In the spirit of putting one more list on the internet, I figured I'd share with you a list of the top ten comedy movies.
This is a list that has been rolling around in my mind, maybe for years. At least, four or five items on the list have struck me as so good that I need to put them into a list to quantify just how good they are.
BUT, I'm a scientist, so I couldn't just dive in and make my list. I had to do research. I found three different top ten lists from three very different rating bodies:
AFI:
10. AIRPLANE!.
9. THE GRADUATE.
8. IT HAPPENED ONE NIGHT.
7. M*A*S*H.
6. BLAZING SADDLES.
5. DUCK SOUP.
4. ANNIE HALL.
3. DR. STRANGELOVE OR: HOW I LEARNED TO STOP WORRYING AND LOVE THE BOMB.
2. TOOTSIE.
1. SOME LIKE IT HOT.
Bravo:
10 Arthur
9 Ace Ventura: Pet Detective
8 Blazing Saddles
7 The Wedding Singer
6 Airplane [sic]
5 South Park: Bigger, Longer, Uncut
4 There’s Something About Mary
3 Shrek
2 Caddyshack
1 Animal House
IGN:
10. Blues Brothers
9. Raising Arizona
8. Rushmore
7. Monty Python and the Holy Grail
6. Blazing Saddles
5. Doctor Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb
4. This Is Spinal Tap
3. Caddyshack
2. The Big Lebowski
1. Ghostbusters
There are some interesting trends here. For example, all the lists include Blazing Saddles, but none of them include it in the top five. IGN and AFI both have at number six, while Bravo has it at eight. (Behind Wedding Singer. Really?) This seems like an obvious pan-list item, until you realize Dr. Strangelove, Airplane!, and Caddyshack only made two lists, and This Is Spinal Tap only made one.
This evidence supports my thesis, outlined below, with the question of Caddyshack left open for debate.
And now, I present to you, my list:
10. Airplane!
9. Wayne’s World
8. Doctor Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb
7. Mystery Men
6. Rushmore
5. Monty Python's Meaning of Life
4. The Big Lebowski
3. Blues Brothers
2. This Is Spinal Tap
1. Blazing Saddles
Post Script: Honorable Mentions
Then, there are some movies that aren't exactly in the main stream. I would hesitate to even call them "movies," per se. Two are commentaries and one is a documentary. But these easily rank as highly as the Top Ten, but they rank differently high. Consider these three as the top three (in no particular order) of a parallel list of feature-length hilarity.
Wizard People, Dear Reader [link]
MST3K/RiffTrax [link]
The Aristocrats [link]
Wednesday, March 25, 2009
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these sorts of lists reveal much, much more about the list-maker than they do about the objects being listed
ReplyDeleteand of course that's the point. someone who makes a list saying: "these are the best things in a category" does not particularly care whether anyone agrees with him on the merits. rather he is saying: _I_ think these things are very good, and this carries certain implications that may affect my status in the eyes of certain groups
it's sort of like leonard bernstein throwing a party for the black panthers in 1970: http://nymag.com/news/features/46170/
I bring all of this up because I think you should consider then the consequences to your public image that may result from placing blazing saddles at the top of your list ^^
Mystery Men is NOT FUNNY.
ReplyDeleteI'm going to go ahead and say that Dr. Strangelove shouldn't be so low on the list, Mystery Men shouldn't even be on the list, and Spaceballs is missing from the list.
ReplyDeleteThat's a solid list but:
ReplyDelete1) What the hell is Mystery Men?
2) I'd rank Rushmore higher
3) What? No Manhattan? The AFI list includes Annie Hall at least, but I still think Manhattan beats Annie Hall hands down.
So there.
I’m sorry too, Art. I’m very sorry. All right, you’re sorrier than I am, but I am sorry as well. I am as sorry as you are, Art. Don't say that you’re more sorry than I am, because I am capable of being just as sorry as you are. So we're both sorry, all right? All right.
I'd like to see "History of the World: Part I" on there somewhere and I'd probably replace "Meaning of Life" with "The Holy Grail".
ReplyDeleteAlso, to include a pretty modern movie I'd have "40 Year Old Virgin" present - I think time will treat this movie well. It lives up to the hype.
HOWEVER, I really can't argue. I'd take that list any day.