Inspired by the recent spate of movie threads we’ve been having lately, I thought I’d ask this one. It’s a pretty simple question but I bet we get a huge variety of answers.
For purposes of this discussion, it doesn’t matter if the film was intended as a comedy or not. It doesn’t matter how long or short the film is either. Nor should it matter if it was direct to video, shot with a video camera or a super 8 (or 16) camera, or any format.
What does matter is that it’s a film, not a television show or mini-series or an advertisement or a music video or a video game cut scene or some other form of visual entertainment media.
And please limit yourself to one title. More than that and you’re obviously undecided (and not actually answering the question I’ve posed).
So:
What is the single funniest movie you’ve ever seen?
Blazing Saddles for me too. I saw it in a theater on its original release. I don’t ever recall laughing that hard or that loud at a movie before or since. And I’ve never heard the rest of a theater laughing so hard either.
We’re so accustomed to movies and TV being deliberately outrageous now, it may be hard to understand just how over-the-top the movie was at the time it came out.
I couldn’t pick one absolutely better than all the rest. I’ll toss out Animal House, it was the funniest movie ever when it was made. But that could apply to many movies made before and after that.
Animal House hands down.it was a revolutionary film that changed hollywood history. Its lost some of its mystique because its been copied so many times…Im looking at you Van Wilder. Great cast, great writing and, like sex, you can never recreate the experience of doing it for the first time.
I think we had it out here before about which Mel Brooks movie was the best/funniest and YF came out ahead, so just because BS has had more mentions so far doesn’t mean it will win in the long run.
Huge nerd that I am, YF is the only movie I have watched over a dozen times.
Reg: All right, but apart from the sanitation, medicine, education, wine, public order, irrigation, roads, the fresh water system and public health, what have the Romans ever done for us?
Brian: Look, you’ve got it all wrong! You don’t NEED to follow ME, You don’t NEED to follow ANYBODY! You’ve got to think for your selves! You’re ALL individuals!
The Crowd: Yes! We’re all individuals!
Brian: You’re all different!
The Crowd: Yes, we ARE all different!
Man in crowd: I’m not…
One that sprang to mind - The Emperor’s New Groove. If you haven’t seen it, treat yourself, and don’t dismiss it as “just a Disney {/sneer} movie”.
The previous ones are good, too - just not as funny, IMHO.
Some worthy runners-up mentioned so far in this thread (Young Frankenstein, Holy Grail, Life of Brian, The Producers), but the all-time funniest movie is A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum.
I dunno, Biffy. I feel that *A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum *lost its pacing with the chariot chase scene (it appears that car chased were “the funniest thing ever” in the 1960s. and were therefore shoehorned into everything).
I have to go with either Airplane! for unrelenting absurdity, or Duck Soup for witty absurdity. I like my comedies absurd.