Reader here! Last night, I was kicking back at home, going down a YouTube rabbit hole (which can be very easy to do), watching clips from some of my favourite comedies.
It got me thinking about some of my top comedies from the silver screen, and I posted a video on our social media channels, chatting about it.
If you didn’t see it, here, in no particular order, is my Top 11 (because Top 10s aren’t enough) included:
- “Step Brothers”
– What can I say about “Step Brothers?” It’s the story of two glorious idiots caught in the throes of permanent adolescence. The drumkit. Prestige Worldwide. The bunk beds (and all the room for activities!), the Catalina Wine Mixer… Just silliness!
- “Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story”
– This is a movie that underperformed at the box office, but has gotten its belated due, as a movie that mercilessly pokes holes in all the tropes of the music biopics that came before it, like “Walk the Line,” “Ray,” La Bamba,” “The Buddy Holly Story,” and more. And now, it’s impossible to watch newer music films, without looking at them through “Walk Hard.” So many quotable lines, ridiculous cameos, and a showcase of the musical talent of John C. Reilly!
- “Blazing Saddles”
– A Mel Brooks classic. Cleavon Little and Gene Wilder were a perfect team at Sheriff Bart and the Waco Kid. Mongo. Lili von Shtupp. Hedley Lamarr. And, of course, the campfire scene. One of Mel Brooks’ best!
- “Ghostbusters”
– A great ensemble cast, but Bill Murray is a one-liner machine throughout. (“He slimed me.” “No job is too big, no FEE is too big!” “Nice shootin’, Tex!”)
- “Planes, Trains and Automobiles”
– Steve Martin and the late, great John Candy make magic here. To me, Del Griffith is John Candy’s finest performance. In one breath, he’s hilarious, while in the next, he breaks your heart. Steve Martin is a great straight man, but his scene at the car rental desk, with every other word being an f-bomb? Gold.
- “Monty Python and the Holy Grail”
– I could say any Python movie here, but this one still rules. The Black Knight. The French Taunter. The Knights who say “Ni!” The Killer Rabbit. And the ending, when the cops come in and bust the whole thing up. This has the best of Python!
- “Coming to America”
– My favourite Eddie Murphy movie. He and Arsenio Hall play multiple roles, to hilarious effect. James Earl Jones and Madge Sinclair are awesome as the King and Queen of Zamunda, while John Amos is great as the American Dad of Akeem’s love interest, Lisa. Perhaps my favourite parts? Randy Watson and his band, “Sexual Chocolate,” and “Soul Glo!” (My youngest brither, Barrett actually has the “Soul Glo” theme as his ringtone!
- “UHF”
– “Weird” Al Yankovic stars in the one as George Newman, who is given the worst local TV station in town by his uncle, and turns it into an unlikely success story, with shows like “Wheel of Fish,” “Stanley Spadowski’s Clubhouse,” “Raul’s Wild Kingdom,” and movies like “Conan the Librarian” and “Gandhi II” (“No more Mr. Passive Resistance!”) All the absurdity of Weird Al’s music, in movie form!
- “Airplane!”
– Zucker, Abrahams and Zucker came up with this beauty, starring Robert Hays, Julie Hagerty, Leslie Nielsen (“Surely you can’t be serious! I am serious. And don’t call me Shirley.”), and a memorable cast, including Peter Graves, Lloyd Bridges (“I picked the wrong day to stop (fill in the blank)!”), and NBA legend Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.
- “The Naked Gun: From the Files of Police Squad”
– All of the “Naked Gun” movies are great, but none top the original, in which Lieutenant Frank Drebin manages to stop a plot to assassinate Queen Elizabeth II at an Angels-Mariners ball games. The beaver. Enrico Pallazzo. Ricardo Montalban as the villain, Pricilla Presley as Frank’s girlfriend Jane. So many great visual gags and classic lines! (“It’s true what they say: Cops and women don’t mix. It’s like eating a spoonful of Drano; sure, it’ll clean you out, but it’ll leave you hollow inside.”)
- “Johnny Dangerously”
– Michael Keaton stars in the gangster spoof, along with Joe Piscopo, Marilu Henner, Peter Boyle, Danny Devito and many more, and it’s just an inspired movie full of silliness, especially the scenes featuring rival mob boss Roman Moronie, played by Richard Dmitri, who has a way with the English language, most often when it comes to profanity. As Johnny says in the movie, “The years hadn’t softened Moronie. He continued to murder the English Language, and anyone who got in his way.” It was a box office bomb, but I caught it on TV as a kid, and it’s been a favourite ever since!
Now, those aren’t all of my favourites. I had to keep if relatively brief, or the list would go on forever!
Others I’d add to the list? “The Jerk,” “Slap Shot,” “Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy,” “Spinal Tap,” the “Austin Powers” movies (FYI – the second movie – “The Spy Who Shagged My” is my fave”), “Hot Shots,” the “National Lampoon’s Vacation” movies, “Spaceballs,” “Trading Places,” “Kentucky Fried Movie,” its sequel, “Amazon Women on the Moon, “and many more. But the ones I included on my list tend to be my go-tos, that I go back to again and again, when I need a good laugh!
What are some of your favourite comedies? I’d love to know!
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