# Comedies that have aged well **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [December 16, 2014, 5:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/comedies-that-have-aged-well/707407 "2014-12-16T17:13:11Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![GargoyleWB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gargoylewb/32/199_2.png) [@GargoyleWB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GargoyleWB)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2014, 8:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/comedies-that-have-aged-well/707407/61 "2014-12-18T20:10:12Z")
I saw **Duck Soup** for the first time ever a couple of weeks ago, and laughed may ass off, so I’d say that it must have aged well. I wasn’t old enough to see it originally in the theater 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2014, 8:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/comedies-that-have-aged-well/707407/62 "2014-12-18T20:23:47Z")
I definitely agree with **Duck Soup** - at least over the 40 years or so I’ve been watching it. Another is ]b]Hellzapoppin’\*\* starring Olsen and Johnson. I saw this on TV as a kid (my mother saw it on Broadway) so when my wife gave a tape of it to me for my birthday I was very concerned that I’d think it was stupid. It wasn’t. And when I got others to watch the opening in hell, they wound up staying for the whole movie. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Jeffrey\_Lebowski](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_jeffrey_lebowski/32/215_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Jeffrey\_Lebowski](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Jeffrey_Lebowski)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2014, 8:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/comedies-that-have-aged-well/707407/63 "2014-12-18T20:33:48Z")
> [@callander](#): > > The Party, with Peter Sellers. I disagree - I’d put this in the same class as Mickey Rooney’s role in Breakfast at Tiffany’s. ---
**Author:** ![madsircool](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/madsircool/32/3432_2.png) [@madsircool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madsircool)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2014, 12:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/comedies-that-have-aged-well/707407/64 "2014-12-19T00:00:39Z")
> [@The\_Other\_Jeffrey\_Lebowski](#): > > I disagree - I’d put this in the same class as Mickey Rooney’s role in Breakfast at Tiffany’s. Thats kinda like putting Christian Bales role in the new Exodus in the same class as Mickey Rooney’s role in Breakfast at Tiffany’s because he is not Jewish. There is nothing insensitive in The Party…except toward Hollywood types. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Jeffrey\_Lebowski](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_jeffrey_lebowski/32/215_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Jeffrey\_Lebowski](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Jeffrey_Lebowski)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2014, 12:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/comedies-that-have-aged-well/707407/65 "2014-12-19T00:08:57Z")
So the humor in The Party has nothing to do with the lead donning brownface and affecting an exaggerated accent? ---
**Author:** ![Shagnasty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9dc877/32.png) [@Shagnasty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shagnasty)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2014, 12:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/comedies-that-have-aged-well/707407/66 "2014-12-19T00:18:37Z")
I think there is a big difference between a movie not aging well and simply being dated. Being dated is not a problem in and of itself. In fact, it can make it funnier if the overall themes are timeless. **Airplane!** is a good example. Some people may disagree but **There’s Something about Mary** is also still hilarious in my opinion and I rewatch it frequently. The first part of the movie when the main characters were in high school was designed to be comically dated the day it came out after all. Movies (and books, songs etc.) that age badly depend too much on current pop culture themes that may not exist when future audiences see them so the humor falls flat. You can make a movie like **A Christmas Story** (released in the early 80’s but set in the late 1940’s) that is so blatantly dated even at release that it avoids the problem altogether and becomes an instant timeless classic. You can also make a movie like **Wag the Dog** that is so time and culture dependent that it barely holds up a couple of years later. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Second\_Stone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/bbe5ce/32.png) [@The\_Second\_Stone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Second_Stone)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2014, 12:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/comedies-that-have-aged-well/707407/67 "2014-12-19T00:46:11Z")
**The Meaning of Life** is still a hoot. ---
**Author:** ![madsircool](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/madsircool/32/3432_2.png) [@madsircool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madsircool)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2014, 1:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/comedies-that-have-aged-well/707407/68 "2014-12-19T01:24:50Z")
> [@The\_Other\_Jeffrey\_Lebowski](#): > > So the humor in The Party has nothing to do with the lead donning brownface and affecting an exaggerated accent? No. And he does not affect an exaggerated accent…talk to some Indian folks. The humor in The Party results from placing a decent person into an environment that is conceited and arrogant. Name the jokes that come at Sellers expense? His is the most compassionate and likeable character in the film. And he gets the girl. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Jeffrey\_Lebowski](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_jeffrey_lebowski/32/215_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Jeffrey\_Lebowski](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Jeffrey_Lebowski)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2014, 2:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/comedies-that-have-aged-well/707407/69 "2014-12-19T02:04:34Z")
Fair enough. I may be misremembering a bit - I saw it probably 10 years ago, and couldn’t finish watching because of how painfully unfunny it was to me. ---
**Author:** ![eschereal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eschereal/32/18939_2.png) [@eschereal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eschereal)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2014, 2:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/comedies-that-have-aged-well/707407/70 "2014-12-19T02:23:52Z")
Some of the more obscure ones: _Sullivan’s Travels_, a depression-era story about a movie director wanting to make a message movie but learns the value of comedy (_O Brother Where Art Thou_ takes its title from this) _Catch-22_, because weird and disorienting never stops being funny _Delicatessen_, ibid (probably better subtitled, have not seen it dubbed) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/comedies-that-have-aged-well/707407.md?page=3)