CaB's 100 Greatest Comedy Films Of All Time - The Big Vote 2017

[worldsgreatestsinner]

If anyone is looking for screwball recommendations, two that just missed out on my list are Easy Living and Midnight.

[Dr Rock]

Has there been a single mention of a Richard Curtis film? Haha all your comedies are shit.

[Serge]

'The Tall Guy' was pretty good!

[zomgmouse]

Preston Sturges is an obvious 40s comedy superstar. Screwball? Undecided. But still: Sullivan's Travels, The Lady Eve, Unfaithfully Yours. Sublime stuff.

Plus Lubitsch. Heaven Can Wait is a gem.

[Tapiocahead]

Showgirls.

It was Blazing Saddles

[Kane Jones]

'The Tall Guy' was pretty good!

YES! My sister used to watch that film all the time. Had some great dialogue in it. Goldblum was great.

[Serge]

"I hope all your children have very small dicks! And that includes the girls!"

[Brundle-Fly]

"The word on the street is that the costumes are marvellous!"

[DukeDeMondo]

In no particular order, and knowing that I'll probably change my mind in ten minutes, even after having thought about it all week...

Love and Death (1975, Woody Allen)

The Lego Movie (2014, Phil Lord & Christopher Miller)

The Cameraman (1928, Edward Sedgwick)

This Is Spinal Tap (1984, Rob Reiner)

Modern Times (1936, Charlie Chaplin)

Day of the Beast (1995, Álex de la Iglesia)

The Big Lebowski (1998, Joel Coen & Ethan Coen)

Ed Wood (1994, Tim Burton)

Step Brothers (2008, Adam McKay)

MouseHunt (1997, Gore Verbinski)

[Small Man Big Horse]

The Lego Movie (2014, Phil Lord & Christopher Miller)
Day of the Beast (1995, Álex de la Iglesia)
Step Brothers (2008, Adam McKay)

Bollocks, I forgot all three when considering my list, and I think Step Brothers would definitely have made the top 10.

[worldsgreatestsinner]

Preston Sturges is an obvious 40s comedy superstar. Screwball? Undecided. But still: Sullivan's Travels, The Lady Eve, Unfaithfully Yours. Sublime stuff.

Some of his 30s films are incredible too, but usually go overlooked because he didn't direct them. The Good Fairy is excellent, and his films for Mitchell Leisen, Easy Living and Remember the Night, are particularly good.  Remember the Night is a really interesting one for fans of classic cinema, it's a pre-Double Indemnity teaming of Fred MacMurray and Barbara Stanwyck and it's just achingly lovely.

[Mr Banlon]

Broadway Danny Rose
The Odd Couple
Don't Be A Menace To South Central
Blazing Saddles
Airplane
The Sunshine Boys
Caddyshack
Loose Shoes
The Front Page
Team America
Man Bites Dog
Where's That Fire

[Mr Brightside]

Twelve you fucking cheat. Banned from vote.

[zomgmouse]

Remember the Night is a really interesting one for fans of classic cinema, it's a pre-Double Indemnity teaming of Fred MacMurray and Barbara Stanwyck and it's just achingly lovely.

Oh yeah this was delightful!

[Dr Rock]

'The Tall Guy' was pretty good!

Yeah it's probably his best, but still not good enough to make anyone's top ten.

Is Kelly's Heroes a comedy?

[Serge]

Day of the Beast (1995, Álex de la Iglesia)

Ah yes, a bloody fantastic film that I must get around to watching again.

Is Kelly's Heroes a comedy?

For Donald Sutherland alone, I'd say yes.

[derek stitt]

Few more - The Fearless Vampire Killers,  Les Visiteurs and In Bruge.

[Dr Rock]

I don't think anyone's mentioned Animal House. Is it not that funny in retrospect, is it because it inspired the Porky's 'genre' a bit? I wouldn't put it in my top ten, but like The Blues Brothers (another Landis) I've watched it plenty of times and I always enjoy it. But it gets its dues normally - this thread is about putting Top Secret! near the top like it should be.

[zomgmouse]

this thread is about putting Top Secret! near the top like it should be.

It's no Loaded Weapon 1.

[hewantstolurkatad]

I don't think anyone's mentioned Animal House. Is it not that funny in retrospect, is it because it inspired the Porky's 'genre' a bit? I wouldn't put it in my top ten, but like The Blues Brothers (another Landis) I've watched it plenty of times and I always enjoy it. But it gets its dues normally - this thread is about putting Top Secret! near the top like it should be.

I feel like Animal House perhaps doesn't translate as well internationally as the others, I never rated it as high as some of his others

[Serge]

'Animal House' was one I watched to death as a teenager, but haven't seen it in years. Will have to dig it out at some point.

[checkoutgirl]

I couldn't pick a top 10. Maybe a top 15 but more likely a top 20. The only ones in my list that might not already be mentioned are

In & Out
I'm Gonna Git You Sucka
Friday
The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes Smarter Brother
Fear of a Black Hat

[Dr Rock]

Is Commando a comedy? Maybe we should have a separate list for funniest films which aren't marketed as straight comedies.

I'd have

Kelly's Heroes
Commando
Showgirls
Beyond The Valley Of The Dolls
some others, I dunno.

[checkoutgirl]

Is Commando a comedy?

I'd tend to agree with Wikipedia which says it's an action film. And They Live is most certainly not a comedy. It's science fiction with an unintentionally funny fight scene.

[zomgmouse]

Not sure how familiar people are with Soviet comedies but there's a lot of them and a lot of good ones, too. Some to check out:

- Kidnapping, Caucasus Style
- Gentlemen of Fortune
- The Irony of Fate

And some I've not seen but have been told are also great:

- Operation Y
- The Diamond Arm
- Beware of the Car
- Kin-Dza-Dza

[derek stitt]

Russ Meyer was a genius

[Bazooka]

Is Commando a comedy? Maybe we should have a separate list for funniest films which aren't marketed as straight comedies.

I'd have

Kelly's Heroes
Commando
Showgirls
Beyond The Valley Of The Dolls
some others, I dunno.

Yes Commando is a comedy, every punchline before or after Arnie kills someone is hilarious, I mean he drops a man to his death after a quip. Also the juxtaposition of the opening scene with him and his daughter enjoying nature, 7 minutes later he shoots a man in the forehead. Wish I had put it on my list.

[Sebastian Cobb]

Is Commando a comedy? Maybe we should have a separate list for funniest films which aren't marketed as straight comedies.

I'd have

Kelly's Heroes
Commando
Showgirls
Beyond The Valley Of The Dolls
some others, I dunno.

I'd like to add Hard Ticket to Hawaii to that list.

[garbed_attic]

1.) Braindead (Peter Jackson, 1992)

Scene-for-scene probably my favourite film of all time and certainly my most watched comedy film. It's the perfect Halloween film - a joyous parody that reaffirms its source texts with a great deal of heart and inventiveness. The jokes are relentless and the acting all just the right side of OTT. "Some of my best friends are pedophiles!"

2.) Crimewave (John Paizs, 1985)

A film that, if better known, would probably grace a fair few of these lists. Shot like a staid 1950s after school special, willfully perverse, simultaneously deeply cute and deeply sinister. The most consistently inventive meta-fictional film about the act of creativity. "You like orange juice don't ya...? Well it's the same thing." You can watch the intro here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EO5-r0u9PUU

3.) The Big Lebowski (Coen Brothers, 1998)

How much I laugh seems to be determined by who I watch 'Lebowski' with. Very goofy with an undercurrent of weird melancholy. I love how fast and loose the Coens play with allegorical forms and political references. I actually prefer Barton Fink as a movie, but Lebowski is the better comedy. So many vivid characters performed by brilliant actors. "You're out of your element, Donny!"

4.) Withnail and I (Bruce Robinson, 1987)

I always forget this came out the same year (and month) I was born. Maybe this is because it's set in the '60s or maybe it's because it has an uncanny timelessness to it, as though it had achieved legendary status before it had even been made. The saddest comedy I can think of. I've never lived 'Withnail', but the titular character is not wholly dissimilar to my best friend, whose drugs-addled antics I watched from a concerned remove for years. In fact, it's a film that is eminently relateable for anyone who has been in a very close, dysfunctional friendship with someone just a bit less well/ functioning than themselves. One of my absolute favourite endings of all cinema, somehow managing to make Shakespeare more moving and (mock-)transcendent than it originally was by staging Hamlet's monologue in front of a bunch of mangy looking wolves.

5.) Monkey Business (Norman Z. McLeod, 1931)

Duck Soup from two years later is undoubtedly the superior work, but Monkey Business made me laugh more. Harpo is on fire like a demonic child incarnation of chaos itself. It's really just a sequence of antics, but antics so perfectly structured and performed that they're balletic. A real joy inducing comedy.

6.) Groundhog Day (Harold Remis, 1993)

One of the few essential family films from the '90s. I'm not wholly convinced by its much-touted moral vision, but I really like its rhythms and it's a film I have thoroughly enjoyed every day I have sat down to watch since I was a child. It has the only suicide gags I've ever really found funny and it provides a winning fantasy that I suspect most humans can relate to on some level. And I say this all as someone who isn't a Billy Murray fan!

7.) This Is Spinal Tap (Rob Reiner, 1984)

'Lick my Love Pump' indeed. Eminently quotable and considering that none of the characters are especially likable or nuanced you really get sucked into the drama. But it's a film all about the jokes and song parodies really, which are all top-notch. A film best watched first as a teenager, perhaps. I'd love to see it with a cinema audience.

8.) Ghost World (Terry Zwigoff, 2001)

Almost altogether too melancholy to be a comedy film, but that didn't stop me from listing Withnail and I. The best portrait of adolescent ennui because it reaches out (compassionately but sardonically!) beyond adolescent to explore the way in which the superficiality and dispensability of life under late capitalism fundamentally diminishes its citizens and prevents meaningful connections. I remember being 14 and looking up at Thora Birch on the VHS cover and being just utterly stuck and intrigued by her and the film. She's brilliant here and it makes me sad that factors meant she didn't have the career in her 20s that she should have had.

9.) Daisies (Věra Chytilová, 1966)

It's almost too free-wheeling and abstract to be considered a comedy but it aims at puncturing seriousness and injecting chaos into order like many of the best comedy films. Plus it's really funny. Lots of great flappy, mannequin-like movements from Cerhová and Karbandova and some really silly faces. They are the original pranksters! "We exist, we exist, we exist."

10.) Playtime (Jacques Tati, 1967)

Sometimes it's a film you just need to sit back and marvel at. The only comedy about architecture?

EDIT: Probably should have put Holy Grail in there but it'll get enough votes.

[Serge]

This is weird....I had no idea that there was another film called 'Crimewave' that happened to come out in 1985! I'm familiar with Sam Raimi's film, but this one had completely passed me by. EDIT: I suppose technically, Raini's is 'Crimewave' and Paizs' is 'Crime Wave'.

'Braindead' has one of my favourite lines of all time - "There's some dettol in the jeep!"

I was tempted to put 'Daisies' in my top ten, but I've only seen it once, and quite recently, so thought it was fairer to go for ones that have stood the test of time with me.