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 
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.
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.
So the humor in The Party has nothing to do with the lead donning brownface and affecting an exaggerated accent?
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.
The Meaning of Life is still a hoot.
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.
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.
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)