That scene was filmed just down the road from where I used to live.
Lots of my favourites already mentioned but I think the whole IT Crowd episode for “The work outing” is great and of course you have to have a bit of Partridge.
I’d go with this one, from Archer:
I can’t find the specific clip online, but it’s a scene from Fawlty Towers, The Kipper and the Corpse. Basil is panicked over finding a dead man in one of his rooms, thinking he died from eating a kipper past its expiration date. He gets Manuel to help him tote the body when one of the elderly patrons sees them and starts screaming. Basil cold-cocks her right in the face and knocks her out. I was at a friend’s house watching this, and reacted so violently, I completely broke the chair I was sitting in.
That whole episode was fantastic and funny, with Basil constantly trying to keep the death under wraps and failing spectacularly. It ends when he tells all the panicked guests to take all complaints to his wife Sybil and sneaks off in a laundry basket amidst the chaos.
This silent scene from Frasier - Niles irons some pants:
The caught in the zipper scene from “There’s Something About Mary”
The Big Bang Theory - Robot hand grasping a man’s penis
Yeah, I guess I find penis mishaps funny.
My friends and I use Fawlty’s line quite often when things go awry. (It’s actually Polly who smacks her, not Basil.)
I was just about to post that one.
Any of the SNL Jeopardy skits with Will Ferrell.
Pure slapstick - funny slapstick. The end of the “attic scene” in National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation:
The teetering cabin scene in Charlie Chaplin’s The Gold Rush.
(Sorry, I can’t find a clip that includes the subtitles - which really add to the hilarity.)
Buster Keaton in The General - when he is hiding under the table (all we can see is his eye looking through a hole in the table cloth). His estranged girlfriend Annabelle Lee is brought into the room and we see Buster’s eye give a BIG blink. But you might prefer Buster Keaton in The Railrodder - fighting a map in the breeze.
I’m not a huge Woody Allen fan, but the scene in Broadway Danny Rose when the bad guy is chasing him and Mia through the warehouse where the Macy’s balloons are stored and then shoots one with resulting vocal yux just had me on the floor. Also Radio Days where the thieves clean out a family but win a call-in radio contest.
Also, Joey Nichols. “What an asshole.”
It may not be the objectively funniest scene ever, but I’ve never laughed harder than during the campfire baked beans scene in Blazing Saddles.
Speaks to my essential crudity, I suppose.
For physical comedy, Harold Lloyd is tops for me. His thrill sequences were both hilarious and amazing (especially considering he performed most of his own stunts).
The clock scene in Safety Last! is Lloyd’s most iconic (and very funny/amazing):
But, Lloyd created many scenes that are equally funny:
I also like Charlie Chaplin and Buster Keaton, but Lloyd’s bespectacled overambitious character tickles my funny bone most.
I recently learned that Harold Lloyd was missing the thumb and forefinger of his right hand due to an accidental explosion, and wore a prosthetic glove when filming. Which makes his stunts even that much more impressive!
My favorite scene is the one about Dan’s turtle–
Dad: He just laid there, didn’t he? You never saw no legs or neck or anythin’ on him, did ya?
Dan: He was just shy.
Dad: No, son, he was a spud.
Go to YouTube. Forward to about 2:30.
I’ve never seen the show otherwise, but this clip goes viral periodically and never fails to slay me:
Mitchell and Webb’s brain surgeon sketch has some of the best timing I’ve ever seen, and the punchline detonates brilliantly (I also love their “Hennimore” sketches):
That’s weasonable. My fave is the haggling scene, and the notion that the vendor is offended if you try to pay full price. “Won’t haggle!?!”
As mentioned, it was Polly who slapped her. But before that scene, there was a moment where one of the elderly residents greets Cleese and remarks that he looks especially cheerful. He smiles and says brightly, “Yes, well one of the guests has just died.”
She laughs and wags her finger at him. “You are wicked!”
Not only hilarious, but a great example of lying by telling the truth!
And as for The Germans…
Don’t mention the war!
For my money, Fawlty Towers is probably the single funniest comedy show ever made.
Later on she’s feeding the fire in the General, and throws out a piece of wood because it has a hole in it.
SNL gameshow parodies are a whole genre themselves, so many great ones, but this one hits the absurdity beats perfectly
