Comedy Films

[Paaaaul]

.....Peter Jackson's frenzied back catalogue (Bad Taste, Braindead and Meet The Feebles). I couldn't really justify them though, it isn't as if they're hilarious ....

I think they are among the funniest things on celluloid

[keir]

.....Peter Jackson's frenzied back catalogue (Bad Taste, Braindead and Meet The Feebles). I couldn't really justify them though, it isn't as if they're hilarious ....

I think they are among the funniest things on celluloid

wonderful films

i never realised for so long that they were both him in bad taste!

[loo]

Better Off Dead - overlooked as standard teen 80s flick & has a throaway love plot, but it's ridiculous in the most delightful of ways and still makes me laugh out loud after repeated viewings.

Real Genius - I'm usually not much impressed by serial one-liners, but Val Kilmer's in this are the exception.  Never heard of this before catching  on tv one day and it's a wonder  as to why as it's far funnier than many of the more widely remembered 80s comedies.

Muriel's Wedding - I think it was fairly well received when it first came out, but I hardly hear mention of it nowadays which is a shame because it's not only very funny, but also very sweet.  Then again, that may be why - might seem too sentimental or whatever.

Elling - more than just a comedy film, I suppose, but it's very funny and all together a magnificent film.  

The Knack... - Instantly fell in love with this film.  I don't know that it made me laugh out loud necessarily, but I had a huge grin throughout.  

Pee-Wee's Big Adventure - I honestly can't think of anything to say other than to quote lines... "Is that something you can share with the rest of us, Amazing Larry?"

[trotsky assortment]

Better Off Dead - overlooked as standard teen 80s flick & has a throaway love plot, but it's ridiculous in the most delightful of ways and still makes me laugh out loud after repeated viewings.

Hugely unknown in the UK, I think, despite starring John Cusack.  As far as I know, it's not been shown on terrestrial TV, at least not for some time, if it has.

Well worth seeing for Kim Darby as the highly strung mother in Christmas reindeer horns.

[debut]

Man Bites Dog
My favourite Belgian film. Ever. Funny, nasty and great comedy acting.

Good shout, not seen it for years, very dark, very funny.

My choices are more mainstream i suppose.

LIFE OF BRIAN
WITHNAIL & I
STIR CRAZY
PLANES, TRAINS & AUTOMOBILES
AEROPLANE

What i find with comedy films is that too often, they are not funny all the way through, a few scenes may stand out but that is it. My above choices i have watched countless times, all still make me laugh.

[Cack Hen]

Man Bites Dog
My favourite Belgian film. Ever. Funny, nasty and great comedy acting.

Yes, I was pissing myself when they gang raped that woman and made her husband watch and then gutted her. Fucking pissing myself, I was.

[Garam]

[cunt]Well, you weren't supposed to. Throughout the film, you come to laugh and be charmed by the amiable Ben, despite his deeply flawed personality. You actually end up rooting for Ben and then that scene is designed to bring us down to Earth and make us realise what a sick bastard he is (and we are, for laughing so hard throughout the rest of the movie.)[/cunt]

[neveragain]

I'd echo Muriel's Wedding - it looks sentimental but isn't when you watch it all the way through. Or indeed even ten minutes through.

And also Paaaul, keir, I am a fan of Jackson's early films and therefore think they're funny but... I don't know, maybe I've just seen them a bit too much. I thought Feebles got a bit too vulgar and longwinded, whereas Bad Taste doesn't hold my attention past the fantastic scene on the cliff. Praise-wise though 'Your mother ate my dog'/'Not all of it' is utterly hilarious the first time anyone sees it.

[purlieu]

I'll second the Withnail & I votes - one of the most rewatchable films ever, I find.
"Are you the farmer?"
"Stop saying that Withnail, of course he's the fucking farmer!"
"We've gone on holiday by mistake..."

"What about whatshisname?"
"What about him?"
"Why don't you give him a call?"
"What for?"
"Ask him about his house."
"You want me to call whatshisname and ask him about his house?"
"Why not?"
"Alright.  What's his number?"
"I've no idea.  I've never met him."
"Well neither have I.  What the fuck are you talking about?"


Oh, and Trainspotting.  Again, not entirely a comedy, but easily the second funniest film I know (behind the aforementioned).

[Shoulders?-Stomach!]

I'm going to make a list and spoil everything:

-Hot Shots 1 & 2
-Anchorman
-Coming to America
-The Princess Bride (as mentioned above)
-The Naked Gun 1 & 2 & 3
-Napoleon Dynamite
-Fast Times At Ridgemont High
-Monty Python but particularly The Holy Grail
-Everything You Wanted To Know About Sex But Were Afraid To Ask
-Porkys 1 & 2 (Haven't seen Porky's Revenge)
-Stakeout
-Dr. Strangelove
-Trading Places

Maybe I could expand on that, and maybe I will do, but not now.

[captain Grimes]

smokey and the bandit...............fricken awsum

[Garam]

I'm rather fond of Freddy Got Fingered. I imagine I'm the only one on here that thinks Tom Green has good comic timing. Although the whole retard persona can be a bit much.

[Autopsy Turvey]

All right then. Every single bastard one of the Carry On films. Tight, cleverly-written absurdist farces starring at least eight of the best comedy actors that ever lived.

Except the last three, obviously.

[Shoulders?-Stomach!]

I'm rather fond of Freddy Got Fingered. I imagine I'm the only one on here that thinks Tom Green has good comic timing. Although the whole retard persona can be a bit much.

I find Tom Green very funny but that film must be the most dismal attempt at comedy I've ever watched. It's. Just. Awful.[/kermode] And I enjoy gross out comedies as much as the next simple-minded cretin.

[Garam]

I find the awfulness quite charming and amusing really. Just think: a major movie studio gave Tom Green millions of dollars to scream like an idiot and lick broken bones. The amount of useless set-pieces make me laugh like hell, particularly the incredibly pointless Afghanistan sequence at the end.

And I really like Rip Torn.

[Clinton Morgan]

I actually like 'Scary Movie' and 'Scary Movie 2' and the trailer for 'Scary Movie 4' was one of those rare occasions where the trailer makes me want to see the film. It was the combination of the crowd listening to eighties pop music on a giant i-pod appreciatively and the fast paced comedy clips with a hip hop soundtrack that did it. I mean, come on, who can really dislike " This is Black TV. White woman dead. We're getting the fuck outta here" or the site of Marlon Wayans being rolled into a giant spliff by an enormous cannabis plant. 'Scary Movie' is one of those films (like the gorillas robbing the safe scene in 'The Pink Panther) that proves that pan and scan is terrible. I have the first film on VHS and the fish tank/bong scene is ruined by the panning and scanning. On the cinema screen as the characters are wondering how they are going to get high the fish-tank is in a very prominent position. On the panned and scanned version the tank is not there so when Marlon Wayans and his pals look forward we do not see what they are looking at and thus do not get to enjoy the experience of thinking, "Heh, heh. They're going to use the fish-tank as a giant bong."

Comedy films tend to be seen by film-as-literature yo-yos as merely a bit of fun but not as good as Carl Dreyer, Ingmar Bergman or Robert Bresson. This fails to take in account that a good comedy film can use all the techniques and vocabulary available in the cinematic language  and possibly innovating some new ones. However is snobbery against comedy cinema a bad thing? I'm inclined to say no. Remember (in the decadent west at least) cinema had low cultural roots. It was a fairground attraction. Much as I love 'Ordet', 'Piccadilly' and 'Persona' I get the feeling the notion of film-is-art is doing film-no-favours. Cinema is as much about Ted V Mikels as it is about Michael Winterbottom. British cinema is much about George Harrison-Marks as it is about Michael Powell. Terry Gilliam once told comic book artists (although they probably prefer to be called graphic novellists) not to be disheartened that their artform was not taken seriously but to be the very opposite. In the section on Japanese cinema in a world cinema encyclopedia the writer explains that from the start cinema was seen as a respected artform which created a problem in the earliest movies. Instead of developing a cinematic method of storytelling the earliest Japanese movies were carbon copies of Noh plays. Not Noh Cinema but Noh Theatre. In other words the films were unnecessary. You might as well go to the theatre and see an actual Noh play.

I too love 'The Case of The Mukkinese Battlehorn' and consider it to be Britain's 'Un Chien Andalou' in terms of surrealism and playing about with the medium. Incidentally watch 'Un Chien Andalou' not as an art film but as somebody expecting a story and wondering who is the good guy, who is the bad guy and what does the good guy want. You'll soon fit comfortably in "what the fuck" mode.

Can animation also be included? Of course it can and I include Bob Godfrey's 'Henry 9 Til 5' and 'The Do-It-Yourself Cartoon Kit' narrated by Michael Bentine.

Is 'The Bank Dick' that film that opens up strangely followed by a producer complaining about the sheer stupidity of the script? I actually read the script in Reading Library before I saw the film and the and-then-what-happened-wasness of the writing made me chuckle myself into convulsions.

I love Will Hay films. Namely 'Boys Will Be Boys', 'Ask A Policeman' and 'Oh Mr Porter'. I also like the comedy films of Howard Hawks especially 'Bringing Up Baby' and get tickled pink by the fact that 'Bringing Up Baby' was from the same period as 'Oh Mr Porter'. Two very wonderful but very different comedy films. 'Ball of Fire' starring Barbara Stanwyck is a gem and has cinematography which is as good as 'Rebecca' and 'Citizen Kane'. Not surprising since all three films were lensed by Greg Toland.

'L'Age D'or' is another good comedy film (oh yes it is) and is worth watching.

I quite like the sketch movies whether it be 'Everything You Always Wanted To Know About Sex But Were Afraid To Ask', 'Kentucky Fried Movie' or 'Amazon Women On The Moon'. I have never seen 'The Groove Tube' but I would like to.

Incidentally TJ I hope you don't take offense but what is the point of this thread when there is already 'The Very Big Comedy Films Thread' lurking in the distance?  Surely that needs ressurrecting?

You must acquire a finely tuned appreciation of cinema. Don't look at the classics all the time. The classics will be with us till the moon turns blue. Seek out, rather, the neglected works that reveal the world of movies in a bright and blistering light.
George Kuchar

[Garam]

Oh yeah - the Wayans brothers really piss me off generally but Don't be a menace to South Central while drinking your juice in da hood makes me laugh a whole lot.

[Paperlung]

Bill Plympton's "The Tune".  Rooty-tooty 'bout Flooby Nooby.
You may remember a couple of characters from this torturing one another in those Nik Nak ads from the early '90s.

[Utter Shit]

I'm rather fond of Freddy Got Fingered. I imagine I'm the only one on here that thinks Tom Green has good comic timing. Although the whole retard persona can be a bit much.

Absolutely love it. Unashamed silliness.

[Boss Mew]

Bill Plympton's "The Tune".  Rooty-tooty 'bout Flooby Nooby.
You may remember a couple of characters from this torturing one another in those Nik Nak ads from the early '90s.

May I add another Plympton film 'I Married A Strange Person' to this as well

[alan strang]

You may remember a couple of characters from this torturing one another in those Nik Nak ads from the early '90s.

They were originally shorts on MTV weren't they, along with the wise man with all manner of ridiculous things happening to his head?

[Squidy]

Bill Plympton's 1987 Oscar nominee Your Face: http://rapidshare.de/files/18084929/Your_Face__Bill_Plympton__1987_.avi.html [16.8MB] (taken from MySpleen.net)

[keir]

nice one - i have that on a vhs somewhere from a 4Mation season i think

[Sam]

You must acquire a finely tuned appreciation of cinema. Don't look at the classics all the time. The classics will be with us till the moon turns blue. Seek out, rather, the neglected works that reveal the world of movies in a bright and blistering light.
George Kuchar

This is similar to something Kermode said along the lines of "Anyone can watch great films and develop an appreciation of what's good, but it takes something more to trawl through the dregs and gain an understanding of cinema based upon awful films".

[Charles Charlie Charles]

Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas

Except any of the bits that refer to drugs, cos drugs are bad

[Clinton Morgan]

Mmmmkay.

[neveragain]

I've just watched Three Businessmen and it is indeed great. Not mad keen on the bloke who played Frank King but aside from that, and a few off-quality pieces of dialogue, 'tis wondrous. A wonderful flowing, lethargic, hypnotic feeling drifts through and this really helps cushion and maintain the surreal aspect.

[Tokyo Sexwhale]

You may remember a couple of characters from this torturing one another in those Nik Nak ads from the early '90s.

They were originally shorts on MTV weren't they, along with the wise man with all manner of ridiculous things happening to his head?

I seem to recall his cartoons were part of a show called "The Edge" which also featured Jennifer Aniston and Wayne "Newman" Knight.  I only saw a couple of them, but imdb seems to confirm it.

Paramount used to show them as fillers (and may still do, I don't have it anymore).

[The Plaque Goblin]

I seem to recall Kermode liked 'Harold And Kumar Get The Munchies'.

Is that good?

[ffogems]

A wonderful flowing, lethargic, hypnotic feeling drifts through and this really helps cushion and maintain the surreal aspect.

There's a strange ambience to it isn't there, perhaps enhanced or induced by the cheap grainy filminess. And few films could rely on just two main actors, particularly when there's such a mystifying narrative. It manages to keep my attention and I spot something new everytime.

In case you liked the beginning theme, it's by Pray For Rain and is free to download from their official site.