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Monday, November 15, 2010

Help me out: What's the funniest movie of all time? 


At a long evening event with colleagues, and the question has come up: What is the funniest movie of all time? I'm sure your opinions are more interesting than theirs, so give it your most learned effort.


53 Comments:

By Blogger Consul-At-Arms, at Mon Nov 15, 08:40:00 PM:

A Fish Called Wanda.

(I literally fell out of my theater seat I was laughing so hard.)  

By Anonymous Anonymous, at Mon Nov 15, 08:44:00 PM:

The Producers (Zero Mostel edition).  

By Anonymous SouthernRoots, at Mon Nov 15, 08:45:00 PM:

Not PC anymore, but I thought it was hilarious - Blazing Saddles.  

By Anonymous beatrix, at Mon Nov 15, 08:47:00 PM:

the big lebowski.  

By Anonymous Anonymous, at Mon Nov 15, 09:02:00 PM:

An Inconvenient Truth.  

By Anonymous maxx, at Mon Nov 15, 09:15:00 PM:

That's tough.

Blazing Saddles.  

By Anonymous sirius, at Mon Nov 15, 09:29:00 PM:

Too Be Or Not To Be

The Jack Benny original.  

By Anonymous Anonymous, at Mon Nov 15, 09:34:00 PM:

Snatch.
-Kv, somewhere in the desert Southwest  

By Blogger Foxfier, at Mon Nov 15, 10:55:00 PM:

Princess Bride.  

By Anonymous Anonymous, at Mon Nov 15, 11:12:00 PM:

Life of Brian.

Contenders: Night at the Opera and Duck Soup.  

By Blogger JPMcT, at Mon Nov 15, 11:32:00 PM:

The Producers (Zero Mostel)is my favorite.

My wife goes with The Full Monty.

We both agree that What's Up Doc is a contender.  

By Anonymous Boludo Tejano, at Mon Nov 15, 11:55:00 PM:

Anything by the Marx Brothers.

I didn't like Blazing Saddles because I don't like westerns. Satire works only for what you like.

I will not say it is the funniest movie, but I found Up In Smoke hilarious because it was so deliberately stupid. I think I was sober when I saw it, but my memory is slipping.

"I was born in Dusseldorf and that is why they call me Ralf."  

By Anonymous Anonymous, at Tue Nov 16, 12:07:00 AM:

For feature length, I have to go with History of the World Part 1.

If it's a more open field, Looney Tunes "Duck Amuck". Heck, I'm laughing as I think of it.  

By Anonymous Anon Y. Mous, at Tue Nov 16, 12:52:00 AM:

Airplane!  

By Blogger Georg Felis, at Tue Nov 16, 01:08:00 AM:

CSPAN. Oh wait, thats a TV series.

Airplane!  

By Blogger Counter Trey, at Tue Nov 16, 01:16:00 AM:

Austin Powers
International Man of Mystery  

By Anonymous Anonymous, at Tue Nov 16, 01:33:00 AM:

Ruthless People. About 1990. DeVito, Midler, Rhinehold, and Slater were the stars.  

By Anonymous Anonymous, at Tue Nov 16, 01:49:00 AM:

A couple of movies not mentioned here:

1. of course, Monty Python and the Holy Grail
2. Cavemen
3. Top Secret
4. The Adventures of Picasso

Vilmos  

By Blogger Gary Rosen, at Tue Nov 16, 02:25:00 AM:

Cannot believe "Some Like It Hot" has not been mentioned yet.

Other contenders:

A Night at the Opera

Sleeper

This Is Spinal Tap, if you have ever played in a band.  

By Anonymous Anonymous, at Tue Nov 16, 02:36:00 AM:

I second many of the contributions, including Sleeper, anything by the Marx Bros. - though "Horsefeathers" is my favorite -, Spinal Tap, etc.

I would add: Best in Show by the same group who did Spinal Tap.

Young Frankenstein

ANy of the "Naked Gun" series

More recently, "Tropic Thunder" was hilarious.  

By Blogger Don Cox, at Tue Nov 16, 05:00:00 AM:

As well as those already listed:

"Mon Oncle" (Tati)

"The Horse's Mouth" (Alec Guinness)

"Rhapsody Rabbit" (Bugs Bunny)

Too many Tom and Jerry cartoons to list.  

By Anonymous Anonymous, at Tue Nov 16, 05:17:00 AM:

Cheech and Chong's finest, and my favorite comedy, is "Chech & Chong's Second Movie."  

By Blogger SR, at Tue Nov 16, 05:19:00 AM:

Some Like it Hot. Rosen beat me to it.
It is almost a reason to stay at the Del Coronado in San Diego.

Princess Bride, a close second:
"My name is Inigo Montoya, you killed my father, prepare to die!"  

By Blogger Don Cox, at Tue Nov 16, 05:19:00 AM:

Whoops, forgot "Panique au Village". Brilliant stop-motion mayhem. There's a dubbed English-language version around, but if you know four words of French, go for the original.  

By Blogger Andrew Hofer, at Tue Nov 16, 05:55:00 AM:

Meaning of Life  

By Anonymous Anonymous, at Tue Nov 16, 06:27:00 AM:

The General  

By Blogger Bomber Girl, at Tue Nov 16, 06:52:00 AM:

Anything Monty Python. The Gods Must Be Crazy. Men in Black.  

By Anonymous Anonymous, at Tue Nov 16, 07:10:00 AM:

How can it be that no one has mentioned Animal House? Hands down.  

By Blogger Goldwater's Ghost, at Tue Nov 16, 07:29:00 AM:

Love and Death, or Take the Money and Run.

Back when Woody Allen was funny on film rather than real life.  

By Blogger gregor, at Tue Nov 16, 07:58:00 AM:

"Tit for Tat", Laurel and Hardy.
Probably their best non-contrived situation two reeler. Plus the added talents of Charlie Hall and Mae Busch.
It was actually a follow up to "Them Thar Hills", but stands on it's own.  

By Blogger Dawnfire82, at Tue Nov 16, 09:32:00 AM:

The Hangover.  

By Anonymous Anonymous, at Tue Nov 16, 09:42:00 AM:

Evil Roy Slade

Anybody knows this masterpiece?

Vilmos  

By Blogger Pete, at Tue Nov 16, 09:45:00 AM:

Cat Ballou  

By Blogger Willuz, at Tue Nov 16, 09:49:00 AM:

Princess Bride

Second goes to Galaxy Quest because there can never be enough Star Trek spoofs.  

By Anonymous Anonymous, at Tue Nov 16, 09:53:00 AM:

harold and Kumar go to white castle

btw Kumar is working for Obama now.  

By Anonymous Anonymous, at Tue Nov 16, 11:54:00 AM:

Dr Strangelove  

By Anonymous KLight73, at Tue Nov 16, 12:25:00 PM:

History of the World Part II  

By Blogger Mr. Bingley, at Tue Nov 16, 12:33:00 PM:

Brian's Song  

By Anonymous Anonymous, at Tue Nov 16, 01:14:00 PM:

"dying young". naw, not really. you need to be more specific. funniest **scenes**? shooot, where to begin? the "biggus dickus/star wars space battle" sequence from 'life of brian' had me laughing so hard i couldn't breathe. some of the 'inspector clouseau vs. kato' fight scenes are pure gold. (hell, just clouseau's accent itself was hot stuff. "i would lahk a *rheium*." "he had a minkey!") "happy birthday to you" from 'cat ballou'. the "E.T. glowing hooters" and the " 'what's that behind you?!' binocular scene from 'top secret'. the leslie nielsen /pia zadora production number at the oscars from 'naked gun 33&1/3.' and God forgive me, but i DO luh..luhh....love me some 'simple jack'. harold lloyd did some _brilliant_ scenes in his silents. you can do this all day.

funniest *whole movie*, though: tie. "animal house" and 'MP & the holy grail".  

By Anonymous QuakerCat, at Tue Nov 16, 01:23:00 PM:

Commedy unlike dramas are very time sensitive and do not age well. I cannot stand any of the old movies that many have mentioned here (prior to 1982ish). Commedy is also very individualistic. I can already see that my movies would probably be too vulgar for many of our readers. My laugh out loud favorites were:
Nightshift (Keaton and Winkler)
Stripes
Caddyshack
Swingers
Tommy boy
Uncle Buck
Wedding Crashers
Hangover  

By Anonymous lelia, at Tue Nov 16, 01:59:00 PM:

Princess Bride and UHF  

By Anonymous Anonymous, at Tue Nov 16, 04:51:00 PM:

Galaxy Quest
Space Balls
Young Frankenstein

The latter was a test for my son's new girl friend -- she didn't find YF funny. She didn't last long.  

By Anonymous Anonymous, at Tue Nov 16, 06:28:00 PM:

Dr. Strangelove (in fact anything with Peter Sellers - even Being There)
Fletch
Slapshot
The In-Laws (original version)
Putney Swope (a UofIowa cult classic)  

By Anonymous Anonymous, at Tue Nov 16, 06:44:00 PM:

little shop of horrors....or maybe rocky horror picture show  

By Anonymous Anonymous, at Tue Nov 16, 08:56:00 PM:

Without a doubt, The Jerk with Steve Martin.  

By Anonymous OLD FAN, at Wed Nov 17, 12:39:00 AM:

Airplane
Tommy Boy
The Jerk
Animal House
Trains Planes Autos  

By Blogger JC, at Wed Nov 17, 12:45:00 AM:

Gotta be noted.

Most of Charlie Chaplin's films.

JC  

By Blogger Gary Rosen, at Wed Nov 17, 01:08:00 AM:

A few more that may not be "the" one but should not go forgotten:

Stir Crazy

Dirty Rotten Scoundrels (since someone mentioned Steve Martin)

Marx Bros' Monkey Business (not the Cary Grant Monkey Business) - one of the more obscure Marx pictures but one of my favorites. I love the scene where Harpo gets in the middle of the kids' puppet show.  

By Anonymous Brian Schmidt, at Wed Nov 17, 03:28:00 PM:

Shaolin Soccer  

By Blogger Unknown, at Wed Nov 17, 03:45:00 PM:

I'd have to say Caddy Shack has to be right up there!  

By Blogger Counter Trey, at Wed Nov 17, 04:03:00 PM:

I love most of these movies, but I am surprised that I had the only vote for Austin Powers IMM . I thought The Spy Who Shagged Me and Goldmember were great too. If you love James Bond movies as I do, and they are timeless, then AP is timeless.

I have to nominate one more:
Old School with Will Ferrell and Vince Vaughn  

By Anonymous Anonymous, at Thu Nov 18, 10:45:00 AM:

I would submit that any of the Marx Brothers are high class slapstick (superior even to the Three Stooges) with a repartee inferior to none.

Then I would also nominate "Bringing Up Baby" with Cary Grant and Katherine Hepburn. Again, the situations and dialog will have you rolling on the floor without resorting to gimics or crudity.  

By Anonymous sirius, at Fri Nov 19, 02:32:00 PM:

Okay, so maybe To Be Or Not To Be isn't the absolute funniest. But Quaker Cat's bias against oldies notwithstanding, I'll wager it's still a hell of a lot funnier now than when it was released.

I second Bomber Girl's nomination of The God's Must Be Crazy.

As well, Best In Show, Some Like It Hot

Also the mentions of Dr. Strangelove. "Gentlemen. You can't fight here, this is the War Room!"

How many funniest movies is one allowed?  

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