# What cracks you up?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-cracks-you-up/283666
**Category:** Cafe Society
**Created:** [January 8, 2005, 12:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-cracks-you-up/283666 "2005-01-08T00:21:32Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@jsc1953](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jsc1953)
#### Post date: [January 8, 2005, 12:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-cracks-you-up/283666/1 "2005-01-08T00:21:32Z")
A poll, but one dedicated to the Arts.
What book, movie, director, artist, magazine…have you found absolutely hysterical – gasping for breath, laugh-til-you-cry funny–through your life?
I’ll start:
60’s (adolescent)
Mad magazine
Warner Bros cartoons (ongoing)
Get Smart (TV)
Bedazzled
Bill Cosby
70’s (college / young adult)
National Lampoon
Young Frankenstein
Saturday Night Live
S.J. Perelman (mostly dead by this time, but I just discovered him)
80’s
Zucker/Abraham/Zucker movies
The Far Side
Dave Barry
90’s
MST3K
The Simpsons
Frasier
Calvin & Hobbes
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### Author:  [@SPOOFE](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SPOOFE)
#### Post date: [January 8, 2005, 12:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-cracks-you-up/283666/2 "2005-01-08T00:36:26Z")
I follow the British ideals of comedy; there is nothing funnier than a man in women’s clothing.
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### Author:  [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)
#### Post date: [January 8, 2005, 1:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-cracks-you-up/283666/3 "2005-01-08T01:45:48Z")
Monty Python, of course
The section on Briitsh candy in Thomas Pynchon’s **Gravity’s Rainbow**.
Woody Allen (up until **Celebrity** )
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### Author:  [@Ephemera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ephemera)
#### Post date: [January 8, 2005, 1:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-cracks-you-up/283666/4 "2005-01-08T01:58:27Z")
Peter David and Douglas Adams make me laugh with their novels, but not hysterically. It’s very rare I bust out laughing while reading.
In music and movies, I like Jack Black and hate most of what others find funny. Ben Stiller, Owen Wilson, and Will Ferrell should all be killed.
In television? I have no idea. Ira Steven Behr, maybe?
---
### Author:  [@pokey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pokey)
#### Post date: [January 8, 2005, 2:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-cracks-you-up/283666/5 "2005-01-08T02:29:48Z")
When I was ten I though Bill Cosby and Dr. Demento were the shit. :o
When I was an adolescent, I loved SCTV, Bill Murray, David Letterman, In Living Color.
In my 20s I loved Kids in the Hall, Margaret Cho, Bill Murray (What About Bob?), David Letterman, Chris Farley (esp running and all red in the face!), Dennis Leary, Ellen Degeneres, Mr. Show, the Simpsons…
Now I am in my 30s and I love \*\*both \*\* Jack Black and Will Ferrell! They are my top two. Will Ferrell, I can totally understand why everyone hates him but I adore him at all times. He always makes me laugh. Jack Black I love a lot, and am madly in love with, and I don’t understand how anyone could hate him. But Will Ferrell, I can see how he could annoy the hell out of a lot of people. I also love Tina Fey and Amy Poehler, Amy Sedaris, David Sedaris, Jon Stewart and the Daily Show and Conan.
I don’t really like David Letterman at all any more. I still love Bill Murray but he doesn’t make me laugh too hard. I am really omitting a lot of comedy I followed in the 80s and 90s that I’m embarassed about. I was obsessed with Roseanne, for example. I also remember going to see Steven Wright who I now just hate. Though I will always remember him asking why Canada has a picture of Gene Wilder on the ten dollar bill and I still laugh about it sometimes when I look at a ten.
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### Author:  [@pokey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pokey)
#### Post date: [January 8, 2005, 2:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-cracks-you-up/283666/6 "2005-01-08T02:31:23Z")
Oh yeah I forgot the 80s Farside obsession.
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### Author:  [@foxymoron](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/foxymoron)
#### Post date: [January 8, 2005, 2:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-cracks-you-up/283666/7 "2005-01-08T02:38:53Z")
In _Wayne’s World_ when Lara Flynn Boyle runs into a parked car on her bike and goes flying over the hood. That never fails to crack me up. I even chuckled thinking about it just now. 😃
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### Author:  [@Ephemera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ephemera)
#### Post date: [January 8, 2005, 2:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-cracks-you-up/283666/8 "2005-01-08T02:55:49Z")
> [@pokey](#):
>
> …I also love Tina Fey and Amy Poehler, Amy Sedaris, David Sedaris, Jon Stewart and the Daily Show and Conan…
You just reminded me of _Strangers With Candy_ and _The Daily Show_. I love them both.
Also, Adam Sandler. I have no idea why.
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### Author:  [@Askia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Askia)
#### Post date: [January 8, 2005, 3:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-cracks-you-up/283666/9 "2005-01-08T03:17:37Z")
I don’t find Wayne Brady funny even in theory.
[THIS](http://www.comedycentral.com/mp/play.jhtml?reposid=/multimedia/chappelle/showclips_s2/214_brady.html) cracked me the hell up.
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### Author:  [@Hey\_It\_s\_That\_Guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hey_It_s_That_Guy)
#### Post date: [January 8, 2005, 3:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-cracks-you-up/283666/10 "2005-01-08T03:26:06Z")
Arrested Development
The Simpsons (excluding the first two and last few seasons), especially Homer and Comic Book Guy
South Park
Family Guy
A Night At the Opera and other Marx Brothers movies
Ghostbusters
Bill Murray in almost everything
Christopher Walken in almost everything, especially the infamous cowbell sketch
Airplane!
Police Squad and Naked Gun
Pee-Wee’s Big Adventure (favorite line: “I pity the foo’ who don’t eat my cereal!”)
Stephen Wright
Bill Hicks
Mitch Hedberg
Jack Black and Tenacious D
George Carlin in his prime
Justice League International comics
The Tick comics (only the original Ben Edlund run)
Kyle Baker’s Why I Hate Saturn, You Are Here, The Cowboy Wally Show, and I Die At Midnight graphic novels
The State
Tina Fey and Amy Poehler on Weekend Update
Conan O’Brien
The Ben Stiller Show (which launched Ben, Janeane Garofalo, Andy Dick, and Bob Odenkirk)
Clerks
Mallrats
Eddie Murphy’s Delirious special and his Saturday Night Live run
Mystery Science Theater 3000
Woody Allen’s collected New Yorker essays (in the books Getting Even, Side Effects, and Without Feathers)
Annie Hall
The Producers, Blazing Saddles, Young Frankenstein, Spaceballs
Laurel and Hardy
Beavis turning into The Great Cornholio
Orgazmo
Dave Barry
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### Author:  [@AncientHumanoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AncientHumanoid)
#### Post date: [January 8, 2005, 3:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-cracks-you-up/283666/11 "2005-01-08T03:30:30Z")
> [@Aesiron](#):
>
> Ben Stiller, Owen Wilson, and Will Ferrell should all be killed.
:eek: I don’t believe it! We AGREE on something. 😛
My friends think I’m abnormal for this particular taste. They’re right, but for the wrong reasons.
I laughed in _Titanic_ when Rose broke Jack’s frozen hand off of to get saved. “Never let go, Rose! Never let go!” Yeah, right! You could even hear the bones cracking. w00t!
I laughed at \*Alias[/i the other day, when her sister kissed the guy with Gilligan dream style secret agent poison lips.
Plain ol’ conversations with my friends can have us all rolling in painful laughter, for no particular reason.
I’ve seen every Monty Python thing. I still think they’re clever and amusing, but it loses something the 9000th time one sees it, ya know?
_Ocean’s 12_ made me laugh, 'cause it was so bad.
Even tho I’m familiar with them, MST3K’s gags still often get me.
Herds of sheep can literaly cause me to explode in mind altering guffaws.
.
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### Author:  [@AncientHumanoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AncientHumanoid)
#### Post date: [January 8, 2005, 3:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-cracks-you-up/283666/12 "2005-01-08T03:33:01Z")
One more thing…
Jay and Silent Bob are comic gods.
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### Author:  [@Ephemera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ephemera)
#### Post date: [January 8, 2005, 3:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-cracks-you-up/283666/13 "2005-01-08T03:35:30Z")
> [@Aesiron](#):
>
> Peter David and Douglas Adams make me laugh with their novels, but not hysterically. It’s very rare I bust out laughing while reading.
>
> In music and movies, I like Jack Black and hate most of what others find funny. Ben Stiller, Owen Wilson, and Will Ferrell should all be killed.
>
> In television? I have no idea. Ira Steven Behr, maybe?
Sorry for the third post but I just remembered another glaring omission – Joss Whedon. Can’t believe I forgot him.
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### Author:  [@Hey\_It\_s\_That\_Guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hey_It_s_That_Guy)
#### Post date: [January 8, 2005, 3:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-cracks-you-up/283666/14 "2005-01-08T03:58:44Z")
I can’t believe I forgot Quentin Tarantino movies! Pulp Fiction is downright hilarious, and Reservoir Dogs, True Romance, and even the Kill Bills have some truly funny bits of dialogue.
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### Author:  [@Odinoneeye](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Odinoneeye)
#### Post date: [January 8, 2005, 4:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-cracks-you-up/283666/15 "2005-01-08T04:39:15Z")
Things I consistently laugh out loud to:
Red Dwarf
Monty Python (tv and movies)
Terry Pratchett
Groo the Wanderer
Ghostbusters
Early Mel Brooks
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### Author:  [@Nightwatch\_Trailer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nightwatch_Trailer)
#### Post date: [January 8, 2005, 4:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-cracks-you-up/283666/16 "2005-01-08T04:42:06Z")
Calvin & Hobbes
_The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy_
Homestar Runner
\*This Is Spinal Tap
Monty Python and the Holy Grail
Rushmore
Napoleon Dynamite\* (I’ve seen that movie three times in the last week. It’s pretty sweet…it’s _awesome_…that movie…that movie is _incredible_!)
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### Author:  [@Nightwatch\_Trailer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nightwatch_Trailer)
#### Post date: [January 8, 2005, 4:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-cracks-you-up/283666/17 "2005-01-08T04:45:38Z")
> [@NoClueBoy](#):
>
> _Ocean’s 12_ made me laugh, 'cause it was so bad.
Hah! So true! Like when they spell out “A-M-S-T-E-R-D-A-M.” Terrible. On a related note, calling Bruce Willis “Bruce Willins” cracks me up.
And Will Farrell is the most grossly overrated comedic actor I know.
---
### Author:  [@Hilarity\_N.Suze](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hilarity_N.Suze)
#### Post date: [January 8, 2005, 5:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-cracks-you-up/283666/18 "2005-01-08T05:55:41Z")
The Coen brothers.
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### Author:  [@LifeOnWry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LifeOnWry)
#### Post date: [January 8, 2005, 6:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-cracks-you-up/283666/19 "2005-01-08T06:20:54Z")
Don’t hit me: Sniglets make me laugh. Also the Washington Post’s contest where people have to change one letter of a word to make a new word and supply a definition? KILLS me.
Henry Rollins, for some insane reason, makes me laugh. Bill Hicks, for probably the same reason.
Eddie Izzard, whom I idolize for his smart, silly humor. (Plus he has great legs.)
Dennis Miller used to crack me up - not so much these days.
Bill Cosby and Bob Newhart slay me still. Dave Barry is STILL funny, dammit.
Calvin & Hobbes, Sylvia (I need some more Sylvia books) and The Far Side.
Pratchett & Gaiman’s Good Omens - I have read nothing by either since that I have even found amusing.
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### Author:  [@pokey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pokey)
#### Post date: [January 8, 2005, 6:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-cracks-you-up/283666/20 "2005-01-08T06:32:11Z")
I wish I could defend Will Ferrell. But I can’t. I was even laughing at this preview I saw where he is a soccer coach and apparently the whole movie is just him yelling at children and berating them inappropriately. On one level I know it’s just annoying and unfunny, and yet I laugh.
I forgot to say Al Franken.
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