What Are My Ten Favorite Film Comedies?
Over at Mother Jones, Kevin Drum listed his top movie comedies, prefacing the list by saying, “They say you can tell more about a person by what he laughs at than by what he cries at.” I’m not sure who “they” are, or if “they” are right, but I’ll list my top ten, in no particular order. Make of it what you will.
Top Secret!
Real Genius
Dr. Strangelove or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb
A Shot In the Dark
Tropic Thunder
Life of Brian
Arsenic and Old Lace
Blazing Saddles
Trading Places
Bedazzled (Stanley Donen version)
It saddens me a bit that only one of these movies was made in the past twenty years. In that time, comedy has become mostly a creature of television. I’m sure that’s true for comedy fans in other countries as well.
Oh, well.
So now you know what makes me laugh. What makes you laugh?
A loved Life of Brian and Dr. Strangelove on your list. I would probably have Groundhog Day and Airplane from Kevin’s list. Caddyshack is great as is Scrooged and Young Frankenstein. Like you guys, not a lot of recent stuff, comedies today seem like they are more in the romantic comedy area rather than pure comedy. Or just plain stupid. Might add some of the Pink Panther movies to my list as well, they just crack me up.