BRINGING UP BABY is my first, but if you’ve not seen it, try to get an audience. The out-loud laughter is infectious.
I’ll also put in a plug for NOISES OFF, which is another one that can be watched multiple times and we laugh just as hard each time.
If I really sat and thought about it I’m quite sure I’d come up with a different movie, maybe a black and white classic (Some Like It Hot), maybe something wittier (His Girl Friday/Philadelphia Story/Noises Off!), maybe just some dumb movie from the 2000’s (Hangover/Hot Tub Time Machine), but upon seeing the thread title my mind went right to Airplane! without giving it any thought so I’m going with that.
Tough to choose one.
The movie that had me laughing the most was What’s Up, Doc, Peter Bogdanovich’s film with Barbara Streisand, Ryan O’Neal, Austin Templeton, Boss Hawg, and a lot of people who’d show up later in Young Frankenstein. Perfect script by Buck Henry. it featured wordplay, situational comedy, lots of well-done slapstick and other physical comedy, and one of the funniest closing lines I ever heard. (And to those of you who say it’s just a remake of Bringing Up Baby – it ain’t. For some reason, Bringing Up Baby does nothing for me.)
Besides that:
Airplane!
Airplane 2 (despite not being made by the Zucker/Zicker Abrams trilogy)
Top Secret
The Naked Gun
Young Frankenstein
Spaceballs
A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum
A Night at the Opera
and an obscure 1973 French-Italian comedy I’ve only seen once, The Mad Adventures of Rabbi Jacob )Les Aventures de Rabbi Jacob) It’s the only film I’ve seen with the amazing Louis de Funes, who can apparently be funny in any language, and is one of those international comedy stars (like Cantinflas) that we’ve been denied in the US, because they don’t distribute a lot of foreign films here.
Man, I don’t know that I can add anything over YF and MP&THG. I’ll have to think if I can add any darkhorses.
Had to comment on A Funny Thing Happened. When my kids were young, I looked forward to exposing them to all these movies I had loved. During A Funny Thing they actually told me to let them know when the funny parts happened. And I agreed with them! Same thing happened with Its A Mad Mad World.
Funny movies don’t seem to age all that well. I’ve even been underwhelmed at revisiting some of my favorits (gasp) the Marx Brothers.
Okay - here’s one I remember as hilarious. Who’s Minding the Mint. I bet if I saw it today it would just seem stupid.
And not all-time great, but I laughed more at the repartee in Now You see Me than I can recall laughing at any other movie lately.
For repeat viewing: Young Frankenstein gets another vote.
But the hardest I ever laughed at a movie was when I was a teenager and saw W. C. Fields’ Million Dollar Legs for the first time. The sight of the major-domo running faster than a train and wearing a goat’s head was so absurd I nearly passed out laughing. On repeated view, especially since becoming an adult, it’s only mildly amusing.
Louis has always been very popular in Eastern Europe and Russia. I love the scene where the car goes off the road and into the lake while they’re being chased by terrorists:
LOUIS: Help me get the car out of the lake!
CHAUFFEUR: Sorry, I can’t.
LOUIS: What do you mean, you can’t?
CHAUFFEUR: The Sun’s gone down.
LOUIS: What do you mean, the Sun’s gone down? What are you, a Jew?!?
CHAUFFEUR: Yes, I’m a Jew!
LOUIS: You’re a Jew?!?
CHAUFFEUR: I’ve worked for you for the last 20 years, and you never knew I was Jewish?
Harold and Maude? De Duva? Scary Movie?
Start the Revolution without Me.
Monty Python and the Holy Grail. Any movie that has me laughing uproariously before the credits are over (MØØSE BITES CAN BE VERY NASTI) is hard to beat.
I haven’t seen that movie in twenty years, and I’m betting I didn’t get all the jokes the last time I saw it, but I remember loving it.
A lot of my top-ten favorite comedies have already been mentioned, but I’m going to have to add Real Genius and Super Troopers. They may not have the class of Bringing Up Baby or the sheer wit of Murder by Death, but I still laugh every damn time.
The problem with funny movies (for me) is that they get slightly less funny ever time I see them, so it’s hard to remember how funny they were the first time I saw them.
Possible candidates:
Airplane!
A Shot In The Dark
The Producers
Monty Python and the Holy Grail
Life of Brian
This Is Spinal Tap
The Naked Gun, Hot Shots.
Wow, a lot of Mel Brooks fans in here. The guy doesn’t do it for me.
I’ll go with Galaxy Quest.
If I had to pick one, it would be South Park: Bigger, Longer and Uncut.
If I could give a top 5, it would be that one plus:
Airplane
Blazing Saddles
Quick Change
Hot Shots Part Deux
The Twelve Chairs.
Around 25% of responders actually followed the OP’s instructions. Never fails.
As for me, I’ll go with the (amazingly) so far unmentioned This Is Spinal Tap.
mmm
Start the Rev W/o Me That’s another one I remember from my youth as HYSTERICAL. Would be interesting to see it again…
Ooh - here’s one - The Tall Blonde Man With One Brown (Black?) Shoe. The French version, not the Tom Hanks remake. That’s my vote.
Tough question, but the movie I can watch and laugh at again and again is The Big Lebowski.
I am going to limit myself to what made me laugh the hardest the first time I saw it. That would have to be The Holy Grail. I was about twelve a couple of years after it came out. They were showing the movie in the local library of all places. I laughed to the point of pain for the entire movie. You could argue that other movies such as Spinal Tap and Dr Strangelove are better movies. And I love them for how clever they are. But nothing made me laugh harder than The Grail the first time I saw it.
I’ll also go with Noises Off. Mel Brooks is only funny if I’m in the right mood for his style of humor; if I’m not, it just seems stupid. Second runner up: His Girl Friday, the Cary Grant/Rosalind Russel version, and A Funny Thing Happend on the Way to the Forum comes in third. Humor based on surprise loses it’s appeal once it isn’t a surprise anymore, but the clever wordplay in the Sondheim songs, or in the Grant/Russel banter, lasts forever.