Name some good comedies

Cafe Society
1

The ratio of good to bad comedies is pretty low. Help me out here folks and put together a list of good comedies. These don’t have to be hysterically funny, just good movies with a few laughs.

Here’s mine, just off the top of my head.

Blazing Saddles (and most of Mel Brooks’ early stuff)
Airplane
There’s Something About Mary
Most of the Marx Brothers films
Anything with W. C. Fields
Austin Powers
You Can’t Take It With You
It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World
Ace Ventura and sequel

The above are of the hysterical variety. Movies that are funny but not so over top are

When Harry Met Sally
Midnight Run (Charles Grodin, Robert De Niro)
The first couple Lethal Weapons (how many are there? I lost count.)

2

I always liked Bringing Up Baby.

3

Raising Arizona
The Jerk
Dr. Strangelove
Funny Bones
This Is Spinal Tap

4

Wet Hot American Summer. If you used to watch “The State” on MTV, then WATCH THIS MOVIE. Even if you didn’t, WATCH THIS MOVIE.

5

Meatballs
National Lampoon’s Vacation
(but NOT any of the sequels of the above two)
Gregory’s Girl (more cute than funny)

6

Caddyshack and Animal House are two of my favs. Juvenile hijinks ensue.

7

A Fish Called Wanda. Still my favorite movie comedy.

8

And I’ll mention The Princess Bride before another of its millions of fans does, although it is not just a comedy.

9

**His Girl Friday ** Simply shines in dialoge.

For great characters: **Best In Show **

10

Another comedy that never fails to make me laugh: ** Necessary Roughness ** and it has to be for the announcer stuff.

Black Knight is a fairly well done B comedy. I’ve caught it about 6 times on cable, never the entire thing, and just crack up at it.

I’ve just drawn a blank, but there are a dozen or so brit comedies that just tickle me silly whenever I catch them on TV or video.

11

Monsoon Wedding was a delightful india-art house comedy. ( the wedding planner just steals every scene he is in.)

**East is East ** funny brit comedy.

**Snatch **

12

In addition to those already mentioned, here are some more that make me laugh:

The Monty Python movies
The Bill and Ted movies
UHF
Some of the Zucker movies—both parodic dumb-jokes movies like Airplane and Top Secret, and the more character-and-situation-based movies like Ruthless People and Rat Race
Office Space
Gremlins 2
The Blues Brothers and Wayne’s World (may be the only SNL spinoff movies actually worth seeing)

(“Black Knight”? Surely you jest! Mildly amusing, maybe, but without a single original idea.)

13

La Cages aux Folles

Imagine Harrison Ford and Brad Pitt doing a gay comedy. This is what two of the studliest men in French cinema, Yves Montand and Gerard Depardieu, pull off in this movie. A simple scene where one instructs the other on how to butter toast in a more manly fashion is uproariously funny. Throughout all of this runs a thread of extremely tender love, both homosexual and parental. I refuse to give away any of the plot for those who have not seen it. It belongs in every private collection.

Tossed into the list should be most of the Marx Brothers, Buster Keaton, the bulk of W. C. Fields, quite a lot of Chaplain plus Laurel and Hardy.

14

PS: The Producers, quite possibly one of the funniest movies ever made.

15

A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum

16

Thanks for all the suggestions. I going to make a note of these.

You didn’t like Christmas Vacation?

17

Bringing up Baby
His Girl Friday
Palm Beach Story
Kind Hearts and Coronets
Annie Hall

18

Two of the most underrated comedies I’ve ever seen are:

BRAIN DONORS, a modern day spoof on the Marx Bros. ( http://us.imdb.com/Details?0103872 )

WHEN NATURE CALLS, a spoof of those kiddy THE WILDERNESS FAMILY movies in the AIRPLANE vein. ( http://us.imdb.com/Details?0090314 )

19

Thanks for The Palm Beach Story, CyberPundit! Terrific movie. I will add:

Midnight (1939), great screwball comedy
Three Cornered Moon (1933), another screwballer, aboutm a Brooklyn family in the Depression
Million Dollar Legs (1932)—odd. Very very odd.
Bombshell (1933), with Jean Harlow.
anything with Max Linder (my pick for greatest silent comic)
nearly anything with Harold Lloyd

20

I’ve heard that Battlefield Earth was hilarious.

I’m really fond of the Mystery Science Theater 3000 videos.

Galaxy Quest… great spoof of Star Trek.