The Movie Forums Top 100 Comedies Countdown

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You can't say comedy without saying " Its a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World". Believe this is the first time the film has been mentioned.

My prediction for tomorrow.
Now that's a comedy I like! I was just thinking about that film this morning and then I login and see your post...Great minds think alike



Blazing Saddles is probably the movie that made me realize that maybe I was smarter than all the adults around me. It took me five or six years to figure this out, but as I sat in front of this movie and watched my grandmother roll her eyes at a lengthy scene composed of nothing but bean farts, shake her head and be upset that even a child could find any amusement in this, I saw cinema expand. Much like Tarkovsky would show me years later, fixating his gaze for an eternity on the vision of monks walking in the rain, Brooks does not cut away from his parade of men bending over and letting it rip. Clearly my grandmother was blinded by the presumed stench, not to recognize the beauty of such a thing. Where she only saw flatulence, I saw a movie that was speaking with the films of the past, acknowledging it too had seen all those old Westerns will all of their campfire bean munches, and it dared to wonder 'what would that sound like', then dared to show us, one cowboy at a time. Just like Tarkovsky would.



Blazing Saddles it is at #10! It didn't make my list but I was tempted to get it on there. But then there was also Young Frankenstein and I was tempted to get it on there. Alas, neither made my list but that didn't stop them from each taking top 10 spots. Funny funny stuff.
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Have seen so far: 47 - Blazing Saddles - This was a decent comedy movie from the 70's not a favorite of mines though
Have not seen so far: 42

I guess we can say now that the 80's have won this countdown with the most ballots by decade
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Hopefully the next countdown is the 2010's, I'm currently working on some my 2010's list.



Have seen so far: 49 - Blazing Saddles - This was a decent comedy movie from the 70's not a favorite of mines though
Have not seen so far: 43

I guess we can say now that the 80's have won this countdown with the most ballots by decade

Though, looking at the list of expected remaining movies, only Ghostbusters is from the 80s.



How many 1950s films have made the countdown, thus far? What is your sense without looking?

The answer is one. Singin' in the Rain (#50). If Billy Wilder's Some Like it Hot is in fact in the Top 10 that will be the only other title from that decade to appear. It is the kind of oversight that would never, ever happen on a list curated by critics or made up by a magazine staff. But for MoFo taste, en masse...apparently so.

It's a Mad Mad Mad Mad World was made in 1963, but with its galaxy of stars from Spencer Tracy on down and its cinematography and sensibility it feels much more like a holdover product of the 1950s to me than the 1960s.

Anyway, my theory is that the 1950s are an odd time culturally that in general doesn't date well, especially in regards to comedy. Silent movies are Silent movies, the comedies of the '30s and '40s have been replicated enough by subsequent generations of filmmakers that they still seem familiar and funny (for example #60 What's Up, Doc?). The 1960s are very well entrenched in popular culture (as in #96 Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery and #32 National Lampoon's Animal House). But the square, fudd-duddy, Post-WWII, Eisenhower era of the 1950s? The two films on the countdown set there, Back to the Future (#35) and Ed Wood (#69), both seem to be very much making fun of the outdated nature of that period's attitudes. If Some Like it Hot does indeed make the Top Ten that means the only two movies made in the 1950s on the list, it and Singin' in the Rain, are interestingly enough both SET in the 1920s.

The other comedies that placed on the MoFo Top 100 Films of the 1950s list were All About Eve (#12), which is not really a full-on comedy, Harvey (#31), the Daffy Duck short Duck Amuck (#89), and Roman Holiday (#92). That's it. American Comedy in the 1950s it seems was being covered by the television airwaves: "I Love Lucy", "Leave it to Beaver", "Father Knows Best", "The Donna Reed Show", etc.

It's a Mad Mad Mad Mad World did not place anywhere on the MoFo Top 100 of the 1960s. The Graduate was #6 (#27 here), The Apartment #8 (#30 here), Playtime was #31 (#49 on this list), while Breakfast at Tiffany's was #39, My Fair Lady #40, A Hard Day's Night #53, Charade at #57, Disney's The Jungle Book hit #88, and Barefoot in the Park was #91 with none of them making this list. Though One Two Three and The Producers did make it here without showing on the 1960s list. Oh, and there's still some Kubrick flick about nukes that was #4 on that list and just may still be coming (it is).


It's a Mad Mad Mad Mad World is one of those touchstones that movie and comedy buffs all know, but it certainly isn't going to be in this Top Ten.

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I'd be happy if Some Like It Hot didn't make it (absolutely the worst Wilder I've seen).
Absolutely agree.
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Now that we're in the the top ten and @Diehl40 and @Yoda are bringing this countdown in for a landing




I'd be happy if Some Like It Hot didn't make it (absolutely the worst Wilder I've seen).
I still have it above Sabrina, but I'm not as crazy about it as most people.
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Now that we're in the the top ten and @Diehl40 and @Yoda are bringing this countdown in for a landing

Yeah, thanks to Diehl and Yoda for all the hard work!



If you want to see some dreadful Billy Wilder films: Buddy, Buddy is pathetic, Fedora is a waste, Avanti! is annoying, and Kiss Me, Stupid is pretty, well...you know.

But your mileage may vary.



In my mind, I keep incorrectly thinking a lot of the screwball comedies of the 40s were from the 50s.
For some reason I blame His Girl Friday for this.



Final update for my predictions

1. 100%
2. Liar Liar (#118)
3. Spaceballs (#57)
4. Clerks (#64)
5. 0%
6. 100%
7. Raising Arizona (#22)
8. 3%
9. 0%
10. The Naked Gun: From the Files of Police Squad! (#17)
11. 30%
12. Life of Brian (#19)
13. The Nice Guys (#69)
14. 0%
15. What We Do in the Shadows (#31)
16. 20%
17. 0%
18. 30%
19. 0%
20. National Lampoon's Vacation (#54)
21. 15%
22. 0%
23. Office Space (#18)
24. 0%
25. La Guagua Aérea (One-Pointer)


Those <50% are really 0%, to be honest. No way those make it now so I'm left with two locks.



Likewise.

In my mind, I keep incorrectly thinking a lot of the screwball comedies of the 40s were from the 50s.
For some reason I blame His Girl Friday for this.
You blame a movie released in 1940 for you thinking it was from the 1950s.



I love Blazing Saddles it is one of my favorite Mel Brooks movies. I tried to put as many old movies as I could on my ballot but this was not one of them.