Using the oft-quoted standard of “simply making people laugh is the lowest form of humor,” the following are HE’s picks for the 30 best all-time film comedies. Inclusion doesn’t mean that each and every film is screamingly funny because, as I’ve just explained, mere laughter is for chumps. In my view the better comedies are often heh-heh funny or even no-laugh funny (i.e., Elaine May‘s Ishtar). A great comedy has to be on to something greater than itself (which means it could qualify as a dramedy), and it has to measure up as a first-rate, well-grounded, reality-reflecting film if you take out the humor. Or, failing that, it has to be completely, absurdly silly (i.e., Duck Soup or Woody Allen‘s What’s Up Tiger Lily). And it can never be twee (i.e., forget anything by Jacques Tati) or star Will Ferrell, Chevy Chase, Eddie Murphy or Robin Williams (i.e., forget Three Amigos, Mrs. Doubtfire, Anchorman) And even if it’s no-laugh funny, it can’t make you want to walk out or change the channel (i.e., forget Withnail & I).
That said and in no particular order…
(1) Three-way tie for #1: Harold Ramis‘s Groundhog Day, Stanley Kubrick‘s Dr. Strangelove, Joel & Ethan Coen’s The Big Lebowski; (2) Noah Baumbach‘s Greenberg; (3) Billy Wilder‘s Some Like It Hot; (4) Greg Mottola‘s Superbad, (5 & 6) Albert Brooks‘ Lost in America & Modern Romance; (7) Bobby and Peter Farrelly‘s There’s Something About Mary; (8) Howard Hawks‘ Bringing Up Baby, (9) Mike Nichols‘ The Graduate; (10) Woody Allen‘s Manhattan, (11, 12 & 13) James L. Brooks‘ Broadcast News, Terms of Endearment and As Good As It Gets; (14) Stephen Frears‘ High Fidelity; (15 & 16) Preston Sturges‘ The Lady Eve and Sullivan’s Travels; (17) Larry Charles‘ Borat; (18) Wes Anderson‘s Rushmore, (19) Ben Stiller‘s The Cable Guy, (19) Charles Crichton‘s A Fish Called Wanda, (20) The early ’30s Laurel & Hardy films as an aggregate, (21) Armando Iannucci‘s In The Loop, (20, 21 & 22) Mel Brooks‘ Young Frankenstein, Blazing Saddles and The Producers, (23) Buster Keaton‘s The General, (24) Paul Feig‘s Bridesmaids, (25) Early ’30s Marx Brothers’ trio as an aggregate — Duck Soup, A Night at the Opera, A Day At The Races, (26) Ben Stiller‘s Tropic Thunder, (27) Sydney Pollack‘s Tootsie, (28) John Hughes‘ Plains, Trains & Automobiles, (29) the afore-mentioned Ishtar and (30) What’s Up Tiger Lily?.
