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Can we talk comedies? I am more of a drama person, particularly in TV shows. Maybe it’s the canned laugh tracks, which make me crazy. Dammit, I don’t need someone to tell me / show me when to laugh!
I googled best comedy movies of all time so I could find an image for the post. The only two I had seen were BIG (with Tom Hanks, a billion years ago) and When Harry Met Sally.
More importantly, why wasn’t The Blues Brothers in that list???
There is nothing about this scene that I don’t love! Nothing.
Let’s talk about great comedies, movies and TV.
RogeBrian
Probably _Blues Brothers_ isn’t on there because it’s a musical. I don’t make the categorization but that’s where my money is.
The film version of _Noises Off_ is wonderful. (And a Caine/Reeve double feature of that and _Deathtrap_ is a great night).
Craig
@RogeBrian: I watched The Blues Brothers on a plane last week. An absolutely hilarious insane ride. Elwood is a total weirdo. That Aretha scene is magical.
geg6
My favorite genre! Blazing Saddles, Young Frankenstein and The Producers are all Mel Brooks masterpieces. Similarly, Monty Python and the Holy Grail and Life of Brian are Monty Python masterpieces. Rob Reiner’s first film, (This Is) Spinal Tap, may have made me laugh more than any other movie ever. There are many other good comedies (anything by Chris Guest) and there are pretty good ones. But those six, IMHO, are the gold standard.
Chris
Clue.
1 + 2 + 2 + 1 stars.
bbleh
The Return Of The Pink Panther. Definitely the best of Sellers-as-Clouseau, and that’s saying something.
Alison Rose
As I think I mentioned in a previous Medium Cool, The Blues Brothers was a favorite for me and my brothers when we were kids and I probably saw it minimum 20 times growing up. I still love it.
Other fave comedy movies: Some Like It Hot, Young Frankenstein, Don’t Tell Mom the Babysitter’s Dead, The First Wives Club, It Happened One Night, Monty Python and the Holy Grail, Liar Liar, Ghostbusters (the original), His Girl Friday, Clueless, Dave, Best In Show, Office Space, The Philadelphia Story, A League of Their Own…okay I’ll stop.
Oh but also!! Kenneth Branagh’s version of Much Ado About Nothing, which is also my favorite Shakespeare comedy. (Technically, my fave might be Measure For Measure, but since that’s a problem play and Much Ado is a true comedy, I’ll go with that one.)
oldster
Most anything by Buster Keaton.
Craig
My favorite comedy right now is probably His Girl Friday. Grant and Russell are just on fire. Nobody but Ben Hecht writes this level of snappy ass dialogue except Charles Lederer and here you get the bonus of Lederer adapting Hecht’s The Front Page. Brilliant stuff.
Mr. Prosser
Blazing Saddles scene where the railroad foremen all dance around to Camptown Races. Young Frankenstein when Cloris Leachman keeps asking Gene Wilder if he wants a nightcap drink. The Victor/Victoria scene when Robert Preston argues with Graham Stark as a waiter. Monty Python & the Holy Grail, Holy Hand Grenade and vicious rabbit scene.
bbleh
I’ll toss in a mention for The Birdcage (American remake of La Cage Aux Folles), because the cast is to die for, and they live up to expectations.
dexwood
Some Like It Hot, Raising Arizona, My Favorite Year… starters.
Yutsano
@Alison Rose: Twelfth Night or GTFO. :P
I will freely admit that Soapdish had me laughing in stitches when I first saw it. Sally Field has amazing comic timing and the whole film as a parody of the soap opera industry was hilarious.
MisterDancer
The Blues Brothers is the single best SNL-based film. Among the top musical comedies. A truly astonishing film, with bonus Badass Carrie Fisher.
In other news, for TV comedies? The Good Place. I adore shows that really want to break genres, and saying that The Good Place is a sitcom is shallow as hell…er, The Bad Place. Go in unspoiled if possible; the show has more twists than a whole theme park!
Jacel
@geg6: “The In-Laws” with Peter Falk and Alan Arkin is wonderfully funny in unexpected ways, and has a script by Andrew Bergman, co-writer of Blazing Saddles.
I once saw the Cary Grant film “I Was A Male War Bride” on a double bill after the Marx Bros. “Duck Soup”, and was surprised to realize I’d laughed harder at “Male War Bride”.
Anyone who loves “The Blues Brothers” should see the similar “Leningrad Cowboys Go America” featuring that rock band from Finland. Derivative, but hits it own funny beats.
lowtechcyclist
For my money, Monty Python and the Holy Grail is the funniest movie ever. From a møøse once bit my sister… to “What is the airspeed velocity of an unladen swallow?” it’s the best comedy of all time.
Runner-ups: Airplane!, Blazing Saddles, Duck Soup, The Princess Bride, Monkey Business, Horsefeathers, The Producers, Groundhog Day…I’m sure I could think of a few others.
ETA: Switching gears to recordings, Firesign Theatre’s Don’t Crush That Dwarf, Hand Me the Pliers, and The Further Adventures of Nick Danger, Third Eye, and of course the “Temporarily Humboldt County” track off of Waiting for the Electrician or Someone Like Him
MisterDancer
@Mr. Prosser: I adore Blazing Saddles until the ending scenes. It really just feels like the writers ran out of jokes, for me, sadly.
thruppence
@Craig: Pair His Girl Friday with Bringing Up Baby for a great double bill
bbleh
@lowtechcyclist: The Princess Bride
Ah, I believe we have our first double-winner.
laura
Dr. Strangelove, Spinal Tap, My Favorite Year, The Women.
Alison Rose
@Yutsano: I do love that one too
ETA: To be fair, there are very few Shakespeare plays I would say I “don’t like”. Even the two that I put in the bottom rank when I did a tier ranking of all of them are still well-written with great lines and interesting characters. I just had ~issues~ with them.
funlady75
@diexwood:
dexwood
It Happened One Night, Brimging Up Baby.
LiminalOwl
The Frisco Kid and The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes’ Smarter Brother (despite a few cringe scenes that should be edited out of the latter). And yes, Monty Python and the Holy Grail. Real Genius.
I do need to see more of the classic screwball comedies, though; my education is lacking there.
What Have The Romans Ever Done for Us?
Bull Durham was popular last week so…Bull Durham. One on my favorite lines is when Nuke shows up with his dad at Annie’s and she’s listening to Edith Piaf and doesn’t answer the door right away, and Nuke says “I know you’re in there Annie. I can hear that crazy Mexican singer!”
Will Ferrell has done some great work…Talladega Nights, The Other Guys, Old School, Elf…
I love Blazing Saddles and Young Frankenstein. Coming to America and Trading Places are great. Also one that probably won’t be mentioned by anyone else – Steve Coogan’s Hamlet 2. Of course the Monty Python ones but I’m sure others will cover those.
For TV shows there are a bunch but a recent one I like is What We Do in the Shadows.
Books I like Richard Russo especially Straight Man is hilarious.
Craig
Smokey and the Bandit is another favorite. The sparks and the timing between Burt Reynolds and Sally Field are just beautiful. Jackie Gleason is just brilliant. Good ol boy Jerry Reed just kills it sidekick Cletus The Snowman. Rollicking good times.
dexwood
A Night in Casablanca. Great Marx Brothers madness defeating Nazis.
Jacel
@lowtechcyclist: The Firesign Theatre made a film of their LP “Everything You Know Is Wrong”. The album IS the soundtrack, but they created visuals that truly embody and extend the audio experience.
West of the Rockies
@bbleh:
Do you have a li-sonce for that meenky?
bmoak
Remove all the musical numbers, which are awesome, and there’s not much to the Blues Brothers.
I’m re-watching Kung-Fu Hustle as I type this.
raven
Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, The Russians are Coming, The Russians are Coming and It’s a Mad Mad Mad Mad World. . . . “He kicked da bucket”!!
Rachel Bakes
@Jacel: I Was a Male War Bride was my first Cary Grant experience (well maybe Topper but when I tried that as an adult it didn’t hold up). Fell in love with him then and there and still laugh every time I see it
raven
@lowtechcyclist: Rancho Malerio, if you lived here you’d be home now.
Craig
I’m generally opposed to anything Adam Sandler, but Happy Gilmore is funny as fuck.
raven
@bbleh: And you couldn’t even think about making them today.
Almost Retired
@Yutsano: Soapdish! My favorite scene in that movie is when Kevin Kline is doing dinner theater. And an attendee with a stage-side table spills a drink. And he walks over and wipes it up while delivering his lines.
ETA: the aspiring actor friend I saw the movie with was less amused.
lowtechcyclist
@MisterDancer:
I think that’s more of a structural problem with off-the-wall comedy. In movies like that, the plot is almost incidental and it doesn’t really matter if the guy gets the girl, or if the good guys beat the bad guys. You’re having a great time going nowhere in particular, so how do you end it?
Personally, in Blazing Saddles, I thought the idea of segueing from busting up a fake town in the movie, to busting out of the movie set itself, was inspired. Compare it to MP&HG, where the police show up and stop the filming, or Monkey Business which ends with Groucho looking for a needle in a haystack…you get the idea.
Damned as Random
The first half hour of Sean of the Dead, when nobody notices the zombies because everyone is going through their days semiconscious. Groundhogs Day. Rick Moranis in the original Ghostbusters. The Life of Brian, from being forcefed Christianity -genius. Office Space.
I like What We Do in the Shadows for current sitcoms.
dmsilev
Marx Brothers films, even if they do sometimes come across as a set of loosely connected scenes and skits. Doesn’t matter, they’re hilarious scenes and skits. Duck Soup and Night at the Opera especially.
Mel Brooks made some classics, Blazing Saddles and The Producers to name two.
From the Cold War, Dr. Strangelove and The Russians are Coming, The Russians are Coming. Very different tones, both hilarious.
billcinsd
@What Have The Romans Ever Done for Us?: What we do in the Shadow the TV show is based on a Taika Waititi movie
frosty
Looks like 90% of my favorites have been named, including ones I forgot.
Did anyone mention Dirty Rotten Scoundrels?
Marc
Just about anything with Peter Sellers, my personal favorites are Dr. Strangelove and The Mouse That Roared. Several movies from the 70s and 80s with African-American casts, in particular Cotton Comes to Harlem (based on a great book by Chester Himes) and Hollywood Shuffle, plus the more recent satire Sorry to Bother You. Three more bizarro satire/comedies from the 80s, Repo Man, The Stunt Man, and The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension. And, another vote for The Russians Are Coming, the Russians Are Coming.
Baron Elmo
No foreign films? Two I’d recommend would be:
Brachiator
The Blues Brothers does nothing for me. It’s an over-inflated SNL skit with cameos.
I also don’t much care for It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad World. Again, too many cameos.
Loves me some classic screwball comedy, like His Girl Friday and My Man Godfrey and The 20th Century.
Aside from the usual suspects like a good Billy Wilder film, the following are sublime.
Holiday 1938 with Cary Grant and Katherine Hepburn. My Cousin Vinny, Ghostbusters, Young Frankenstein, Barbershop, Sister Act, The Women.
A special nod to I Know Where I’m Going, 1945
And to the magnificent Trouble in Paradise, 1932
Just off the top of my head.
ETA. Recently watched Cocoanuts. Marx Brothers. Big fun.
Also love Buster Keaton, especially Sherlock Jr.
Craig
A Fish Called Wanda is pretty hilarious.
villiageidiocy
@What Have The Romans Ever Done for Us?: The movie is hilarious, so much so that the first television episode was a little deflating. I strongly recommend the movie.
piratedan
I’ll weigh in with some that haven’t been mentioned yet (at least as I type this)
What’s Up Doc?
The Man Who Knew Too Little
Waking Ned Divine
Animal House
Used Cars
and I can’t go without giving a plug to the MST3k, Rifftrax, Cinematic Titanic folks for allowing us to enjoy bad movies.
dexwood
Lost in America. 22, 22!
brendancalling
Last night I smoked the last of my weed (don’t worry, I re-upped) and settled into “The Jerk,” which holds up really well. During my kid’s last visit we watched “A Fish Called Wanda,” which also holds up.
Speaking of the kid, several years back my dad and I watched “Blazing Saddles” with him. He was probably 14? 16? Anyway, within five minutes we had to explain that humor was a lot less sensitive in the 1960s/70s; that a Black guy wrote a lot of the jokes (including some of the most race-baiting); that people actually talked like that about/to black people in the 1800s; and that the bigots and racists lose, the humor is all that their expense. After that he really enjoyed it.
villiageidiocy
What, no love for Airplane?
delphinium
To add to all the others mentioned, A Fish Called Wanda.
As for tv, the first couple seasons of Arrested Development.
MisterDancer
Disproof #1: “Illinois Nazis. I hate Illinois Nazis.”
Disproof #2: Jake’s amazing meltdown/con job monologue towards Carrie Fisher’s character.
Disproof #3: “And do not return…until you have redeemed yourselves.”
Don’t get me wrong — the plot is totally an excuse to hang a bunch of really funny/touching scenes off of. But Blues Brothers is updating the Hope/Crosby Road movies, while also helping to found a new style of comedy that — sans musical numbers — will inform cinema up to this day.
There’s a ton of story that isn’t sung in this film, a lot of character bits AND plot movements that never get a lyric to them. It’s not obvious because yes, the musical numbers are what you take away on first watch, but the spine of the film, the character journeys (and yes they do have them) are not wholly dependent on the singing. Hell, as #3 is about, their action Call to Adventure has no singing whatsoever!
Deputinize Eurasia from the Kuriles to St Petersburg
Tin Cup
A Fish Called Wanda
Let It Ride
Captain Ron
Club Paradise
Caddyshack
villiageidiocy
Recommended double billing – Westminster dog show then “Best in Show”
dexwood
Bowfinger. A dumb, amusing, funny movie about making movies. Good cast.
Craig
The Righteous Gemstones on HBO is off the wall crazy. Another great supporting role for Walton Goggins.
billcinsd
Some one’s I like
Movies:
Sullivans Travels
The Tao of Steve
Arsenic and Old Lace
Mystery Men
To Be or Not To Be
Hopscotch
randal sexton
Galaxy quest. Mystery men. Dodge ball. Zoolander. My cousin Vinny. All mostly comedic and on my perfect movie list.
delphinium
@Baron Elmo: Yes, Delicatessen was very dark and funny.
dexwood
@bmoak: Nah, Belushi and Akroyd carry the silly, funny plot.
Craig
@MisterDancer: Truth!
Marc
Also, the not quite so black comedy about cannibalism, Eating Raoul from 1982.
RepubAnon
@Jacel: “Hello, Seeker!” The Firesign Theater’s line about folks searching for hidden truths should feel alone because “there’s a Seeker born every minute” seems prescient.
Plus, Hemlock Stone, the Great Defective, in the Tale of the Giant Rat of Sumatra deserves mention.
phein64
@billcinsd: Which is based on a faux Belgian documentary about a vampire family.
Matt McIrvin
Brazil. It’s as least as much of a comedy as Dr. Strangelove. and Delicatessen–in fact, I have a personal headcanon that Delicatessen is actually set in the same universe as Brazil, and depicts what was going on at the same time across the English Channel.
WaterGirl
@funlady75: I just approved your comment, so future comments should show up right away for everyone.
WaterGirl
@Alison Rose:
I was doing a quick skim and Hot Young Frankenstein jumped out at me, and I thought “I’ve never heard of that one!”
Josie
Blues Brothers, Mel Brooks movies, Monte Python movies, Will Ferrell’s Talladega Nights.
ETA: The Three Amigos
dp
@West of the Rockies: Does your dog bat?
WaterGirl
@bbleh
Loved The Birdcage!
billcinsd
@phein64: The movie was based on a short film of the same name, by the same people, according to Wikipedia
Glidwrith
While You Were Sleeping with Sandra Bullock and a bunch of other veteran actors-great fun!
Oh, and while Jaws and Lake Placid are horror, I also regard them as great comedy when there aren’t body parts flying about.
Marc
@dexwood: Lost in America. 22, 22!
Ah, yes, Albert Brooks: Real Life, Modern Romance, Defending Your Life. I notice that Woody Allen movies have been carefully memory-holed, but I always preferred Albert Brooks.
Barbara
Perhaps not comedies per se, but very, very funny:
Strictly Ballroom
Breaking Away
And definitely a comedy — The Odd Couple (no Neil Simon so far?)
David 🌈 ☘The Establishment☘🌈 Koch
I’ll add “Stripes”, 48 HRS., ” The Longest Yard”, ” Moon Over Parador”, “Beverly Hills Cop”, ” Stir Crazy”, “Richard Pryor Live on Sunset Strip”, “MASH”, ” Bad News Bears”, “Welcome Home, Charlie Brown”, ” The Cat in the Hat”, “Easy Money”, ” Arsenic and Old Lace”, “Dr. Strangelove”, ” The In-Laws”
What Have The Romans Ever Done for Us?
@billcinsd: Yes and the movie is really funny too.. And that brings up Flight of the Conchords, also funny.
lowtechcyclist
@raven:
“Don’t eat with your hands, son, use your entrenching tool.”
GBintheHC
Long, long time lurker here. I would be remiss if I didn’t take this opportunity to heartily recommend Stanley Tucci’s The Imposters. Criminally ignored or just unseen this is easily my favorite comedy.
Also too, most anything by Mel Brooks or Monty Python. I’m very fond of The In-laws, Alan Arkin RIP.
Marc
@Matt McIrvin: Brazil. It’s as least as much of a comedy as Dr. Strangelove. and Delicatessen
Brazil was an amazing movie when I first saw it, but the ending was far too harrowing for me to ever watch it again.
Matt McIrvin
@Marc: Hey, just watch the Sid Sheinberg TV edit–you’re golden!
lowtechcyclist
@What Have The Romans Ever Done for Us?:
It’s Business Time!
Damned as Random
@brendancalling: If we’re going to funny while stoned, Birth of a Nation was hysterical. I got the giggles whenever someone turned up in blackface, and when the clan came to the rescue, they had toilet plungers on their heads.
Best high ever
Craig
@Josie: I didn’t care about Will Ferrell until his absolute insanity in Zoolander, which it turns out is a great movie. Talladega Nights brilliant. Watched it with a buddy in a Vegas hotel room hungover with a friend. We had the room comped so we drank the mini bar and laughed out asses off.
zhena gogolia
@Jacel: Cary Grant can be so funny.
phein64
My favorites tend to be gentle comedies, shows with no meanness in them. Those not mentioned above include:
Local Hero
Life is Sweet
Lair of the White Worm (I didn’t say no violence)
Tootsie
My Favorite Year
A Christmas Story
Melania’s speech at the 2016 Republican Convention (OK, not actually a movie, and some meanness, but still hilarious. Can you believe that the wife of a major party candidate rick-rolled the nation?)
West of the Rockies
@billcinsd:
Arsenic and Old Lace… not to be confused with Lacenic and Old Arse.
zhena gogolia
A lot of good ones have been mentioned. I’m now watching The Twelve Chairs (Mel Brooks) for work purposes, and although I didn’t like it when I saw it in the past, I’m now laughing my ass off. The comic timing of Brooks, De Luise, Langella, and Ron Moody can’t be beat.
delphinium
A couple romantic comedies: Amélie and Bridget Jones’s Diary.
And will add the British sitcom, Keeping Up Appearances.
zhena gogolia
@Damned as Random: Speaking of Shaun of the Dead,
HOT FUZZ IS A GODDAMNED MASTERPIECE
billcinsd
@West of the Rockies: Or “Lasix and Asterix”
zhena gogolia
@Brachiator: Well, I adore I Know Where I’m Going, but it’s not exactly a laff riot.
Glidwrith
Murder By Death – the most excellent Sir Alec Guinness playing a blind butler and various old school actors chewing the scenery.
Craig
@zhena gogolia: The Greater Good! Monster role for Timothy Dalton.
dexwood
Chocolat. Make sure you have some chocolate to munch on while watching.
zhena gogolia
@villiageidiocy: As long as Fred Willard is moderating the Westminster.
MisterDancer
@Damned as Random: …NO. Not even…I just can’t.
WV Blondie
@raven: All on my list, too! A Fish Called Wanda, Roxanne, everything Monte Python, Legally Blonde. Damn, I could list another dozen.
zhena gogolia
@MisterDancer: Yeah, pretty bad, needs to be deleted.
Josie
@Damned as Random:
Many years ago a group of us went stoned to a midnight showing of Reefer Madness. The movie wasn’t meant to be funny, but we guffawed and snickered all the way through it.
Glidwrith
@zhena gogolia: He’s great-besides Arsenic and Old Lace, there’s Father Goose.
lowtechcyclist
@Brachiator:
Groucho to Margaret Dumont:
“Tonight, tonight, when the clouds are creeping around the moon, I’ll be creeping around you. I can see it now, you and the moon. You wear a necktie so I’ll know you.”
Groucho to Chico:
“You try to cross over there a chicken, and you’ll find out why a duck. It’s deep water, that’s why a duck”
phein64
@billcinsd: Check out “Vampires”, the Belgian mockumentary that came out in 2010, four years before the Kiwi film. Taiko et al. may not have acknowledged it, but it is a clear predecessor.
zhena gogolia
@phein64: Lair of the White Worm is a comedy?
zhena gogolia
@delphinium: Bridget Jones is hilarious. “Fuck me, I love Keats!”
(or was it Shelley?)
Another Scott
Everyone covers the good comedies above. Here’s a silly one that I loved.
Dr. Otto and the Riddle of the Gloom Beam
Cheers,
Scott.
Glidwrith
Are we allowed animated comedies?
The Croods
Megamind
zhena gogolia
@Craig: Mistah Skinnah!
Marc
@phein64: You hit three of my sleeper favorites, Local Hero, My Favorite Year, and A Christmas Story. All wonderful movies about nice quirky people. Another Bill Forsyth movie to play along with Local Hero: Gregory’s Girl.
zhena gogolia
@Glidwrith: I was thinking of Father Goose.
Matt McIrvin
@Marc: I loved all of those movies when I saw them but Local Hero is one of those films I’m afraid to watch again in case it doesn’t hold up.
zhena gogolia
Well, I haven’t forgotten Bananas, Sleeper, Love & Death, or Take the Money and Run. Sorry not sorry.
Alison Rose
@WaterGirl: LOLOL!!!
schrodingers_cat
Speaking of British comedies, Yes Minister has to rank as one of the best.
Glidwrith
@zhena gogolia: That movie was actually the first Grant movie I ever saw. It seemed forever wrong that all of his other movies had him so well-groomed and dapper.
kalakal
I think most of my favourites have already been mentioned.
A few I don’t think I saw
Arsenic and Old Lace, Being There, Trading Places, Local Hero, Jabberwocky, The Italian Job, Those Magnificent Men in their Flying Machines, Hot Fuzz, Carry on Cleo. From France Les Visiteurs, Taxi.
From TV leaving out sketch shows Fawlty Towers, Frazier, Porridge, Staged, Spaced, Drop the Dead Donkey, Keeping up Appearances, Father Ted
Special super mention for Yes Minister/Prime Minister which I think has the best dialog I’ve ever heard
2 examples
Opinion Polls
The Perpendicular Pronoun
ETA I see a few got mentioned while I was writing this
SixStringFanatic
@piratedan:
What’s Up, Doc?” is one of my favorite movies of all time. Ryan O’Neal, Barbra Streisand as a real life Bugs Bunny, a supporting cast of lunatics and an epic car chase. What else could you want out of an hour and a half?
Matt McIrvin
@zhena gogolia: One reason I resent Woody Allen being an awful person is that it makes it harder for me to appreciate his genuinely great work. Sleeper was a masterpiece.
kalakal
@Matt McIrvin: It does 😄
Azelie
@zhena gogolia: Yarp! Hot Fuzz one of my favorite movies.
zhena gogolia
@Glidwrith: Hahaha, I think I read that he loved being able to present himself that way at that point in his career.
geg6
@Marc:
Same. His films are terrific.
bbleh
@West of the Rockies:
‘ow do you know so much about the city ordinances?
What sort of STUpid quesTION is that? Are you bland?
Yes.
phein64
@zhena gogolia: Absolutely! Saw it when it came out with a group of anthropologists, and we all loved it. If you haven’t seen it, but only read the Bram Stoker, just remember that it’s a Ken Russell film, Peter Capaldi is in it, and Amanda Donahoe is at her very sexy best.
geg6
@David 🌈 ☘The Establishment☘🌈 Koch:
The film MASH no longer holds up for me. TV show holds up much, much better.
Glidwrith
@Matt McIrvin: I have never mentioned him or Bill Cosby to my children. As far as I am concerned, they will never know they existed.
Brachiator
@zhena gogolia:
Comedy can be a broad category. There’s stuff that makes me smile more than laugh.
zhena gogolia
@phein64: Isn’t Hugh Grant in that one? I laughed at it too, but I didn’t think it was intentionally funny. Let me look it up. It’s Ken Russell, isn’t it?
kalakal
@bbleh: My favourite of those is probably A Shot in the Dark
zhena gogolia
@geg6: Same here. The film is so gross.
Steve in the ATL
@oldster:
User name checks out!
zhena gogolia
@phein64: Ha, I see that it was supposed to be a comedy. I think I viewed it as something like a Vincent Price unintentionally-hilarious-horror-film.
billcinsd
@phein64: The original short version of What we do in the shadows came out in 2005. They reference many vampire flicks, but not that one
https://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/film/vampire-mockumentary-what-we-do-in-the-shadows-heading-for-cult-status/article22956380/
phein64
@Marc: Can’t believe I left that one out. My teenage boys (now grown) all loved that movie. Never saw Gregory’s Girl 2.
piratedan
will call out a few lesser known films for others because we can always use more fun….
So Fine – starring Jack Weston, Ryan O’Neil and a wonderful bit of work from Richard Kiel
Night Shift – starring Henry Winkler, Michael Keaton and Shelley Long
Sixteen Candles – Molly Ringwald, Judd Nelson and Ally Sheedy
Ghostbusters – simply because you can’t get a better foil than William Atherton
A Hard Day’s Night – Richard Lester strikes the motherlode
Matt McIrvin
@phein64: I saw Office Space with a group of software engineers working on internal firmware and drivers for office laser printers. You can probably guess the scene where we all just ROARED.
kalakal
Kind Hearts and Coronets anyone?
Also The Ladykillers
patrick II
Blues Brothers and Groundhog Day are the comedies I most often rewatch.
Of more recent vintage I really enjoyed Game Night — Jason Batement and Rachel McAdams star as a very competitive couple who become over-enthused about winning a murder mystery game. Rachel McAdams is a gifted comedienne.
A movie that hit my sweet spot but it is rated at just 18% on Rotten Tomatoes is Saving Silverman. Steve Zahn and Jack Black try to save their friend Silverman (and fellow Neil Diamond fan) Jason Biggs from his manipulative fiancee Amanda Peet by retrieving his high school sweetheart from the convent where she is a novitiate. Neil Diamond comes in later in the movie to help his fans. It made me laugh. Evidently, I am one of the few.
zhena gogolia
@patrick II: Steve Zahn and Jack Black raiding a convent does sound pretty funny.
AliceBlue
I don’t think anyone’s mentioned O Brother Where Art Thou or No Time for Sergeants.
As for TV…
The Andy Griffith Show (the older episodes with Don Knotts)
The Dick Van Dyke Show
The Carol Burnett Show
WKRP in Cincinnati
RSA
Amen! Speaking of bad movies, I’ll put in a plug for an affectionate homage, The Lost Skeleton of Cadavra (IMDB link, with trailer). Sample quote:
phein64
@zhena gogolia: You are correct. Paul Brooke as the constable is hilarious, and check out the final look from Peter Capaldi’s character to Hugh Grant’s character. It’s very intentionally funny, and worth a re-watch (our VHS copy is now kaput, unfortunately).
billcinsd
TV Shows
The Tick (any version)
Andy Richter Controls the Universe
Psych
The Critic
Andy Barker, P.I,
Craig
After Hours is a wild ride downtown. Back when SOHO was edgy and scary. Scorsese knows comedy, Goodfellas is funny as hell.
Ruckus
@MisterDancer:
Most comedies, actually most stories no matter their format, have to somewhat calm down at the end, to close the story, make it complete. Unless of course they already have a second and possibly third followup scripts in mind or it’s just a time frame of jokes and they want to leave you laughing hard. But then it doesn’t seem complete to most people. Start, middle, end.
patrick II
@zhena gogolia:
Did you know convents have a weight room in the back? The mother-superior asked the lovely novitiate Amanda Detmer to spot her on a bench press.
Old Dan and Little Ann
@David 🌈 ☘The Establishment☘🌈 Koch: The Bad News Bears may be one of my favorite movies.
I’ll add “The Birdcage” to tonight’s great list of funny movies.
zhena gogolia
@phein64: Just watched the trailer. What ever happened to Amanda Donohoe? She’s great.
Glidwrith
@zhena gogolia: Jack Black in Jumanji!
phein64
@AliceBlue: I love all the shows you mention, grew up with them. Would add The Mary Tyler Moore Show, The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour, and Laugh-In. But of recent shows, the show with the highest funny-to-meanness ratio, to me, is Modern Family. I didn’t see it when it was being broadcast, but binged it during the pandemic.
zhena gogolia
@Glidwrith: School of Rock is quite funny.
WaterGirl
@GBintheHC: Welcome!
I had to manually approve your first comment, but after this your comments will show up right away for everyone.
marcopolo
Well, I don’t think I’ve seen these films mentioned but The King of Hearts, Harold and Maude, and You Can’t Take It With You. I do see a lot of lovely picks I agree with. Princess Bride might be my go to comedy period. As for Woody Allen, I think his early comedies are amazing but time, age, and knowledge have just about made it impossible to enjoy them. Last but not least did anyone mention The Big Lebowski? Don’t think I saw it.
As for books, Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy & the rest of his works. And Terry Pratchett’s Discworld books, though they are more of an acquired taste.
kalakal
@phein64: Sadly I found Gregory’s Girl 2 something of a let down. A Bill Forsyth film I did like I haven’t seen mentioned here is Comfort and Joy
RSA
One of my favorite bits of TV sketch comedy is from Mitchell & Webb, on brain surgery, which everyone’s probably seen. It’s barely 2 minutes long, and every joke is telegraphed, but the timing and the reactions are so perfect that I’m happy to watch it over and over, laughing each time:
https://youtu.be/THNPmhBl-8I?feature=shared
Craig
@Old Dan and Little Ann: OMG! The Bad News Bears is beautiful. Impossible to make nowadays. I’m a sucker for that movie.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@patrick II: Groundhog Day is bigly underrated, IMHO. Broke my heart to hear Murray was such a dick to Geena Davis.
@phein64: you have made me very curious
Loved Local Hero, I’ve seen it probably five or six times. (I often have the line “Ah, bugger’im. I wanted to say cheerio.” drift through my head for no particular reason) and Gregory’s Girl, though I only saw that once, I think. I do like gentle comedies (has Harvey been mentioned) but I also enjoy a bit of mean, so I’ll speak up for Iannuucci, The Thick of It, and its American cousin Veep.
phein64
@zhena gogolia: Did a stint on LA Law, and then I lost track of her. She is great.
On a related note, I don’t think Gothic qualifies as a comedy by modern lights, but it’s another quirky Ken Russell film that has its moments.
Matt McIrvin
@Ruckus: The thing about Blazing Saddles is that I think they didn’t have a proper ending that wrapped things up, so, instead, they just knocked down the fourth wall and did a bunch of surreal meta-humor, with the action escaping from the movie set and into Hollywood.
And the reason it doesn’t quite work is that while the movie has plenty of surreal meta stuff up to that point, it actually also has a lot of heart, and, in a sly way, things to say, and a genuinely sweet relationship between the main protagonists. It’s not quite the kind of story where the proper ending is “freak out and blow up the whole narrative”. The last act reminds me more of a lot of 60s movies aspiring to head humor, in that regard. Or it’d be a great ending for a movie more like Airplane!
Jim, Foolish Literalist
Did you find it on streaming? I didn’t like/get it as a kid, but I’ve been wanting to rewatch it now that I’m older, especially since reading Brooks memoir
phein64
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Harvey! I hope someone else mentioned it. Elwood P. Dowd has become my personal hero:
“In this world, Elwood, you can be oh so so smart, or oh so pleasant.” Well, for years I was smart… I recommend pleasant. You may quote me.
oldster
@Matt McIrvin:
I saw Allen’s ‘Love and Death’ when it first came out. At that time, it was very difficult to see any Buster Keaton films — they were not on YouTube in 1970, of course.
Only later did I learn how much of his comedy Allen had stolen from Keaton. Not just bits, but whole sequences of bits.
Matt McIrvin
@zhena gogolia: I have never seen that, but I loved the novel it’s based on. (My brother-in-law described it to me as “the Russian Seinfeld.”)
phein64
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Another Peter Capaldi triumph. I know his character is supposed to be the epitome of mean, but it’s so overblown that it’s hard to credit the meanness.
Craig
Slap Shot is my favorite sports movie, and crazy funny. The third leg on the George Roy Hill/Paul Newman stool. There’s plenty of humor in Butch Cassidy and The Sundance Kid, and The Sting, but I wouldn’t say they are comedies per say.
dm
Charlie Chaplin’s Modern Times.
I’m glad someone mentioned Real Genius.
Keep your hands off Eizouken —about a high school club obsessed with creating their own animated film, with frequent flights of fancy as the doodles in the sketch books come to life.
Tatami Galaxy, a japanese Groundhogs Day, as a young man loves his college career over and over in search of love (when she’s right there all the time).
(These lady trek are by the same director, Masami Yuuasa.)
marcopolo
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
Um, think you mean Andie McDowell. As for Murray, it seems there’s always been a major asshole lurking inside of him which he’s gotten somewhat away with by being funny, hip & edgy in the right way.
schrodingers_cat
@zhena gogolia: Did you see SRK’s latest? Dude’s still got it.
Scout211
All of my favorite comedy movies have been mentioned, so I will mention some of my favorite comedy television series.
Favorite: Scrubs
WKRP in Cincinnati
Seinfeld
Friends
Night Court
Barney Miller
Mary Tyler Moore
Designing Women
Murphy Brown
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@marcopolo: No I meant Geena Davis, but I somehow in my head transmogrified Groundhog Day (which I don’t think is underrated) to Quick Change
ETA: as to Murray, Anjelica Huston, who has put up with some assholes in her time, hates him, too
WaterGirl
@GBintheHC: I had never heard of that film. I will have to watch it.
Ken
There were some very funny episodes of the Twilight Zone, including “Once Upon a Time” with Buster Keaton (with many silent film riffs) and “Cavender is Coming” with Jesse White and Carol Burnett.
Night Gallery also had a few that were played for laughs. Many of these were just a couple minutes long.
WaterGirl
@Glidwrith: @zhena gogolia: I 💕 Father Goose. Such a great film.
Mai Naem mobile
TV – There’s an old Aussie show – Mother and Son. Also old Brit show To The Manor Born with Penelope Keith. Both Newhart shows and the Garry Shandling show if that counts as a comedy.
WaterGirl
@AliceBlue: You might be the first person to mention TV series. Spin City, Dick Van Dyke for me.
kalakal
One of my all time favourite comedy characters is Oddball, the stoner tank commander played by Donald Sutherland in Kelley’s Heroes.
On TV in my youth I always found The Rockford files funny
WaterGirl
@patrick II: You said “convents” and I thought of Sister Act. That was fun.
zhena gogolia
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: It’s on YouTube. I couldn’t find it on streaming.
zhena gogolia
@Matt McIrvin: There are two Russian movie versions, both classics, but I’m loving Brooks’s version, although it’s farther from the book (which I haven’t read yet but will shortly).
schrodingers_cat
@Mai Naem mobile: Another vote for the To the Manor Born.
zhena gogolia
@schrodingers_cat: No — will enjoy later!
Mirona
No love for the animated films? I went in cold to Shrek, no clue what it was about, never laughed so hard!
CaseyL
A movie I’m amazed no one has mentioned yet: Ruthless People. It had me breathless and practically peeing myself with laughter (my ultimate test of a funny movie/TV show/whatever).
A play I was incredibly lucky to see many, many years ago that will likely never be staged again due to litigation over who actually owns the rights: “The Ladies of the Camellias.” Based, very loosely, on a true story from the Gilded Age: Sarah Bernhardt owned a theater in Paris, so did Duse. They were the premier stage actresses of their time and rivals. But Duse’s theater caught fire, leaving her with nowhere to work. Bernhardt offered Duse the use of her theater, for a matinee only. That’s the basic true story. The play starts there and goes off into a farce of discovered lovers, anarchist hostage takers, the gritted-treeth cordiality between the two ladies, and again, I about fell out of my seat laughing so hard.
mrmoshpotato
Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein
Citizen Dave
TV:
Joe Pera Talks with You
Tenacious D
Eastbound and Down
How To With John Wilson
The Rehearsal
Jury Duty
NotMax
Classic American TV that mostly has withstood the test of time:
The Honeymooners
The George Burns and Gracie Allen Show
The Jack Benny Program
You’ll Never Get Rich (The Phil Silvers Show)
The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis
Car 54, Where Are You?
.
From the Golden Age of radio:
Vic and Sade
The Jack Benny Program
The George Burns and Gracie Allen Show
The Fred Allen Show
Duffy’s Tavern
The Great Gildersleeve
Easy Aces
The Stan Freberg Show
.
Brachiator
@Matt McIrvin:
I kinda liked seeing the heroes in Blazing Saddles getting into a fancy car and driving off into the sunset. It still fits the Western theme.
Maybe mini major Spoiler
I think that there is a 60s Jerry Lewis film, The Patsy, that also breaks the fourth wall during the movie. I think that this was the first time that I ever saw it done.
kalakal
The first half hour of The Great Race is hilarious with Jack Lemmon and Peter Falk as the villianous duo of
Dick Dasterdly and MuttleyProfessor Fate and Max. The film drags in the middle but the last half hour has a great spoof of The Prisoner of Zenda.phein64
@Mirona: All right, this is a guilty favorite, and it’s all about one very mean person: Drowning Mona.
If you haven’t seen it, watch closely from the beginning where they explain the setup with the Yugos.
The cast is truly stellar: Danny Devito, Jamie Lee Curtis, Neve Campbell, William Fichtner, Casey Affleck, and of course, Bette Midler as Mona, not to mention Will Farrell, Tracey Walter and the Yugos, although I just did. There are a ton of laugh out loud moments.
Glidwrith
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: I’ve never quite gotten why Murray was considered funny. More like an ass “I can’t believe he did that” sort of character.
What About Bob? is hilarious, not because of Murray, but Richard Dreyfuss reacting to his antics are hysterical.
Pink Tie
I love Tropic Thunder — yeah, it traffics in some very problematic issues and fails the Bechdel test, but it is really funny and is self-conscious in how it addresses Hollywood racism, misogyny, violence fetish & general craziness.
The Heat with Sandra Bullock and Melissa McCarthy — so good! Sandra & Melissa at their screwball best, and they are both just brilliant. Particularly love how SB is great at playing the superstraight, Type A character right up until she freaks out, and MM plays the freak until the emotional side becomes important.
Surprised at so many mentioning Blues Brothers… that one is mid.
phein64
@Glidwrith: Isn’t Groundhog Day exactly about the progression of a complete ass to an empathetic human? Have to have that in you somewhere to make that happen.
Also, his Tootsie character is a person you could be friends with, and you have to have some empathy for his character in Moonrise Kingdom.
prostratedragon
@West of the Rockies:
CHAAAAARGE!!
I like at least 10 or 12 of the ones named here, but would add the Crimson Permanent Assured sequence from The Meaning of Life and The Andy Griffith Show, especially for that brilliant invention, Barney Fife. And has anyone mentioned Lucy?
Don K
@dexwood:
Yes to both! Doctor Strangelove, Holy Grail. Meaning of Life, Life of Brian, Arsenic and Old Lace, Some Like it Hot, and It’s a
Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad, World (yeah it’s two hours of silliness and slapstick, but that’s what I like about it. Oh yeah, The Producers.
zhena gogolia
@schrodingers_cat: Wow! What’s he doing with all those women?
Glidwrith
@phein64: Tootsie was Dustin Hoffman – was there a different one?
Never saw Moonrise Kingdom.
Sparkedcat
Little Miss Sunshine.
phein64
@Glidwrith: Bill Murray plays his roommate
See Moonrise Kingdom. It’s worth the time. The two stars are wonderful, and appear in Paterson, Jim Jarmusch’s film with Adam Driver.
Glidwrith
@phein64: Way, way too many years since I saw Tootsie, didn’t even register Murray was in it.
NotMax
Several recent vintage TV comedies/dramadies from across the globe which I don’t think have already been mentioned:
Corner Gas
Utopia (Dreamland)
Laid
WiA
Good Grief
Nothing Trivial
Rita
Little Mosque on the Prairie
Being Erica
Doc Martin
Step Dave</e<
Drop the Dead Donkey
El Club de Cuervos
Big Wolf on Campus
.
Villago Delenda Est
I read through the first 100 posts, and didn’t see The Death of Stalin. It is friggin’ hilarious, and based on a true story. Steve Buscemi as Khrushchev? What is not to like here?
zhena gogolia
@Villago Delenda Est: Yes, I thought I’d hate it, but Buscemi is hilarious.
zhena gogolia
@NotMax: Hacks is pretty funny.
phein64
@Villago Delenda Est: The Death of Stalin is a great movie! I saw it following a chain of links to Paddy Considine, who has a minor roll. It is a crime that it got not one nomination at the Academy Awards. It’s available on Hulu, Pluto TV, and Tubi.
delphinium
@Pink Tie: That reminded me of Spy with Melissa McCarthy which was an entertaining spoof of James Bond and similar spy thrillers.
Also, meant to mention Corner Gas earlier, a quirky Canadian sitcom
and the German movie, Good Bye, Lenin!.
ETA
Jim, Foolish Literalist
I watch it for the music more than the comedy, myself, the there lines and scenes that make laugh even having seen it X number of times
the country-western bar brings both, IMHO, and is the BBs best musical performance. Otherwise, bring on Aretha, Ray and Cab Calloway
ETA: @Villago Delenda Est: Yes! another Ianucci homerun
Timill
@oldster: Everyone steals – IIRC most of Up Pompeii! is stolen lock stock and barrel from Plautus.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@zhena gogolia: ah, thanks! never thought to look there
I’m so bad at the way we live now
NotMax
@Timill
“It came to pass…”
Frankie Howerd and subtlety were never in the same room. Not that there’s anything wrong with that.
;)
SFBayAreaGal
Back to School. Rodney Dangerfield, Sally Kellerman, a very young Robert Downey Jr.
Some funny one liners and a great cameo by Kurt Vonnegut.
Pittsburgh Mike
Hopscotch with Walter Mathau and Glenda Jackson
Dr. Strangelove
Ferris Buehler’s Day Off
In the Loop
The Philadelphia Story
Bridesmaids
Pirates of the Caribbean (first movie)
TV:
30 Rock
Arrested Development (original, not NetFlix)
The Office
Timill
@NotMax: “I was stuck for a rhyme” (which was Nausius, not Lurcio).
I saw FH only once, as Frosch the jailer in Fledermaus at ENO.
kalakal
Educating Rita and Shirley Valentine are films I can watch again and again. Nice blend of humour and sadness
schrodingers_cat
@zhena gogolia: I have not seen the movie. I think it’s a woman’s prison.
tomtofa
Going back for this one: Jacques Tati’s ‘Playtime’. You need to turn off your ideas about what speed things should happen, and pay attention instead to the visual and auditory bits that fill the movie.
The last segment, at the restaurant, moves into slapstick, and moves well.
Spanish Moss
Some favorites off the top of my head:
The Gods Must Be Crazy (I love me some slapstick!)
See No Evil Hear No Evil (Pryor and Wilder!)
Kiss Kiss Bang Bang
Burn After Reading
The Ref
Monty Python and the Holy Grail
SFBayAreaGal
Best of Show
The Great Race – Tony Curtis, Jack Lemmon, Peter Falk, Natalie Wood. So many funny scenes. It was my drama teacher favorite movie. He had a film reel of the movie and showed it in our little theater at my high school.
A Fish Called Wanda
Pink Panther Movies
Ferris Bueller’s Day Off
Young Frankenstein
So many more…
prostratedragon
Double check on After Hours. (I’d have just walked home.)
SFBayAreaGal
I forgot to add
Some Like It Hot
Philadelphia Story
kalakal
@tomtofa: I love Jaques Tati’s films, Mon Oncle may be my favourite
kalakal
@SFBayAreaGal:
“Push the button, Max!”
catclub
@delphinium: The Tall Guy
Actors many have grown to not like, but I think it is still great.
Somebody already mentioned A Fish Called Wanda.
zhena gogolia
@schrodingers_cat: That’s what I thought, but they had a lot of costume changes.
David 🌈 ☘The Establishment☘🌈 Koch
Uncle Buck
Volunteers (Tom Tuttle of Tacoma Washington)
Pee Wee’s Big Adventure
Bustin Loose
Not Another Teen Movie
Anotherlurker
@dexwood: My Favorite Year is an amazing film! My favorite comedy of all time.
Favorite scene is the dinner in Brooklyn with Lou Jacobi and Lannie Kazan.
As a NYer, I really do know these people!
SFBayAreaGal
@kalakal: Yes
narya
My Cousin Vinny still makes me laugh out loud.
School of Rock and High Fidelity both give Jack Black room to play.
Caddyshack, despite the number of assholes in the movie.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@kalakal: Never seen SV but I love Educating Rita. I’m a sucker for Michael Caine, and Julie Walters is so damn good (“Of course you know I’m dead familiar with Chekov”)
So many good recs to re/watch in this thread
@Pittsburgh Mike: Love Hopscotch! Should’ve been more Mathau/Jackson collaborations, two smart and very different personae. It also has that distinct 70s feels to it.
I loved the original so much, couldn’t make it through the first episode of the reboot.
JeffH
A lot of my favorites have already been mentioned, but I want to plug the wildly underrated The Tall Guy. It stars Jeff Goldblum as an American actor in London who starts off as the straight man for a very unpleasant comedian (Rowan Atkinson). Eventually he meets and falls in love with a nurse played by Emma Thompson. It has probably the funniest sex scene I’ve ever seen and winds up with an amazing parody of Andrew Lloyd Webber musicals. Oh and it’s also Richard Curtis’ first movie.
Central Planning
The podcast Strike Force Five, episodes 5 and 11 are hilarious. Both my wife and I had tears in our eyes during those episodes.
I agree with the MB and MP movies everyone mentioned. Lots of other good ones too.
Tehanu
@Jacel:
I was in the movie of Everything You Know Is Wrong — I’m the girl in the aqua dress in the party scene. The late great Allen Daviau was the cinematographer and it’s a very happy memory for me. If you haven’t, you should check out the FIresign 2000 album Give Me Immortality or Give Me Death — they were amazingly prescient, and still very funny.
Most of my favorite comedies have already been mentioned, but I must put in a plug for the great 1930s French movie, La Kermesse Heroique / Carnival in Flanders, about how the long-suffering women of a small Flemish town in the 1600s handle Spanish troops marching in while their cowardly husbands pretend to be dead.
wjca
In you’ve seen lots of space operas, or even just lots of Star Trek, check out Josh Whedan’s Serenity. (The TV series Firefly, with the same characters, as well.) Nathan Fillion is vastly amusing as they stand the usual science fiction tropes on their heads.
Ajabu
Where’s Poppa?
lol chikinburd
Shouldn’t let the thread die without mention of a couple internationals: Juzo Itami’s Tampopo, and of course Almodovar’s Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown. Mambo Taxi forever.
David 🌈 ☘The Establishment☘🌈 Koch
The Distinguished Gentleman
Abbott and Costello Meet the IRS
pluky
“A Mighty Wind” left me in stitches.
Warren Senders
Three Idiots (Hindi) is a great favorite in our house.
Rachel Bakes
@Glidwrith: oooh, Father Goose! Operation Petticoat is also a giggle
Kosh III
Porkys.
No one has mentioned Porkys?
Worst movie ever–worse than Plan 9 From Outer Space is Bela Lugosi Meets a Brooklyn Gorilla.
TV
Fawlty Towers and anything with Dame Penelope Keith–especially Executive Stress.
Radio
Not a comedy but I love Yours Truly Johnny Dollar with Bob Bailey.
Comedy: Lum and Abner & The Great Gildersleeve
BillD
I couldn’t believe I got to comment 100 without seeing “The Hangover.” Even “Hangover 2” was pretty good.
Jacel
@Tehanu: Cool! I’ll have to look for you in the DVD of “Everything”. Too bad the immediate sequel LP “In The Next World You’re On Your Own” didn’t get the same cinema treatment as “Everything”.
I was in the audience at UC Santa Cruz for the premier screening where the Firesigns performed live and did a Q&A.