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So Funny I Almost Wet My Pants: The 10 Funniest American Films EVER!Jul 09 '07 Write an essay on this topic.The Bottom Line Here it is! The DEFINITIVE Top 10 list of the absolutely FUNNIEST movies ever made! You'll laugh. You'll cry. Mostly, you'll just laugh... I'd rather laugh than cry. That's probably why I watch so many more comedies than I do dramas. I appreciate a fine dialog and an intricate story line, but I'd far prefer to leave life in check for a couple hours and escape with a sly innuendo, a gut-wrenching slapstick, or a plain old farce. I love comedies and I sometimes think I could watch 'em every night. Who doesn't love a good comedy? Anyway, I've been pondering the funniest things I've ever seen on the silver screen, and these are the TEN FUNNIEST MOVIES I HAVE EVER SEEN IN MY LIFE. They're the ones I could watch a gazillion times (and some of 'em just might be getting close to that improbably number). What do you think? Do you know of any movies that are bigger gut-busters than these? Would you rank them differently? Leave a comment.... ************************************************* 10. Animal House (1978) Favorite line: "TOGA! TOGA!" John Belushi was a freakin' comedic master. From his old Saturday Night Live skits to his outrageous starring roles in features like Animal House, Belushi was funnier with a skeptically raised eyebrow than most people are over their whole lives. This movie succeeds with its rich mileau of low-brow campus hi-jinks, beer jokes, and sexually suggestive (and explicit) humor. It's rude, it's offensive, and it's just plain stupid. It's got great music, a food fight, a beer-drenched toga party, perky cheerleaders (with gratuitous nudity), and even a Lincoln Continental with suicide doors. What's not to love? ************************************************* 9. Annie Hall (1977) Favorite line: "I used to be a heroin addict. Now I'm a methadone addict." Man! Woody Allen is such a freakin' neurotic, Jewish, New York geek that you can't help but laugh at his uproariously introspective view of a relationship with the equally geeky, but just plain wacked Diane Keaton. The movie is presented through a series of tightly coupled vignettes. I can think of no comedy that delves as deeply into human pyschology as Annie Hall and that still works as comedy. This movie is so romantic, so touching, so utterly human, that I can't help but view it as Woody Allen's magnum opus....it's certainly my favorite of his movies! ************************************************* 8. Kentucky Fried Movie (1977) Favorite line: "Moscow in flames, missiles inbound, film at eleven." I think you had to read Mad magazine as a kid to really love this movie for all its irreverance and rude, sophomoric humor. This was really the first comedy to feature the gut-punching, falling out of your seat, no-holds-barred spoof formula that would see the writing team of David and Jerry Zucker with Jim Abrahams. They spoof the nightly news. They spoof commercials. They spoof bad grindhouse cinema (too bad Catholic High School Girls in Trouble isn't a real flick!). They spoof sexual self-help aids. They even spoof Kung Fu movies ("We are building a fighting force of extra-ordinary magnitude."! Great stuff! ************************************************* 7. Raising Arizona (1987) Favorite line: "Edwina's insides were a rocky place where my seed could find no purchase." Slapstick is one thing, but Nicolas Cage's deadpan delivery totally makes this movie about a petty crook who marries the booking officer at the police station only to have to kidnap a spare baby in order to realize the joys of fatherhood. Add in some unfinished furniture, desperate prison escapees, and a motorcyle riding bounty hunter and you've got all the elements needed for an instant comedic classic. Fans of the Coen Brothers have unquestionably inflicted this masterpiece on your viewing eyes a dozen times. I'd watch it a dozen more... ************************************************* 6. Young Frankenstein (1974) Favorite line: "Abby someone." Picking a favorite Mel Brooks movie isn't easy, and for me, it's a close run between this movie and Blazing Saddles. If I didn't detest Brooks' lame ending on Blazing Saddles, that would probably be my fave, but lame the ending is, so Young Frankenstein wins the kudos by default. I like the black and white effect, I love Gene Wilder, and I love the leering looks of Marty Feldman. I also feel like, because of Brooks' painstaking efforts to replicate the feel of early black and white horror movies, he's given Young Frankenstein an almost timeless appeal that won't ever seem dated. Blucher! ************************************************* 5. The Gods Must Be Crazy (1980) Favorite line: "The rhino is the self appointed fire prevention officer. When he sees a fire, he rushes in and stamps it out." This movie is so low-key that I think it just flies on over everyone's radar, but in my opinion, it's the most hilarious story I remember seeing about the mayhem that can happen when cultures collide. In this case, a bushman from Africa's Kalahari desert --- a guy who has never seen a white face in his life --- is suddenly thrust into situations that put him at odds with modern society when he must return an evil gift from the Gods (a Coke bottle) by flinging it from the edge of the earth. Besides, any movie in which a Land Rover is the anti-Christ has just got to be a cinematic masterpiece, if ya ask me! ************************************************* 4. The Blues Brothers (1980) Favorite line: "Oh, we got both kinds of music. We got country AND western!" Is there anybody who doesn't want to kill Jake and Elwood Blues? Between run-ins with the Illinois State Police, a group of neo-Nazis, a bazooka and machine gun toting ex-girlfriend (played by Princess Leia), and a Winnebago full of cowboys, there's not too many allies for the pork-pie hatted brothers. Just the Lord --- whose given the boys a mission. The cameo appearances by dozens of great blues musicians are awesome. The music is great. The car wrecks are incredible, and the movie is just plain a laugh a minute. ************************************************* 3. A Night at the Opera (1935) Favorite line: "Hey you. I told you to slow that nag down. On account of you I almost heard the opera." I grew up on old B&W comedies, and while I loved Chaplin, W.C. Fields, and even Bob Hope, it was always the zany madcap antics of the Marx Brothers who kept me in stiches. I'd turn down tickets to the circus for a chance to watch yet another re-run of a great Marx Brothers comedy. My favorite of 'em all is the 1935 classic, A Night at the Opera. Groucho Marx can rapid-fire insane dialog like nobody I've ever laughed at before or since. Harpo is one of the clown princes of slapstick, and Chico's slow-witted immigrant is always a few watts short of a flashlight bulb. How many people could you cram into a ship's state room?? ************************************************* 2. Borat (2006) Favorite line: "You telling me the man who try to put a rubber fist in my anus was a homosexual?" People either love Sacha Baron Cohen's brand of rude humor, or they passionately detest his crudity. There's seldom any room for middle ground. Personally, I find some of his material over-the-top, but I still can't help but love the innovation and uncanny wit that slices through the facade of social conventions and unspoken biases. Borat is slyly subversive and preys on the unwitting innocence of its various victims. The movie exposes uncomfortable biases and hypocrisy at every hilarious step of Borat's cross-country journey to find Pamela Anderson while making benefit glorious nation of Kazakhstan. Great success! ************************************************* 1. Airplane! (1980) Favorite line: "There's no reason to become alarmed, and we hope you'll enjoy the rest of your flight. By the way, is there anyone on board who knows how to fly a plane?" Leslie Nielsen does the funniest deadpan of any human alive! I'm convinced of it. I'm also convinced that his role in this hilarious disaster spoof is a role he was born to play. The movie is so full of sight gags that its a total laugh a minute. I don't know if I laughed harder at the reporters when they "take some pictures" or when the passengers prove ready to help soothe a hysterical woman. And if that's not enough, it even has naked breasts jiggling on screen for no apparent purpose whatsover! Man! Even after all these years, this is still a movie that's so utterly hilarious that it practically makes me pee my pants...and it's my pick for "funniest movie ever made". Do you know a funnier one??  |
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by cripper
by George_Chabot
by jeff_wilder78
