Favorite Comedies - From the Marx Brothers to the Farrelly Brothers
"A good laugh overcomes more difficulties and dissipates more dark clouds than any other one thing." - Laura Ingalls Wilder.
I'm fascinated by the history of comedy, how it evolved over the decades, which comedians shaped it. Below are my favorites, as well as significant works/artists.
I'm fascinated by the history of comedy, how it evolved over the decades, which comedians shaped it. Below are my favorites, as well as significant works/artists.
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- DirectorMel BrooksStarsCleavon LittleGene WilderSlim PickensIn order to ruin a western town, a corrupt politician appoints a black Sheriff, who promptly becomes his most formidable adversary.(Mel Brooks) AFI thinks Blazing Saddles is the 6th best comedy ever made. Mel Brooks thinks it's number one. I'm with Melvin. In Blazing Saddles, Brooks introduces the shameless, full throttle brand of humor Zucker Abrahams Zucker later champion in Airplane! Naked Gun and others. But where Zucker Abrahams Zucker skewer disaster movies and pop culture trends, Brooks goes after racism and bigotry; while championing the fallen. I wish there was a Blazing Saddles for every regressive attitude we see in our imperfect world. Really, imagine that.
- DirectorJim AbrahamsDavid ZuckerJerry ZuckerStarsRobert HaysJulie HagertyLeslie NielsenAfter the crew becomes sick with food poisoning, a neurotic ex-fighter pilot must safely land a commercial airplane full of passengers.(Zucker/Abrahams/Zucker) Everyone knows where they were when JFK was killed. And no one forgets the first time they saw Airplane! and were pummeled by joke after joke, and found themselves in a world were everything was hysterical. If you can't use unhinged hysteria to ridicule racism and bigotry (Blazing Saddles) use it for the sake of making millions of people laugh.
- DirectorRob ReinerStarsRob ReinerMichael McKeanChristopher GuestSpinal Tap, one of England's loudest bands, is chronicled by film director Marty DiBergi on what proves to be a fateful tour.(Christopher Guest) The first of Christopher Guest's mockumentaries, Spinal Tap is pure satire. The world of hard rock behavior and pretense prove to be even more fertile ground for comedy than international dog breeding competitions which Guest & Co. has a good laugh at in Best In Show.
- DirectorMel BrooksStarsGene WilderMadeline KahnMarty FeldmanAn American grandson of the infamous scientist, struggling to prove that his grandfather was not as insane as people believe, is invited to Transylvania, where he discovers the process that reanimates a dead body.(Mel Brooks)
- 19641h 35mPG8.4 (519K)97MetascoreDirectorStanley KubrickStarsPeter SellersGeorge C. ScottSterling HaydenAn unhinged American general orders a bombing attack on the Soviet Union, triggering a path to nuclear holocaust that a war room full of politicians and generals frantically tries to stop.(Kubrick) Where Brooks roasts racism and bigotry in Blazing Saddles, Kubrick uses humor to ridicule man's destructive, senseless, and psychotic potential in Dr. Strangelove. The quintessential dark comedy.
- DirectorWoody AllenStarsWoody AllenDiane KeatonTony RobertsAlvy Singer, a divorced Jewish comedian, reflects on his relationship with ex-lover Annie Hall, an aspiring nightclub singer, which ended abruptly just like his previous marriages.(Woody Allen) Ah insecurity... anxiety... neurosis... guilt... worry... Woody Allen is the patron Saint of all things Fearful.
- DirectorJared HessStarsJon HederEfren RamirezJon GriesA listless and alienated teenager decides to help his new friend win the class presidency in their small western high school, while he must deal with his bizarre family life back home.
- DirectorJohn LandisStarsJohn BelushiKaren AllenTom HulceAt a 1962 college, Dean Vernon Wormer is determined to expel the entire Delta Tau Chi Fraternity, but those troublemakers have other plans for him.(Harold Ramis/John Landis) Harold Ramis wrote Animal House, Meatballs, Caddyshack, Stripes and Ghostbusters. That's some career. Animal House pulls the chair out from under elitism and knights the benevolent beer drinker and slob as king. I wanna say Animal House changed the face of comedy to follow it, but it's probably more accurate to say Harold Ramis did.
- CreatorNeal BrennanDave ChappelleStarsDave ChappelleDonnell RawlingsRudy RushComedian Dave Chappelle hosts this sketch-comedy show that parodies many of the nuances of race and culture.
- CreatorLorne MichaelsStarsThe Saturday Night Live BandDon PardoDarrell HammondA famous guest host stars in parodies and sketches created by the cast of this witty show.
- CreatorAndrew AlexanderStarsJohn CandyJoe FlahertyEugene LevyComedy parody about TV.
- CreatorFax BahrAdam SmallStarsMichael McDonaldDebra WilsonAries SpearsA sketch comedy show based on the seminal Mad Magazine.
- CreatorKeenen Ivory WayansStarsKeenen Ivory WayansJim CarreyKelly Coffield ParkThe Wayans siblings present an African-American focused sketch comedy show.
- CreatorJackie GleasonStarsJackie GleasonArt CarneyAudrey MeadowsA bus driver and his sewer worker friend struggle to strike it rich while their wives look on with weary patience.
- StarsCarol BurnettVicki LawrenceThe Ernie Flatt DancersTelevision show featuring skits by Carol Burnett and her comedy troupe.
- CreatorGraham ChapmanEric IdleTerry JonesStarsGraham ChapmanJohn CleeseTerry GilliamThe original surreal sketch comedy showcase for the Monty Python troupe.
- CreatorJerry BelsonGarry MarshallStarsTony RandallJack KlugmanAl MolinaroTwo men, a neat freak and a slob separated from their wives, have to live together despite their differences.(Neil Simon) At one point Mel Brooks, Carl Reiner and Neil Simon all worked together on Sid Ceasar's Your Show of Shows. The Odd Couple is fun to watch and Felix Ungar is one of the most entertaining characters ever created.
- CreatorSusan HarrisStarsKatherine HelmondRod RoddyRichard MulliganThe soap-operish antics of two families: the Campbells and the Tates.
- CreatorHugh WilsonStarsGary SandyGordon JumpLoni AndersonThe misadventures of the staff of a struggling Top 40 rock radio station in Cincinnati, Ohio.
- CreatorLarry DavidJerry SeinfeldStarsJerry SeinfeldJulia Louis-DreyfusMichael RichardsThe continuing misadventures of neurotic New York City stand-up comedian Jerry Seinfeld and his equally neurotic New York City friends.
- CreatorDennis KleinGarry ShandlingStarsGarry ShandlingJeffrey TamborWallace LanghamA comedic behind the scenes look at a late night talk show.
- CreatorLarry DavidStarsLarry DavidCheryl HinesJeff GarlinLarry David stars as an over-the-top version of himself in this comedy series that shows how seemingly trivial details of day-to-day life can precipitate a catastrophic chain of events.
- DirectorSam WoodEdmund GouldingStarsGroucho MarxChico MarxHarpo MarxA sly business manager and the wacky friends of two opera singers in Italy help them achieve success in America while humiliating their stuffy and snobbish enemies.
- DirectorSam WoodStarsGroucho MarxChico MarxHarpo MarxA veterinarian posing as a doctor teams with a singer and his friends as they struggle to save an upstate New York sanitarium with the help of a misfit racehorse.
- DirectorArchie MayoStarsGroucho MarxHarpo MarxChico MarxThe Marx Brothers are employed at a hotel in postwar Casablanca, where a ring of Nazis is trying to recover a cache of stolen treasure.(Marx Bros.)
- DirectorCharles ChaplinStarsCharles ChaplinPaulette GoddardHenry BergmanThe Tramp struggles to live in modern industrial society with the help of a young homeless woman.
- DirectorFrank CapraStarsCary GrantPriscilla LaneRaymond MasseyA Brooklyn writer of books on the futility of marriage risks his reputation after he decides to tie the knot. Things get even more complicated when he learns on his wedding day that his beloved maiden aunts are habitual murderers.(Capra)
- DirectorFrank CapraStarsJean ArthurJames StewartLionel BarrymoreThe son of a snobbish Wall Street banker becomes engaged to a woman from a good-natured but decidedly eccentric family not realizing that his father is trying to force her family from their home for a real estate development.(Capra)
- DirectorMelvin FrankNorman PanamaStarsDanny KayeGlynis JohnsBasil RathboneA hapless carnival performer masquerades as the court jester as part of a plot against an evil ruler who has overthrown the rightful King.
- DirectorFrank TashlinStarsJerry LewisJill St. JohnRay WalstonNorman Phiffier works as a store clerk in a large department store. Clumsy and inept, he can't do anything right. Boy are they in trouble!(Jerry Lewis)
- DirectorWoody AllenStarsWoody AllenLouise LasserCarlos MontalbánWhen a bumbling New Yorker is dumped by his activist girlfriend, he travels to a tiny Latin American nation and becomes involved in its latest rebellion.
- DirectorWoody AllenStarsWoody AllenDiane KeatonJohn BeckA nerdish store owner is revived out of cryostasis into a future world to fight an oppressive government.
- DirectorHarold RamisStarsChevy ChaseBeverly D'AngeloImogene CocaThe Griswold family's cross-country drive to the Walley World theme park proves to be much more arduous than they ever anticipated.(John Hughes/Harold Ramis) The only 80s comedy writer more prodigious than Harold Ramis was John Hughes who wrote Sixteen Candles, the Breakfast Club, Weird Science, Pretty In Pink, Ferris Beuller's Day Off, Planes Trains and Automobiles, Christmas Vacation, Home Alone and National Lampoon's Vacation. The two worked together on Vacation with Harold Ramis directing.
- DirectorJohn LandisStarsEvan C. KimBong Soo HanBill BixbyThe daily programming of a fictional local TV channel presented as a series of highly irreverent skits.The maiden voyage of the Zucker Abraham Zucker comedy team and satire of television programming and culture.
- DirectorJoe DanteCarl GottliebPeter HortonStarsRosanna ArquetteMichelle PfeifferArsenio HallA spoof of low budget 1950s science-fiction movies, interspersed with various comedy sketches and fake commercials making fun of late-night television.
- DirectorDavid ZuckerStarsLeslie NielsenPriscilla PresleyO.J. SimpsonIncompetent police Detective Frank Drebin must foil an attempt to assassinate Queen Elizabeth II.(Zucker Abraham Zucker)
- DirectorJim AbrahamsStarsCharlie SheenCary ElwesValeria GolinoA parody of Top Gun (1986) in which a talented but unstable fighter pilot must overcome the ghosts of his father and save a mission sabotaged by greedy weapons manufacturers.(Zucker Abraham Zucker)
- DirectorTamra DavisStarsAdam SandlerDarren McGavinBridgette Wilson-SamprasIn order to inherit his fed up father's hotel empire, an immature and lazy man must repeat grades 1-12 all over again.(Sandler/SNL)
- DirectorBobby FarrellyPeter FarrellyStarsCameron DiazMatt DillonBen StillerA man gets a chance to meet up with his dream girl from high school, even though his date with her back then was a complete disaster.
- DirectorPeter FarrellyBobby FarrellyStarsJim CarreyJeff DanielsLauren HollyAfter a woman leaves a briefcase at the airport terminal, a dumb limo driver and his dumber friend set out on a hilarious cross-country road trip to Aspen to return it.
- DirectorJosh GordonWill SpeckStarsWill FerrellJon HederAmy PoehlerIn 2002, two rival Olympic ice skaters were stripped of their gold medals and permanently banned from men's single competition. Presently, however, they've found a loophole that will allow them to qualify as a pairs team.
- DirectorBobby FarrellyPeter FarrellyStarsWoody HarrelsonRandy QuaidBill MurrayA star bowler whose career was prematurely "cut off" hopes to ride a new prodigy to success and riches.
- DirectorChristopher GuestStarsFred WillardEugene LevyCatherine O'HaraA behind-the-scenes look into the highly competitive and cut-throat world of dog shows through the eyes of a group of ruthless dog owners.(Christopher Guest)
- DirectorBen StillerStarsBen StillerOwen WilsonChristine TaylorAt the end of his career, a clueless fashion model is brainwashed to kill the Prime Minister of Malaysia.(Ben Stiller)
- DirectorStephen KesslerStarsJerry StillerJaneane GarofaloMax PerlichA notorious B-movie director tries for a comeback by seeking out the film rights to the life story of a serial killer who wants his biography film to be a musical.(Jerry Stiller)
- DirectorAkiva SchafferStarsAndy SambergIsla FisherIan McShaneSelf-proclaimed stuntman Rod Kimble is preparing for the jump of his life - to clear fifteen buses to raise money for his abusive stepfather Frank's life-saving heart operation.
- DirectorGreg MottolaStarsMichael CeraJonah HillChristopher Mintz-PlasseTwo co-dependent high school seniors are forced to deal with separation anxiety after their plan to stage a booze-soaked party goes awry.