Like a Robert Altman film, only funny.
How about The Ballad of Buster Scruggs?
That’s more of an anthology film, like Paris, je t’aime.
I call them “Charlie Brown movies”. Just string together a bunch of little vignettes, each ending with a punchline or visual payoff, using the same characters in the same setting/theme. In the their hey day of the 1970s it would be a summer at camp or a night at the disco or the party thrown when the parents were out of town. It’s what happened when a gagwriter convinced a producer they could write a whole movie. Gagwriters are nearly extinct now and producers are smarter.
How about Dazed & Confused?
Jim Jarmusch’s Night on Earth? It’s an anthology, and a comedy-drama. Obviously not an irreverent comedy like Car Wash.
As homaged several decades later in Wet Hot American Summer.
Yes! And The Groove Tube, even older. With “Brown 25” ad https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lRPQSxp25z4
Thank God it’s Friday
California Suite may also qualify as this sort of movie, although not quite as wacky as most of the others people have mentioned.
If I can think of anything more recent, I’ll post it.
Just rewatched it. Seems sort of hybrid. There’s characters who turn up every 20ish minutes to do their thing, like yearbook girl or Kleptokid (thats his name on the credit roll). Then there’s Preston who declares in the very first scene that now he has a chance to score with Amanda. And after many misunderstandings, at the end he actually does.
I’m surprised no one has mentioned Clerks, the beginning of the View Askewniverse. Not as popular as Kevin Smith’s later movies, but definitely fits the OP descriptions. 1994, so now 31 years old. I think that genre had a heyday, but the industry has moved on.
Slacker (1990) The film is about one day in Austin, Texas in the early 90’s. That is the only connection in this series of seemingly random stories and events. It is funny, but not a comedy.
Mid90s (2018) is very similar set in Los Angeles. A coming of age tale, it’s almost a period piece about this era from the perspective of a kid growing up in it…like I did. It’s far better than what you would think Jonah Hill could write and produce but that it is good speaks to me about authenticity.
Would Highway 60 fall into this genre?
Disclaimer: I haven’t seen this movie.
But from the trailer, One of Them Days (which was released this year) sounds like it fits the OP’s description. It’s set in a single day, it appears to have a bunch of funny characters, and while it’s not a contest, the two main characters have one day to acquire enough money to pay their overdue rent or they get evicted.
I think Can’t Hardly Wait was one of a series of unrelated films about the big high school party or dance, often prom. There was She’s All That, Drive Me Crazy and 10 Things I Hate About You. In the 1990s, there seemed to be one or two such films every year.
Detroit Rock City (1999) is about four kids going to see a KISS concert.
Oh that is a good one I think (it’s been a while since I saw it).
A good way to make a clear distinction - “The Goods” fits where “Used Cars” doesnt. They both are comedies centered on car dealerships with ensemble casts.
Used Cars takes place over weeks and has multiple locations where the plot advances. The Goods takes place over a short time with very, very few locations.
@Elmer_J.Fudd Yes, I think a lot of the suggestions show that not enough people have seen these types of movies. Like they aren’t anthlogy, they aren’t just a comedy….it’s very specific and there were A LOT of them in that era.
I hadn’t really thought of the “gag-writer” angle.
I’ve never seen any of the films mentioned here, except for Night on Earth. I don’t think I have a clear grasp of the concept, but two films came to mind: Mystery Train and Twenty Bucks. (I have never found a single other person in my life who has even heard of Twenty Bucks, let alone seen it.)
ETA: Buscemi is in both of them.
Then I’ll have to find them! I like the funny-looking little guy!
He’s 5’9”.