These lists of great movie moments here and here mostly comprise movies of a serious tone. Which is fine. Many of the scenes which have touched me the most (like Meryl Streep’s face when she makes “Sophie’s Choice”, Bogie’s expression on his face when he says goodbye to Bergman at the airport, Samantha Morton’s near-miscarriage scene in In America – which stands alone, in my opinion – etc.) are serious, or tragic.
But comedy should not be discounted as one of the most important things on the entire PLANET.
So let’s make up our own list here.
Let’s make a list of the Top Comedy Films EVER. How ’bout that?
I nominate – (and these are just the first things that come to my head – I’m sure I’ll think of more):
Bringing Up Baby
What’s Up, Doc?
The Producers
Let us celebrate that which makes us howl with laughter.
I’m thinking Office Space needs to be on there, too.
“Young Frankenstein” Laughed so hard I cried.
Blazing Saddles
Ghostbusters
Airplane!
And while it’s full of serious (and more so semi-serious) moments, The Breakfast Club is certainly a comedy.
Animal House
“Every Halloween, the trees are filled with underwear, every spring, the toilets explode…the time has come for someone to put their foot down, and that foot is me.”
“Was it over when the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor?”
“Seven years of college down the drain.”
And best of all, Otter’s little speech in court “you can do what you want to us, but we’re not just going to sit here and listen to you bad mouth the UNITED STATES OF AMERICA!”
Bill Murray’s best work: Caddyshack, Groundhog Day and the first two-thirds of Stripes (the part in Europe is best left very, very forgotten).
Monty Python’s Holy Grail and Life of Brian.
As an attorney, I admit to professional bias on behalf of My Counsin Vinny.
Hot Shots: Part Deux remains one of my favorites, especially Saddam’s tan line.
A Fish Called Wanda.
“Aristotle was not Belgian, the principle of Buddhism is not “every man for himself”, and the London Underground is not a political movement. Those are all mistakes, Otto. I looked them up.”
Fun with Dick and Jane – Funniest movie I’ve ever seen!
Movie Stuff
Sheila wants to know your favorite comedies Since she’s looking for the best, I’ll go looking for the worst that’s out there in movieland. My friends and I are big fans of The Big Hit. We don’t consider the film…
Not a Jim Carrey fan at all but Liar, Liar and Bruce Almighty each have one scene that leaves me near death from laughing so hard. The elevator scene in Liar, Liar, and the new anchor’s first newscast in Bruce Almighty.
I second Airplane.
The funniest sex scene ever is in “Fish Called Wanda”.
In the spirit of both Airplane! and Hot Shots: Part Deux, how could one forget anoth piece of the Zucker brothers’ brilliance, Top Secret?
Emily, I love love that speech in Animal House. As the patriotic music begins to swell.
Bill, every time I think about that Buddhist line from Fish Called Wanda, I laugh.
I have another addition to the list:
Liar, Liar
Also Young Frankenstein
I adore Top Secret!! I saw that on my first date ever.
“The Blues Brothers” and “The Princess Bride” are pretty near the top of my list.
Rick -
Exactly – the elevator scene!! If I’m having a blue day, I’ll just pop the movie in and watch that one scene.
“I was just thinking that your breasts are huge. I mean … your juggs are enormous … I mean … OH!”
For starters: “Ruthless People”
Mention of The Princess Bride makes me think of Christopher Guest, which in turn makes me wonder how I could possibly have forgotten to even mention This Is Spinal Tap?
Speaking of Ruthless People – whatever happened to Judge Reinhold? I loved him.
And Dave J: Of course! Spinal Tap!! One of the funniest movies ever.
I need to add “Best in Show” to the list.
…and Waiting For Guffman.
“Being a Faban isn’t always easy. I can certainly understand how the Kennedys feel.”
“Corky, we love you and we want you to live.”
Plus, that scene right after Corky quits the play, where Parker Posey is standing at a grill cooking a single chicken wing. “There will always be a place for me at the Dairy Queen.”
You’ll hate me, but I still haven’t seen either Best in Show or Waiting For Guffman.
“we love you and we want you to live”
That line just kills me every single time. Who said he was gonna die??? It’s SO melodramatic. I also love the closeted gay accountant who couldn’t “audition” for the “show” because he had to do inventory that day. Member him? He was in Best in Show, too.
DaveJ: Do yourself a favor. These movies are hilarious!!
I still enjoy It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad World. Ethel Merman slipping on the banana peel at the end is classic.
As a geek, I’m really fond of Galaxy Quest.
“I’m not even supposed to be here. I’m just ‘Crewman Number Six.’ I’m expendable. I’m the guy in the episode who dies to prove how serious the situation is. I’ve gotta get outta here.”
I love the guy who auditioned using a scene from Raging Bull. “You fucked my wife?”
The town council at the beginning, deciding where they were going to position the snipers during the festival.
Corky hears his beefcake boy has to pull out of the play, and shouts into the telephone “Well, then I just hate you and I hate your stupid ASS FACE!”
I could go on and on…
Corky choreographing numbers in his house by himself.
“Assface” is the best.
And Paul Dooley talking about how he was taken onto a UFO and aliens “probed” him. HAHAHA
Rob – It’s a mad mad mad mad world is so damn funny. Dom Deluise throwing his bicycle off the cliff.
Oh and back to Waiting for Guffman: that BULLSHIT “dance” Corky and Parker Posey do for “Penny for your thoughts” – where she’s doing random high kicks. Only it’s a slow ballad.
I weep with laughter.
The drunken dinner. Catherine O’Hara is sheer genius. Slurring something about her “vagina enlargement…” as Eugene Levy looks on, horrified.
Don’t forget Raising Arizona! Animal House is definitely up there. Airplane, Kentucky Fried Movie, Arthur, so many movies…
I agree with forgetting about the final third of Stripes,except for the parts where PJ Soles was in her underwear.
To some of those named previously (Blazing Saddles, Animal House, Young Frankenstein, Blues Brothers), I’d add Dr. Strangelove. There are half a dozen scenes in that movie that I think are classic.
I second “Dr. Strangelove.” Peter Sellers was pure genius. The scene with him in the wheelchair when he can’t control one of his arms, which continues to go for his throat, is unbearbly funny (i.e., stomach hurts, almost pee’d in my pants).
Another scene that had the same effect is the one in “High Anxiety” — would add that to the list — when Mel Brooks and Madelaine Kahn play an old Jewish couple trying to get through the scanner at the airport. Wow!
Sheila: Don’t know where Judge Reinhold is now, but his “close talker” character on “Seinfeld” was marvelous.
Skillzy,
Kentucky Fried Movie – YES!
And throw in TunnelVision.
Judge Reinhold recused himself.
Young Frahnkunsteen was ruined for me by my mother, who, by warning me that I should tape my ribs before seeing it left me disappointed at a movie that was merely very funny.
Liar, Liar
Airplane!
National Lampoon’s Vacation (though the European Vacation was funny, I loved the original)
Lots of good ones so far, so many of mine will be repeats:
Holy Grail
The Princess Bride
Young Frankenstein
Brazil
A Fish Called Wanda
Better Off Dead
Ferris Beuller’s Day Off
Real Genius
Murder By Death
huh. Guess I’m not going to be very original, my favorites include Animal House (“fat, drunk, and stupid is no way to go through life”), Blues Brothers (I particularly adore the scene where they’re trashing the shopping mall and having this totally banal conversation about new Oldsmobiles and baby clothes), Airplane!, Mad Mad Mad Mad World.
I also love “Desk Set,” the Tracy-Hepburn comedy, mainly because it portrays women who are intelligent and quirky and love their jobs. But it’s also a movie that makes me smile, if not necessarily belly-laugh.
And most John Candy movies are good for at least a laugh or two out of me. I’m very fond of Cool Runnings, even though I wouldn’t necessarily call it a laugh-out-loud sort of movie.
I think there are two different types of comedy: the wild, laugh-out-loud type (like the National Lampoon-generated, “Naked Gun” type, and Farrelly Brothers movies) and what I would call the “smile” comedy where you don’t necessarily have a laugh-a-minute, but which you feel so GOOD at the end of that you know it’s been a worthwhile experience. (To be honest, I actually prefer that second type of comedy, the one where the humor comes from the characters’ humanness and where at the end you find yourself re-convinced of the basic goodness of human nature).
OOOOOO.. forgot Raising Arizona.. and of course there’s Monty Python and the Holy Grail.
“The General” by Buster Keaton. The original “The Ladykillers” with Alec Guinness.
I am pleased to be the first to mention both “A Christmas Story” and “The Jerk”.
I was surprised to find that most of the comedies in my personal collection are Bill Murray movies. “What About Bob” is great.
Speaking of which, I hear they may come out with a comedy version of “Saturday Night Live”. Sorry, couldn’t help it.
Don’t know if it is “officially” a comedy but “O Brother Where Art Thou” generates a lot of laughs:
“I vote for yours truly.”
“Then I vote for yours truly also.”
“I’m with you fellers.”
Have to vote for:
“Ferris Beuller”
“Galaxy Quest”
“Office Space”
“Holy Grail”
Some of these are repeats-
Waiting for Guffman
Spinal Tap–”This one goes to 11.”
Best in Show–Fred Willard’s commentary, and a dog with “two mommies.”
Harvey–Jimmy Stewart is amazing in this.
The Producers–great script, and very, very clever.
Parts of the Pink Panther series are painfully funny–the parallel bars, the nitrous oxide and tooth removal, “Cato, you slant-eyed idiot,” “Does you dog bite?,” etc.
Dr. Strangelove–full of biting, intelligent humor.
Bringing Up Baby–maybe THE definitive screwball comedy.
Some Like It Hot-icons at play.
Young Frankenstein–I loved Madeline Kahn. I defy you to think of her love scene with Peter Boyle, and her line, “Woof,” without smiling.
The Big Lebowski–”This is what happens when you fuck another man in the ass.”
Any Buster Keaton movie is a classic to me.
Tootsie–”I played an endive salad that knocked them on their ass.”
There is a W.C.Fields movie where he is attempting to take a nap in a hammock on the second floor porch of an apartment building. A woman upstairs continues to talk very loudly to her daughter about(I think) a Carl LaFong. “Capital L, little a, capital F, little o, little n, little g” among other things. Fields becomes increasingly frustrated as this loud conversation prevents him from sleeping. Finally, he mutters something under his breath. Immediately, the woman upstairs says very loudly, “You’ll have to speak up, dear. A man downstairs is yelling.” I don’t remember the exact dialogue or title, but the movie is hilarious.
Bedazzled–the original version with Dudley Moore and Peter Cooke before Moore was known in this country(and before his schtick had grown tiresome). I haven’t seen it in years, but the last time I saw it, I laughed so hard that I embarrassed my date, befuddled the other 20-something viewers, and damn-near gave myself a hernia. Maybe the hardest I have ever laughed at a movie.
The Richard Pryor Live in Concert Movies-not comedies, per se, but damn funny.
I know I am forgetting many classics the omission of which will pain me later.
Finally, Sheila, as I often give you a hard time for movies you haven’t seen, and music you haven’t heard, I admit I have never seen What’s Up, Doc?
I can’t believe that this thread has gone on so long with no one mentioning Woody Allen’s great films. Maybe his more recent work is affecting the ability of people to remember some of his best stuff, like:
Play It Again, Sam
Bananas
Sleeper
Love and Death
Everything You Always Wanted to Know About
Sex
Annie Hall (probably one of my top ten films ever)
Manhattan
And that’s just from the seventies.
Just a few titles from a random blog-surfer …
His Girl Friday
Some Like It Hot
Roman Holiday
Kind Hearts and Coronets
And since Mel Brooks deserves his own wing in the Comedy Hall of Fame …
History of the World, Pt. I
Man, seeing some of these reminds me of some movies I adore.
A Christmas Story is a huge favorite of mine, I laugh everytime and it never gets old.
Raising Arizona God, what a classic. My husband, mother and several people I know HATE it, but I absolutely LOVE it.
Major League Great lines in it.
Beetlejuice A great, dark comedy
American Pie It’s crude, crass and juvenile, but I love it.
Office Space Another one I can watch again and again and find it absolutely hysterical.
Oh yeah, I forgot Overboard
Okay I’m done now.
I think.
Without even blinking, I immediately thought Raising Arizona. Good to see other feel that way as well.
“Hey, these blow up into funny shapes at all?”
“Well, no. Unless round is funny.”
“Son, you got a panty on your head.”
“I’ll be taking these Huggies and whatever cash you got.”
“Was the child wearing anything when he was abducted?”
“No one sleeps naked in this house, boy!”
[...]
“What was he wearing?”
“A dinner jacket! Wuddya think he was wearing? His damn jammies!”
[...]
“What did the pajamas look like?”
“I don’t know, they were jammies! They had Yodas and shit on them.”
“Would you shop at a store called Unpainted Huffhines?”
I’m coming in at the end here, so I’ll just mention a few I didn’t notice from glancing through the comments:
Amelie: Just a glorious, beautiful movie that makes you feel like the world might not be such an entirely hopeless place after all.
My Man Godfrey: Carole Lombard + William Powell + a wise and funny script = cinematic perfection.
The Thin Man: William Powell again, Myrna Loy, dialog to absolutely die for.
Just a few of my favorites…
The Jerk (“He hates these cans!!”)
All of Me
Whats up Doc
Office Space
Parenthood
She’s having a baby
Johnny Stecchino
The Mask
Bruce Almighty
Pink Panther Strikes Again
Raising Arizona
Blazing Saddles
The Life of Brian
A fish called Wanda
David:
You HAVE to see What’s Up Doc. It’s an homage to Bringing Up Baby. You will recognize many of the moments. The ripping of the jacket …
It is a screwball comedy, written by Buck Henry, directed by peter Bogdonavich – and featuring one of the most spectacular debuts of all time – of Madeline Kahn as the infamous “Eunice Burns”.
Even just saying “Eunice Burns” makes me laugh.
“I don’t have a badge for a Miss Eunice Burns …”
“Don’t call her Burnsy.”
“That’s a person named Eunice?”
“HOWARD! TELL THEM WHO I AM! TELL THEM WHO I AM RIGHT. THIS. MINUTE.”
Long pause.
“I’ve never seen her before in my life.”
Oh Mere, the memories. Of watching The Jerk at your house. And the Pink Panther!! bwahahaha
“That was a priceless Steinway!”
Oh, and whoever mentioned Woody Allen:
I am particularly fond of Manhattan Murder Mystery. That movie makes me LAUGH.
“Save a little craziness for menopause, won’t you?”
“This is MY CASE, honey, this is MY CASE.”
Diane Keaton. So wonderfully funny
“The Party”, “The Pink Panther”, “Girl In My Soup”, … Oh, heck, almost anything with Peter Sellers in it.
“A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The Forum” and “The Producers”.
Okay, it’s not a movie. It’s standup.
But I must tell you: there were a couple of times in my life where Sam Kinison made me laugh so hard I had tunnel vision, where I was so physically completely out of control laughing so hard I seriously wondered if I wasn’t going to die.
I think the first time was when he was playing the piano, talking about his ex-girlfriend, just twinkling the keys, talking about funny pleasant memories, then he screamed, “YOU BIIIITCH! YOU USSSSSEED MEEE!!!!! I WANT MY RECORDS BACK ! I WANT MY RECORDS BACK!!! DIE!! DIEEE!!!!!!!”
“Sam Kinison made me laugh so hard I had tunnel vision”
God, Dean, what a perfect way to put it. I know just what you mean!!
More humor from What’s Up, Doc – perhaps my favorite moment.
Judy: I can’t see! I can’t see!
Howard: (in a tired, calm voice) Well, there’s not much to see, really. We’re inside a Chinese dragon.
Mere – if you’re reading this, feel free to leap in!!!
4 – 5- niiine, Dirella Street.
It doesn’t look as if anyone has mentioned Some Like It Hot, or Tootsie. Two classics in my book.
They’re up there somewhere in all those dern comments – I remember reading them elsewhere.
“I played a damn fine endive salad.”
And my God, Some Like it Hot has got to be one of the funniest movies ever made. When Jack Lemmon, in drag, whips around during the tango and he has the rose in his teeth with that DEAD SERIOUS look in his eyes … I nearly fall off my chair in delight.
Great Comedic Performances
Sheila (who’s always talking about something fun) has a thread going on going on great comedies. Well I’d like to go a step further and ask a questio…
How about these little wonderfuls that I haven’t seen listed yet?
Strange Brew – “It’s a jelly” One of the funniest movies I have ever seen.
Grumpy Old Men and Grumpier Old Men
Scrooged – A Bill Murray Classic “I am having the wierdest day!”
My Blue Heaven – Steve Martin as a New York, Merengue dancin Gangster in Middle America, Plus it has Joan Cusack who I believe is highly under-rated
LA Story – Another Steve Martin gem. Hip, Venal and Banal, the three musketeers “Your breasts feel funny. Oh, thats because they’re real.”
Along with the Jerk and Waiting for Guffman, plus any of the MST3K movies, this is my list.
Has anyone seen a little movie called The Daytrippers? Some pretty funny moments. My favorite: Parker Posey screaming “Don’t go into the light, mom!”
Oooo…Raising Arizona. Leonard Smalls, “he was especially hard on the little creatures, the meek and defenseless…,” as he pulls the plug from a grenade and chucks it at a bunny and shoots that little lizard off the rock. Plus, you have to love his tattoo that read “MAMMA DIDN’T LOVE ME.”
Monty Python and the Holy Grail
Planes, Trains and Automobiles
Arsenic and Old Lace
I always knew I loved you, Emily. I just didn’t know why until now.
(Leanord Smalls is my hero.)
My favorite line from L.A. Story (Steve Martin’s true masterpiece): “I could never be a woman. If I were I’d just sit at home all day playing with my breasts.”
“Does your dog bite?”
“Non.”
“Oh, here poochy pochy, here poochy poochy!”
“RAWRRRR!” (Bite)
“I sought you said your dog duz not bite?”
“Zat iz not my dog.”
Since yesterday only one other thing has come to me.
The Marx Brothers.
Animal Crackers
Monkey Business
Horse Feathers
Duck Soup
A Night at the Opera
A Day at the Races
Clerks
Better Off Dead
Four Rooms – So, did they misbehave?
Life of Brian – With deleted scenes on the dvd…
Kentucky Fried Movie – Classic Rosanne Arquette
Galaxina – The Blue Star
Super Troopers – Still New but funny
and this is the only other place where somone admits to havinf seen Bringing up Baby…
Oh, my gosh, I totally forgot Scrooged. Love the movie, love the Spirit portrayal by Carole Kane.
Planes, Trains, and Automobiles IS funny, but the last little bit of it (I’m not going to give a spoiler here but those who have seen it, it’s John Candy’s comment about his family) always makes me cry.
And Office Space just depressed me. I think it was because my brother spent several years as a hostage to the corporate world, and I saw the movie with him. At one point, I turned to him and said “this is nothing like it’s really like, right?” and he said “It’s actually a pretty accurate portrayal – oh, it’s a parody, but I can see people where I used to work doing things just. like. that.” (And I agree with whoever said there were too many loose threads and it needed another draft).
The Big Bus
I totally forgot Grumpy and Grumpier Old Men…especially the closing credits mostly with Burgess Meredith.
I love Monty Python Holy Grail, Life of Brian and Meaning of Life, but of the 3 my favorite is Life of Brian. Holy Grail is great, but the over-quoting of the movie has soured it somewhat to me.
Another one I realized that is pretty damn funny is Spaceballs.
“As you can see, Lone Star, evil will always triumph because good is dumb.”
“Just what we need, a Druish princess.”
“That’s funny, she doesn’t look Druish.”
MODERN ROMANCE. Albert Brooks.
Best comedy. Ever.
On breaking up with Katherine Harold.
“You’ve never heard of a no-win situation? They’re out there. I think we’re in one. Vietnam. This…”
Good call on Modern Romance. Albert Brooks is almost always great-my favorite of his is Lost in America. Sheila, you’re right about Manhattan Murder Mystery. I think it may be the best of the post 70s Allen comedies.
I’m going to put on my asbestos suit, and say I thought Ishtar was hilarious. If it hadn’t received so much publicity at time of release over the amount of money Hoffman and Beatty were getting paid for the film (they would have had a hard time recouping the investment), I think it would be recognized as a classic farce.
Showgirls.. “I wanna see your ass!”
Cecil B. Demented
South Park…
Worst alleged comedy ever: Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back.
But Andrew, Jay and Silent Bob featured a rare on-screen appearance by Mark Hamill, who has publicly made known his displeasure with George Lucas’s recent garbage. It therefore cannot be ALL bad.
I am looking forward to seeing Anchorman, it looks very funny, and I absolutely love Will Ferrell.
Oh, I can’t believe I didn’t think of Spaceballs either. Another one that I don’t think I’ve seen: The Birdcage.
Whats up Doc…
“I want my bike back”
“I’ll give you your bike back..I’ll give you a broken back…if you don’t be quiet”
“do you see this pill?”
“yes sir”
“its to remind me to take this blue pill”
“whats the blue pill for, sir?”
“I don’t know. They’re afraid to tell me”
and of course..
“I am Hugh”
“You are me?”
“NO..I am Hugh”
“stop.saying.that…Make him stop saying that!”
“I’m a doctor of music”
“can you fix a HI-FI?”
“no sir”
“then shut up”
basically the whole courtroom scene of whats up doc.
“Judy!”
“Hullo, Daddy.”
CRASH
and then of course:
“They tried to molest me.”
“That’s … unbelievable.”
“Why are you taking a bubble bath??”
“It came out of the faucet that way.”
Sheila–I am convinced. What’s Up, Doc? is on the docket for this weekend.
Whoo-hoo!
I remember that that was the only movie (besides The Sting) that my parents let my brother and I stay up late to watch. I remember my brother literally WRITHING about on the floor with laughter, during the Chinese dragon scene.
I’m pleased to see so many here loved “Raising Arizona”; Most of my family and friends can’t really see what I find so funny about it. It’s so perfectly, unselfconciously bizarre: Hi’s elevated diction, coupled with his crazed appearence; his 2 jailbird friends (their extended scream when they realize they’ve forgotten young Nathan on the roof of the car is truly priceless); the deadpan delivery of the lines (like the aforemetioned “son, you’ve got a panty on your head”), and the yodelling on the soundtrack. Best of all, the sequence from Hi’s going into the convenience store to the sweeping up of the Huggies during the getaway. At some point after Ed’s leaving of Hi behind, I turned purple, slid off my chair, pointed at the screen and just howled with laughter.
Has no one ever seen “It Happened One Night”? Damn funny movie. BTW, were any “comedies” truly funny that were made in the nineties other than “There’s Something About Mary”?
I love It Happened One Night!! I wrote a little piece about it somewhere else – can’t remember where.
The two of them together are absolutely perfect.
Another What’s Up Doc moment (I remember, as a kid, my mother GUFFAWING at this line):
Howard says to the clerk in the drugstore: “Well, how much is it without the Bufferin?”
In context, it is funnier than you can even imagine.
Bedtime Story, with Marlon Brando, David Niven, and Shirley Jones. Later remade as Dirty Rotten Scoundrels.
Bob Hope’s films, particularly the “Road” pictures he did with Bing Crosby.
Other than those, I think most of my favorites have already been mentioned.
Meet the Parents