The Cap'n was reading an old issue of Rolling Stone where comedians were asked to name the best comedy of all time, and it got me thinking: could I even do that? I certainly can't limit it to one, so I tried five and then thought of a sixth, so let's just go with ten, all right?
As with any "best of" list, I'm clearly going to be leaving out some good ones - and probably your favorite - but this is just the Cap'n talking here. I don't speak for the rest of you, although I welcome your amendments to my list.
I had a really hard time putting 2-10 in order, so just consider them as interchangeable.
1.
Dr. Strangelove or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb - It doesn't matter how many times I seen
Strangelove because the film is so perfectly constructed and well designed that you can always catch something. Stanley Kubrick made a series of wonderful films back to back, but for my money this is the most lively of them. What I love is that it's not abundantly clear what or when the film is supposed to be funny, right down to the fact that introducing the title character feels like an afterthought. Rather than any build-up, the President merely asks Dr. Strangelove what he thinks, and Peter Sellers rolls across the war room with his deleriously misbehaved arm. Wonderful.
2.
Ghostbusters - I think of this movie as something that could have easily vanished amidst the rest of 80's horror-comedies, but instead is still relevant and still funny twenty five years later. It's not simply a childhood affection for
Ghostbusters either; the movie is actually funnier now because you're catching the jokes you missed as a kid. Dan Aykroyd and Harold Ramis scripted a movie packed with quotable lines, anchored by a great cast and really memorable practical ghost effects. If a movie is still funny the twentieth time you've seen it, then it belongs on the list.
3.
The Blues Brothers - Speaking of quotable movies,
Blues Brothers has them in spades. What I love so much about
The Blues Brothers is not simply that the cast is great or the jokes come fast and furious, but instead how absurd it is. Things seem strange, if reasonable until the Blues mobile jumps the bridge, and even the mall chase and Elwood's apartment are within some strange logic. But then Carrie Fisher blows up their building, and the brothers crawl out and continue. It only gets crazier from there, but the movie never acknowledges that what's happening to Jake and Elwood is wildly improbable; you just go along for the ride.
4.
Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein - This is a purely sentimental pick. I'm not even that huge of an Abbott and Costello fan, but I am a sucker for the Universal Classic Monsters, which this movie works in exceptionally. Better still, Bela Lugosi and Lon Chaney Jr. look like they're having fun hamming it up, and there's a bonus Vincent Price cameo at the end. It's not a classic, I admit, but it goes on my list.
5.
The Philadelphia Story - Just a great script, with a great cast, doing screwball the best way screwball can be done. Cary Grant and James Stewart up again Katharine Hepburn in a battle of barbs, I'll take it any time.
6.
Monty Python and the Holy Grail -
Life of Brian may be the better movie, but Monty Python's first "proper" film is one worth coming back to again and again. I've seen it pretty much every way you can see it (save for laserdisc), and the movie is so packed with great, random, or sly jokes that you're bound to catch something you forgot between when you last saw it and the next time. And there will be a next time.
7.
The Big Lebowski - When it came out
Lebowski was the kind of movie that people were "meh"-ing about. Critics didn't take it kindly as a follow up to
Fargo, and audiences blew it off. I even forgot to go see it, until Phillippi dragged my to Blue Ridge to watch it. At the time, you loved it or you didn't. Lots of people didn't, but there was a sea change over time and now almost everyone knows what we knew that night: this is a comedy designed to scare off the average comedy fan.
The Big Lebowski draws most of its humor from characters, not gags: Jeff Lebowski doesn't tell jokes, he's just silly. Involving him in the plot is silly, but then you meet people even sillier than he is, and the laughter flows from there. The one joke in the movie comes near the end, when Donnie's ashes hit the Dude in the face, and it's still good for a laugh.
8.
An American Werewolf in London - I do love comedies that make the jokes seem effortless.
Werewolf has a similar surrealist streak that you find in
The Blues Brothers, although it ties it to horror. Rather than be frightening (which it can be when it wants to), John Landis milks the comedy out of gore and violence, but does it in such a way that it feels natural to the story. Placed in a situation like that, finding things to laugh about is the only way to feel relief.
9.
Modern Times /
The General- I'm cheating by putting a tie up for number 9, but invariably, when I think of one, I think of the other. Keaton does with his face what Chaplin does with his body, and both movies are prime examples of the men at their best.
Modern Times has most of its laughs early, during the "work" section of the film, and the factory gags are still funny when you've spent time studying his technique. I'm also quite fond of the roller skating and his dream sequence. What Keaton does on a moving train in
The General is nothing short of impressive, so I can't choose one over the other.
10.
Young Frankenstein - Finally, Mel Brooks' best film. I always underestimate
Young Frankenstein when I come back to it, assuming that I remember exactly what happens and when. I've come to take the movie for granted, but it surprises me every time. Little things come back, even if it's just a look from Marty Feldman's scene stealing Igor - pardon me, EYE-gore - and before long I'm swept up again. I have a hard time listening to "Putting on the Ritz" without thinking of
Young Frankenstein, which is not good if you want not to laugh in public places.
I can already tell you Barrett is going to kill me for leaving out The Marx Brothers. Of course, I also left out a sentimental favorite,
Kind Hearts and Coronets, along with
Murder by Death,
Some Like it Hot,
Annie Hall,
Shaun of the Dead,
Cannibal! The Musical, and
I Heart Huckabees.
The Philadelphia Story only narrowly beat out
Bringing Up Baby, and there was just no room for
Arsenic and Old Lace,
Groundhog Day,
Back to the Future,
Who Framed Roger Rabbit, or even
Gremlins.
No... not Kim Cattrall... the other guy. Dack "Ma-Fuckin" Rambo, that's who!
