how im gonna make up something universal, doesnt even make any sense: IT"S THE TOP 100 COMEDY FILMS RESULTS THREAD

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_3sgMptoFy1I/TTnIIBQ-siI/AAAAAAAAADk/52IANrU1AMA/s1600/lion.jpg

# 100

SINGIN’ IN THE RAIN

Stanley Donen
1952
United States
(249 pts, 8 votes)

My girlfriend finally forced me to watch this. I've been really interested in it for quite a while. It's one of those rare films that seems to have no detractors. I'd just been putting it off due to my previous experience with musicals. Anyway, I went into this not really knowing how I'd feel, and found myself stunned on more than one occassion. I realize that my attitude towards musicals has been as condescending as most peoples' towards horror movies, and though I don't think I'll ever be a true connoisseur of the genre, I gotta admit - this movie kicks some serious ass.
― Anthony (Anthony F), Tuesday, January 18, 2005 10:31 AM (7 years ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Yeah, I'm pretty much in the same boat--I hate musicals, but I love "Singin' In The Rain". I think it's the same reason that I like the Busby-Berkeley films as well--they utilize the medium very well, and they're more formalistic cinematic works than standard musicals, which tend to be theatrical pieces captured on film.
The only other musical I like is Godard's anti-musical, "A Woman Is a Woman".

― jay blanchard (jay blanchard), Tuesday, January 18, 2005 10:37 AM (7 years ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I've liked "Singin'" fine since I was a kid, but Donald O'Connor grates occasionally, as does Kelly's robotic smile in closeup. Also, the score is composed mostly of songs that were mostly 10-30 years old at the time...
Among the MGM musicals, there are a number I like better -- Meet Me in St Louis, Gigi, The Band Wagon -- all Vincente Minnelli, all more sophisticated. He utilized the medium damn well (in his non-musicals too).

― Dr Morbius (Dr Morbius), Tuesday, January 18, 2005 12:07 PM (7 years ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Singin' in the Rain

That reminds me, I need to rewatch this

Debbie Reynolds danced til her feet bled in "Good Morning"! And Gene Kelly was kind of mean to her. Fred Astaire taught her some moves <3

Donald O'Connor grates occasionally

The not particularly veiled insinuation that his character is Don's professional fluffer gets me through some of the muggier stretches.

That reminds me, I need to rewatch this

― THIS TRADE SERVES ZERO FOOTBALL PURPOSE (DJP), Tuesday, March 27, 2012 9:46 AM (39 seconds ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I looooooooooove this movie!

(my #2 on my ballot, I really wanted this to place higher)

omg Eric hahaha

#9 on my ballot. Could've made it for the first Gene Kelly/Debbie Reynolds scene in the car alone.

I have never seen it. ._.

HEY GUYS A FEW STATS ABT THIS POLL:

* 75 ballots were submitted
* 663 movies received votes
* 3,170 votes were cast
* 88,441 points were awarded

If anything is in the top 100, it did very well.

One of my favorite things I noticed last time is that the jazz club dance scene with Cyd Charisse, she dances with her knees bent a lot of the time, so as not to be taller than Gene.

Damn she was a fine lady.

ILXORS NEED TO SEE THIS MOVIE

I remember the longest part of our class discussion about SitR was whether or not Don was manly or fey.

SITR is a thoroughly enjoyable and joyful movie.

(Oops, already slipping out of character.)

AP you should get a mod to copy those stats into the opening post of thread

singin in the rain is just one of the greatest movies ever imho

xpost Yeah, and the slippery cat gif too.

donald o'connor rules. pure vaudeville.

Also every line out of Jean Hagen's mouth in this movie is pure, unadulterated gold. I think my favorite is how articulately, after all her other linguistic clumsiness, she tells the studio head, "I . . . can . . . sue."

Donald O'Connor's eyes look 'shopped.

Given those stats, I'm beginning to doubt that my number one (admittedly a slightly strategic vote) won't make it into the top 100. My number two absolutely will, though, so I'm cool.

# 99

SWINGERS

Doug Liman
1996
United States
(250 pts, 9 votes, 1 first place)

I'm not nuts about the movie, ESPECIALLY the Tarantino references, which always make me cringe. Also, it really looks like crap. But Vince Vaughn is a great movie star in it.
― slutsky (slutsky), Wednesday, May 21, 2003 7:21 PM (8 years ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I understand why people hate it, but I think it's pretty damn funny. It helps if you are in college.
― NA. (Nick A.), Wednesday, May 21, 2003 6:06 AM (8 years ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

even Heather Graham looks pasty and sickly here
I'm trying to think of a movie where Heather Graham DIDN'T look pasty and sickly...
― Dan Perry (Dan Perry), Wednesday, May 21, 2003 8:18 PM (8 years ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

vince vaghan has half a thumb missing. true.
― piscesboy, Thursday, May 22, 2003 6:40 AM (8 years ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Swingers (the movie) - Classic or Dud?

Woo, results! Almost certain bugger all of mine will place, but hey ho.

Swingers was one of those movies I voted for like "I know it won't place, but there was a time when it gave me a lot of laughs" so I guess I'm pleasantly surprised to see that I helped it make the cut.

glad (though not surprised) that SitR placed, though i thought that it would place higher than it did.

When clips from Swingers show up in that Hulu promo, I get cognitive dissonance from how young and fresh Vince Vaughn was for that brief moment. He aged as fast as Tony Curtis.

it was always bizarre to me that Vince Vaughn became famous by being hilarious in this movie, and then spent the next 5-7 years doing barely any comedy before he finally remembered what he's good at

still haven't seen singing in the rain, prolly because it's called singing in the rain.

my tastes in comedy are wildly divergent from the rest of the universe so I'm going to spend a lot of time stifling myself itt. I will say that swingers sucks tho.

haha ya totally xp

Haven't seen it since 1996. Not sure I want to, but I remember liking it back then.

Saw it once, immediately forgot it. Never would've crossed my mind to vote for it.

If memory serves, there's more dancing in Swingers than in Singin in the Rain.

i liked it well enough in 1996, though i'd imagine that it hasn't aged well.

also tainted b/c of the neo-swing wank that it inspired.

^^^

I understand why people hate it, but I think it's pretty damn funny. It helps if you are in college high school.

― NA. (Nick A.), Wednesday, May 21, 2003 6:06 AM (8 years ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

is me basically

Never saw it. I probably should. I like everything else of Liman's that I've seen, and Made was all right.

I haven't seen Swingers since it came out. No desire to watch it again. meh.

i feel like a lot of people havent seen it since it came out

all the ppl who voted for it

i love swingers. yes it's probably aged badly but im ok w/ it being a relic from the mid 90s

i saw it many times in the 5 years after it came out, probably only once or twice in the last 10

why rewatch swingers when we can get the same effect in 1/20th the time by playing youtubes of guy fieri and brian setzer simultaneously

jess OTM

for me high school was all about endless VHS replays of the movies that would soon be thought of as extremely played out 'cult comedies' (see also big lebowski, office space)

You see, without Morbs setting it off, results threads turn into listing how many times we've seen movies.

My girlfriend was watching Swingers recently as a comfort film - I remember liking it at the time, and hate it now because it seems like the template for Bro-dom, but she pointed out that it has proper actual Men in a homosocial environment talking about their Feelings in a fairly brutal and frank way.

http://youtubedoubler.com/3zyS

One of the weird things there is Leslie Nielsen goes from Serious Actor before Airplane, to Airplane, to 8 more years of Serious Actor and also a 6-episode series called Police Squad, to Naked Gun, and then he makes the switch and it's Repossessed / Surf Ninja / Dead and Loving It ad infinitum.

ya - there was def some of the time/place effect mentioned WAY upthread in effect with Nielson.

I still have to go back and watch Police Squad, I got it for Mr Veg for Christmas and have yet to see it.

It is sooo good, better than Flying High or Naked Gun

Mr Veg said the other day when I was watching Naked Gun that it kinda annoys him, bc Nielsen in that is aware of the camera and pulls his jokes, whereas in Police Squad he didn't. I still enjoyed NG though anyway, I'm not too uptight to laugh at all the silly jokes like I was as a teenager, lol

Awesome that my #1 vote won :-)

Leslie Nielsen isn't trying to be "wacky" in Police Squad!, which is why the effect is brilliant, while the NG movies pretty much suck.

Police Squaad >> Naked Gun agreed. a lot of that i found to be due to his sidekick who is some sidesplitting dude in the show but the totally unfunny George Kennedy in the films.

xpost TV > Movies

fuck that anti-george kennedy talk

ZAZ's moviemaking "skills" make all their work TV

George is funnier in Cool Hand Luke and Modern Romance.

yeah I love George Kennedy in Cool Hand Luke but he felt weirdly out of place in Naked Gun

For yer fella Britishes: Repo Chick is on tonight

Watched "Mean Girls" again, and yeah, I should have voted for it.

morbs - can you suggest any further godfrey cambridge to check out? i saw cotton comes to harlem the other day and enjoyed it a lot.

watermelon man?

:(

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mSXoSeXslZ4&feature=player_embedded#!

amazing footage...

WGA's top 101 funniest screenplays:

http://www.wga.org/content/default.aspx?id=5949

Very usual suspectsish + recency bias; 3 in top 20 predate Mel Brooks... and silent comedies had screenplays too, often. This is most ridiculous tho:

95. The Miracle of Morgan’s Creek (1944)
96. All About Eve (1950)

yeah, about 80 places behind When Harry Met Sally… PIFFLE.

morbs - can you suggest any further godfrey cambridge to check out?

Answering 3-yo questions is my specialty! Hollywood really didn't know what to do with him, and he didn't live long enough to sell out, unfortunately. Of what I've seen, Cotton Comes to Harlem and his brilliant monologue near the beginning of The President's Analyst are essential. Bye Bye Braverman, Watermelon Man have their moments.

And there's always his comedy LPs (might be on Spotify?).

Yeah, All About Eve being 85 slots behind Animal House (much less behind The Hangover and Wedding Crashers) has me feeling like Max the old sour puss.

pro screenwriters voting with box office, nuthin to see here

just wondering if The Miracle of Morgan's Creek has been seen by any more of you since it got FOUR FUCKING VOTES

I saw it, it was WONDERFUL (I didn't vote in this poll but it led me to seek out a bunch of great movies I'd never seen before, including, last week, Working Girl)

(You took "Working Girl" away with you from this poll?)

The Miracle of Morgan's Creek sounds like some mid-'80s direct-to-video snoozefest starring Wilford Brimley as a grizzled prospector who learns the true meaning of Christmas. No thanks!

pretty sure 'the miracle of morgan's creek' is the slogan for a mid-tier craft bourbon distiller

l@OL

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/a/a4/Miracle_morgan_creek.jpg

This is what they did before comedy, then?

(You took "Working Girl" away with you from this poll?)

Is it not in this poll? I knew of it but had never seen it before, was inspired to by this poll (or whichever poll it appeared in) and finally got around to watching it the week before last. And it's great - really well paced, with some great performances and a smart ending.

Miracle was one of the few movies missing from a Sturges DVD box set I got a bunch of years back. It's really good! Not my favourite Sturges but Right Up There.

I really should watch some Preston Sturges stuff sometime. Did Turner ever get around to colorizing any of them?

^^^ expert troll, surgical precision

I'm loath to break with the tradition of my four year troll roll itt and the precedent nominations thread.

#283 - 77 pts - 2 votes - 1 first place: OSS 117: Cairo nest of spies
Aww. Wondering who the #1 voter was.

someone who has seen one comedy film

this Lebowski shit has got to stop

also wrong Wilder-Lemmon film on top

http://www.bbc.com/culture/story/20170820-the-25-greatest-comedies-of-all-time

http://www.bbc.com/culture/story/20170821-the-100-greatest-comedies-of-all-time

I didn't realize that Gene Wilder directed Grumpy Old Men, but I agree.

If this were held today, which high finishers drop way down on the list? I'd guess Annie Hall, Lebowsky, Rushmore, Superbad, South Park.... what moves up, and what newcomers make the list?

I don't think the backlash against Lebowski has really grown since 2012?

Lady Bird is the only new comedy that I'd be confident would place reasonably high. What might get a look in:

Booksmart
Crazy Rich Asians
The Death of Stalin
The Favourite
Hail, Caesar
Hunt for the Wildepeople
Inside Llewyn Davis
Knives Out
Spy

Don't know how much support it would get, but Appropriate Behaviour is easily the best post-2012 comedy I've seen.

#283 - 77 pts - 2 votes - 1 first place: OSS 117: Cairo nest of spies
Aww. Wondering who the #1 voter was.

― the european nikon is here (grauschleier), Sunday, September 11, 2016 5:44 AM (four years ago) bookmarkflaglink

someone who has seen one comedy film

― The Hon. J. Piedmont Mumblethunder (Dr Morbius), Sunday, September 11, 2016 6:37 AM (four years ago) bookmarkflaglink

Quality years-later Morbz drive-by zing, RIP

Never forget

Really, he was just all-time at those.

otm