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.
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I’m not sure we’ve ever talked comedies on Medium Cool. Have we? Shrug. Even if we have, who cares, let’s do it again.
The idea came from deadwood dexwood in last week’s post, and his comment may or may not have been intended as a joke. Either way, it was a great idea. Comedies. High brow, low brow. Serious conversation, or silly.
As I was checking out various clips from Airplane, I snorted twice in the first minute of the Airplane clip above – so I figured that must be the right choice.
I hope this makes up for last week’s post!
For those who are new to Medium Cool, this is not an open thread.
Baud
My Cousin Vinny.
Nuff said.
Anonymous at Work
Blazing Saddles.
Then, as now, plenty miss the humor. Then again, that’s my elbow
NotMax
“Dying is easy. Comedy is hard.”
Hannah Huckaby
My Man Godfrey (1936)
funlady75
Some Like it Hot.
Pete Downunder
The Odd Couple. With only a few misses Neil Simon has been consistently funny.
piratedan
just happy to laugh because it feels like a weight is lifted when I do…
it’s one of those “no wrong answers” things to go from absurdist entries like the Three Stooges and Marx Brothers as they graduated to films like What’s Up, Doc? and The Great Race.
Character driven fare like A Fish Called Wanda and The Princess Bride to those that handle parody to an extreme (ty Mel Brooks) and Airplane.
am thankful that they still make them these days and that I have so many on DVD for when they stop.
West of the Rockies
Not everyone’s cuppa, but The Big Lebowski. I saw a Saturday matinee and was in stitches. No one else did more than chuckle.
NotMax
Gonna go on a different track and cite old time radio.
Vic and Sade
The Jack Benny Program
The Fred Allen Show
PaulB
What types of comedy do you like? Not like? What is it about a specific movie or show that makes it funny for you?
For me, I really dislike what I’ve heard described as “cringe” comedy. “The Office” is a classic example. I can’t watch that show, even though I know it’s the favorite of quite a few people.
Suzanne
Three Amigos. Spaceballs. When Harry Met Sally.
West of the Rockies
@piratedan:
Ah, old school… I loved Chumps st Oxford, a Laurel and Hardy classic. Modern Times (Chaplin). Fabulous.
Anonymous at Work
First rule of a parody is to live the source material. Love what it tries to do, then make it squirm for how it falls short. Never make it bleed.
Suzanne
Dirty Rotten Scoundrels makes me laugh until I can’t breathe.
PaulB
I remember watching “Airplane” when it first came out in theaters. There was a gentleman a few rows back that was roaring with laughter almost from the very beginning, at times seeming like he was literally gasping for breath. Quite a few of us looked over at him, wondering if he was going to make it. I have to say that it made the movie funnier, though.
Mr. Prosser
British series productions of the Terry Pratchett novels; Going Postal, The Colour of Magic and Hogfather
Citizen Dave
I only learned recently that Airplane! is a very close remake of the 1957 film Zero Hour!. To wit: youtube.com/watch?v=8-v2BHNBVCs
Fun Lebowski fact (which I read but think is true) is that Lebowski only takes two actions in the film on his own accord; otherwise he is doing things that others are telling him to do. Unusual for a film protagonist
Side note: German filmmaker Werner Herzog is profiled on 60 Minutes tonight–either 2nd or 3rd story–going to check it out now.
Scout211
Comedies, whether film or television comedies often reflect the times and the popular culture. Some will age well, like Airplane! and others do not age well at all. About 10 years ago we tried to re-watch Stripes, a movie that we thought was hilarious when it first was released, but we were so disgusted at the misogyny and just awfulness of the characters that we couldn’t finish it. Plus the Bill Murray stink killed the humor.
And then there are movies that we loved as a family, particularly when the kids were teens and they watched silly comedies with us in the 80s and 90s. Animal House, National Lampoon’s various vacation movies. Those movies are still funny but not as funny as when the kids were young and we could run the lines with each other and laugh again.
We really loved those silly movies and Leslie Nielsen was the best at that.
BisonJones
(1) Young Frankenstein — Mel Brooks and Gene Wilder (and the amazing supporting cast) at the heights of their power.
(2) Monty Python and the Holy Grail — Just insane and silly and clever all wrapped up together.
Kristine
Screwball comedies, sometimes with an edge, work for me.
Arsenic and Old Lace
What’s Up, Doc? The Peter Bogdanovich tribute to 30’s screwball.
The Alec Guinness Ealing Studio comedies (The Man in the White Suit, The Ladykillers, Kind Hearts and Coronets)
sab
@PaulB: The stewardess from Airplane is now Kathy Bates’s sister on Matlock. Weird but effective.
Scout211
Hey jackals, it would be really nice to hear why you liked or didn’t like a comedy or how it affected you or what about it was so funny or not funny.
wenchacha
I loved Mel Brooks! I loved Woody Allen, but that has waned. Wish I had known more about Nichols and May when I was young.
Pink Panther series with Peter Sellers was such a silly fun.
I swore I would never miss the 70s. So much “Afternoon Delight,” and just a trend toward polyester and disco. Back then, I couldn’t appreciate any of it, because I liked acoustic singer-songwriters.
But when I watch movies from that era, I like the way they look. I like some of the designers from the era, too. Nostalgic, I guess.
TBone
I LOL at Monsieur Hulot every time!
en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monsieur_Hulot
Especially this one, but all are really funny:
en.m.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Les_Vacances_de_Monsieur_Hulot&wprov=rarw1
Mon Oncle:
Central Planning
Seems like everyone is hitting the movies I would say.
I’ll add Archer for a TV series, but maybe not some of the middle seasons.
NotMax
@Anonymous at Work
Made me recall one such labor of love, The Gamers: Dorkness Rising.
:)
WaterGirl
@Scout211: I was just composing a comment to say that if Steeplejack were still here he would be calling me up to express frustration that some people are just listing shows or movies and not talking about them.
He was cranky about it because it would happen even when I ask people to tell us the what and the why in at least every other Medium Cool post. :-)
Old Dan and Little Ann
The original Bad News Bears is one of my all time favorite funny movies along with Caddyshack. Just the other day a friend sent me a Weird Science meme and we wound up exchanging quotes for 20 minutes. I memorized that movie 40 years ago. Coming to America. Hilarious. I look forward to watching The Bird Cage with my wee one when she is a bit older. I love that movie.
frosty
@Baud: The backstory* to My Cousin Vinnie is that some of the suits didn’t want the Mona Lisa Vito character; they didn’t think she brought anything to the movie.
Nope, only the best lines during the courtroom scene and only an Oscar for Marisa Tomei.
This is one of those movies that if I see it in passing, I’ll keep watching. League of Their Own fits that bill, too.
* … that I’ve read, don’t remember where and I’m not going to research it now.
chris green
Underrated:
Bow finger. Both Eddie Murphy and Steve Martin are hilarious and it skewers scientology
zeecube
Would “”Eyes Whide Shut” count? It’s a serious movie but when it ended a guy in the back of the theater yelled a big ” F you!” at the screen. Made me laugh.
jackmac
AIRPLANE!!!!
“Looks like I picked the wrong week to quit (fill in the blank)”
WaterGirl
we have clearance, Clarence. Roger, Roger. What’s the vector Victor?
Suzanne
@zeecube: Eyes Wide Shut was incredibly boring and, like, incredibly not-horny.
eclare
A comedy that lives up after decades is Some Like It Hot. So funny, from beginning to that unforgettable ending line.
NeenerNeener
Monty Python’s The Meaning of Life is my all time favorite comedy. And it gave us such gems as the “machine that goes PING!” and the song ‘Every Sperm is Sacred”. Who knew that years later that joke song would be the platform for the Republican party?
frosty
@Old Dan and Little Ann: We just watched Caddyshack with my son who’s gone big into golf. A lot of it wasn’t that great, but OMG Rodney Dangerfield! He killed it in every scene. What a delivery for every line!
WaterGirl
Did anyone watch the compilation of Airplane clips up top? So good!
Auntie Anne
For me, Bringing Up Baby with Katherine Hepburn and Cary Grant always has me rolling. The two of them singing to that leopard just never fails to make me laugh.
Also a big fan of Monty Python’s Flying Circus and of course, Monty Python and the Holy Grail. Their use of language, some of the slapstick – they are just funny.
frosty
@WaterGirl: I start laughing just reading that one line!
laura
This is Spinal Tap. I could do an oral dissertation all/any day of the week.
TBone
@frosty: Mona Lisa Vito is still my spirit animal. I had a slight resemblance when in the flower of my yute!
eclare
@Suzanne:
Yep. Such an ego trip for Kubrick.
Quaker in a Basement
@West of the Rockies: The Coens are popular at my house, too. Our favorite is O, Brother Where Art Thou? It’s immensely quotable.
bjacques
Canadian Bacon, because it arrived before Wag The Dog and had goofy fun with Canadian clichés, especially the graffiti on the truck.
Repo Man because of Duke’s death scene and the sublime ending.
SCTV Movies Of The Week, like Polynesiantown and I Was A Teenaged Communist. The first with clueless John Candy and the second because of the sendup of early Cold War propaganda on our side.
Speaking of which…if we’re not limited to movies, National Lampoon’s “Commie Plot Comics” and Doug Kenny’s contributions to the Highschool Yearbook were hilariously bleak.
The Life And Loves Of A She-Devil and Death Becomes Her are when I discovered Meryl Streep who I’d considered po-faced could do comedy and I fell a bit in love with her.
Trivia Man
@PaulB: could gave been my dad. He had a very loud and infectious laugh that filled theatres. I remember watching the Muppet Show, and when nuryev did swine lake with miss piggy he fell off the couch.
Kristine
@Kristine:
I loved Arsenic and Old Lace because 1) Cary Grant, 2) parts of it were creepy/scary (Raymond Massey), 3) overall, it was darkish.
I think What’s Up, Doc? is a jewel. It introduced Madeline Kahn to larger movie audiences, featured ‘character comedians’ like Kenneth Mars and Austin Pendleton and Barbra Streisand at her peak.
The Ealing Comedies with Alec Guinness. Some social commentary (esp TMitWS). Darkish with great acting.
TBone
@eclare: oh yeah, plus cross dressing! Joe E. Brown at the end with Jack in the motorboat hahaha!
Bostondreams
It’s TV, and maybe it’s recency bias, but I find The Righteous Gemstones, with Danny McBride, John Goodman, and others in a fantastic cast playing an evangelical mega church family. Just started its fourth season. It’s so good!
edit: and the child actors playing the main three siblings as children in the late 80s through the 90s are just amazing!
zhena gogolia
@Citizen Dave: You have to watch Zero Hour! and then Airplane! Or vice versa. Hilarious.
Hot Fuzz is also one of the funniest movies ever made.
Tehanu
My favorite comedy movie is one most won’t know, Carnival in Flanders (La Kermesse héroïque), a French film from 1935, about what happens when the Spanish army marches into a small Flemish town. The cowardly mayor pretends to be dead while his wife and the other townswomen handle everything. There was a very short-lived Broadway musical adaptation, book by Preston Sturges (!), that produced the song Here’s That Rainy Day.
And after that … The Court Jester and Start the Revolution Without Me. And Blackadder in all its incarnations. Yes, I majored in history, why do you ask?
eclare
@Quaker in a Basement:
Love the Soggy Bottom Boys.
Scout211
From Airplane2!
Over macho Grande
We used to try to recite this whole scene, without notes. The kids were great at it.
zhena gogolia
@jackmac: That line comes from Zero Hour!
TBone
Holly Hunter and Nicholas Cage in Raising Arizona. It was the first of its kind in my memory, my parents took me to the theater to see it because it was groundbreaking. John Goodman, Frances McDormand et al.
en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raising_Arizona
zhena gogolia
@Tehanu: Or was he a blind man?
narya
@Baud: I rented it (back in the VHS days) and watched it alone, and laughed almost nonstop. “And you blend.”
zhena gogolia
For a recent comedy that turns dark, as I said in an earlier thread, we just enjoyed Douglas Is Cancelled, written by Steven Moffat, with Hugh Bonneville, Karen Gillan, and a terrific Ben Miles. It’s in 4 parts — part 1 is hilarious, part 2 kind of drags, but then it blasts of with parts 3 and 4.
Britbox
TBone
@Tehanu: OH! I’ve seen that exactly once, thank you for bringing it back to mind! Hilarious! (Carnival in Flanders)
Bostondreams
@TBone: did you say yute? What is a yute?
:-p
narya
Holy Grail and Spinal Tap also still make me laugh out loud despite the many viewings.
thruppence
A rare Martin Scorsese comedy, After Hours, cracks me up. Griffin Dunne plays an ordinary guy who goes out in late night New York to meet a lady he met in a coffee shop, and everything imaginable goes wrong. Escalating until he’s being chased down the street by an angry mob. Lots of wonderful minor characters by famous actors, including the late great Teri Garr. I think it’s on one of the streaming services now.
Quaker in a Basement
@bjacques: Canadian Bacon is still vastly underrated. I suspect it might start turning up a lot more often given Trump’s continued hints about making Canada a state. The cast was amazing: Dan Ackroyd and Rhea Perlman are the two that spring to mind for me.
zhena gogolia
For a brilliant Soviet romcom, Office Romance can’t be beat. Brilliant stage actors Alisa Freindlikh, Andrey Myagkov, and Oleg Basilashvili, who are all hilarious.
The sequel starred Zelensky, and he’s great but the film is meh.
The original is on YouTube with English subtitles.
Scout211
@Baud:
No, you can’t say My Cousin Vinny without saying,
POSITRACTION!
TBone
@zhena gogolia: I adore Hot Fuzz and agree!
Aslo: Superbad!
en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Superbad
NotMax
@Quaker in a Basement
Presumably you’re aware whence came that title — from the 1941 Preston Sturges film Sullivan’s Travels.
Trivia Man
I like screwball comedies with the unexpected twists. Clockwise by John cleese holds up. Id like to see The Man With One Red Shoe again, original french or american remake, to see how that holds.
frosty
@WaterGirl: I just finished the Airplane clips. Yep, still funny. I read that Lloyd Bridges read the script and didn’t get it, didn’t want to try to be funny. Then Robert Stack told him “Lloyd, they just want us to be ourselves. That’s the joke.”
Quaker in a Basement
@NotMax: No, I didn’t know about that. I’ll have to look into it.
eclare
@Scout211:
Hahaha…
TBone
If you’ve ever been to Texas, you’ll know why this movie is a comedy classic! I can’t explain it any better than that…
en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lone_Star_State_of_Mind_(film)
Trivia Man
@Old Dan and Little Ann: I watched bad news bears recently, still love it. Distinctive characters, great villain team, and joie de vivre all around.
Also same era, Paper Moon with tatum oneal. Im always a sucker for the wise ass young girl character and she is perfect. “But i gave you a twenty! It said ‘Happy birthday Addie’ on the back.” Sniffle sniffle.
Just look at that parking lot
@WaterGirl:
@Scout211: Dissecting comedies as to why as to someone finds them mildly assuming, gets a good laugh or makes them roll on the floor with snot coming out their nose, takes the fun out of it. You either find it funny or you don’t. Explaining to someone why it’s you find it funny or not is pointless.
eclare
Funny how so many of us commented on My Cousin Vinny.
youtu.be/g4bftQ4xxFc?si=fOXqmNRw7lYJFHVG
Joe Pesci is great.
Trivia Man
@frosty: and they still study it in law schools because of the courtroom accuracy.
David_C
I like a lot of these, but Buster Keaton in Seven Chances had me in stitches. The premise, he has to get married to inherit money and is unsuccessful so his friend placed an ad and a church full of vengeful brides shows up and tries to do him harm. Funny and awesome at the same time.
TBone
@Bostondreams:
My law office co-workers teased me about it all the time! And the “MY BIOLOGICAL CLOCK” scene was epic (my boyfriend’s brother taunted him about why we were engaged for such a long time).
Also, this guy is my twin spirit animal!
🎶
m.youtube.com/watch?v=hIoPlLEXM2Y
eclare
@David_C:
The General.
WaterGirl
@Scout211: I hardly remember Airplane 2. Is it as good as the original?
Trivia Man
@Bostondreams:
I’m a Ute! Class of ‘89
RevRick
Who’s on first?
The Muppet Show.
The Three Stooges
Benny Hill
Ghostbusters
TBone
I am not ashamed to admit I love Madea and frequently quote her!
WaterGirl
Can Due South be considered a comedy? I loved the humor in that show, and the relationship between the mountie and the cop. Is it comedy?
In the same vein, I never saw My Cousin Vinny, but i never would have guessed that it was a comedy. Or was it a regular drama that was also funny?
Suzanne
@WaterGirl: My Cousin Vinny is absolutely a comedy, and it is one of the greatest ever.
Scout211
I’s say it was almost as good. But YMMV.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@WaterGirl:
It does have Captain Kirk
Jacel
“The In Laws” (1979) with Peter Falk and Alan Arkin has a chain of hilarious over-the-top
absurd situations, but you never stop caring about what happens to the characters.
Andrew Bergman’s script somehow keeps that balance.
So much of the humor rises from the situations and characters that there’s not many
lines to quote on their own, but “SERPENTINE!!!” is tempting to shout out in any stressful moment.
TBone
@WaterGirl: I adore Due South.
Also this classic Jack Nicholson:
en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goin%27_South
Fixed link I hope.
Also starring Mary Steenbergen, Christopher Lloyd, John Belushi, Danny DeVito, and Ed Begley, Jr.
Trivia Man
@thruppence: great call, id forgotten about that. Cheech marin too, i think. And a very bizarre artist who does paper maiche.
WaterGirl
I really enjoyed all the Lethal Weapon movies for the comedy and the interplay between the characters.
eclare
@WaterGirl:
What? My Cousin Vinny is hilarious and brilliant.
TBone
@Jacel: hard agree
WaterGirl
@Just look at that parking lot: Yeah, but you can talk about the scenes that were rolling on the floor funny, right? Of the funny lines?
Like in Airport, the two black guys were talking, and there were subtitles. One says (not sure how to spell it) sheee-it and the translation was “golly”. That still makes me laugh.
NotMax
@WaterGirl
Leslie N. made an entire series of comedic ads in the U.K., also too, playing off his Frank Drebin role on American TV. Here’s just a couple.
“It’s not red. And there’s no rocks in it.”
:)
rekoob
“One-Two-Three”, a 1961 film by Billy Wilder, always tickles my funny bone. I saw it first in college, and then there was a small theatrical release in Zurich in the mid-80s when I was just learning German. Seeing some familiar actors — James Cagney, Arlene Francis, Leon Askin, Red Buttons — and knowing that this was Cagney’s last feature film for about 20-odd years made it special. Fast-paced and full of Cold War imagery.
imdb.com/title/tt0055256
WaterGirl
@Jacel:
Serpentine!!!
Trivia Man
@WaterGirl: and mrs cleaver spent some time getting private coaching from the black actors, they were able to improve the original script and present genuine rapport on screen.
WaterGirl
@NotMax: Funny!
WaterGirl
@Trivia Man: I speak jive.
Pretty sure I know more lines from Airplane than from any other movie.
TBone
Anything by Betty White.
zhena gogolia
Uneven film, but this scene in Mickey Blue Eyes is hilarious.
TBone
@rekoob: going on my to rent list!
Oh, after seeing the trailer, I now remember it – great film!
zhena gogolia
@TBone: You will love it. Cagney is hilarious. And Horst Buchholz is divine.
TBone
@zhena gogolia: I just realized I’ve seen and do love it – very worth a rewatch. And Cagney is perfect for holiday tomorrow!
Mai Naem mobi
@chris green: Bowfinger’s on my list as well.
Also, Midnight Run – so many memorable scenes. DeNiro and Charles Grodin are so perfectly cast. I haven’t seen Trading Places mentioned yet.
TBone
@zhena gogolia: hahaha! You just reminded me to say I love Johnny Dangerously! Michael Keaton:
en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johnny_Dangerously
BellaPea
The Birdcage is a masterpiece. Kudos to the late Gene Hackman for his perfect comedic timing. Outstanding cast. When the Coen brothers do comedy, they are masters: the supermarket chase with Nick Cage in Raising Arizona, the whole O Brother thing. Hilarious.
Jim Appleton
@TBone: Seconded Miseur Hulot.
Favorite scene, forget which film, boys getting people to walk into a lamp post.
Just look at that parking lot
The Heartbreak Kid from 1972 with Charles Grodin, Cyril Shepard and Eddie Albert. I never can eat cauliflower without thinking of this movie.
TBone
@Jim Appleton:
Playtime is retrospectively considered Tati’s magnum opus, his most daring work, and one of the greatest films of all time
en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Playtime
You have very good taste!
pika
What We Do in the Shadows please everybody watch
Old Dan and Little Ann
So many of the 80’s comedies are wholly inappropriate for today’s world. Revenge of the Nerds for instance. Funny but beyond cringe now. Yikes.
WaterGirl
@BellaPea:
Agree! After watching the 10 minute video up top, I need to see it again.
TBone
@Just look at that parking lot: I’m a huge fan of all things Charles Grodin.
TBone
Okay, I just have to shout out renaissance man Bill Murray. He’s done so much for our world of entertainment!
JMG
It’s a Gift– Has to be at least one W.C, Fields movie in this thread.
Trivia Man
@TBone: When i lived in los Angeles i was in a couple test audiences. Pre release and then do a survey after – did you like it, understand it, have any suggestions and so forth. The 2 i remember are johnny dangerously and Mask.
stinger
Bringing Up Baby, His Girl Friday, Ball of Fire, It Happened One Night, Tootsie, Frasier, Due South!
Trivia Man
@TBone: and keaton’s earlier gem – Night Shift with henry wInkler and shelly long. The movie has one of my favorite funny lines ever – “Barney Rubble! What an actor!”
Ben Cisco
@Just look at that parking lot: As A Whitney Brown once told me (in another media space eons ago), “Never explain the joke.”
My favorites have already been mostly covered here, but on the off chance it hasn’t been mentioned, I’ll give a shout-out to “Friday” with Ice Cube, Chris Tucker, Bernie Mack, and a whole crew of very funny people.
AliceBlue
Shout-out to No Time for Sergeants. My dad was career air force and this was one of his favorite movies. The scene with the radio (HELLO? HELLO!) got him on the floor every time-he was a radio operator during the war.
pajaro
A Night at the Opera and Duck Soup
Bananas and Love and Death
Blazing Saddles
The Big Lebowski
One of you mentioned Midnight Run. I saw it a few months ago, it’s aged remarkably well.
My wife, sitting next to me wants to add The Producers and The Proposal
Trivia Man
One more observation on My Cousin Vinny… fred gwynn was robbed. Clearly an Oscar worthy performance as the judge.
Wanderer
@WaterGirl: Due South is a very funny show. Another with Paul Gross as well is Slings and Arrows. Very funny show about running a summer season Shakespeare Festival production.
Splitting Image
I’ve always loved the mad anarchy of the Marx Brothers movies. The best of them (like Duck Soup and A Night at the Opera) just blaze through gag after gag without even trying to make sense. The Abraham/Zucker brothers movies, like Airplane! and Top Secret! follow the same recipe. So does Monty Python and the Holy Grail. All of these movies are popular clips on youtube because the context of most scenes is unimportant.
At the other extreme, there are great comedies that focus on the interplay between characters and the humour comes from the fact that the characters don’t get along all that well, or can’t deal with the situation they are in. When Harry Met Sally is great, as is Planes, Trains, and Automobiles.
One of my favourite movies is Babette’s Feast, which I don’t think has a single joke in it, but which is hilarious because the last half of the movie is set at a single dinner gathering where a bunch of dour Puritans try to avoid talking about the fact that they are eating the most delicious dinner any of them will ever have.
I always give a shout-out to Laurel and Hardy when comedy is mentioned. Laurel was one of the greatest gag-writers who ever lived and Hardy could get laughs just by breathing. Big Business, Towed in the Hole, and Helpmates are particular favourites. Some of their shorts have the slightest premises you ever saw in a movie. Me and My Pal milks an entire film’s worth of jokes out of putting together a jigsaw puzzle.
I just re-watched the 1995 Pride and Prejudice again. I’m always struck by how much use they got out of the minor characters, like Mariah Lucas and Mr. Gardiner, and how much of the story is told silently through eye motions, like when Darcy rolls his eyes when Lady Catherine is talking and everybody but Charlotte is struck with horror when Lizzy first talks back to Lady C. David Bamber and Anna Chancellor each get a dozen moments to shine, even when they haven’t got any lines in a particular scene.
Splitting Image
@TBone:
Groundhog Day is my favourite of his. It would have been a decent comedy with another actor, but he was simply perfect for it. No one else could have hit it out of the park like he did.
lollipopguild
The Sting. I know its a buddy/caper film but it is quite funny in spots-great cast/script. For tv , the Dick vanDyke show and later on Mary tyler Moore and the two Bob Newhart shows.
p.a.
“No matter how you slice it, it’s still Meatloaf.”
Audience participation movie!
Just look at that parking lot
@Trivia Man: There were some great lines in Johnny Dangerously. One of them being when Maureen Stapleton’s character tells her new daughter in law that “she goes both ways”.
SW
“This is the End”
”Idiocracy”
Leinie
I love My Favorite Year. The love letter to live television, but more Peter O’Toole’s marvelous performance and ability to laugh at himself.
One of my criteria is can I watch it more than once and still laugh? My Cousin Vinny rings that bell. So does Flirting with Disaster, which had me howling. Ben Stiller’s character visiting all these strangers to claim kinship, and the absurd situations.
I also love the Cary Grant comedies. His Girl Friday, Bringing up Baby, The Philadelphia Story. The speed of the dialogue! It isn’t lazy humor.
zhena gogolia
@Splitting Image: Good comments on P&P!
Mr. Bemused Senior
I nominate Murder by Death, a great send-up of the mystery genre, and what a cast: Alec Guinness, Peter Sellers, David Niven, Elsa Lanchester, Maggie Smith, Peter Falk, James Coco. Oh, also Truman Capote. I think Nancy Walker had become famous for commercials and casting her as the deaf/mute maid was a stroke of genius.
The Pink Panther came out when I was a kid. That was my first exposure to Peter Sellers. Later I learned of the Goon Show. WBAI (NYC Pacifica radio) played episodes on Saturday nights and I was a devoted listener. There was a fair amount of stereotypes we might cringe at nowadays, but I think it’s still funny.
My Cousin Vinny: Mona Lisa Vito was the perfect expert witness.
Harrison Wesley
@West of the Rockies: Lebowski for me is to comedy what Apocalypse Now is to drama. Have seen both many times.
khead
@Mai Naem mobi:
Wow! I was looking to see if anyone had posted either of these and you hit the exacta! Midnight Run is also the “smokingest” movie ever. DeNiro smokes EVERYwhere during the movie.
eclare
I just saw the photo for today, gorgeous. Thank you WaterGirl.
eclare
@Mr. Bemused Senior:
I loved Murder By Death although I don’t understand the ending.
Truman Capote, wow.
mrmoshpotato
All Marx brothers movies will wang chung everyone in the face until the end of time – seriously!
PaulWartenberg
@Trivia Man:
“Your Honor, may I have permission to treat Ms. Vito as a hostile witness?”
“You think I’m hostile now, wait ’til you see me tonight.”
“Do you two know each other?”
“Yeah, she’s my fiancée.”
“Well, that would certainly explain the hostility!”
Hamlet of Melnibone
Heathers
”Football season is over, Veronica. Kurt and Ram had nothing left to offer the school except date rapes and AIDS jokes.”
”Whether to kill yourself or not is one of the most important decisions a teenager can make”
Jim Appleton
@TBone: Mon Oncle
youtu.be/lhAdxXy6UTs?si=ys5LxWVeH8cJ3zAR
geg6
Every single one of my favorite movies is a comedy. Easily my favorite genre, no contest. In no particular order except the first I will name, which is my all-time favorite movie;
(This Is) Spinal Tap
When Harry Met Sally
The Princess Bride
Best in Show
A Fish Called Wanda
A Mighty Wind
Waiting for Guffman
The Producers
Blazing Saddles
Young Frankenstein
Monty Python and the Holy Grail
The Life of Brian
There are more (especially honorable mention to Wilder and Pryor in Silver Streak and Bill Murray in Groundhog Day) but these are my top dozen favorite movies that I can watch over and over again and still laugh my ass off every time.
TBone
@Jim Appleton: oh yeah, I got that very wrong! Thanks for the correct!
BlueGuitarist
@WaterGirl:
Hope you see My Cousin Vinny sometime soon – highly recommend!
Folks have mentioned some other great comedies;
anyone else a fan of Dr. Strangelove?
Cheryl from Maryland
Since Gene Hackman’s death, most of his films are streaming for free. I’ve been watching them. And I’m so impressed with his ability to perform comedy – his devotion to his characters, his ability to mug without overdoing it (Royal Tennenbaum gleefully go-carting and riding a garbage truck), his ability to deliver a funny line without targeting that it was funny, his calmness that in itself is hilarious as his fellow cast members ham it up. He was brilliant.
PaulWartenberg
@mrmoshpotato:
From A Night At the Opera:
“They’re the greatest aviators, but you’ll notice they’re traveling by boat.”
“Of course, that’s why I’m sitting here with you. Because you remind me of you. Your eyes, your throat, your lips! Everything about you reminds me of you. Except you. How do you account for that? (aside to the audience) If she figures that one out, she’s good!”
“You’re willing to pay him a thousand dollars a night just for singing? Why, you can get a phonograph record of Minnie the Moocher for 75 cents. And for a buck and a quarter, you can get Minnie.”
PaulWartenberg
@Cheryl from Maryland:
I will go to my grave with this Hackman scene:
“Otisburg…? OTISburg???”
zhena gogolia
@geg6: Are you watching White Lotus for Parker Posey? I see a few of her films there.
zhena gogolia
@Cheryl from Maryland: That cameo in Young Frankenstein is one of the funniest scenes ever.
Snarlymon
Doctor Strangelove! Peter Sellers 3 roles are just brilliant and Slim Pickins as the pilot is terrific. Amazing how well it holds up and the scene were Slim Pickins rides the bomb is an all time classic shot.
Almost any Buster Keaton film is great.
mrmoshpotato
@PaulWartenberg:
Oh Groucho. You magnificent bastard.
The man was a comic genius.
TBone
@Leinie: I heartlily agree on My Favorite Year, can watch over and over.
Also a sucker for Woody Allen’s ode to Radio Days
en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radio_Days
TBone
The Bank Dick by W.C. Fields is hilarious from start to finish, but of course I’m biased – I love all of his films.
mrmoshpotato
@Snarlymon:
Including the fact that he directed or co-directed his earlier films.
geg6
@zhena gogolia:
I adore Parker Posey! Especially in Best in Show and Dazed and Confused, which should get another honorable mention from me.
Can’t seem to get into White Lotus. Maybe I’ll try again, like I did with Hacks, which I loved, loved, loved the second time I tried it. Sometimes things don’t hit right away with me but a second look months later changes my perception. And sometimes it doesn’t (perfect examples of that are Breaking Bad and Game of Thrones).
WaterGirl
@Wanderer: Never heard of Slings and Arrows. I will try to find it, and hope that it’s a service I get. thank you
edit: nope. looks like you have to buy it on Prime.
Mr. Bemused Senior
@TBone:
“I stumbled upon a bottle of rum … and continued stumbling for several days thereafter.”
In Groucho Marx’ last performance (An Evening with Groucho) he devotes some time to W. C. Fields. “He was a great drunk. And if they’d had marijuana in those days he’d have been smoking it. One day he allowed me in his house. In the basement he had unopened cases of whisky. Bill, I said, what do you have all that whisky for? We haven’t had Prohibition in twenty years. ‘It may come back.’ “
Just look at that parking lot
@BlueGuitarist:
@BlueGuitarist: Yes, I’m am. I love the look on Peter Sellers face while he’s watching Sterling Hayden yank a 50 caliber machine gun out of his golf bag.
tam1MI
@funlady75:Some Like it Hot.
That’s what I came here to say! Sublimely hilarious. And that last line is still ::Chef’s Kiss::.
PaulWartenberg
@Hamlet of Melnibone:
“Dear diary: My teenage angst bullshit now has a body count.”
Craig
@bjacques: Repo Man is one of the best movies I’ve ever seen. A master class in low budget filmmaking. Plus one of the best soundtrack albums ever.
WaterGirl
@Leinie: Cary Grant in Father Goose. I know it was a war movie, but it was funny. Cary Grant will that accent, and all those little schoolgirls.
WaterGirl
@Cheryl from Maryland: Streaming for free where?
TBone
@Mr. Bemused Senior: parents took us to the theater see The Pink Panther Strikes Again, my very first introduction to Peter Sellers. I didn’t see the original until years later – I’m now hooked for life!
Chris
@Anonymous at Work:
+ 1.
The very best comedies are the ones that aren’t just comedies, and Blazing Saddles is a case in point. It’s both a really perceptive skewering of American culture that has, if anything, gotten better with age (is there anything more spot-on, in a post-2008 world, than “if a black man ends up in a position of authority, most of white America will absolutely lose its shit, so completely they won’t even remember the crisis that put him there in the first place”?) and a heartfelt ode to the American Dream (Rock Ridge by the end of the movie is as much of an American fantasy as any vision of the Federation that was ever put up on Star Trek, but it’s clearly one that everyone who made the movie really wants to believe in, even as they’re canny enough to know that even if it ever comes true, it probably won’t be in their lifetimes).
TBone
@BlueGuitarist: me me me! Anything with Peter Sellers (just rewatched Lolita recently). Dr. Strangelove is a penultimate.
TBone
@WaterGirl: absolutely a classic!
@Mr. Bemused Senior:
I love that guy so much, we grew up on the same streets…he left us a treaure trove of quotables! McGillins, the oldest Tavern in Philly and maybe the nation, has his birthdate as a standalone entry on their online History timeline page hahaha!
ETA Groucho love too – I have a pirated black & white photo of Groucho sitting together with Alice Cooper and a guitar.
Chris
@Citizen Dave:
To me, part of the mark of a really good parody is that it stands on its own, and while you probably get more out of it if you know what it’s parodying, you can still enjoy it if you don’t. Airplane is a great movie partly because it knocks this out of the park – there are entire generations of us who have never seen any of the stuff it’s parodying (whether it’s Zero Hour or just Leslie Nielsen’s earlier career in non-comedic roles), and still love it for what it is.
Another example in this vein is Futurama. The friend who introduced me to it and that I watched all of it with is anything but a sci-fi nerd, so many of the references that cracked me up were going straight over his head, but it’s still one of his favorite shows. Because it stands on its own.
Cheryl from Maryland
Shoutout to Richard Lester’s film “A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum.” My father took me to see it when I was nine (odd that, yes?), but I have loved it ever since – especially the combination of stagey musical with outdoor scenes, and the capture of the magic of Zero Mostel and Jack Gifford. One Christmas Wayne decided to use phrases from the film for his gift tags, so I received presents labeled as “ To My Winsome Whipperwill,” “To my Loyal and Unswerving Girl,” etc.
A Ghost to Most
If Bill Murray is in it, I’m in. He has the Far Side mentality I connect with.
Cheryl from Maryland
@WaterGirl: Sorry, not totally free, I’ve been watching them through my Prime subscription. Yeah, I know Jeff Bezos is evil, but only through Prime can I get my art history catalogue fix (currently reading the latest on Leonardo by Stephen Campbell).
Trivia Man
@Chris: I contend that the Simpsons is the most accurate portrayal of america from about 1975-2000 that we have. In 200 years if there is access to the Simpsons and The Onion they will understand america.
The references make it funnier, but it absolutely stands alone.
Ajabu
I’ve always had eclectic taste (especially with comedies) so here’s the titles. Check Wikipedia for plot synopses and see if they interest you: Where’s Poppa? – Harold and Maude – That Man From Rio – Airplane – My Cousin Vinny – SkinGame – Watermelon Man
ENJOY!!
TBone
@A Ghost to Most: he had me from my yute when parents would let me stay up to watch SNL. One of many great performances, not strictly comedy, was
en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/St._Vincent_(film)
That quality you described is why I call him a renaissance man. Also in love with Rushmore and pretty much every thing he’s done.
en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rushmore_(film)
WaterGirl
@Cheryl from Maryland: I have Prime, so that’s good. I guess I should just search for Gene Hackman. thanks
zhena gogolia
@geg6: It’s not as fun as Hacks, but I’m kind of addicted. They’re wasting Parker Posey so far, but she is pretty funny/horrifying.
TBone
@WaterGirl: Gene Hackman, comedy genius!
en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heartbreakers_(2001_film)
Mom took me to see it, just the two of us.
Chiming in on The Royal Tenenbaums, it is sublime.
kalakal
Some I don’t think have been mentioned
The Pink Panther movies, espescially A Shot in the Dark.
Also with Sellars & Lom ( & Alec Guiness) The Ladykillers.
I loved the Addams Family films
I’m very fond of verbal comedy, for me the peak of this is Yes Minister/Prime Minister ,had a perfect cast and Sir Humphrey is a character for the ages
Father Ted was hilarious and slightly surreal
There’s a lot of wonderful British radio comedies eg Old Harry’s Game, Bleak Expectations, Cabin Pressure.
I don’t think anyone’s mentioned cartoons
Roadrunner reduces me to hysterical laughter every time. it’s amazing, it’s a zillion variations on the same joke and it’s perfection
TBone
All of the Grumpy Old Men films, especially the Burgess Meredith scenes! LOL!
m.youtube.com/watch?v=OrnrSPCfoHw
Mr. Bemused Senior
Meep, meep
Hmm, I noticed What’s Up Doc above, and the scene with the plate glass rings a bell.
Chris
@bjacques:
I’ve never seen Wag The Dog, but I know the basic plotline, and I honestly think I’d struggle to enjoy it, because whatever point it’s trying to make about politics and media, you kind of lose me when your point is tied so specifically to the Clinton administration, and in particular to two aspects of it – the Lewinsky Scandal and the Yugoslav Wars – that render the whole thing in really bad taste.
Because, well. While a great many people wish this wasn’t true, the Yugoslav Wars, with all the ethnic cleansing and genocide that went with them, were not in fact dreamed up to reelect Bill Clinton. They actually happened. And the general consensus these days, and really from very early on, is that the U.S. government, if anything, didn’t intervene early enough or decisively enough. And no, the fact that it intervened didn’t have a damn thing to do with Bill Clinton’s sex life.
Just reading the summary gives me the same reaction that I have to far too many episodes of South Park: maybe some things are serious enough that they shouldn’t, in fact, be fodder for the writer’s performatively nihilistic hot takes about American politicians? Maybe if you’re going to touch a topic as nasty as the return of genocide to the European continent for the first time since 1945, you at least owe it to your source material to find something more insightful to say about it than “haha, Bill Clinton’s penis, what a story, amirite?”
Rokka
@Chris:
Nielsen did some comedy in the 1964 film “Night Train to Paris”
youtube.com/watch?v=8whjz6M6Peo
BlueGuitarist
“Sorry to Bother You” (2018) written and directed by Boots Riley,
a Black comedy
about capitalist exploitation.
LaKeith Stanfield learns to make bigger bucks as a telemarketer by using a “white voice”
and then, better to avoid spoilers,
but some of it is disconcerting,
as are the people/forces being mocked. Asshole CEO and out of control technology.
S Cerevisiae
Jumping down to put in a plug for one of my favorites that has probably been mentioned already, Monty Python’s Life of Brian. So many amazing scenes, but the line “how shall we fuck off oh lord?” Will crack my soul up in the next life.
Ihop
kalakal
Fry & Laurie made the perfect Jeeves & Wooster. That whole series was heaven for me
A film I’ve always enjoyed was The Italian Job with Michael Caine & Noel Coward being particularly good – complete with one of cinema’s great lines
Italian Job
as well as the ultimate cliff hanger ending
Mr. Bemused Senior
I think of Help as a “Beatles movie” but I think it qualifies as a screwball comedy. Supporting cast: Leo McKern, Eleanor Bron, Patrick Cargill, Victor Spinetti, Roy Kinnear.
“I’m going to miss the sacrifice!”
Chris
@WaterGirl:
Oh Lord, yes. Not just a comedy, but still a comedy.
It’s supposed to be at least partly an affectionate parody of Canadian and American stereotypes about each other.
But also, it’s a thing with Leslie Nielsen that was made after 1980: I think that definitionally makes it a comedy.
dexwood
Hey, Watergirl, the suggestion was from me. I might be fighting cancer and my time on earth as a jackal has been shortened, but I ain’t dead yet. Just stopped in for a minute to see what Medium Cool topic was being covered. Gotta run, but I’ll read the comments tomorrow. Really looking forward to it.
Ihop
Also, one of my most favorite ever movie viewings was at Thanksgiving. My niece had come back for a time in the peace corps. She wanted to watch movies, night one was her first watch of “the godfather” (well recieved), night two after a bit of negotiation was “hot fuzz”
Needless to say, she and I were all.for it, my parents much less so, by the end even my mom said it was a cute movie. Hmm.
CaseyL
The comedies that I remember laughing so hard at I nearly passed out:
It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad World – probably has not aged well. Zany slapstick, well done, luminary cast.
The Wrong Box – British film, about the last two, very elderly, surviving alumni of a public school tontine, each of whom wants to be the LAST survivor and get the money.
Ruthless People – The Bill Pullman character. Oh. My. God.
Noises Off – Behind-the-scenes at a theater, where everything goes wrong. I think this was an American movie version of a British play? Again: Stellar cast, and impeccable timing.
WaterGirl
@dexwood: I’m so sorry!
I knew that it was you. That was an autocorrect. I know that’s true because I just went up top, used strikethrough on deadwood, then typed “dexwood” and it turned into deadwood. It did the same thing again here for the word in quotes in the sentence before this one.
Fucking autocorrect
edit: So sorry to hear that you’re fighting cancer. We need you here with us. Kick some ass!
Thor Heyerdahl
I managed to see the 40th anniversary screening of Life of Brian in the theater. It was hilarious to be able to see it in large format – “he has a wife you know…”
Others on the list include Police Squad, Slapshot, Blues Brothers (the original); and for Canadian content Bon Cop Bad Cop, and classic Wayne & Shuster.
thruppence
@Trivia Man: As I recall that artist was played by a very smoldery Linda Fiorentino
Old Dan and Little Ann
Mrs. Doubtfire. Meet the Parents.
GB in the HC
So many of my favorite comedies have already been listed but I must suggest a couple more . Breaking Away is an offbeat treasure.
Stanley Tucci’s The Imposters, though seemingly little known,is one of the most hilarious movies ever made. An all star cast including Isabella Rossellini, Steve Buscemi, Billy Connolly, Alfred Molina, Oliver Platt, Cambell Scott and many other accomplished actors in a madcap comedy reminiscent of the Marx Brothers best work. I could go on (and on). You need to see it to believe it.
Old School
@geg6:
Just in case you weren’t aware, they are making a sequel.
BlueGuitarist
@CaseyL:
Ruthless People!
“I can’t even sell retail, and that’s legal”
Judge Reinhold, Bette Midler, Danny DeVito
the wrong box: cats everywhere!
prostratedragon
@Kristine: “It’s the subsidence.” You’ll never convince me that those wouldbe ladykillers didn’t succumb to Mrs. Wilberforce’s cunning plan to unload that house profitably.
BlueGuitarist
9 to 5
Jane Fonda, Dolly Parton, and Lily Tomlin vs sexist, egotistical, lying, hypocritical bigot.
Another Scott
Lots of great films on this list.
Here’s one that I saw at just the right time – I was in grad school in Cincinnati at the time – and it made me laugh oh so hard – Dr Otto and the Riddle of the Gloom Beam.
The sight gags! Dr Otto’s 3rd hand! The robot! So much silliness and insanity!
I was the one guy in the theater who was having Ultimate Laughter (laughing so hard I couldn’t breathe) while everyone else was muttering that “this is soooo lame”.
🤪
Critics hated it. But I don’t care. 🤪
Best wishes,
Scott.
Chris
@WaterGirl:
Also seconding this.
It’s another example of good comedies being more than just comedies; while the franchise’s bread and butter is zany antics getting more and more lighthearted as it goes (Mel Gibson was a Three Stooges fan, which was worked into both his character’s hobbies and quite a few of the movies’ shenanigans), they get really dark too; Riggs is suicidal for most of the first movie and we nearly see him blow his own brains out. Twice.
At the heart of the franchise is a really well-done story about a guy who, when we first met him, was almost certainly going to die within the year (either by suicide or by going out in a blaze of glory doing something brave but insane in the line of duty), who gradually gets re-socialized, finds a new family, and rebuilds his life, all on the bedrock of his friendship with the new work buddy that the universe sent him just when he needed him most.
kalakal
A very silly film I have a soft spot for is
The Return of Captain Invincible. It’s a superhero spoof starring Alan Arkin as a washed up superhero driven to alcoholism when he falls foul of McCarthy’s HUAC ” why do you wear a red cape?” who is dragged back from exile when his arch enemy Mr Midnight ( Christopher Lee having the time of his life) returns. Has some great musical sequences with Lee written by Richard O’Brien
prostratedragon
@TBone:
My goodness yes. Not as great a fan of the Coens as many, but Raising Arizona is just full of laughs, especially H.I. McDonnough’s opening narration. Also my first sighting of Kohn Goodman. Ends on a surprisingly sweet and genuine note.
Matt McIrvin
@geg6: Those Christopher Guest ensemble comedies, and Rob Reiner’s Spinal Tap which pretty much spawned them, are a genre unto themselves, and one I love
I remember seeing Mr. Hulot’s Holiday as part of a campus film series and seemingly being the only person in the audience who thought it was funny or interesting.
Also, Dr. Strangelove. Often mentioned in lists of greatest films, but the thing is, it’s an incredibly funny comedy. Very dark but that’s the source of the humor.
Chris
@Trivia Man:
Probably.
Unfortunately, I contend that South Park is likewise a pretty bang-on portrayal of twenty-first century America, and that historians two hundred years from now will find it every bit as crucial to understanding the nosedive the nation took in this century. Oh sure, as a literal portrayal of America, it’s shit, and most of their attempted social commentary is inch-deep self-gratifying bullshit. But that’s entirely the point. If you want to truly immerse yourself in the shallow, Savvy, whataboutist, performatively nihilistic, impressively spiteful, “that makes me smart!” spirit of a population that could elect someone like Donald Trump, there’s no better show for it than South Park.
Matt McIrvin
@Chris: Yeah, but you could also argue that South Park helped cause that degeneration.
Quaker in a Basement
How about some really weird and artsy ones?
The Ruling Class with Peter O’Toole (1972)
The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus (2009) Directed by Terry Gilliam with Christopher Plummer, Heath Ledger, and Johnny Depp
The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie (1972) Directed by Louis Bunuel
The Adventures of Baron Munchausen (1988) Also directed by Terry Gilliam
All of these are odd, puzzling movies, but they all appeal to me in some strange way.
Old School
@Another Scott:
Never heard of Dr. Otto, but I see Prime has it.
Your story reminds of when I was watching Kung Fu Hustle. I don’t think that movie has been mentioned yet. I wasn’t the only one laughing, but at one point during the screening, a woman in back remarked loudly, “This is soooo stupid!”
Matt McIrvin
Other super-dark comedies that get mentioned in lists of great films but not of great comedies: Fargo, Brazil. Fargo is arguably only incidentally a comedy but it’s full of funny moments.
Woody Allen’s behavior has shitcanned his legacy, but I still kind of love Sleeper. “We’re going to clone him right into his shoes.”
Dark Star: Young John Carpenter and Dan O’Bannon make a sort of science-fiction stoner comedy on a budget of about a buck 95 that prefigures the “used future” of post-Star Wars cinema, and some of the plot beats that O’Bannon would recycle into Alien. Though admittedly some of the best parts were blatantly ripped off from Philip K. Dick and Ray Bradbury.
Quaker in a Basement
@BlueGuitarist: Wasn’t that a great one? If I’m remembering correctly, that was the breakout movie for Parton as an actor.
(And if I’m not remembering correctly, it was the first time I saw her outside of her country music career–and I was charmed by her.)
John Revolta
Gotta put in a word for Ed Wood. The several Bill Murray references above made me think of it but there are lots of great performances in it, capped of course by Martin Landau’s amazing Bela Lugosi.
Chris
@WaterGirl:
Also, another thought about this –
While it isn’t just a comedy (I think the first genre most people would associate it with is “action”), I appreciate the fact that the movies are self-aware and light-hearted enough to basically make them un-parodiable. There was a spoof of them called Loaded Weapon 1 in the nineties that was widely panned and sank without a trace. As Roger Ebert pointed out at the time – dude, you’re trying to parody a franchise that has one of its most iconic moments revolving around an exploding toilet. What exactly are you going to do to poke fun at these movies that they haven’t already done themselves the first time around?
Chris
@Matt McIrvin:
Probably. Always hesitant to point to pieces of pop culture as the cause of a more serious cultural trend rather than just a reflection of it, but it can happen. In which case it becomes even more important in explaining the twenty-first century.
Matt McIrvin
@Chris: I remember the Republicans in my office derisively citing Wag the Dog when Bill Clinton made his failed cruise missile strike against some guy named Osama bin Laden. Yeah, clearly nobody would have a legitimate reason to be worried about that nonentity.
Chris
Off to bed, but I’ll leave you all with just one movie that I haven’t seen mentioned yet but that’s at the top of my “I will never say no to turning this on” category:
Clue. 1 + 2 + 2 + 1 stars.
xephyr
I don’t even know what movie this is from, but one of my brothers sent me the clip and it cracked me up. Best of all, it’s only 20 seconds long!
youtube.com/watch?v=8yi_TyxtFZg
Another Scott
@xephyr: It’s from Hot Shots! (1991).
:-)
Best wishes,
Scott.
prostratedragon
@thruppence:
@Trivia Man:
One of my favorites, too. Guess I like elements of the absurd, and a bit unsettling at the edges. Or sometimes just wacky, like Noises Off or Amazon Women on the Moon (David Alan Grier, Ed Begley especially).
I like Howard Shore’s music for After Hours, which well captures NYC at night: “9 PM”.
Sure Lurkalot
Obscure: King of Hearts-WWI soldier mistaken as a king in deserted French town by insane asylum escapees. Alan Bates and Genevieve Bujold. Anti-war movie from the 60’s.
Animated: Chicken Run-chickens band together to overcome cruel humans, loose parody of The Great Escape, good message in these troubled times
Splitting Image
@CaseyL:
Noises Off and The Wrong Box are both hilarious and have all-star casts, and very few people seem to have heard of them. Michael Caine fans should definitely seek both of them out.
I think It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World holds up pretty well, except that many of the people with small cameos have been largely forgotten about, such as Zasu Pitts, Doodles Weaver, and even Jack Benny isn’t all that recognizable anymore.
Matt McIrvin
@Chris: I don’t think ZAZ intended viewers of Airplane! to have actually seen Zero Hour! — in fact they’d have preferred if you didn’t. It was intended more as a parody of contemporary disaster movies like Airport ’70-whatever, but Zero Hour! was the skeleton they used to hang it on and give it this sort of deadpan substance.
And I think one of the reasons it works so well is that even though it’s stuffed with hundreds and hundreds of absurd jokes, you never quite lose sight of this basic disaster-movie plot that is an effective one even taken straight. So you don’t feel like you’re just being shoveled jokes without form, and the film actually has a beginning, middle and end.
A lot of the best comedies are like that. Blazing Saddles, until it breaks the fourth wall and disintegrates in the last act, is a film about a courageous Black sheriff showing up a town full of racists, with a genuinely sweet male-friendship angle built into it. Ghostbusters works both as a narrative about some can-do entrepreneurs building a business, and a science-fantasy/horror adventure about a supernatural invasion of New York City, even if you ignore the jokes. There’s something there beneath the surface.
I recall something that Simpsons composer Alf Clausen once said he learned from Mel Brooks: that when you’re writing music for comedy, you write it not to the comedy but to the underlying emotion that the comedy is built on. But there has to be some underlying emotion there for that to work.
prostratedragon
@Matt McIrvin: Even worse when one remembers what was ginned up after our next encounter with the man — talk about projection!
bluefoot
@Mr. Bemused Senior: Help is absolutely a screwball comedy. And in the tradition of screwball comedies, everyone is playing everything straight, no matter how ridiculous things are getting. Mostly.
JustRuss
@Splitting Image: Yeah, Duck Soup for pure surreal mayhem. So much fun.
Lots of good stuff in that Airplane clip. The bit where the guy’s on the phone: “They’re a danger to everything in the sky. <pause> Yes, birds too!” kills me every time.
Matt McIrvin
@Ihop: I love the way Hot Fuzz somehow abruptly switches genres twice, from a droll fish-out-of-water character comedy, to a parody of rural-horror movies like The Wicker Man, to a wildly over-the-top parody of hyperviolent American action movies (but that last is prefigured by dialogue running through the entire rest of the film, so you’re kind of waiting for it to happen).
prostratedragon
@kalakal: Just two words: “earthquake pills.”
Matt McIrvin
@bjacques: A friend of mine pointed out that SCTV was one of the first comedy shows made in the era of the VCR, so they could do these affectionate parodies that relied on close examination of the original to a degree that wasn’t really possible before. I confess I really did not get their parody of the original Ocean’s 11 until I’d seen the actual Rat Pack movie.
Matt McIrvin
@prostratedragon: While Amazon Women on the Moon on the whole isn’t as great as Airplane! or Police Squad/The Naked Gun, it has several individual segments that are brilliant. The title bits are kind of cheating by parodying movies like Queen of Outer Space that weren’t taking themselves that seriously in the first place, but they do absolutely nail the look and feel. And Paul Bartel’s parody of the Reefer Madness genre of “cautionary” exploitation film is perfect too.
prostratedragon
@kalakal:
The ineffable opening sequence of A Shot in the Dark. Perfection, down to the exhaustingly romantic song rendition.
Craig
@Matt McIrvin: I saw Dark Star on a high school trip to UVA. It was so weird. I’d never heard of it, didn’t know what it was called and wasn’t even sure what I was seeing. Years later I saw it again. Absolutely amazing trash. Dan O’Bannon created the spacers aren’t the Best of The Best- they are just truckers that he carried into Alien. Fucking beach ball alien, genius
Craig
@GB in the HC: Breaking Away is beautiful. ‘Refund, Refund’. And heartbreaking. When Dave stops talking with an Italian accent, it’s fucking crushing. Almost a perfect movie.
Matt McIrvin
@PaulB: I really dislike mean, punching-down stuff. “Observational” humor that is not based on observation but on reinforcing the audience’s lazy stereotypes. And cringe comedy can be good, but comedy that depends on pranking or otherwise bothering apparently unconsenting real-life strangers, I find nearly unbearable–even when the victims deserve it.
Craig
I didn’t see His Girl Friday here. Had to scroll quick tonight though. Fuckin Howard Hawks, genius. Ralph Bellamy as the poor sap that’s gotta go against Cary Grant for the love of the lady. Ros Russell spitting fire. Grant as the lovable asshole. Such a great movie, and I love The Front Page
Matt McIrvin
@Hamlet of Melnibone: Heathers was the darker, grittier reimagining of Mean Girls except it was made decades earlier.
NotMax
Movies: Didn’t see it mentioned yet so gonna put The Gods Must Be Crazy into the mix.
TV: Ditto for Keeping Up Appearances.
Animated: Freakazoid is a hoot.
Books: Pretty much any of the parody novels by Stephen Potter (One-Upmanship, etc.)
Other MJS
@Matt McIrvin: I was gonna mention Dark Star; thanks for covering it.
Also, Galaxy Quest, a love letter to Trek and grandparent to Lower Decks.
Random: Mouse Hunt.
jame
Blackadder’s fine stuff, Blazing Saddles is classic, but y’all should give Clueless and Thor:Ragnarok a look. Great fun!
NotMax
@Other MJS
IMHO Galaxy Quest is in many ways the bigger budget stepchild of the “it flew under the radar” The Adventures of Captain Zoom in Outer Space.
Jim Appleton
@TBone: Dead thread, but isn’t that a perfectly hilarious scene?
youtu.be/lhAdxXy6UTs?si=ys5LxWVeH8cJ3zAR
Matt McIrvin
@WaterGirl: I wasn’t that fond of Airplane 2–the team that made the original wasn’t involved, and they basically just rehashed the first movie with an “in space!” twist that allowed them to put in some science-fiction references. William Shatner has an amusing bit basically parodying himself, a lot like Lloyd Bridges and Leslie Nielsen and such did in the first movie. But the spark wasn’t there, for me.
Matt McIrvin
@jame: Thor: Ragnarok was definitely a hoot–all of the MCU movies have jokey stuff in them and the Guardians of the Galaxy movies were aiming at comedy to some degree, but Ragnarok is the most successfully comical. What baffles me is that Thor: Love and Thunder was such a misfire after that.
Matt McIrvin
…Oh, yeah, and how could I forget Marvel’s most recent one: Deadpool and Wolverine. Though that is only marginally MCU, and more an unashamedly meta orgy of fourth-wall-breaking. I still find it utterly weird that that movie could have been a hit, given how inside every gag in it is: is it even intelligible to people who don’t know that much about superhero media? I’m not sure, but I laughed.
I think part of it might be that people are just starved for movie comedies right now, since not that many are being made lately and the times are getting grim.
frosty
@CaseyL:
The Wrong Box was great. I can’t remember when I saw it but it was decades ago. There’s so many movies in this thread that I want to go back and see again!
Tehanu
@Splitting Image: Yes to The Wrong Box, in which John Mills and Ralph Richardson are absolutely divine as Mills tries to murder the oblivious Richardson. I couldn’t even breathe, I was laughing so hard.
@Mr. Bemused Senior: Both Help! and A Hard Day’s Night have the great Victor Spinetti, and every scene he’s in is a delight. “I won an award.”
brianc91764
@wenchacha: “Wish I had known more about Nichols and May when I was young.”
Me too. And a vote for A New Leaf, Elaine May and Walter Matthau.
zhena gogolia
@Splitting Image: I remember Zasu Pitts and Doodles Weaver perfectly well!
Chris
@Matt McIrvin:
The more modern audiences wouldn’t have seen any of those disaster movies either, though. But yeah, I think you’re right that it working as a movie before it works as a comedy is key to its success.
zhena gogolia
@Chris: Nevertheless, if you watch Zero Hour! after (or before) watching Airplane!, you will both enjoy a taut thriller with Sterling Hayden and laugh your ass off.
Chris
@Matt McIrvin:
Osama Bin Laden was a punchline for Republicans all the way through 09/10/2001, a symbol of how Clinton was “too engaged” with world affairs, “trying to fix other countries’ problems instead of our own,” if not distract from our own. The fact that they were allowed to sweep it all under the carpet when the attacks happened is example 1,000 of the media being wired for Republicans.
NotMax
@zhena gogolia
Zasu Pitts rolling around naked on a bed atop her lottery winnings in Greed is permanently etched into filmic memory.
;)
zhena gogolia
@NotMax: Luckily I have not seen that! :)
NotMax
@zhena gogolia
Extreme trivia.
Zasu Pitts wrote a a cookbook of candy recipes.
zhena gogolia
@NotMax: And she was friends with Shirley Temple’s mother.
And there is a Zazu Pitts Avenue in Las Vegas, NV. (misspelled)
Sis
The In-Laws (the original, of course). Still laugh-out-loud hilarious. And the original Arthur.
The Crimson Pimpernel
@CaseyL: When I was in college I laughed out loud reading the novel The Wrong Box by Robert Louis Stevenson. Differed from the movie version, but a hilarious farce in its own right.
John Sterling
@PaulB:
Which, of course, is why tv sitcoms have laugh tracks.
Jacel
@Matt McIrvin: I recall the “Wag The Dog” script was inspired by the Bush 1 administration, but when the film was released it was spun in the press as being about Clinton.
Jacel
@Matt McIrvin: Another comedy with several changes of genre being evoked is “Top Secret”, which starts modeled on an Elvis movie.
fancycwabs
Hundreds of comments, and yet not a single mention of the best comedy in a decade, Hundreds of Beavers.
Paul in KY
Funny movies I like: American Graffiti, Sleeper, A Fish Called Wanda, The Hotel Budapest, MASH, Some Like It Hot, Blazing Saddles, Catch 22, American Pie, Animal House, The Blues Brothers, Trading Places, Caddyshack, Cage A Folies
Shana
@rekoob: “Put your pants on Spartacus”
Shana
@Splitting Image: The 1995 Pride and Prejudice is getting a theatrical re-release next moth.