Post by v9733xa on Jun 10, 2017 14:31:54 GMT -5
It’s time to laugh!
Comedies are some of my very favorite types of movies. Honestly, before I really became a movie buff a few years ago, they were the most dependable of films for me to find enjoyable. I bet a lot of us were like that though when we were younger, right?
So, while on one hand this is a really easy and fun list, on another it’s not at all. I say that because people have very different opinions about comedies, so I’m not at all trying to make a definitive “these are the greatest funny movies and that’s it.” Some of us like smart comedies; some of us like extremely stupid comedies; some of us like dialogue-driven comedies; some of us like physical comedies. And none of those opinions are wrong.
Also, hell, what even IS a comedy? Impossible to answer that. Therefore, you may disagree and that’s cool. Also, this is NOT a list of the “funniest movies.” That answer would be totally different.
With that, and with a very liberal definition of “my favorite,” here are my favorite comedies.
I really hope you watch the trailers! A couple I had literally never seen and they’re amazing.
Honorable mentions: American Hustle, Good Morning Vietnam, Big, Sabrina, Young Frankenstein, Ghostbusters, Spaceballs, Caddyshack, Dumb & Dumber (that was the hardest one to leave out), Annie Hall, Manhattan, and probably 8 other Woody Allen movies that just miss the cut
(note: I’m not including The Marx Brothers’ Duck Soup since I featured that on the last list, but obviously it would be here, I’m skipping very old films this time)
10. It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World (1963)
There are only two legitimately “madcap” movies on this list, a term that’s not really used much anymore except to denigrate a probably too-silly picture. This is the first, and like a couple others here, it holds a special place in my heart because of how my father exposed me to movies like this when I was younger; despite my best attempts to grow up and stop enjoying stupidity like this, it’s to no avail. …Mad World, directed by Jerry Kramer (yeah, THAT Jerry Kramer who also directed masterpieces Judgement at Nuremberg and Inherit the Wind), is a loony ensemble comedy featuring about 20 funny actors and 50 other blink-and-you-miss it cameos out of nowhere. Now a prototype of films every year or so, a group of bumbling fools, so greedy they find ever idiotic ways to screw up, race to a park in fictional Santa Rosita Beach, California to look for “a big W,” where they believe $350,000 is buried – that’s probably over $2.5 million today. Featuring ridiculous car chases, two airplanes that somehow don’t crash, the destruction of an entire roadside gas station, and enough bad puns and one-liners to satisfy the best dad joke lovers, this movie will always be a favorite despite its inherent hokeyness.
9. What We Do in the Shadows (2014)
And our number 9 flick is once again the sleeper pick of the list, out of nowhere the brilliant and criminally underseen mockumentary from Flight of the Concords veterans Taika Waititi and Jemaine Clement. This is one of the funniest movies I have ever seen. No joke. When I first heard of this a couple years ago I figured “oh geez, it’ll be another one of these awful vampire movies, a parody of a parody of vampire movies.” No, no sirs, this is a masterful film, and so funny you’ll hurt from laughing. It follows a house of vampires – all centuries old, except for Petyr who is 8000 - who live in New Zealand (sure) and their day to day life. Yes, all the ridiculous vampire “rules” and quirks are there: daylight, sucking blood, sort-of flight, servants, the invite requirement, vampire hunters, and of course the ubiquitous rivalry with those asshole werewolves. It’s difficult to explain just how wonderfully the mockumentary style works, and how it also keeps the sweetness and heart of the film. Deadpan and silly, but not stupid, I’m thrilled to know that a sequel is coming about the werewolves. The title: We’re Wolves. Amazing.
8. Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964)
Many of the rest of these might be predictable, for lovers of good classic comedies. You can’t miss Dr. Strangelove, even though I’ll admit that it’s not for everyone. I imagine some who aren’t political, or who don’t follow/care about the news, really might not “get” this film at all. That’s okay. They’re stupid. That’s because this is a one-of-a-kind movie, one of the best satires ever made, by the versatile and brilliant director Stanley Kubrick. In what is undoubtedly Peter Sellers’ finest role (he actually plays 3 people in this film), legend is that he improvised virtually all of his dialogue. The Cold War – and the concepts of mutually-assured destruction, deterrence, and flexible response – require at least a freshman year understanding of geopolitical history to follow this movie. But if you can handle that, just sit back and dive into Kubrick’s mind-twisting screenplay, because there’s never been a better political satire ever made.
7. Borat! Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan (2006)
This is probably the single movie on this list I can guarantee 100% of the readers of this post have seen. And that’s okay. It came out when we were all a little younger, all a little dumber, and loved a good “let’s laugh at America” movie during the GW Bush years. I was just a year removed from college, so boy howdy, I was up for it too. But do yourself a favor and watch Borat again, because it is just as amazing as when it first came out. No, there really had never been a movie made quite like this, and perhaps there never will be one again. It was perfect for its time: pre-smartphones, pre-(most)social media, when honestly I think we didn’t realize just how stupid most people were. You try to make a movie like this now, people would say “yeah okay so? We knew that.” Still, I posit that this was one of the most subversive and ground-breaking films ever made. Larry Charles (people seem to think Sasha Baron Cohen directed this, no he didn’t) made a uniquely incredibly movie. And don’t forget, Cohen won an acting Golden Globe for this, and also an Oscar nomination for best screenplay. Really!
6. This is Spinal Tap (1984)
So I like mockumentaries, sue me. (Also, watch Best in Show, Zelig, Incident at Loch Ness, Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping, and Bruno.) Rob Reiner’s offbeat film about the greatest rock band in the world at the peak of their fame, This is Spinal Tap beautifully skewers the “rock god” movies of the 1970s starring Led Zeppelin, The Rolling Stones, and The Band. Reiner and the three main actors – Michael McKean, Harry Shearer, and Christopher Guest (who would later gain fame directing movies almost as good as this) – share writing credits, as virtually all of the dialogue was ad-libbed. The clichés of the band falling apart with creative differences (and of course, a girl) parallel pretty much every classic rock band ever, and that’s what makes this movie so goddamn funny and good: countless musicians watch it and say “yeah, that all really happened.” Except for maybe the drummers that keep spontaneously combusting. Well anyway, just try to watch “these go to eleven” in full and try not to laugh.
5. Hot Fuzz (2007)
There isn’t a better Edgar Wright or Simon Pegg/Nick Frost film. If you disagree, I will fight you. Why? Because this is better than any comedy made in the 15 years before it, and probably the 10 years since. It’s absolutely incredible. I still remember seeing this in the theater with my then-girlfriend (damn, she really was the one that got away) 10 years ago and battling tear-inducing laughter with jaw-dropping action scenes. Building conspiracies upon conspiracies – combined with homages to Bad Boys, Point Break, and Supercop – Jim Broadbent, Edward Woodward, Paddy Considine, Bill Nighy, the uncanny Timothy Dalton, and a host of other very British actors make this film so frantic and so hilariously thrilling that you won’t have 5 seconds to recover between memorable scenes. The best modern action spoof is spot-on with references, and tributes to the films that made it possible. The quick-cut scene transitions are goddamn masterpieces in themselves. See for yourself:
I can’t even say more. It’s just a beautiful, exciting, and damn funny movie.
4. Blazing Saddles (1974)
I’ve already said how great 1974 was for film, and this one is right up there with the best of them. Many would put this right up there at the top of their comedy lists. It doesn’t quite make it for me, but I’m not going to deny its greatness. Mel Brooks’ Blazing Saddles (and don’t forget, with writing help from the king himself Richard Pryor) parodies westerns, and skewers American society and culture, as well as any film ever has. The deliberate anachronisms ii think are the best recurring gags in the picture. I mean, who else but Mel Brooks would put a Western in 1874 but have the Count Basic Orchestra playing “April in Paris,” Slim Pickens discussing The Wide World of Sports, and (naturally) the German Nazi army? As he often does, Roger Ebert said it best in his initial review: “It's an audience picture; it doesn't have a lot of classy polish and its structure is a total mess. But of course! What does that matter while Alex Karras is knocking a horse cold with a right cross to the jaw?" I won’t give away the ending, but no movie has ever so viciously and hilariously broken the fourth wall like this.
3. Groundhog Day (1993)
What’s amazing about Groundhog Day is that, if you’re around my age, you definitely saw this movie when it came out, and you laughed, and you loved it, and it was just silly and stupid enough to grab your 10-year-old mind away from cartoons and Mario Kart for an hour or two. And yes, it has aired on TBS and TNT and USA and those other channels no one watches except for old movies easily 10,000 times in more than 20 years. But watch it again, the whole thing uncut, and you will come to see what critics gradually came to a consensus upon: it’s one of the best comedies that’s ever been made. Harold Ramis directed and wrote, and Bill Murray starred in, a magnificent time-loop scenario that wasn’t the first movie quite to use it, but has since inspired other comedies and science fiction films like The Edge of Tomorrow and Predestination. But this movie gets dark! Remember this?
In all seriousness, if you haven’t seen the whole movie in a while, now that you’re an adult (at least in age, fellas) do yourself a favor and watch it all again, but this time instead of just waiting for Phil to drive off the cliff with the groundhog or any other suicide, wait for the sweet moments, the moments of genuine self-improvement, almost a spiritual transcendence. And ask yourself, as Phil first did thinking without empathy or consequence, what would you really do if you had what felt like eternity to make one day the best you possibly could?
2. Airplane! (1980)
There really is no debate: Airplane! is the funniest movie of all time. We can talk more about what really is the greatest comedy, sure, that’s a discussion to be had. But funniest? No sir. You lose with anything other than Airplane! The most Mel Brooks movie ever made that he did not make at all (instead, by Jim Abrahams and the Zucker brothers) has a plot so pointless and transient that it’s not worth explaining. There’s a plane. All sorts of crazy shit happens. Basically there was a time in the 1970s when audiences were enamored with disaster pics, and while that may still be true today, the common theme then was air travel. And this film wonderfully parodies those ludicrous Airport pictures, and then throws in 500 more jokes where you will not go more than 10 seconds without laughing. But what younger people (including myself when I first watched it) usually don’t know, without the benefit of age we had no idea that Leslie Nielsen, Robert Stack, Peter Graves, and Lloyd Bridges (and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar!) had appeared in literally zero comedies in their careers before Airplane! These actors then spent the rest of their careers forever changed, especially Nielsen and Bridges, whose final 20-30 years now define their legacies. No frills, silly, madcap, deadpan comedy has never had it so good as in this film.
Enjoy that little compilation of the best lines from the movie. I would post a longer one of all the best quotes, but it would literally just be the whole film.
1. Monty Python & The Holy Grail (1975)
(What a great trailer.) I have little doubt that this is the most polarizing picture on this list. There may be others like me who are in love with this movie, and have seen it 25 times like I have (maybe more?), easily dwarfing the amount of anything else I’ve watched (the only ones I can think of that I’ve watched 10 times are Groundhog Day, Dumb & Dumber, Willy Wonka & The Chocolate Factory). Why, you ask? Well that’s because Monty Python & The Holy Grail is unique, and stands alone in the pantheon of the utterly ridiculous, so zany and so off-the-wall there it defies explanation. I discovered this movie randomly on Comedy Central when I think I was about 11 or 12. I remember my mom said “oh that’s an old movie, it’s really stupid.” Music to my ears. Thus began an obsession with the film that has really never wavered. Significant others have been coaxed into watching it (maybe that’s why I’m divorced and still single…). Lines have been quoted at high school lunch tables ad nauseum. Nerds have bonded over the collective unconscious feeling we all had at first viewing. But honestly, is there a more subversive film ever made? Even though Borat is a different style, I argue that only it comes close. But there are STILL haters of this film. Why is that? Truly I’m not sure. It may be that it’s simply “old.” Maybe it’s “too British.” Maybe people think they’re smarter than this movie (but then watch it and don’t get half the jokes). Whatever the reasons, those people’s opinions are wrong. Among the scores of memorable lines of dialogue (“he hasn’t got shit all over him” “there are some who call me… Tim” “it’s just a flesh wound” “I fart in your general direction” “Ni!” “what is your quest?”) and incredible scenes (the Black Knight, the Cave of Caerbannog, the Trojan Rabbit, the Castle of Aaaaaargh, the Bridge of Death, the Witch’s inquisition), I’ll leave you with my definitive favorite, Swamp Castle, and the two stupidest guards ever, in a brilliant and amazingly simple stationary wide shot, a technique never done today anymore. The Monty Python group was both somehow ahead of its time, and yet the last of a dying breed.
~~
Alright! That was a lot of fun! And significantly more difficult than the first list, interestingly. I was in pain leaving so many great movies out of this, but that’s what way it goes. I’ll see you next weekend hopefully. Comment away!
What are your favorites? What are the funniest movies you know?
Comedies are some of my very favorite types of movies. Honestly, before I really became a movie buff a few years ago, they were the most dependable of films for me to find enjoyable. I bet a lot of us were like that though when we were younger, right?
So, while on one hand this is a really easy and fun list, on another it’s not at all. I say that because people have very different opinions about comedies, so I’m not at all trying to make a definitive “these are the greatest funny movies and that’s it.” Some of us like smart comedies; some of us like extremely stupid comedies; some of us like dialogue-driven comedies; some of us like physical comedies. And none of those opinions are wrong.
Also, hell, what even IS a comedy? Impossible to answer that. Therefore, you may disagree and that’s cool. Also, this is NOT a list of the “funniest movies.” That answer would be totally different.
With that, and with a very liberal definition of “my favorite,” here are my favorite comedies.
I really hope you watch the trailers! A couple I had literally never seen and they’re amazing.
Honorable mentions: American Hustle, Good Morning Vietnam, Big, Sabrina, Young Frankenstein, Ghostbusters, Spaceballs, Caddyshack, Dumb & Dumber (that was the hardest one to leave out), Annie Hall, Manhattan, and probably 8 other Woody Allen movies that just miss the cut
(note: I’m not including The Marx Brothers’ Duck Soup since I featured that on the last list, but obviously it would be here, I’m skipping very old films this time)
10. It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World (1963)
There are only two legitimately “madcap” movies on this list, a term that’s not really used much anymore except to denigrate a probably too-silly picture. This is the first, and like a couple others here, it holds a special place in my heart because of how my father exposed me to movies like this when I was younger; despite my best attempts to grow up and stop enjoying stupidity like this, it’s to no avail. …Mad World, directed by Jerry Kramer (yeah, THAT Jerry Kramer who also directed masterpieces Judgement at Nuremberg and Inherit the Wind), is a loony ensemble comedy featuring about 20 funny actors and 50 other blink-and-you-miss it cameos out of nowhere. Now a prototype of films every year or so, a group of bumbling fools, so greedy they find ever idiotic ways to screw up, race to a park in fictional Santa Rosita Beach, California to look for “a big W,” where they believe $350,000 is buried – that’s probably over $2.5 million today. Featuring ridiculous car chases, two airplanes that somehow don’t crash, the destruction of an entire roadside gas station, and enough bad puns and one-liners to satisfy the best dad joke lovers, this movie will always be a favorite despite its inherent hokeyness.
9. What We Do in the Shadows (2014)
And our number 9 flick is once again the sleeper pick of the list, out of nowhere the brilliant and criminally underseen mockumentary from Flight of the Concords veterans Taika Waititi and Jemaine Clement. This is one of the funniest movies I have ever seen. No joke. When I first heard of this a couple years ago I figured “oh geez, it’ll be another one of these awful vampire movies, a parody of a parody of vampire movies.” No, no sirs, this is a masterful film, and so funny you’ll hurt from laughing. It follows a house of vampires – all centuries old, except for Petyr who is 8000 - who live in New Zealand (sure) and their day to day life. Yes, all the ridiculous vampire “rules” and quirks are there: daylight, sucking blood, sort-of flight, servants, the invite requirement, vampire hunters, and of course the ubiquitous rivalry with those asshole werewolves. It’s difficult to explain just how wonderfully the mockumentary style works, and how it also keeps the sweetness and heart of the film. Deadpan and silly, but not stupid, I’m thrilled to know that a sequel is coming about the werewolves. The title: We’re Wolves. Amazing.
8. Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964)
Many of the rest of these might be predictable, for lovers of good classic comedies. You can’t miss Dr. Strangelove, even though I’ll admit that it’s not for everyone. I imagine some who aren’t political, or who don’t follow/care about the news, really might not “get” this film at all. That’s okay. They’re stupid. That’s because this is a one-of-a-kind movie, one of the best satires ever made, by the versatile and brilliant director Stanley Kubrick. In what is undoubtedly Peter Sellers’ finest role (he actually plays 3 people in this film), legend is that he improvised virtually all of his dialogue. The Cold War – and the concepts of mutually-assured destruction, deterrence, and flexible response – require at least a freshman year understanding of geopolitical history to follow this movie. But if you can handle that, just sit back and dive into Kubrick’s mind-twisting screenplay, because there’s never been a better political satire ever made.
7. Borat! Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan (2006)
This is probably the single movie on this list I can guarantee 100% of the readers of this post have seen. And that’s okay. It came out when we were all a little younger, all a little dumber, and loved a good “let’s laugh at America” movie during the GW Bush years. I was just a year removed from college, so boy howdy, I was up for it too. But do yourself a favor and watch Borat again, because it is just as amazing as when it first came out. No, there really had never been a movie made quite like this, and perhaps there never will be one again. It was perfect for its time: pre-smartphones, pre-(most)social media, when honestly I think we didn’t realize just how stupid most people were. You try to make a movie like this now, people would say “yeah okay so? We knew that.” Still, I posit that this was one of the most subversive and ground-breaking films ever made. Larry Charles (people seem to think Sasha Baron Cohen directed this, no he didn’t) made a uniquely incredibly movie. And don’t forget, Cohen won an acting Golden Globe for this, and also an Oscar nomination for best screenplay. Really!
6. This is Spinal Tap (1984)
So I like mockumentaries, sue me. (Also, watch Best in Show, Zelig, Incident at Loch Ness, Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping, and Bruno.) Rob Reiner’s offbeat film about the greatest rock band in the world at the peak of their fame, This is Spinal Tap beautifully skewers the “rock god” movies of the 1970s starring Led Zeppelin, The Rolling Stones, and The Band. Reiner and the three main actors – Michael McKean, Harry Shearer, and Christopher Guest (who would later gain fame directing movies almost as good as this) – share writing credits, as virtually all of the dialogue was ad-libbed. The clichés of the band falling apart with creative differences (and of course, a girl) parallel pretty much every classic rock band ever, and that’s what makes this movie so goddamn funny and good: countless musicians watch it and say “yeah, that all really happened.” Except for maybe the drummers that keep spontaneously combusting. Well anyway, just try to watch “these go to eleven” in full and try not to laugh.
5. Hot Fuzz (2007)
There isn’t a better Edgar Wright or Simon Pegg/Nick Frost film. If you disagree, I will fight you. Why? Because this is better than any comedy made in the 15 years before it, and probably the 10 years since. It’s absolutely incredible. I still remember seeing this in the theater with my then-girlfriend (damn, she really was the one that got away) 10 years ago and battling tear-inducing laughter with jaw-dropping action scenes. Building conspiracies upon conspiracies – combined with homages to Bad Boys, Point Break, and Supercop – Jim Broadbent, Edward Woodward, Paddy Considine, Bill Nighy, the uncanny Timothy Dalton, and a host of other very British actors make this film so frantic and so hilariously thrilling that you won’t have 5 seconds to recover between memorable scenes. The best modern action spoof is spot-on with references, and tributes to the films that made it possible. The quick-cut scene transitions are goddamn masterpieces in themselves. See for yourself:
I can’t even say more. It’s just a beautiful, exciting, and damn funny movie.
4. Blazing Saddles (1974)
I’ve already said how great 1974 was for film, and this one is right up there with the best of them. Many would put this right up there at the top of their comedy lists. It doesn’t quite make it for me, but I’m not going to deny its greatness. Mel Brooks’ Blazing Saddles (and don’t forget, with writing help from the king himself Richard Pryor) parodies westerns, and skewers American society and culture, as well as any film ever has. The deliberate anachronisms ii think are the best recurring gags in the picture. I mean, who else but Mel Brooks would put a Western in 1874 but have the Count Basic Orchestra playing “April in Paris,” Slim Pickens discussing The Wide World of Sports, and (naturally) the German Nazi army? As he often does, Roger Ebert said it best in his initial review: “It's an audience picture; it doesn't have a lot of classy polish and its structure is a total mess. But of course! What does that matter while Alex Karras is knocking a horse cold with a right cross to the jaw?" I won’t give away the ending, but no movie has ever so viciously and hilariously broken the fourth wall like this.
3. Groundhog Day (1993)
What’s amazing about Groundhog Day is that, if you’re around my age, you definitely saw this movie when it came out, and you laughed, and you loved it, and it was just silly and stupid enough to grab your 10-year-old mind away from cartoons and Mario Kart for an hour or two. And yes, it has aired on TBS and TNT and USA and those other channels no one watches except for old movies easily 10,000 times in more than 20 years. But watch it again, the whole thing uncut, and you will come to see what critics gradually came to a consensus upon: it’s one of the best comedies that’s ever been made. Harold Ramis directed and wrote, and Bill Murray starred in, a magnificent time-loop scenario that wasn’t the first movie quite to use it, but has since inspired other comedies and science fiction films like The Edge of Tomorrow and Predestination. But this movie gets dark! Remember this?
In all seriousness, if you haven’t seen the whole movie in a while, now that you’re an adult (at least in age, fellas) do yourself a favor and watch it all again, but this time instead of just waiting for Phil to drive off the cliff with the groundhog or any other suicide, wait for the sweet moments, the moments of genuine self-improvement, almost a spiritual transcendence. And ask yourself, as Phil first did thinking without empathy or consequence, what would you really do if you had what felt like eternity to make one day the best you possibly could?
2. Airplane! (1980)
There really is no debate: Airplane! is the funniest movie of all time. We can talk more about what really is the greatest comedy, sure, that’s a discussion to be had. But funniest? No sir. You lose with anything other than Airplane! The most Mel Brooks movie ever made that he did not make at all (instead, by Jim Abrahams and the Zucker brothers) has a plot so pointless and transient that it’s not worth explaining. There’s a plane. All sorts of crazy shit happens. Basically there was a time in the 1970s when audiences were enamored with disaster pics, and while that may still be true today, the common theme then was air travel. And this film wonderfully parodies those ludicrous Airport pictures, and then throws in 500 more jokes where you will not go more than 10 seconds without laughing. But what younger people (including myself when I first watched it) usually don’t know, without the benefit of age we had no idea that Leslie Nielsen, Robert Stack, Peter Graves, and Lloyd Bridges (and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar!) had appeared in literally zero comedies in their careers before Airplane! These actors then spent the rest of their careers forever changed, especially Nielsen and Bridges, whose final 20-30 years now define their legacies. No frills, silly, madcap, deadpan comedy has never had it so good as in this film.
Enjoy that little compilation of the best lines from the movie. I would post a longer one of all the best quotes, but it would literally just be the whole film.
1. Monty Python & The Holy Grail (1975)
(What a great trailer.) I have little doubt that this is the most polarizing picture on this list. There may be others like me who are in love with this movie, and have seen it 25 times like I have (maybe more?), easily dwarfing the amount of anything else I’ve watched (the only ones I can think of that I’ve watched 10 times are Groundhog Day, Dumb & Dumber, Willy Wonka & The Chocolate Factory). Why, you ask? Well that’s because Monty Python & The Holy Grail is unique, and stands alone in the pantheon of the utterly ridiculous, so zany and so off-the-wall there it defies explanation. I discovered this movie randomly on Comedy Central when I think I was about 11 or 12. I remember my mom said “oh that’s an old movie, it’s really stupid.” Music to my ears. Thus began an obsession with the film that has really never wavered. Significant others have been coaxed into watching it (maybe that’s why I’m divorced and still single…). Lines have been quoted at high school lunch tables ad nauseum. Nerds have bonded over the collective unconscious feeling we all had at first viewing. But honestly, is there a more subversive film ever made? Even though Borat is a different style, I argue that only it comes close. But there are STILL haters of this film. Why is that? Truly I’m not sure. It may be that it’s simply “old.” Maybe it’s “too British.” Maybe people think they’re smarter than this movie (but then watch it and don’t get half the jokes). Whatever the reasons, those people’s opinions are wrong. Among the scores of memorable lines of dialogue (“he hasn’t got shit all over him” “there are some who call me… Tim” “it’s just a flesh wound” “I fart in your general direction” “Ni!” “what is your quest?”) and incredible scenes (the Black Knight, the Cave of Caerbannog, the Trojan Rabbit, the Castle of Aaaaaargh, the Bridge of Death, the Witch’s inquisition), I’ll leave you with my definitive favorite, Swamp Castle, and the two stupidest guards ever, in a brilliant and amazingly simple stationary wide shot, a technique never done today anymore. The Monty Python group was both somehow ahead of its time, and yet the last of a dying breed.
~~
Alright! That was a lot of fun! And significantly more difficult than the first list, interestingly. I was in pain leaving so many great movies out of this, but that’s what way it goes. I’ll see you next weekend hopefully. Comment away!
What are your favorites? What are the funniest movies you know?