk
5. Arsenic and Old Lace
4. Stir Crazy
3. Stripes
2. Duck Soup
and, the funniest movie ever is, of course,
1. Monty Python and the Holy Grail

I have no new movies listed. What am I missing? What's your list?

23 comments:

hipchickmamma said...

i love arsenic and old lace! have you seen the more modern counter part...the last supper? it's wonderful too. kind of misses the irony of the old ladies but it's still great.

have you seen the 10 commandments? it's newer as well. 2 people frustrated and decide to break all 10 commandments. it's great.

D.Daddio Al-Ozarka said...

Young Frankenstein--the scene with Marty Feldman and the specimen jar has got to be THE most hilarious scene in motion-picture history!

Good call, Dan!

Dan Trabue said...

I've never seen nor heard of either the Last Supper nor the 10 Commandments. How recent are they and who's in them?

Yeah, I had to choose between Young Frankenstein and Blazing Saddles and I went with Blazing Saddles, but like 'em both.

And I'm still worried that I have NO movies from the 90s or 00s. I mean, I love Pirates of the Caribbean, but is that really a comedy? O Brother Where Art Thou and Prairie Home Companion are both great and favorite films, but they don't leap to the top of my head when I think of hilarious comedies....

Larry Who said...

Some funny films for us at the Who Home:

Multiplicity, Best in Show, Waiting for Guffman, A Mighty Wind, Bank Dick (W.C. Fields), The Philadelphia Story (Cary Grant and Katherine Hepburn), It Happened One Night (Clark Gable), and It's A Mad Mad MAd Mad World.

And some of the other choices were great.

Deb said...

I just happen to have The Holy Grail on the top of my Netflix queue; my 9 year old son will have a blast watching it. Well, so will I.

Like you said with O Brother Where Art Thou, Coen brothers movies, while very funny, strike me as a little darker and deeper than pure comedy. Still, I think Raising Arizona, The Big Lebowski, and O Brother are hilarious.

You're right, 1980's comedies seem to have something that more recent movies don't. Of course, that is also the decade of my life so far in which I saw the most movies. The Blues Brothers is one of my all time favorites.

Thanks-you've provided me with some ideas to get from Netflix!

Reel Fanatic said...

That is indeed a great list ... I would have put Duck Soup No. 1 and included Peter Sellers' little gem The Mouse that Roared and Woody Allen's Manhattan, but those are only quibbles

GreenmanTim said...

"And God Spoke", a mockumentary in the style of Spinal Tap but about two haplessly inept film makers doing a low budget biblical epic. Soup Sales plays Moses and the nativity is filmed in a church creche. Nuff said.

Funny sad funny serious would include two classics from the late sixties/early seventies, "King of Hearts" and "Harold and Maude" Cult classics, then and now.

Michael Westmoreland-White said...

I have to list Young Frankenstein even higher than Blazing Saddles. Leachman yelling, "He was my BOYFRIEND!" can still put me in stitches.
Monty Python and the Holy Grail.
MASH (although the series was better). Animal House and The Blues Brothers. The Gods Must Be Crazy (although it is also sad).
The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas--irreverent, yes. Absolutely hilarious--also, yes.

Ruthless People with Bette Midler and Danny DeVito.

From more recent vintage, I have to pick Shrek and the original Austin Powers:International Man of Mystery ("Oh Behave!") Mike Myers is a comic genius or else just deranged.

In a slightly different light, Mr. & Mrs. Smith is a fairly darkly comedic look at marriage.

Erudite Redneck said...

OK, so my inner child is a girl.

I love all the ones mentioned that I've seen. But I've got a soft spot for romantic comedies.

"Pillow Talk" -- with Doris Day and Rock Hudson, and Tony Randall is great.

The original "The Parent Trap" makes me laugh.

"That Touch of Mink"

"While You Were Sleeping"

"Sweet Home Alabama"

"Legally Blonde"

"Love Actually" -- which is one of my all time favorites.


So call me a sissy. :-)

Dan Trabue said...

Sissy.

Interesting contributions, all. Welcome to Payne Hollow, Reel Fanatic. I haven't seen The Mouse that Roared since I was a kid, but I used to love that movie. I'll have to check it out again...

Michael Westmoreland-White said...

Well, if we're doing romantic comedies, I agree about While You Were Sleeping & Sweet Home Alabama--maybe Reese Witherspoon's best film, yet. But if we're going the date movie route, I've got to give top billing (at least among recent films) to When Harry Met Sally--for Meg Ryan's fake orgasm in the restaurant alone. I hadn't heard anything about that scene when my spouse took me to see it and about choked to death on a piece of popcorn, I laughed so hard! I have no idea HOW Billy Crystal kept a straight face through that.

I never knew the Mouse That Roared, a book series I read as a kid, had a movie version. Definitely have to check that out.

Can we include comedy/adventure? Because I thought Beverly Hills Cop was a riot.

Marty said...

Oh man, this is an easy one for me. "Safety Last" - Harold Lloyd. Any movie with him is sure to make you laugh so hard your face will hurt.

Eleutheros said...

Hmm, funny movies the lot, to be sure. But I'd have to add Mystery Men [Ben Stiller] as being both funny and clever.

Of course being a Ludite homesteader I very much liked Tim Allen's For Richer or Poorer.

D.Daddio Al-Ozarka said...

When I was stationed in the UK back in the 80's, Paul Hogan had his own comedy/variety show akin to Benny Hill's show.

I think the Crocodile Dundee flicks...particularly the first one...are classics.

The guy is amazing-funny!

D.Daddio Al-Ozarka said...

And what about Cheech and Chong? My stomach hurt when I came out of the theater the night I saw "Up in Smoke" way back when.

Michael Westmoreland-White said...

Retraction: I said that Sweet Home Alabama was Reese Witherspoon's finest performance. It is her finest COMEDIC performance, but I was forgetting about her powerful portrayal of June Carter in _Walk the Line_. (Yes, she just liked Reese with dyed brown hair, but Denzel didn't much look like Malcolm X either. Acting is more than impersonating.)

Wasp Jerky said...

Let's see. Harold and Maude is darkly comic. The other two Monty Python films. The Mystery Science Theater 3000 movie if that's your kind of thing. Donnie Darko is funny, in a subtle, satirical sort of way. Dr. Strangelove.

Here's the American Film Institute's top 100 comedies.

Pam in Tucson said...

Can't help but chime in. These aren't in any order:
1. Monty Python and the Holy Grail
2. The Gods Must Be Crazy.
3. Buster Keaton's The General
4. Charlie Chaplin's Modern Times.
5. Young Frankenstein
6. The African Queen (Bogart & Katherine Hepburn)
7. Roman Holiday
8. The Lavender Hill Mob
9. Annie Hall
10. Oh Brother Where Art Thou
11. Harvey
12. Harold and Maude

Some may be funnier, but these are ones I could watch over and over again.

Dan Trabue said...

Thanks, Pam. Great list (although I'm not familiar with the Lavender Hill Mob).

I haven't seen Harold and Maude since I was a kid and it was way too weird for me then. Maybe I'd appreciate the humor more now, seeing how many of y'all consider it funny.

Eleutheros, I'm a fan of Mystery Men, too. Great quotable lines.

On the AFI list (which I was familiar with) and maybe another one, Some Like it Hot was listed as number one. I went out and rented it last year following AFI's list announcement.

Don't see it as number one, myself. Maybe that's just me.

lené said...

I just went to see Little Miss Sunshine this week. It was hilarious. I also like Waiting for Guffman and Ice Age. Sideways was pretty funny too, but I don't know if it would make a top 10 list.

Chance said...

I'm a fan of Groundhog Day. My wife hates it. That stresses our marriage.

Something about a guy repeatedly committing suicide (with no permanent results of course) and knowing all the answers on jeopardy is just hilarious.

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