Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

“In this country American means white. everybody else has to hyphenate.”

Conservatism: there are people the law protects but does not bind and others who the law binds but does not protect.

The cruelty is the point; the law be damned.

Seems like a complicated subject, have you tried yelling at it?

If you cannot answer whether trump lost the 2020 election, you are unfit for office.

I did not have this on my fuck 2025 bingo card.

Never entrust democracy to any process that requires republicans to act in good faith.

Too often we hand the biggest microphones to the cynics and the critics who delight in declaring failure.

The media handbook says “controversial” is the most negative description that can be used for a Republican.

“Everybody’s entitled to be an idiot.”

A sufficient plurality of insane, greedy people can tank any democratic system ever devised, apparently.

Optimism opens the door to great things.

There are more Russians standing up to Putin than Republicans.

When you’re in more danger from the IDF than from Russian shelling, that’s really bad.

Is it irresponsible to speculate? It is irresponsible not to.

Yeah, with this crowd one never knows.

The gop is a fucking disgrace.

Trump’s cabinet: like a magic 8 ball that only gives wrong answers.

This blog will pay for itself.

Putin must be throwing ketchup at the walls.

DeSantis transforming Florida into 1930s Germany with gators and theme parks.

Why is it so hard for them to condemn hate?

Also, are you sure you want people to rate your comments?

Find someone who loves you the way trump and maga love traitors.

You are here: Home / Medium Cool / Medium Cool – Comedies!

Medium Cool – Comedies!

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Medium Cool is a weekly series related to popular culture, mostly film, TV, and books, with some music and games thrown in.  We hope it’s a welcome break from the anger, hate, and idiocy we see almost daily from the other side in the political sphere.

Arguments welcomed, opinions respected, fools un-suffered.  We’re here every Sunday at 7 pm.

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.

Reader Interactions

239Comments

  1. 1.

    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).

  2. 2.

    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.

  3. 3.

    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.

  5. 5.

    bbleh

    The Return Of The Pink Panther.  Definitely the best of Sellers-as-Clouseau, and that’s saying something.

  6. 6.

    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.)

  8. 8.

    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.

  9. 9.

    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.

  10. 10.

    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.

  12. 12.

    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.

  13. 13.

    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!

  14. 14.

    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.

  15. 15.

    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

  20. 20.

    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.

  23. 23.

    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.

  24. 24.

    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.

  25. 25.

    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.

  27. 27.

    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.

  29. 29.

    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.

  30. 30.

    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”!!

  31. 31.

    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

  35. 35.

    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.

     

  36. 36.

    lowtechcyclist

    @MisterDancer: ​

    I adore Blazing Saddles until the ending scenes. It really just feels like the writers ran out of jokes, for me, sadly.

    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.

  37. 37.

    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.

  38. 38.

    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.

  40. 40.

    frosty

    Looks like 90% of my favorites have been named, including ones I forgot.

    Did anyone mention Dirty Rotten Scoundrels?

  41. 41.

    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.

  42. 42.

    Baron Elmo

    No foreign films? Two I’d recommend would be:

    1. Big Deal on Madonna Street (1958) — The original gang-that-can’t-shoot-straight movie… often imitated, never duplicated. The climactic shot of their big “heist” gets my vote for the single funniest moment in the history of cinema.
    2. Delicatessen (1991) — A jet black post-apocalyptic comedy about an apartment building where the tenants indulge in cannibalism to survive, the eats provided by a series of hired repairmen? Count me in!
  43. 43.

    Brachiator

    More importantly, why wasn’t The Blues Brothers in that list???

    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

    Plucky Englishwoman Joan Webster (Wendy Hiller) travels to the remote islands of the Scottish Hebrides in order to marry a wealthy industrialist. Trapped by inclement weather on the Isle of Mull and unable to continue to her destination, Joan finds herself charmed by the straightforward, no-nonsense islanders around her, and becomes increasingly attracted to naval officer Torquil MacNeil (Roger Livesey), who holds a secret that may change her life forever.

    And to the magnificent Trouble in Paradise, 1932

    Thief Gaston Monescu (Herbert Marshall) and pickpocket Lily (Miriam Hopkins) are partners in crime and love. Working for perfume company executive Mariette Colet (Kay Francis), the two crooks decide to combine their criminal talents to rob their employer. Under the alias of Monsieur Laval, Gaston uses his position as Mariette’s personal secretary to become closer to her.

    Just off the top of my head.

    ETA. Recently watched Cocoanuts. Marx Brothers. Big fun.

    Also love Buster Keaton, especially Sherlock Jr.

  46. 46.

    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.

  48. 48.

    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.

  50. 50.

    delphinium

    To add to all the others mentioned, A Fish Called Wanda.

    As for tv, the first couple seasons of Arrested Development.

  51. 51.

    MisterDancer

    @bmoak: Remove all the musical numbers, which are awesome, and there’s not much to the Blues Brothers.

    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!

  52. 52.

    Deputinize Eurasia from the Kuriles to St Petersburg

    Tin Cup

    A Fish Called Wanda

    Let It Ride

    Captain Ron

    Club Paradise

    Caddyshack

  55. 55.

    Craig

    The Righteous Gemstones on HBO is off the wall crazy. Another great supporting role for Walton Goggins.

  56. 56.

    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

  57. 57.

    randal sexton

    Galaxy quest.  Mystery men. Dodge ball. Zoolander. My cousin Vinny. All mostly comedic and on my perfect movie list.

  61. 61.

    Marc

    @Baron Elmo: Delicatessen (1991) — A jet black post-apocalyptic comedy about an apartment building where the tenants indulge in cannibalism to survive, the eats provided by a series of hired repairmen? Count me in!

    Also, the not quite so black comedy about cannibalism, Eating Raoul from 1982.

  62. 62.

    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.

  64. 64.

    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.

  66. 66.

    WaterGirl

    @Alison Rose:

    Some Like It Hot, Young Frankenstein, Don’t Tell Mom the Babysitter’s Dead, The First Wives Club, It

    I was doing a quick skim and Hot Young Frankenstein jumped out at me, and I thought “I’ve never heard of that one!”

  67. 67.

    Josie

    Blues Brothers, Mel Brooks movies, Monte Python movies, Will Ferrell’s Talladega Nights.​
     ETA: The Three Amigos

  71. 71.

    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.

  72. 72.

    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.

  73. 73.

    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?)

  74. 74.

    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”

  77. 77.

    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.

  78. 78.

    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.

  81. 81.

    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

  82. 82.

    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.

  84. 84.

    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?)

  86. 86.

    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.

  87. 87.

    delphinium

    A couple romantic comedies: Amélie and Bridget Jones’s Diary.

    And will add the British sitcom, Keeping Up Appearances.

  91. 91.

    Glidwrith

    Murder By Death – the most excellent Sir Alec Guinness playing a blind butler and various old school actors chewing the scenery.

  96. 96.

    WV Blondie

    @raven: All on my list, too! A Fish Called Wanda, Roxanne, everything Monte Python, Legally Blonde. Damn, I could list another dozen.

  98. 98.

    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.

  100. 100.

    lowtechcyclist

    @Brachiator: ​
     

    ETA. Recently watched Cocoanuts. Marx Brothers. Big fun.

    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”

  101. 101.

    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.

  107. 107.

    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.

  109. 109.

    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.

  110. 110.

    zhena gogolia

    Well, I haven’t forgotten Bananas, Sleeper, Love & Death, or Take the Money and Run. Sorry not sorry.

  113. 113.

    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.

  114. 114.

    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

  115. 115.

    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?

  116. 116.

    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.

  122. 122.

    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.

  125. 125.

    Brachiator

    @zhena gogolia:

    Well, I adore I Know Where I’m Going, but it’s not exactly a laff riot.

    Comedy can be a broad category. There’s stuff that makes me smile more than laugh.

  126. 126.

    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?

  130. 130.

    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.

  132. 132.

    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.

  133. 133.

    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

  134. 134.

    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.

  136. 136.

    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.

  138. 138.

    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

  139. 139.

    RSA

    @piratedan:  I can’t go without giving a plug to the MST3k, Rifftrax, Cinematic Titanic folks for allowing us to enjoy bad movies.

    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:

    Kro-Bar: Sorry, sometimes my wife forgets that she is not an alien from outer space.

  140. 140.

    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).

  141. 141.

    billcinsd

    TV Shows

    The Tick (any version)

    Andy Richter Controls the Universe

    Psych

    The Critic

    Andy Barker, P.I,

  142. 142.

    Craig

    After Hours is a wild ride downtown. Back when SOHO was edgy and scary. Scorsese knows comedy, Goodfellas is funny as hell.

  143. 143.

    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.

  144. 144.

    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.

  148. 148.

    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.

  151. 151.

    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.

  152. 152.

    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

  153. 153.

    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:

    youtu.be/THNPmhBl-8I?feature=shared

  155. 155.

    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.

  156. 156.

    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.

  157. 157.

    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!

  158. 158.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @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

    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

  159. 159.

    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.

  160. 160.

    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.

  163. 163.

    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.

  164. 164.

    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.)

  165. 165.

    marcopolo

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist:

    Murray was such a dick to Geena Davis.

    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.

  167. 167.

    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 

  168. 168.

    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

  170. 170.

    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.

  172. 172.

    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.

  174. 174.

    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 

  177. 177.

    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).

  180. 180.

    Mirona

    No love for the animated films?  I went in cold to Shrek, no clue what it was about,  never laughed so hard!

  181. 181.

    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.

  183. 183.

    Citizen Dave

    TV:

    Joe Pera Talks with You

    Tenacious D

    Eastbound and Down

    How To With John Wilson

    The Rehearsal

    Jury Duty

  184. 184.

    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
    .

  185. 185.

    Brachiator

    @Matt McIrvin:

    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.

    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.

  186. 186.

    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 Muttley Professor Fate and Max. The film drags in the middle but the last half hour has a great spoof of The Prisoner of Zenda. 

  187. 187.

    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.

  188. 188.

    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.

  189. 189.

    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.

  190. 190.

    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.

  191. 191.

    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?

  192. 192.

    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.

  196. 196.

    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.

  198. 198.

    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
    .

  199. 199.

    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?

  202. 202.

    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.

  203. 203.

    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

  204. 204.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @Pink Tie:

    Surprised at so many mentioning Blues Brothers… that one is mid.

    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

  207. 207.

    NotMax

    @Timill

    “It came to pass…”

    Frankie Howerd and subtlety were never in the same room. Not that there’s anything wrong with that.
    ;)

  208. 208.

    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.

  209. 209.

    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

  211. 211.

    kalakal

    Educating Rita and Shirley Valentine are films I can watch again and again. Nice blend of humour and sadness

  213. 213.

    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.

  214. 214.

    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

  215. 215.

    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…

  222. 222.

    David 🌈 ☘The Establishment☘🌈 Koch

    Uncle Buck

    Volunteers (Tom Tuttle of Tacoma Washington)

    Pee Wee’s Big Adventure

    Bustin Loose

    Not Another Teen Movie

  223. 223.

    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!

  225. 225.

    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.

  226. 226.

    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.

    Arrested Development (original, not NetFlix)

    I loved the original so much, couldn’t make it through the first episode of the reboot.

  227. 227.

    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.

  228. 228.

    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.

  229. 229.

    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.

  230. 230.

    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.

  231. 231.

    Ajabu

    • You all have covered virtually, all my favorite comedies, except one:
      Where’s Poppa?
    • Ruth Gordon runs away with that demented, old lady performance and sight gags like the taxi picking up the gorilla are dead on.
    • if you’ve never seen it, do yourself a favor…
  232. 232.

    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.

  233. 233.

    David 🌈 ☘The Establishment☘🌈 Koch

    The Distinguished Gentleman

    Abbott and Costello Meet the IRS

  237. 237.

    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

  238. 238.

    BillD

    I couldn’t believe I got to comment 100 without seeing “The Hangover.” Even “Hangover 2” was pretty good.

  239. 239.

    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.

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