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

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

As she said this Jon Favreau was ruining his eye liner on screen, so I felt I should concede the point.

I saw it for the first time about two years ago. It's cool

lol some dude otm

(sorry) xxp

so what abomination is next?

Thank you for standing in for Morbs.

fuck dat ... i'm chanelling Alex in NYC

(b/c i'm quite sure that "raise yer standards, people!" is gonna be foremost in my mind as the results come in)

Swingers has sentimental value due to it being a bonding movie between myself and a buddy at my First Real Job; dude ended up leaving Boston to move back to Detroit and take care of his sick parents. One of my favorite trips ever was with this dude down to Foxwoods in his crappy car, where I turned $40 into just over $200 at the craps table and we drank lots of free booze.

I didn't vote for it, though.

I voted for Swingers. My gf calls it a men's chick-flick, which sounds about right. And yeh, blokes talking to other blokes about their feelings without collapsing into cliche is still not often done. I can totally see how you could see it as proto-bro-ness, but in none of the protagonist's hi-jinx do they seem like they're having fun . Even the trip of vegas is portrayed as a rubbish idea and a shit time. Also heart the scene with them making Wayne Gretsky bleed.

But yeh, I can also see why this is a very easy film to hate, especially since it's been stripped for parts by lots of lesser films.

i don't hate it ... not at all. i'm just shocked that people not only voted for it, but that someone actually chose it as their top comedy pick.

# 97 (TIE)

NETWORK

Sidney Lumet
1976
United States
(251 pts, 7 votes)

I think it has flaws as a film, but I like Holden, a lot of the acting is great, and the prescience and concept make it classic

― gabbneb (gabbneb), Tuesday, December 6, 2005 2:32 PM (6 years ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

gabb, mine is mostly middle-aged curmudgeonliness. You pups gotta remember that.
Iremember around 1980 Network was shown on network TV with several of Finch's 'bullshits' intact, and it was probably the most effective presentation it ever had.

― Dr Morbius (Dr Morbius), Tuesday, December 6, 2005 2:59 PM (6 years ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

gabb, mine is mostly middle-aged curmudgeonliness. You pups gotta remember that.
Chayefsky is nothing if not curmudgeonly! What of that scene where William Holden tells Faye Dunaway about all the funerals he's been attending?

I like this movie for everything illicit and incorrect about it. Not because of its "prescience."

― Eric H. (Eric H.), Wednesday, December 7, 2005 3:41 PM (6 years ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

i think it's a glib, smug film -- has its moments, but not many. i liek the scene where that guy drops the knowledge on fich, about nations not existing and it all being business. it's so ott it almost works.

― Theorry Henry (Enrique), Wednesday, December 7, 2005 3:43 AM (6 years ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Network, much like Citizen Kane, is great because it is so theatrical and over the top. As satire it is otm enough to quiet the critical voice within and allow you to just sit back and enjoy the circus.

The Holden and Finch characters being crumbling old men gives the screenplay more resonance and depth, mainly because Chavefsky empathized with these characters and endowed them with some pathos and humanity, but also because the actors empathized, too, and delivered excellent performances. The satire didn't really require either man to be aged. In fact, the satire would have been sharper if they'd both been much younger.

― Aimless, Sunday, January 4, 2009 12:54 PM (3 years ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Holden is really great, even if his role rounds aground on Chavesky-isms (he actually says "shrill nothingness" to Faye Dunaway).

The best scenes are the quiet ones in the beginning between Dunaway and her staff: her assistant reciting proposals for different shows in which a "crusty-but-benign" old coot stars, etc.

― Alfred, Lord Sotosyn, Tuesday, November 20, 2007 8:47 PM (4 years ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

The famous line is usually misquoted. It's actually "I'm as mad as hell and I'm not going to take this any more!"

― Alba, Sunday, October 28, 2007 3:40 PM (4 years ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

"I'm mad as hell & I'm not gunna take it any more!" -- the thread for Network

I voted for it.

ok this is a bit better now ...

are you being all RAISE YOUR STANDARDS-y about "Singin' In The Rain", too? because if so ETERNAL GASFACE

looooooooooooved ned beatty's yelly network monologue in high school. haven't really seen it since then but remember all the OMG FAYE DUNAWAY TALKS ABOUT RATINGS IN BED SHE'S A MONSTER stuff being pretty strident/lame.

probably not as prescient as, like, rollerball, but pretty prescient.

and for me, the "famous line" from network isn't the mad as hell rant, but "man, give her the fucking overhead clause!"

it might be a truly great film without the speeches.

or maybe if all the speeches were knowingly scene-chewes ala ned beatty.

xp also robert duvall: "i'll strangle him with a... SSSSSSSASH CORD!"

are you being all RAISE YOUR STANDARDS-y about "Singin' In The Rain", too? because if so ETERNAL GASFACE

well, in the sense that i think it should be ranked much HIGHER than #100 (and certainly should be ranked higher than swingers).

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