I was coming into this thread to mention this scene. Brilliant.
OK, I will do that from now on.
Top Secret!, IMO the funniest of the Abrams/Zucker films, has dozens of great ones. These are just the ones I can remember right now, but I know I’m forgetting dozens more:
[ul][li]German officer reads escape telegram, stamps it with a stamp that reads “Find Him and Kill Him”[/li][li]Nick reading a note with an out loud voiceover, then they show the guy was actually shouting into a megaphone[/li][li]“I know a little German - he’s sitting over there!”[/li][li]Giant telephone in the foreground[/li][li]Making out, then end scene with a shot of a fireplace…while they’re parachuting[/li][li]Sending a bunch of vehicles to chase after the prisoner, pan out and it’s just the same trucks driving in a circle[/li][li]Yodeling horse[/li][li]Crawling towards a pair of boots, pan up and it’s just the boots[/li][li]Playing darts against the British airplane logo[/li][li]Out-of-control truck lightly touching the back of a Ford Pinto, exploding[/li]
And two entire great scenes:
[li]The entire scene at the bookshop, slowly revealed to have been filmed backwards[/li][*]The stereotypical Western saloon fight, except they were underwater[/ul]
Playing ping-pong in bullet time
This was just strange.
Pretty much anything by Mr. Bean…especially this.
There was one episode of Waiting For God where Tom falls down and an ape reaches into his open fly :eek:
I can’t count the number of times I’ve watched Top Secret, and I’m still embarrassed it took several viewings before I noticed the binoculars/cow gag.
Top Secret, my God…so many sight gags. A couple of others…
The guard falling off the tower, only to shatter into porcelain-like pieces.
The giant watch
The brute on top of the train, busting through the overpass
Several machine-gun / grenade gags at the farmhouse shootout
The station pulling away from the train (instead of the train pulling away from the station)
Tallying the minutes in prison with hash-marks on the concrete wall
The “travel dots” turning into a Pac-Man game
There are so many more
Another of my favorites is the fight at the end of Blazing Saddles.
Thank you. One of my favorite memories of the Carol Burnett show and one that I have been wanting to rewatch for a long time.
Bob
There was a very similar scene in Haunted Honeymoon where he was trying to hide a corpse, in a coal bin, from some nosey cops. I didn’t remember it was in Young Frankstein.
Bob
You can’t have a sight gag without an inflatable raft.
And if you can do it in aconfined space (20:58), even better.
Tons of them, but the first one I thought of is when Drebin and his pal are pinned down in an alley during a shootout, and Drebin decides his best chance is to rush the bad guys. “Cover me!” he yells, so his pal promptly throws a blanket over him, so Drebin can’t see a thing, and is stumbling around knocking over garbage cans.
And the first one I thought of when I saw the title of the thread is from an old Three Stooges short. The boys are out west, waiting for the stagecoach, and one of them, probably Curly but I forget, remembers the “old Indian trick” of putting your ear to the ground in order to hear when it’s coming. Of course, it runs right over him, driving his head into the mud. When he extricates himself, he can’t hear anything, but Moe, thinking quickly, blows into his left ear, which makes all the mud shoot out of his right ear, and he can hear again.
Superman (1978): Clark Kent goes to rescue Lois Lane, who is hanging from a helicopter seat belt. Looking for a place to change. Close up of MA BELL sign. Pull back to reveal one of those waist-high pay phone thingies (remember pay phones, kids?). The look on Christopher Reeves’s face is priceless.
Police Squad:
Drebin and Sally Decker exchanging gun fire. Camera shows Drebin hiding behind a garbage can, peeking out and shooting periodically. The camera switches to Sally behind a bench doing the same. After a few back and forths the camera pans back and they’re only about 5 feet apart.
Club Flamingo.
The Colosseum in the background as they arrive in the part of town named “Little Italy.” Ditto for the Leaning Tower of Pisa out the apartment window.