The Movie Forums Top 100 Comedies Countdown

Thanks, I haven't seen Mr Hulot's Holiday but I'll have to add that to my ever growing list. I've seen Mon Oncle and enjoyed it, so I'm betting more of Tati/Hulot films would be to my liking. A link to my review, Mon Oncle (though I should save that link until Mon Oncle makes the countdown)

• Brazil - I clearly remember the TV announce about the movie when it came out. Unfortunately, it was age restricted and me and my school friends were not allowed in the theatre then.
Later, in the 90's and in the 2000's, we've been heavily obsessed by Gilliam. Brazil together with The Fisher King were absolute cult for us. I've seen them both at least ten times in those period.
Well, it never occurred to me to include it in this countdown.


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• I've noticed some buzz about Jacques Tati about a decade ago and put him in my list for examination. Couple of years ago, I saw Playtime, my first film of his. Well, it is pretty clear what is its goal but I think it needs a lot of editing to become more watchable.
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my stats
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Top 100 seen 20/54.
(seen one pointers 4/42 • )
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My list:
1. The Gold Rush (1925) [#83.]
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5. The Kid (1921) [#88.]
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7. One, Two, Three (1961) [#85.]
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25.

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I've got a lot of catching up to do but pretty surprised by some of the films that have ranked so high.

O Brother, Where Art Thou? was my number 6 and pretty mad that without my points it could have missed out altogether. Think I saw it for the first time last year but I love it and have seen it a few times now. My brothers a big fan so he often puts it on as something easy to watch. Just so enjoyable and love the music. A film that makes me smile and laugh throughout.

edit: Didn't realise we just got PlayTIme, that was my number 2. A contender for the best film of all time and a great mix of clever funny and laugh out loud funny. Tati's magnum opus.

I'll get to the rest of the films when I have time.

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Yeah, that might be it, at least for some people on some movies. In the case of Fargo and this, some of the iconic scenes are the non-comedic ones, and given the dark tones of the movies particularly the finales, that might also skew perceptions.

Granted, there were a couple of movies that I really enjoy, such as Daisies and The Lighthouse, that I had to first determine if I thought of them as comedies before deciding if they should even go onto my shortlist (ultimately decided no, especially since the comedic aspects of them were going to get captured by other movies that I've historically thought of as being comedies). And this despite the fact that I think of Daisies as a satire, and my thoughts coming out of The Lighthouse the first time was, "that was nuts. I don't know how I feel about it as a horror movie, but it was a lot of fun in a darkly comical sort of way."

That said, I think there are at least some entries in my ballot that will make the list that won't evoke, "I don't really think of this as a comedy," from people. I think.

However, Brazil came to me after The Holy Grail and Time Bandits, and was my formative experience of, "this is what a dark comedy is," which was probably in the early 90s, right as a wave of similarly toned dark comedies seem to be a thing. Throw in this was probably a couple years of just becoming a(n angsty) teenager and of course this stuff would appeal to me.

Alright, ballot stats, updates, thoughts:

National Lampoon’s Vacation - Loved it as a kid (teenager? How old was I when I saw this one? Before Christmas Vacation came out. First Vacation movie I saw was European Vacation on either TV or VHS), saw it some time again in the past decade as part of a screenings in the park type of thing... I found myself not really laughing very much, which is a sad trend I'm discovering when I revisit a lot of comedies from my youth.

Rushmore - My first Wes Anderson movie was The Royal Tenenbaums when it came out in theaters and I kind of loved it (admittedly I was only about 21 or 22 at the time). Outside of The Grand Budapest Hotel, they've mostly been diminishing returns. For some reason, I really didn't care for Rushmore. Was it just expectations were off or am I just the outlier on this one? I don't know.

My Cousin Vinny - It didn't even cross my mind when it came out that it was that noteworthy of a film to bother watching, so I never did. People seem to still be talking about it though. Gifs of Marisa Tomei from that age do kind of tug at me to want to watch the movie, but not in a way that actually increases any sense of confidence that I'll think of it as anything more than a middling to slightly above middling comedy, but that's a guess, sight-unseen.

Dirty Rotten Scoundrels - I really loved Steve Martin comedies as a little kid, including/especially this one. At some point in my life, his movies started to fall out of my rotation. His movies didn't even cross my mind when people talked about putting a lot of comedies from the 80s on their ballot. I have no idea how I'd feel about them today. See my National Lampoon's experience.

The Great Dictator - Not seen this one (outside of randomly seeing clips of the ending once, somehow). As stated previously, I'm not a Chaplin person. Weirdly, while not high on my priority list, I also am not completely writing that one off, just because political satire does show prominently on my list, and of all the Chaplin movies that I recall actually making me smile a bit, it was Modern Times (which I'm expecting to see on the list). So maybe if I had been watching that instead of City Lights, I'd be more positive on him.

Singin’ in the Rain - Already discussed. One of those movies that will probably never end up on any type of top-x of mine (outside of musicals, maybe 50's films?), but I enjoy thoroughly enough, and somehow seems impressive enough, that I never feel bad when I see it show up on these type of top-x movies.

Playtime - This was a criterion blu-ray blind buy back when my viewing habits could keep up with my buying habits. Not in consideration for my ballot, but both that and Mon Oncle give me a pleasant warm vibe, so like Singin' in the Rain, not unhappy to see it here.

Brazil - #6 on my ballot. I think I already said a reasonable amount about it. It was such a formative, early dark comedy for me, it probably formed the tone of how I viewed dark comedies should be (a certain, coming of age, teen movie that's probably going to make the list may have also been involved, I'm not entirely sure. I was quite young and my memory is no longer the greatest). Given that I'm still watching it decades later, it wasn't a question of, would it be on my ballot, but rather, where. I think anything in my top 12 could have been shuffled around, but this is where this one landed.

1. It's Such a Beautiful Day (2012) (#61)
4. House (1977) (#89)
6. Brazil (1985) (#47)
12. Fargo (1996) (#97?)
21. Evil Dead II (1987) (#93)
23. Best in Show (2000) (#74)
25. The Phantom of Liberty (1974) (1 pointer)

Seen: 34/54 (62.9629%)

Brazil is weird and out there, but I enjoyed it. Never was in consideration though.

Not seen Playtime.

I love Brazil and its humor is so very much to my liking, but I just couldn't put it on a list of comedies. I'm sure I'm not being consistent, as I have another film on my list in a similar dark comedy/satire vein, but that's how it is. As for Playtime, it definitely made my list, all the way at #4. A masterpiece I never tire of and which always seems to have some other surprise you missed on a previous viewing. The restaurant scene is definitely the centerpiece of the film. I will concede the apartment scene does stretch on a little long, but otherwise I have no problem with its length or its pace. Happy to see it break the top 50.

My List:
4. Playtime (#48)
21. One, Two, Three (#85)
22. Beetlejuice (#78)
24. Sullivan's Travels (#100)

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I may go back to hating you. It was more fun.

Watched The Hangover in theaters with a group of friends, and we all laughed our asses off. Too many return trips to the well through cable airings and lackluster sequels cost it some shine, but I think I've mostly soured on it due to the legion of obnoxious knuckle-draggers who hail it as a comedy masterpiece while yelling quotes as if they're Rob Riggle clones. ("IN THE FACE! IN THE FAAAAACCCCEEE!") I enjoyed The Nice Guys but had forgotten that it even existed until it surprisingly appeared on the countdown. Judging by some of the comments, I'm not the only one struggling to recall specifics, but that's fitting since the plot/mystery is secondary anyway. I think of it as Shane Black's The Long Goodbye.

Ed Wood is excellent. I like it more than several films on my ballot, but despite its peculiarities and amusing, larger-than-life personalities, I walk away from it too melancholy to consider it an outright comedy. As for Mean Girls, I prefer Heathers, Clueless, Easy A and probably a few other teenaged girl comedies. At least the movie serves as a reminder that Lindsay Lohan was very attractive once upon a time before drugs and plastic surgery f**ked her face up.

Kung-Fu Hustle is like a live-action Looney Tunes cartoon with a third-degree black belt. Not a movie I expected to make the countdown, but I'm not mad at its appearance. Didn't expect Black Dynamite to make the countdown, either, as I feared its cult following might've disbanded over the years. It's been a long time since I last watched it, so it wasn't in consideration for my ballot, but it's brilliant, hysterical and one of the best parodies ever made. As others have noted, you don't have to be well-versed in blaxploitation to appreciate the humor. Being reminded of some of the funnier scenes and quotes has me itching to revisit it sometime soon.

The success of Clerks should serve as an inspiration to all aspiring filmmakers saddled with limited resources/opportunities. I just wish I found it funnier. Smith's writing has never quite gelled with me, and almost everything he's made over the last 20 years has been dreadful, cratering with the recent Jay and Silent Bob Reboot, one of the laziest, unfunniest comedies I've ever suffered through. And speaking of shitty comedies, I'm disappointed to see Spaceballs do so well, especially since I thought we'd dodged this laser beam when the much more acclaimed The Producers had such a low placement. I'm not a fan of Star Wars or Mel Brooks in general, so the movie had little chance of success with me, but the humor is so dumb and childish that I'm shocked anyone over eight-years-old could find it funny (and I say that as someone often drawn to dumb, childish humor).

Screwball comedies aren't normally my bag, but I thoroughly enjoyed What's Up, Doc?. Sherlock Jr., like most Buster Keaton films I've seen, inspires more awe than laughs. I'm mostly apathetic toward Ferris Bueller, Vacation, Rushmore and My Cousin Vinny but they're enjoyable enough. I re-watched Tropic Thunder a few months ago. Hard to imagine the movie making it past pre-production in today's society without being canceled. Its most memorable scenes are so hilarious that I forget how scattershot the movie is as a whole. A lot of talented people on screen, but most of them are either underutilized or saddled with one-note characters. RDJ's performance still slaps. I haven't seen The In-Laws, It's Such a Beautiful Day or Dirty Rotten Scoundrels.

I wasn't yet a fan of musicals when I watched Singin' in the Rain. I appreciated the obvious skill on both sides of the camera, but I'm confident that I'd enjoy the movie much more with a re-watch (although I'm more of an Astaire guy myself). I tried to restrict my ballot to movies that are comedies first and foremost, otherwise I probably would've included the musical Gold Diggers of 1933. I found Playtime and Brazil boring as shit. I'm skeptical that the latter would fare any better on a re-watch. I don't care much for Gilliam's other films, and regardless of the context, anything described as bureaucratic immediately causes me to slip into a stupor. Playtime likely suffered from me watching it on too small of a screen to appreciate how multi-layered the visual gags are in each scene (or so I'm told by its supporters). I hated it so much at the time that I've yet to give Tati another chance a decade later.

I skipped over the movies that were on my ballot. I'll spotlight them later. Maybe.

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Knew I could count on Spaulding voting for Gilmore

Nice to see some love for Goldiggers of 1933...great musical

Well gee, I've never seen a Tati film...yet. All this talk of his films makes me want to very much. Anyhow, no vote for Playtime as I had never heard of it.

Brazil, what I saw of it, looked absolutely brilliant but this is one of those movies where somehow I've only seen parts of it and when I record it or try to watch it on cable, something always happens. Cable going out, my DVR box being stolen, solar flares, you name it. And like several MoFos here, I didn't even consider it for this comedy countdown, although I did see humorous moments in the parts I watched.

Same old, same old for me so far:

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

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I haven't heard of Playtime, let alone seen it.

I've heard of Brazil, but I haven't seen it.

I should see both of them at some point.

I watched Playtime for the 60's countdown, unique and fascinating and I really enjoyed it.

Saw Brazil when it came out and I hated it. A long time ago and I like different stuff now, but that different stuff still doesn't include Terry Gilliam.

I'll guess Arsenic & Old Lace and The Wedding Singer for today.

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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