Which scenes in which movies make you laugh out loud each and every time you see them even when you know they are coming?
The inspiration for this thread is the movie Burn After Reading, one of the best comedies I’ve seen in years (I can’t believe it came out in 2008). I have seen this movie countless times, and I still laugh out loud at a number of points in the movie.
A few of my favorites:
when Brad Pitt is stretching the guy’s leg in the gym and you hear that crack, and the guy says something broke in his ass.
when Pitt and McDormand are chasing Malkovich in the car… When McDormand hits Malkovich from behind, the look on his face and his scream make me laugh out loud every time.
when Pitt does his “I got his number” dance in McDormand’s apartment
when Pitt is running on the treadmill and is listening to his iPod, and he flails his arms
George Clooney makes a great face when Tilda Swinton says “is their blood in the stool?” at the restaurant.
Clooney’s face/gag reflex when he samples both the cheese at Malkovich’s party and
Clooney’s face/gag when he tries McDormand’s chinese food.
I have a few more movies, but I’ll stop the OP here at one, since I listed so many scenes… Burn After Reading just works on so many levels for me, and the great scenes are almost endless.
Anyone have a scene in a movie that always hits your funny bone (the movie doesn’t need to be a comedy, I am asking for just scenes that are memorable.)
In * Mighty Joe Young, * the truck carrying Joe pulls away from the muddy spot where a wheel got stuck. Now the police car following the truck is stuck. Joe spits lightly–not out of contempt, but to razz the cops, sort of like sticking out his tongue.
In * Silent Movie, * a small car operated by an exterminator goes out of control, smashing into a bus bench. The momentum causes the large plastic housefly to sail off, landing on a lunch table at an outdoor cafe–right on top of Henny Youngman’s bowl of soup! Youngman’s dialog card reads “Waiter, there’s a fly in my soup!” (In the cast credits it reads, “Henny Youngman–fly-in-soup man.” )
Literally pulled those scenes from memory. I think I could have listed the entire movie, minus a few blah scenes with Clooney’s wife. Even the scenes where she is on the book tour are funny just because of the guy playing the “Good Morning, Seattle” host. Those big white teeth glaring at the screen.
That punch is classic. That entire scene, with the dialogue, is hilarious.
“You fuck!”
“I know who you are, fucker!”
“You’re the fucker!”
I wish I could have been on the set watching that movie being made. They must have had a great time!
ETA: just realized you posted a link. I missed a line, but oh well.
Abbott and Costello’s Who’s on First routine from Naughty Nineties. There are other cases of them doing it, but this one’s the longest. It’s the one running on a loop in Cooperstown.
The Mirror Scene in Duck Soup. Often imitated, but the Marx Brothers did it first (AFAIK), and best.
The fart scene from Blazing Saddles is one of my favorite. I know it’s just a fart joke, but when I first saw the movie as kid, they took out the fart sounds on network TV. I never got the joke until I saw it much later… As a kid, I didn’t know the “beans make you fart.” meme, and without the sound, it looks like just a bunch of guys standing up making faces.
Jack Lemmon and Walter Matthau as Felix and Oscar at a deli, in The Odd Couple. Felix is honking to clear out his sinuses and Oscar is looking alternately appalled and apologetic to the other diners.
The whole Dude at Jackie Treehorn’s beach house scene, in The Big Lebowski.
Mama: Who’s he?!
Owen: This is Cousin Paddy. He’s coming to stay with us a while. Isn’t that nice?
Mama: You don’t have a “Cousin Paddy”!
Owen (to Larry): You lied to me! ::clocks Larry with a frying pan::
Dog Day Afternoon
Sonny: Is there any special country you wanna go to?
Sal: Wyoming.
Sonny: Sal, Wyoming’s not a country.
On Golden Pond
Billy Ray: So, I heard you turned 80 today.
Norman: Is that what you heard?
Billy Ray: Yeah. Man, that’s really old.
Norman: You should meet my father.
Billy Ray: Your father’s still alive?
Norman: No, but you should meet him.
So much of A Fish Called Wanda
[ul]
[li]“The London Underground is not a political movement.”[/li][li]“Oh, no! It’s K-K-K-Ken! C-C-Coming to K-K-Kill me!”[/li][li]John Cleese’s monologue in Russian (and Jamie Lee Curtis’s reaction to it).[/li][li]Ken trying to kill the old lady (and repeatedly failing).[/li][/ul]
There aren’t many movies that make me laugh out loud time and again, but this one absolutely does.
McMurphy tries to lift the impossibly heavy shower appliance off the floor. Nicholson’s grunts, groans, “All right, Bebbie” etc. are great, and the funny is increased exponentially by the camera staying on the faces of the guys watching him for a good long while before finally letting us have a look too at McMurphy’s exertions. I’ve watched that movie at least a dozen times, and that scene still makes me laugh so hard my face freezes in a painful grimace.
Nearly as hilarious are the closeups of Taber’s face as he slowly realizes his ankle is on fire, and the one-legged crazy dance that results.
Peter Gibbons: Before we go any further, all right, we have to swear to God, Allah, that nobody knows about this but us, all right? No family members, no girlfriends, nobody.
Samir: Of course.
Michael Bolton: Agreed,
Lawrence: [from the next apartment through the wall] Don’t worry, man. I won’t tell anyone either.
Michael Bolton: Who the fuck is that?
Peter Gibbons: Uh, don’t worry about him. He’s cool.
Samir: You know what I would do if I had a million dollars? I would invest half of it in low risk mutual funds and then take the other half over to my friend Asadulah who works in securities…
Michael Bolton: Samir, you’re missing the point. The point of the exercise is that you’re supposed to figure out what you would want to do if…
[printer starts beeping]
Michael Bolton: “PC Load Letter”? What the fuck does that mean?
Peter Gibbons: What would you do if you had a million dollars?
Lawrence: I’ll tell you what I’d do, man: two chicks at the same time, man.
Peter Gibbons: That’s it? If you had a million dollars, you’d do two chicks at the same time?
Lawrence: Damn straight. I always wanted to do that, man. And I think if I were a millionaire I could hook that up, too; 'cause chicks dig dudes with money.
Peter Gibbons: Well, not all chicks.
Lawrence: Well, the type of chicks that’d double up on a dude like me do.
Peter Gibbons: Good point.
The office scenes in Office Space were practically a documentary for me working in tech in a cube farm in the nineties. I lose it with the printer scenes especially.
)