“Fookin’ Brooozh.”
Certainly one of the most subtle homoerotic lines in cinema history.
Stranger
I’ve always loved “Brain Donors”, which I think is a great pastiche of The Marx Brothers’ “A Night At The Opera”.
I’ve read the book Cranford (from 1853) multiple times and it makes me laugh every time.
Nothing holds up humor-wise better than some of the old WB cartoons from the 1940-1950s.
There are a lot of very funny conversations and interactions in Dickens’s The Pickwick Papers. In particular, when Sam Weller and his dad Tony Weller interact, and when Sam attends the footmen’s “swarry”. Oh, and the meeting among the Wellers and Tony’s new wife and her Methodist minister, in the debtor’s prison. I think it’s the funniest of all of Dickens’s writings.
I’ll post my two oldest examples that still make me laugh out loud (literally):
Print: Roughing It (Mark Twain) 1872
Film: Harvey 1950
Thread winner.
Huh, didn’t know Roughing It was funny.
Add in Twain’s piece about an interview with a (clueless) newspaper reporter. “People thought it was my twin brother who died in the bath, but they’re wrong, it was me.”
Film:
The Gold Rush (1925) - Charlie Chaplin
Safety Last! (1923) - Harold Lloyd
The General (1926) - Buster Keaton
Bringing Up Baby (1938)
His Girl Friday (1940)
TV:
Your Show of Shows
Print:
Vintage MAD Magazine
At some point I have to pick up a copy of this book, just for this line alone. At least Project Gutenberg has it online. It’s amazing how well Twain stands up after all these years.
Saw it for the first time during Covid shutdown and enjoyed it, but wouldn’t watch it again. The last line is perfect, as is the expression on Jack Lemmon’s face. It’s definitely worth seeing at least once.
There are so many movies and tv shows that pay homage to this movie, I made sure to watch it to the end. It was a bit painful. I liked Some Like it Hot much better.
Hubby and I quote “back in bowl” from All of Me quite often. We saw it a few years ago and it’s a bit dated. We watch L.A. Story about every 5 years and still laugh.
Some movies that haven’t been mentioned yet:
Mon Oncle
What’s Up Doc?
This Is Spinal Tap
Steamboat Bill, Jr. (One of my favorite Buster Keaton films)
I take this back after watching it again. It is a good period piece and a great premise, but not as funny as I recall. Doubt that anyone under 55 would truly find it funny.
Jodie was very much an “Only Sane Man” in the Campbell household, along with his mother Mary, which helped make his character sympathetic and relatable.
One of the ABC digital channels plays Soap on Saturdaynights and it mostly holds up, partially because it was so off the wall crazy. Behold the classic mindreading scene: Chuck and Bob
I’m 46 and have seen it a couple times. It’s mildly amusing, even pretty funny in parts, but it’s not great stuff. I’m not sure it was ever all that funny, though.
The Office (UK) & Office Space- The movie is 26 years old and this show is 25 years old this year. If that does not make you feel old… Anyway, it holds up really well, much like Office Space(1999). Very, very, very different and unrelated takes on the office situation but both really show how little things have changed in that area over 25 years.
I don’t remember rape per se being played for laughs in Blazing Saddles, but I do remember several mentions of rape being used for humorous shock value. Like many other elements of that movie (including but not limited to numerous uses of the n-word), it’s supposed to provoke an “OMG I can’t believe they actually said that” response.
But such shock-value comedy very often doesn’t age well, because over time, some things lose their shock value, while other things get more sensitive so that more viewers are made too uncomfortable to laugh.
This is a good point, and it’s why I’m a little suspicious of some of the works named in this thread. If it’s been a long time since you last watched or read something, are you just remembering that the funny parts are still funny without remembering the long slogs between those funny parts?
The Producers is a Mel Brooks movie for people who don’t like Mel Brooks movies. His other movies are all farces - you are not to believe this is real. Fight scene spilling over into a musical set? Build a toll booth? Farce. The Producers is a straight-forward comedy. You can believe this is happening. And the humor in it has stood up well. I’m talking the original, not the musical. Zero Mostel is perfect as Max. He plays the role tired - like the world has shit down his throat.
I also agree on Harvey. Many parts are absurd, bur not a farce. One of my favorite lines ever comes from that movie:
From 18 years ago …