Self-explanatory. What decade do you think had the best movie comedies? My pick would be the 1980s, which gave us:
Airplane!
Caddyshack
This Is Spinal Tap
A Christmas Story
Midnight Run
Planes, Trains and Automobiles
The Blues Brothers
Withnail And I
Raising Arizona
National Lampoon’s Vacation
Repo Man
Fletch
Monty Python’s The Meaning of Life
Heathers
Fast Times at Ridgemont High
Sixteen Candles
Dirty Rotten Scoundrels
Better Off Dead
etc., etc. Pretty strong list, IMO. What do you say? Poll to follow.
On the other hand, the 90s gave us: Home Alone
City Slickers 1 and 2
Hot Shots!
Father of the Bride
A League of Their Own
Wayne’s World
Groundhog Day
Ace Ventura: Pet Detective
Clerks
PCU
Austin Powers
Men in Black
There’s Something About Mary
American Pie
Office Space
Galaxy Quest
That’s about as strong as the 80s list, which makes it really hard to decide which decade was better. And then of course the 70s was Mel Brook’s golden decade, and he should be declared a national comedic treasure.
I favor the 1930s, when giants like the Marx Brothers, W. C. Fields, Mae West, and Charlie Chaplin (including the sublime City Lights) walked the Earth.
Not to mention the entire screwball comedy genre, with Bringing Up Baby and My Man Godfrey leading the pack. There were great romantic comedies like It Happened One Night, and musical comedies like 42nd Street, Golddiggers of 1933, Dames, Golddiggers of 1935, Top Hat, The Gay Divorcee and Swing Time. You had Frank Capra’s social comedies like Mr. Deeds Goes to Town.
You also great comedy shorts with Laurel and Hardy, the Three Stooges (their best era), Our Gang, Edgar Kennedy, Charlie Chase, and others.
Hm. Surprising results so far (and only 2 decades picked in the poll). I’ve never been a fan of slapstick, which comes across as hacky and childish to me, though there are a few movies listed from the 30s I can get on board with. I figured there would at least be some for the 40s (just because of Preston Sturges) and 70s (MASH, Animal House, Monty Python, Mel Brooks).
For help, here is a Wikipedia page which links to lists of comedy films by decade. I’m leaning toward the 30’s but I’m going to refresh my memory a bit first.
The 70s also had some of Woody Allen’s best films (Annie Hall; Sleeper; Manhattan) as well Oscar winner The Sting, not to mention Smokey and the Bandit; Bad News Bears and American Graffiti.
Also Blazing Saddles, Young Frankenstein, Monty Python and the Holy Grail, M.A.S.H., various Pink Panther films (& Murder By Death & Being There while I’m at it), and Animal House.
I pick the 80s, but then I was a teenager in the 80s, when I was deeply involved in the pop culture of the time. Ever since then I compare the state of popular entertainment to what I experienced during my teens, so naturally nothing is good enough. Halcyon days.
And The Breakfast Club,and Coming To America, and Ghostbusters, and Stripes, and The Jerk only came out with 2 weeks left in 1979, so you could still see it in the theater, and Stir Crazy, . . . Oh, and did I forget to mention the greatest comedy ever Trading Places, not to mention Eddie Murphy’s Delerious and Raw as well as Bill Cosby’s himself.
There are some great movies in every era, but the 80’s is the golden era for comedy. All the comedians born into the counter movement, all the not ready for prime time players, took their act to the silver screen.
Hmmm…the 80’s had way more, but the 70’s did have some great ones.
70’s
Catch-22
MAS*H
The Out-of-Towners
Bananas
Harold and Maude
Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex
What’s Up, Doc?
American Graffiti
Paper Moon
Sleeper
The Sting
Blazing Saddles
The Longest Yard
Young Frankenstein
Love and Death
The Bad News Bears
Car Wash
Annie Hall
The Kentucky Fried Movie
Oh, God!
Slap Shot
Smokey and the Bandit
California Suite
Foul Play
Heaven Can Wait
Animal House
Up in Smoke
Being There
Breaking Away
The Jerk
Manhattan
Real Life
Monty Python and the Holy Grail
The Life of Brian
80’s
Airplane!
The Blues Brothers
Caddyshack
Hopscotch
Melvin and Howard
Nine to Five
Private Benjamin
Seems Like Old Times
Stir Crazy
Arthur
Stripes
History of the World, Part I
48 Hours
Diner
Fast Times at Ridgemont High
Night Shift
Tootsie
Victor Victoria
A Christmas Story
The Man With Two Brains
Mr. Mom
Vacation
Risky Business
Strange Brew
Trading Places
Beverly Hills Cop
Ghostbusters
This Is Spinal Tap
Back to the Future
Better Off Dead
Fletch
Lost in America
Weird Science
Down and Out in Beverly Hills
Ferris Bueller’s Day Off
Planes, Trains & Automobiles
Raising Arizona
Beetlejuice
Big
Bull Durham
Coming to America
Dirty Rotten Scoundrels
Hairspray
Midnight Run
The Naked Gun: From the Files of Police Squad!
Scrooged
Who Framed Roger Rabbit
A Fish Called Wanda
The Meaning of Life
Withnail and I
I cherry picked from that wiki link which isn’t entirely complete, they don’t have all of the John Hughes movies - no Sixteen Candles on the list??
I do think that the 30’s deserve mention, they had some great ones.
Catch-22
MAS*H
Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex
American Graffiti
Blazing Saddles
Young Frankenstein
Animal House
Being There
The Jerk
Monty Python and the Holy Grail