The Movie Forums Top 100 Comedies Countdown

Stated in the opening thread, that my second twenty-five will outscore the ballot sent in. It will be kept to myself until the countdown is complete.

Comedy is my favorite genre, by far. So, expect shitty commentary to follow...

My ballot: 1/3 (1-ptr)
My 2nd ballot: 1/2
Seen: 2/2
1-ptrs seen: 16

Almost every Coen film can be labeled as a comedy, to be honest. Personally, I veered more into more straightforward comedies for my list, and actually had another Coen quite high on my list.

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When it came out, I heard everyone refer to it as a dark comedy. I've seen it in a theater full of people laughing at it... I won't say non-stop, but a lot.


I obviously think it is because I put it on my ballot.


I think your assessment earlier that the comedy is present throughout most of the film (which is common for dark comedies where they'll be comedic except for a few scenes where the absurdism takes a dark turn to twist the emotional knife of seeing the consequence of all this build-up eventually ends).


When I said in the preliminary thread, "I've seen Ace in the Hole described as a dark comedy, but I don't think of it that way," I was mentally trying to contrast it with Fargo, and one of the reasons I'd come up with is, the comedy is often interwoven with all of the character interactions. Admittedly, you can tilt your head and see how tragic an individual scene is, but tilt it the otherwise, it's also how ridiculous it is. Also throw in lots of absurdist, deadpan humor.


Idk. Fargo coming in during the low 90s definitely makes me think two other films on my ballot don't have a shot (unless one of them also happens to be the same Coen Brother's movie Donnie Darko chose, but numerically, the odds are against it).


But I'm glad it's at least on the list*.
I'm also generally positive on Sullivan's Travels being on the list and don't think it's bad company for a Coen brother's movie to keep.


*: Admittedly I'm not expecting my tastes to necessarily line up with everyone else's, but I did think Fargo was one of the more likely entries on my ballot.

Thank God I'm not the only one who can't see the results on mobile.

I mean, Fargo is on the AFI's 100 Years, 100 Laughs list.

It's also on the Movie Forums 2010 Top 100 List.

That said, it didn't cross my mind when I was making my ballot. Probably because I used the IMDb's filter to help me sort my films.

I watched Sullivan's Travels last year and quite liked it, but it would have landed toward the bottom of a top 50 for me.

I love Fargo and I consider it to be part dark comedy, but I didn't and don't consider it comedy enough to vote for it here. I can understand why some would vote for it though.

Enjoyed Sullivan's Travels when I watched it for the 40's countdown.

It is a fantastic film, but wouldn't consider it a comedy...JMO.

Agree with you about the chemistry between Russell and Hawn in Overboard, about Ruthless People, Willis in The Whole Nine Yards...nicely understated performance...and I could also live with a Foxy Cleopatra spinoff.

The did a great job of hiding her pregnancy during that movie, I couldn't tell at all.

Me either

Add me to the list of fans of Sullivan's Travels...terrific black comedy that went to some disturbing places I didn't see coming.

love sullivan's travels. didn't make my list, but it surely would've made my top 40 or so.

i like fargo well enough but haven't seen it since i was 13. i imagine if i watched it again it could become a top-tier coens' film for me. still don't know if i would consider it enough of a comedy to include it in my list, however. i'd place it in a similar comedic register as pulp fiction, a film i deliberately chose not to include or else it would've been my #1.

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letterboxd
criticker

Time for me to finally comment on some of these.

Out of the one-pointers, I've seen:

Something's Gotta Give (A sometimes overlooked romantic comedy with Nicholson at his usual charming best. Diane Keaton is also good)
Red Rocket (Hilarious and somewhat uncomfortable at times. Luckily I could tell the actor playing Strawberry was older, otherwise I would've felt guilty during a particular... scene)
Paul (Solid)
Meet The Fockers (I started rewatching this once, and found myself surprised at how slow and dull it seemed to be compared to the original. I only got to the first thirty or so minutes before getting distracted, so some day I'll see it in full. But Meet The Parents is far superior I'm afraid)
Megamind (One of Will Ferrell's last good movies before his current creative slump)
The Whole Nine Yards (Bruce Willis combines his tough guy/action hero persona into a more direct comedic blend very successfully)
Seven Samurai (Like many others I find myself extremely baffled at this inclusion. Dead Poets Society is at least listed as a comedy on imdb (Even though it's an incorrect label), but I can't remember a single actual comedic moment in Seven Samurai. It's a good movie, I'm just incredibly curious at why it was submitted. Please dear stranger, come forward and give us your motivation)
Austin Powers in Goldmember (Haven't revisited it since I was little, but made me laugh just like the other Austin Powers movies)

Haven't seen The Toy or Weekend At Bernie's, but want to since they look really funny. Pink Flamingos might be fascinating. The F8 And The Furious I can imagine is here because of an unintentionally funny camp quality, like the latest one seems to take even further)

Sullivan's Travels could be worth a watch. I love William Frawley, and hope to watch way more comedies from before the 50's than I have.

Fargo is a classic grey area case, where some sites and people refuse to put the comedy label on it, even though it very much deserves one. Pulp Fiction I was close to putting on my list since it has a lot of funny moments, but Tarantino is more of a director who makes thrillers/action movies which happen to be funny rather than setting out to make full-on comedies. So far I think Once Upon A Time... In Hollywood and maybe Jackie Brown are the only ones that really fit into that box.

As for my thoughts on it, it's great. The story is compelling, the black comedy elements are woven into it very well and the characters are so bizarre and screwed up that they keep your attention. It's funny that William H. Macy often played the pathetic character who loses everything, but he's so damn great at it. And this is one of his most entertaining examples. Steve Buscemi adds a twisted comedic bent to his role. Carl Showalter has no redeeming qualities, which only makes it even funnier seeing him frustrated and failing at everything.
I also loved John Carroll Lynch as Marge's husband Norm. I think he deserves more credit than he typically gets.

If I have a nitpick (And this is gonna provoke some people), I have to say Frances McDormand's performance is... overrated. Now, I think she does a solid job and her character like all the others is enjoyable to watch. But at times her accent is a bit too hammy for my taste, whereas with the other actors it sounds more natural. I think she either could have chosen not to have a Canadian accent at all like Buscemi and Peter Stormare, or possibly worked on it a bit more to make it sound less self-parodic. I think she deserved the Oscar for Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri more than this role.

Looking forward to seeing the other picks next year!

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Ooooo Great Start!

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~Mr Minio

"_______ is a comedy?!" is going to be a common sentiment throughout this countdown if people are already questioning the eligibility of Fargo. It's almost as if -- gasp! -- movies can be multiple genres at once. Who knew? I've enjoyed Fargo more with each viewing, and found its humor more amusing each time, but would still only rank it somewhere in the middle of the Coen Bros. filmography. I prefer the TV show, personally -- or at least the first three seasons, as I still haven't gotten around to the Chris Rock season. The Coens have a strong chance to be the most represented directors on the countdown.

Sullivan's Travels was quite charming, from what I remember, and my favorite of the three Sturges films I've seen. (The Lady Eve and The Palm Beach Story being the other two.) None of them have stuck with me. 61 points is almost double the point threshold I thought it would take to crack the countdown. Great for the community, bad for Pauly Shore and my ballot.



Pink Flamingos was my one-pointer. I knew there was probably a strong chance I'd be the only one to vote for it, but I'm still disappointed that no other deviants included it. I hereby convict you all of a$$hole-ism. John Waters' micro-budget, transgressive masterpiece (trashterpiece?) is proof positive that bad taste can be just as "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant" as your most revered prestige pictures, as the National Film Registry demonstrated last year when they chose it for preservation. Future generations and civilizations must witness for themselves the sublimity of shock cinema: threesomes with unwilling chickens; prolapsed anuses singing "Surfin' Bird;" unsimulated blowjobs between mother and son; black-market baby rings; kielbasa-sausage exhibitionists; and, most notoriously, the delicious delicacy of pungent, freshly-squeezed, still-steaming dog poo. Pink Flamingos is hilarious, outrageous, obnoxious, delightfully disgusting, tacky, campy and 100% unforgettable. Gleeful anarchy. Pure punk energy. A parade of perversion. A filthy frolic. This isn't empty shock value. It has a purpose, a philosophy. Pink Flamingos is also just as much a celebration of freaks and outcasts as it is an attack on conservative values. Where others just see degradation and offensiveness, I see love and acceptance and inspiration. I think that inclusionary nature is why the film is still embraced to this day.

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When people came in saying they weren't casting a ballot because they didn't like comedies anymore, I kind of wanted to reply, "well, maybe just submit a ranking of the Coen brother's movies, excluding No Country for Old Men, probably Blood Simple, and also probably Inside Llewyn Davis; and you'd be halfway there." But I didn't want to hint what may or maybe not be on my ballot (I was going to say Coen brothers, plus one other person, who shall currently go unnamed).

I said when casting my ballot, while I was going to be ranking them on how I think of them as comedies, I wasn't going to be voting many straight comedies (which I meant, as in, movies that you think of as vacuous, pure joke and laugh machines. though some of those are on my list).

Which ironically means that Coen-ranking line I suppressed wouldn't be accurate for describing my ballot.

I think one thing that causes the movies I chose to stick out to me, is that the comedies are interacting with something. It often gives them more bite or makes them stick to the bone more. Whatever sense I get from the jokes get amplified by the other emotions they're interacting with in the material.

Also because punchlines often become less funny to me after enough repetitions. Not jokes that rely on the rake effect though. Those only get better.

I think one other thing that also applies, and this happens in spades with Fargo, since there's also the non-comedic plot going on, I'm less dependent upon the jokes to enjoy the movie. Which sounds counter-intuitive for why this might be relevant for how I said I was making my ballot. But, let's say I'm in a non-laughing mood but I kind of want to get myself into a better mood, that non-laughing mood might kill my ability to laugh at the jokes or quips in a straight comedy. Then I'm not enjoying myself at all, and I get into a non-laughing death spiral, because I'm feeling nothing. I watch a blend of genres, and even if I'm not initially laughing, my mind gets to relax and start to enjoy the other genre, and then my brain might kind of hit that spot where it can laugh again, while a comedic scene is happening, and then I can start shifting back into that comedic mindset. I think also in this case, because the style of the comedy of Fargo isn't dependent upon quips or gags, but rather the drawn-out (dark) absurdism of a situation, I think the movie puts less pressure on itself in making you want to laugh, which in some situations really works. Also, it's just really damn funny. Or maybe this is all rationalizing, and I'm just a cheap comedy-whore who thinks the accents are funny sounding, ya know.

For the record, the above "not in a laughing mood" situation above may have happened as I was reviewing some films before casting my ballot. One, "is this actually funny as I remember," got pretty far up on my ballot, and two others got kicked off of my ballot possibly just because I just wasn't in a laughing mood when I rewatched them. One of them I strongly suspect is ending up on this list. I'll save it for if it is, so I can get people's spit-takes when I go, "I re-watched it and I just did not laugh." I did take it as my cue to stop rewatching movies for this though.

Sullivan's Travels is great, but it's been forever since I've seen it. I don't think I've seen anything else from Sturges.


Fargo is great, but it is not one of the two Coen brothers I personally respond to. As I have a one movie per director rule, it did not make my list.

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And we are off!!!


AND with our first discussion of comedic interpretation. SUHWEET!

Seen both. Making an excellent kickoff for their perspective numbers.




Sullivan's Travels

John L. Sullivan: There's a lot to be said for making people laugh. Did you know that that's all some people have? It isn't much, but it's better than nothing in this cockeyed caravan.

A year and a half ago, when writing this for a Personal Recommendation HoF, it was my second film starring Joel McCrea, the other being Ride the High Country, and it's been remedied since then with around three or so - so far.
This film remains my first of the charming Veronica Lake outside of a noir film. Both of them do an excellent job at a comedic venture that delves into a Director wanting to make a film about the poor but has never been "in trouble" and decides to play the hobo and find out. A well-done serious bit of drama within this warm comedy delves into him finding out.
Along with McCrea and Lake, there were several supporting actors I enjoyed and was happy to see. At only an hour and a half, some of me wished for a little more, but in the end, it was just right.
A sentimental film that caused me to smile and chuckle warmly.






Fargo (1996)

Mr. Mohra: So, I'm tendin' bar there at Ecklund and Swedlin's last Tuesday, and this little guy's drinkin' and he says, "So where can a guy find some action? I'm goin' crazy out there at the lake." And I says, "What kinda action?" and he says, "Woman action, what do I look like?" And I says, "Well, what do I look like? I don't arrange that kinda thing," and he says, "But I'm goin' crazy out there at the lake," and I says, "Well, this ain't that kinda place."
Officer Olson: Uh-huh.
Mr. Mohra: So he angrily says, "Oh I get it, so you think I'm some kinda crazy jerk for askin'!" only he doesn't use the word "jerk."
Officer Olson: I understand.
Mr. Mohra: And then he calls me a jerk, and says that the last guy who thought he was a jerk is dead now. So I don't say nothin' and he says, "What do ya think about that?" So I says, "Well, that don't sound like too good a deal for him, then."
Officer Olson: [chuckles] Ya got that right.

Poor, poor, pitiful Jerry Lundegaard, played so brilliantly by William Macy, I cannot HELP but feel so damn sorry and invested in him. Add the pairing of Steve Buscemi and Peter Stormare, as the two inept and dangerous badmen he hires and you have the tip of the iceberg of this dark comedy/thriller ala Coen Brothers.

Originally on my shortlist, it faded off for the more consecutively loud bursts of laughter that dominated my Voting List. It is in Strong Standing on my Countless ReWatch List, and a Huge Fan of the TV Series.




Watched: 2 out of 2 (100%)
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25. Megamind (2010) One Pointer


One Pointers: 18 out of 42 (40.47%)

I haven't seen Sullivan's Travels for a long time but remember liking it quite a bit. Fargo is one of my favourites and I even had it near the top of my list for a while. It's comedy, tragically, and satirically, as the Coen Bros tend to operate. But at the end of the day I dropped it from my list. I went with only one Coen flick and that one deserves it's place because it is hilarious no matter how many times I watch it.

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