The Movie Forums Top 100 Comedies Countdown

Anchorman, honestly, is almost avant-garde comedy, which is what makes it as good as it is. It did not make my list but I certainly wondered if maybe I should have considered it. It is just bizarre enough (a flaming Jazz-flute performance, cologne made from bits of real panther, and a trident?) to win me over fully despite being impossibly silly.

It Happened One Night makes me feel better about the way things have been going. This list needed a bona fide, undisputed classic to settle things down a bit.

I'm at 9, 10 if you count my one pointer. I do expect to have more make the countdown but I know at least one of mine doesn't have a snowball's chance in connecticut of making it.

A two day streak of predicting one of the two films. I got to be careful for predicting tomorrow's films.

For tomorrow, I'm predicting
Life of Brian
(tries to think of something keeping the Superbad, Ron Burgundy pattern going...)
Spy?
I don't know these comedies very well.

I prefer Heathers to its peers, thanks to the pitch-black humor and my all-time crush, Winona Ryder, but it's never been a favorite. I found everything about Harold & Maude aggressively off-putting: the aesthetic, wardrobe, characters, performances, soundtrack, and, most damning, the "humor." As someone who periodically clicks the "GILF" category on tube sites when I grow bored of the standard double-anal furry bukkakes, I would've been on board with a NC-17 steamy romance featuring explicit scenes of teenaged Harold hammering the dusty old plumbing of 80-year-old Maude. Instead I was subjected to Cat Stevens holding a lighter to my eardrums while I suffered a dull arthritic ache from the movie's pretentious quirk. Has anyone ever possessed a more punchable face than Bud Cort? ()

I've watched Being John Malkovich a handful of times, after my college roommate introduced me to it one night after we had convened around our ceremonial water pipe. The movie's bizarre high concept felt even more mind-blowing to us while chemically assisted, as if that deranged creative genius, Charlie Kaufman, was dangling profound existential secrets in front of our half-lidded gazes -- elusive revelations we'd briefly think we'd grasped until the effects faded. Great movie, but not the type of comedy I considered for my ballot.

I never realized until recently just how widely beloved Clue has become over the years. I don't think I ever played the board game, and I'm not particularly keen on murder mysteries, in general, so the movie was just okay for me. Amusing in patches, but mostly annoying. The multiple endings are a cool touch. Borat was hilarious that initial viewing, and it felt like a cultural phenomenon on a level that comedies rarely reach, but the cheap documentary aesthetic and the reliance on shock factor for most of its laughs have resulted in diminishing returns. I admire Cohen's willingness to put himself in embarrassing and potentially hostile situations an an attempt to hold up a mirror to the uglier aspects of society, and the resolve required not to break character. Borat is too ingrained in popular culture for him to ever successfully dupe strangers with this character again, which is a shame. The sequel would've sunk like a stone without Maria Bakalova.

I love Chaplin, but for whatever reason I don't love Modern Times as much as everyone else. Maybe I just wasn't in the mood for his mustache ride that particular day. Currently I'd rank it near the bottom of his feature-length films, but I'm sure a re-watch will give me a greater appreciation for it. I rattled off dozens of titles the other day as possibilities to appear on the countdown, and I probably would've rattled off another three or four dozen before A Fish Called Wanda came to mind. Not a fan of it personally. I don't remember anything about it except the steamroller. Chalk it up to British humor rarely connecting with me.

I gave Amélie a positive rating out of a begrudging respect for its technical merits, but I feel like I watched a vastly different movie than the rest of the world. To me it plays more like a delusional psychological thriller. Think One Hour Photo if it was French and boasted a lot more visual flair. I don't find anything remotely sweet or charming about the eponymous character. Recast her as a fat old hag with a harelip and a wart-tipped bulbous nose and more viewers would realize how intensely creepy is her character. I detest people who meddle in the affairs of others, whether they have good intentions or not, so maybe that's why I react to Amelie's schemes with intense revulsion. At least @Miss Vicky also sees the massive creep hiding behind the cute pixie smile. That makes two of us.

It Happened One Night is one of the best screwball comedies (maybe because it's not too screwy) and my second favorite Capra (maybe because it's not too corny). Excellent script, excellent chemistry. Clark Gable at his most roguishly charming. Long overdue for a re-watch. I thought the boat had sailed on Anchorman's chances of making the countdown. (Our community seems to have a lot of nostalgia for 2000's comedies. Maybe @rauldc14 shouldn't yet give up hope that Wedding Crashers will still make an unlikely appearance.) I'm typically a fan of Will Ferrell's buffoonish characters (he stars in two comedies from my ballot), but I just don't find the Ron Burgundy character amusing. The randomness, the lack of structure, the heightened idiotic absurdity of the humor (which can work well for me sometimes, as in the recent Barb & Star Go to Vista Del Mar) just didn't tickle my funny bone. The even more cringey sequel extinguished any interest in a re-watch.

Superbad and Dumb & Dumber were on my ballot. The former is the funniest (and most personally relatable) high-school comedy ever made. The latter is the only Jim Carrey comedy from the 90's that hasn't lost its luster for me despite dozens of viewings.

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Way way behind! I have seen all of the 19 films I haven't commented on - but only 1 made my list, somehow, and that's #38, Superbad (2007), a movie that was so funny in the theater we ended up missing a ton of lines the first time. Definitely belongs on here. Lots of other interesting films, though.

56. Sherlock, Jr. (1924)

A masterpiece that completely blew my mind. Wow. The stepping into the film part was astonishing. Keaton is a genius. Not on my list, but that's only because, as with the Chaplin listed here, I question whether any of these are really comedies. They are certainly not very funny. If I were to pick a Keaton, though, this would be it. For Chaplin, it would have been City Lights. The Great Dictator is even less funny than normal Chaplin though I do love Modern Times and it would have been 2nd on my Chaplin list.

49. Singin’ in the Rain (1952)

Probably should have been on my list, honestly. So damn good. Brilliant stuff. And I hate musicals!

48. Playtime (1967)

A fantastic tour de force that made my best films period list but is it funny? Not really. The prior Hulot movies were funnier, IMO, and, as I mentioned, that is by far my main criterion.

47. Brazil (1985)

More brilliance. Gilliam's best, I think. Dark as hell though.

The rest are all legitimately funny and I can't quibble with any of them. Borat came really close to making my list - the laughter in the theater for that one still sticks with me. I recently rewatched Clue and it stands up fantastic. I saw Harold & Maude for the first time last year and it belongs here - great film, just didn't make my list. I love Ferris Bueller and Vacation and Vinny and Wanda, of course, all hilarious, but 25 is too high a bar for them, for me anyway.

Seen: 61/63. My list so far (5/25):

1. The In-Laws (1979)
2. Step Brothers (2008)
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.
12. Best in Show (2000)
13.
14.
15. Superbad (2007)
16.
17.
18.
19.
20. The Lady Eve (1941)
21.
22.
23.
24.
25.

How is it that the killer clown and I seem to be the only sane ones?
Amelie is creepy AF.

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I think Anchorman (along with Talladega Nights and Blades of Glory) is massively overrated.

Will Ferrell comedies in general have descended to the level of Ben Stiller comedies. Not that they can't both make funny movies on occasion, like Elf, or Meet the Fockers, but that should tell you something that I gotta go all the way back to 2003-2004 to pick out a memorable movie of theirs I genuinely found funny.

Will Ferrell was really funny when SNL was really funny. And SNL hasn't been funny since MTV stopped playing music videos.

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Since I'm still here... Anchorman - insanely overrated - I actually think the separate film they made out of cut footage is better. Some funny moments, certainly, but I've never understood why it's so lauded. Step Brothers is 100x funnier.

"It Happened One Night" is my #25 - it's one of those films that made it to my list because it is foundational to so much that came after it and is an all-time great comedy.

I've decided to guess Breakfast Club and Beverly Hills Cop

I'm going to guess Breakfast Cop and Beverly Hills Club (just to be different).

Regarding Amelie, it's not that fans of the film aren't aware that she's meddling or intrusive or at times malevolent. They have simply taken the tone of the film at its face and aren't applying real world eyes to what she does. Complaining about Amelie the character in this way is like getting side tracked by how Homer Simpson is a negligent father and not being able to find the humor or the charm in his character as a result. Sure, it's a claim that isn't untrue but....

I thought Anchorman was OK. I know I LOL'ed a couple of times and chuckled a lot. But it's another I haven't seen in a while, and that hasn't stuck with me that much beyond remembering it was OK. Hence, no vote from me.

It Happened One Night, I just saw a couple of months ago and I thought it was pretty good. Here's a bit of what I wrote:

Still, just like I didn't vote for my favorite romcom, When Harry Met Sally, I didn't vote for this one either. But definitely worthy of a comedy list.


Seen: 50/66

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Will Ferrell movies are hit or miss for me, and based on the few clips that I've seen of it, I was pretty sure that Anchorman would be a miss movie, so I've pretty much avoided it over the years. Then, when I was researching movies to watch for this countdown, I read that Harrison Ford was in the sequel, so I decided to give it a try, and I watched both movies.

On the plus side, Anchorman wasn't as bad as I expected it to be, but it wasn't good either. I was right, and it wasn't my type of humor.

On the negative side, Anchorman 2 was worse than the first movie.


It Happened One Night is a wonderful movie. Clark Gable and Claudette Colbert have great chemistry together, and the movie is a lot of fun. It was #16 on my list.


My list so far:
1) My Cousin Vinny (1992)
4) When Harry Met Sally… (1989)
8) The Producers (1967)
16) It Happened One Night (1934)

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If I answer a game thread correctly, just skip my turn and continue with the game.
OPEN FLOOR.

After Hours and The Princess Bride next...?

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"Film is a disease. When it infects your bloodstream it takes over as the number one hormone. It bosses the enzymes, directs the pineal gland, plays Iago to your psyche. As with heroin, the antidote to Film is more Film." - Frank Capra

A Fish Called Wanda was a good one. The best thing about it was how the whole cast had a special kind of charisma no matter who you paired each person with, and that made the humor better. 83/100.

It Happened One Night is one of Capra's better storytelling efforts. It has a few riotous scenes to it, such as the scene where that one dorky guy is hitting on Ellie, and the fake argument, but it worked better as a romance and had a perfectly told story to it. 96/100.

Seen 41/66.

I am predicting this again

For me, Anchorman is one of Will Ferrell's best movies, maybe second only to Elf (whether you consider that a comedy or not, but that's for another time...maybe). I laugh at the ridiculousness of it all, including the news gang fight with the rule, "Nobody touches the hair or the face!" And the fact that Ron will read anything off the teleprompter, no matter what (gee, that reminds me of something...what could it be? Nevermind!)
Favorite line: "Ahahah! The man punted Baxter!"

It Happened One Night is one of the all-time classics and I'm glad to see it made the list. It gives me hope for a few of my picks but as we know, anything can happen. So, voted for neither.

My list:
#4.The In-Laws
#8.Stripes
#18.Dirty Rotten Scoundrels

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