“The Producers” was my favorite movie comedy when I was a kid. After not having seen it for years, I got the video a couple of years ago. It just doesn’t hold up. Funny Nazis and gays are no longer outrageous. Still, I can appreciate how it broke ground for its time and I’m looking forward to seeing the new version, either on stage or screen.
“Glen or Glenda”- just remember, Glen is NOT a homosexual!
(I think a drinking game could be developed as Ed seems devoted to reminding us of that.)
Young Frankenstein takes the lead over Blazing Saddles purely because of the incomparable Marty Feldman. Had Feldman been in the movie, one way or another it would have taken the lead.
“Iii ain’t got no bo-o-ody and nobody cares!”
Throw out your hands, stick out your tush, hands on your hips, give them a push. You’ll be surprised you’re doing the French mistake.
"Oh baby you are so talented…
…and they are so dumb!"
Fenris Johnson
Bart: Are we awake?
Jim: We’re not sure. Are we…black?
Bart: Yes, we are.
Jim: Then we’re awake, but very puzzled.
I agree - not only is it not the funniest movie ever made, it’s not even the funniest Mel Brooks movie ever made. I laugh a lot at Saddles, but I laugh even more at YF.
As for funniest movie, I think I’d have to go with something starring Peter Sellers, since I think he was the funniest man who ever lived. Either The Pink Panther or A Shot in the Dark.
I’ll go against the crowd here and give BS the edge over YF. I think perhaps it is all the swipes at racism that make it so much funnier for me.
And while it is one of the funniest movies ever made, I think I’ve got to give my personal #1 to Airplane. BS may well be #2, though.
In my opinion, Blazin Saddles, is, indeed, the funniest film ever made. The reason for that opinion is that it is the only movie that makes me laugh out loud every time I see it, despite the fact that I’ve seen it well over a dozen times.
No other movie has ever had that effect on me.
I saw Airplane when it first opened at the movies and told everyone I knew how hysterically funny it was. After my parents saw it they were discussing it with me and I realised that due to my chemically enhanced viewing of the movie I had very poor memories of it. They would tell me how right I was about one scene or another and I couldn’t remember what happened. I was able to go and watch it again and virtually experience it anew - and it was very, very funny.
“Look at this…”
“Steady as a rock!”
“But I shoot with this hand…”
And-
“A man drinks like that, he is going to die!”
long pause…
“…when?”
And-
“… the little bastard shot me in the ass!”
Kills me every single time.
How to say this?
I got more laughs out of Young Frankenstein but bigger laughs from Blazing Saddles. Plus YF not only had Terri Garr and Marty Feldman, but Cloris Leachman (“He vas my boyfriend!”)
Edge to YF But I still think Airplane! was the funniest of all.
I’ve got to put Airplane!, Life of Brian and Young Frankenstein ahead of Blazing Saddles for funniest ever. But BS is definitely up there. I’ll add this one to the BS quotes piling up:
“Shvartzas!”
(OK, it’s not inherently funny, unless you know it was a Plains Indian delivering the line)
They where related to the Hekawi Indians near Fort Courage weren’t they?
Eh. I’m not a Mel Brooks fan, although Young Frankenstein is great. Not a Woody Allen fan, either.
I’m probably alone in thinking that O Brother Where Art Thou? is one of the funniest movies ever made.
BS is right up there. I have no idea what’s the funniest movie, but it’s a contendah.
“Sing us one of those good 'ole nigger work songs.”
“I get no kicks from champaaaaagne…”
What’s your crimes?
Murder, rape, arson, rape, assault, rape."
“Why so much raping?”
“I like rape!”
“You’re hired!”
I’m pretty sure they’re doing the French mystique.
Mel Brooks films in general, and Blazing Saddles in particular (along with The Producers) seem to get most of their laughs by being outrageously offensive to such an extreme that you can’t be offended. (Well, not unless you really want to.) The problem with this is that once the shock value wears off, the film is progressively less amusing. “Springtime For Hitler” was audacious when The Producers was first released, but now that the joke is well-known and anticipated, and the younger generations are removed from the horror by time, moral relativism, and 1960’s sitcoms, it’s just not that gasp inducing. That film and Blazing Saddles are still funny, but they don’t keep you laughing for minutes, and you realize how pulseless the film is between jokes. High Anxiety suffers from being too much of a homage/parody upon films (Vertigo, North By Northwest, Blow-Up) that much of the audience these days hasn’t even seen, despite
Young Frankenstein, while also somewhat fitful, actually holds up much better with age. The less said about Mel Brooks films from Spaceballs onward, the better
My personal picks for funniest movies of all time, in no special order, would have to be Some Like It Hot, Arsenic And Old Lace, and of course, Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned To Stop Worrying And Love The Bomb. Dirty Rotten Scoundrels ranks up there pretty highly too, despite my general aversion to Steve Martin comedies. And of Spinal Tap and Christopher Guess’ similiar “mockumentaries” I have to go for Best In Show as the funniest, though they’re all hilarious.
Stranger
Spinal Tap had the same effect on me. I’d heard about it for years, was prepared for the in jokes, and I don’t think I mustered more than a chuckle.
All of the movies mentioned are must-sees, a few of my honorable mentions:
Sleeper. Another Woody Allen film I like, goofy fun.
Up in Smoke I still laugh out loud during this one.
Blazing Saddles has always been my pick for funniest film ever, although upon first screening I thought Something About Mary would overtake it, but as metioned earlier, SAM doesn’t hold up as well to repeat viewing and for reasons I cannot explain becomes unwatchable after a while.
Top five: Blazing Saddles, Blues Brothers, Young Frankenstein, Airplane, The Big Lebowski
“Our fathers came across the prairie. Fought, Indians, fought drought, fought locusts, fought Dix. Remember when Richard Dix came in here and tried to take over this town.”
Your the second one to mention Something About Mary. My wife decided that we are both immune to Ben Stiller’s humor. He is never funny to either of us.
We don’t agree on a lot of humor. I love Simpsons & Southpark. She loves 70’s Woody Allen. {I didn’t even realize those counted as comedies I thought he stopped with humor after sleeper}