It shows how out of it I was in trying to be in it, acknowledging that I was out of it to myself, and then thinking, “Okay, how do I stop being out of it? Well, I get some legitimate illogical narrative ideas” — some novel, you know?
So I decided on three writers that I might be able to option their material and get some producer, or myself as producer, and then get some writer to do a screenplay on it, and maybe make a movie.
And so the three projects were “Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep,” “Naked Lunch” and a collection of Bukowski. Which, in 1975, forget it — I mean, that was nuts. Hollywood would not touch any of that, but I was looking for something commercial, and I thought that all of these things were coming.
There would be no Blade Runner if there was no Ray Bradbury. I couldn’t find Philip K. Dick. His agent didn’t even know where he was. And so I gave up.
I was walking down the street and I ran into Bradbury — he directed a play that I was going to do as an actor, so we know each other, but he yelled “hi” — and I’d forgot who he was.
So at my girlfriend Barbara Hershey’s urging — I was with her at that moment — she said, “Talk to him! That guy really wants to talk to you,” and I said “No, fuck him,” and keep walking.
But then I did, and then I realized who it was, and I thought, “Wait, he’s in that realm, maybe he knows Philip K. Dick.” I said, “You know a guy named—” “Yeah, sure — you want his phone number?”
My friend paid my rent for a year while I wrote, because it turned out we couldn’t get a writer. My friends kept on me about, well, if you can’t get a writer, then you write.”
~ Hampton Fancher
“That was the most disappointing thing to me in how this thing was played. Is that I’m on the phone with you now, after all that’s been said, and the fundamental distinction between what James is dealing with in these other cases is not actually brought to the fore. The fundamental difference is that James Franco didn’t seek to use his position to have sex with anyone. There’s not a case of that. He wasn’t using his position or status to try to solicit a sexual favor from anyone. If he had — if that were what the accusation involved — the show would not have gone on. We would have folded up shop and we would have not completed the show. Because then it would have been the same as Harvey Weinstein, or Les Moonves, or any of these cases that are fundamental to this new paradigm. Did you not notice that? Why did you not notice that? Is that not something notable to say, journalistically? Because nobody could find the voice to say it. I’m not just being rhetorical. Why is it that you and the other critics, none of you could find the voice to say, “You know, it’s not this, it’s that”? Because — let me go on and speak further to this. If you go back to the L.A. Times piece, that’s what it lacked. That’s what they were not able to deliver. The one example in the five that involved an issue of a sexual act was between James and a woman he was dating, who he was not working with. There was no professional dynamic in any capacity.
~ David Simon
Despite my reluctance to do lists because I can never commit to my picks, here are my entries:
1. The Royal Tenenbaums
2. The 40 Year Old Virgin
3. O Brother Where Art Thou
4. Anchorman
5. I Heart Huckabees
6. The Squid and the Whale (This could be a stretch to classify as comedy but I’m going to go with it…)
7. Zoolander
8. Wet Hot American Summer
9. Superbad
10. World’s Greatest Dad/Observe and Report (Ultra black-comedy TIE)
I also need to throw out my vote for the most underrated comedy of the aughts…
THE BREAK-UP, a hilarious, heart felt anti-romantic comedy that cuts surprsingly deep and is actually honest and bittersweet, with some of the best comedic and dramatic work Vaughn and Aniston have ever done.
1. The 40-Year-Old Virgin
2. O Brother, Where Art Thou?
3. In Bruges
4. Anchorman
5. I Heart Huckabees
6. Juno
7. Fantastic Mr. Fox
8. Scott Pilgrim vs. the World
9. Easy A
10. Zoolander
ZOOLANDER will probably be on a lot of these lists, and that’s really surprising. It landed with a bit of a thud when it first came out, but it has gradually become one of those movies you can’t stop watching whenever it’s on cable.
Remember when everyone thought MEET THE PARENTS was hilarious? Ah, simpler times.
1. Bad Santa (Director’s Cut)
2. Kung Fu Hustle
3. Crank: High Voltage
4. Jackass Number 2
5. The Ten
6. Talladega Nights
7. The 40 Year Old Virgin
8. Drag Me To Hell
9. The Simpsons Movie
10. Napoleon Dynamite
I’ll also say that the scenes with the girl in the wheelchair in Freddy Got Fingered made me laugh as hard as anything of the last decade.
1. My Best Friend’s Girl
2. Freddy Got Fingered (The Backwards Man, the Backwards Man… IT’S JEWELS, BETTY! JEWELS!)
3. The Hangover
4. Slackers (Cool Ethan Power)
5. Postal (if ONLY for the part where the black cop shoots the old Asian lady with a shotgun for no reason)
6. Forgetting Sarah Marshall
7. Observe and Report
8. Jennifer’s Body
9. Crank: High Voltage
10. Little Nicky
Honorable mention: Good Luck Chuck, Superbad, and The Love Guru. Not because ANYTHING in Love Guru is really funny, because it’s such a brutally painfully exercise in douche chills, it’s like brilliantly unfunny to the point of funny.
With apologies to: all the films I haven’t seen… Pixar, whose films are consistently funnier than almost all of what bills itself as “comedy”… genre-sticklers who classify some of these under “drama”…
In ascending order:
BORAT
SUPERBAD
STATE AND MAIN
BAD SANTA
O BROTHER, WHERE ART THOU
ADAPTATION
IN BRUGES
SIDEWAYS
THE ROYAL TENENBAUMS
THE 40-YEAR-OLD VIRGIN
1. Best in Show
2. Sideways
3. 40 Year old Virgin
4. Borat
5. High Fidelity
6. O Brother, Where Art Thou?
7. King of Kong: Fistful of Quarters
8. Anchorman
9. Old School
10. Hot Fuzz
10a. Shrek (diminished by the inferior sequels, but that first one has some amazing gags)
I’d say Wedding Crashers and The Hangover are the two biggest of the “So Funny!” when they came out, but on subsequent viewings don’t hold up.
Undercover Brother is almost up there for me, not every joke works but there are some howlers in that movie.
The Royal Tennenbaums and The Departed I consider dramas that happen to have some extremely funny moments. “What, you one of those fitness freaks. Go Fuck yourself.”
Not THE ten, but a quick glance…
chronologically
O Brother Where Art Thou
The Royal Tenenbaums
Freaky Friday
Dodgeball
Wedding Crashers
Juno
Pineapple Express
500 Days of Summer
Zombieland
Scott Pilgrim vs. the World
In no particular order:
Borat
Sideways
Wonderboys
Squid and the Whale
Ghost World
The Royal Tenenbaums
Anchorman
40-Year-Old Virgin
American Splendor
About a Boy
Is this for great films that happen to be comedies, or are we looking for funniest films?
Yes, I have to be “that guy.”
That’s what I’m saying, too… Sideways, Juno, Ghost World, About Schmidt, Up in the Air, Funny People, most of the Woody Allen canon, Wonder Boys are GREAT MOVIES, but I don’t really think of them as “comedies,” per se. Comedy I think of like balls-out hilarity and shtick and dudes getting hit in the balls and like black guys ogling a hot chick and going “Daaaaaaaayum!”, not some mournful meditation on aging or loss or outsider-dom that happens to have funny moments.
Unranked, except Goodbye Lenin! would be #1.
Goodbye Lenin!
Superbad
Zombieland
Wonderboys
Amelie
Sideways
In the Loop
One Night at McCool’s
Scott Pilgrim vs the World
Kenny
This is more about ‘made me laugh hardest’ than ‘great movies that happen to be comedies’. The first 9 are in ABC order.
10. Emperor’s New Groove
9. I Love You Man
8. Juno
7. Mean Girls
6. Observe and Report
5. Role Models
4. Shanghai Knights
3. Wet Hot American Summer
2. Zombieland
And my favorite comedy of the just-finished decade:
1. Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle (and yes, a genuinely great film about race relations, cultural identity, etc)
Maybe these are mine…
Bad Santa
Borat
40-Year-Old Virgin, The
Ghost World
Hot Fuzz
I Heart Huckabee’s
Royal Tenenbaums, The
Sideways
Superbad
Wet Hot American Summer
great films i’m not sure i’d classify as comedies:
Almost Famous
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
In Bruges (this one’s a very close call)
Punch-Drunk Love
Wonder Boys
i’m sure i’ll remember many more the second i get home
Best in Show
Borat
Chicken Run
Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle
The Incredibles
The Last Shot
OSS 117: Cairo, Nest of Spies
Napoleon Dynamite
Shaun of the Dead
Superbad
In The Loop, Herzog’s Bad Lieutenant, Borat, Eternal Sunshine of The Spotless Mind, Vicky Christina Barcelona, Juno, 40 Year-Old Virgin, Sideways, Bad Santa, Bridesmaids
To be honest, I am more than a little surprised by all the love for Hot Wet American summer. I loathed it. And, mind you, I’m a fan of Janeane Garofolo.
The three funniest things about Wet Hot American Summer are 1) the theme song, 2) the credit font, 3) that chase montage where the dude’s running and there’s some mildly inconvenient bale of hale in the road.
I like Wet Hot American Summer, but its a very front-loaded comedy. All the funniest bits are in the first 45 mins, the second half isn’t as good.
Chris Meloni saves that movie. If his scenes were cut out it’d be 70% less funny.
“I can suck my own dick. And I do it, a lot.”
I see a lot of Mean Girls, which I always thought was ok. I think Baby Mama, while very, very sitcom-y and not “great” has four or five hilarious moments and very re-watchable.
“I thought of it when I was running barefoot through the Toronto Airport.”
Dodgeball. A simple concept executed perfectly.
Anchorman
School of Rock
I Love You Man
Walk Hard
Old School
Sideways
Bridesmaids
Team America: World Police
40 Year Old Virgin
Royal Tennenbaums
My 10:
Anchorman
Superbad
Talladega Nights
High Fidelity
The Hangover
MacGruber
Borat
The 40-Year-Old Virgin
Wedding Crashers
Old School
Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang
Hot Rod
In Bruges
Bad Santa
Borat
Punch-Drunk Love (definitely a comedy)
Tropic Thunder
Moulin Rouge!
Death to Smoochy
Little Miss Sunshine
(unranked, and subject to change at a moment’s notice)
Black Dynamite
Anchorman
O Brother Where Are Thou
Hot Fuzz
Kung Fu Hustle
Scott Pilgrim v The World
The Simpsons Movie (i find myself rewatching this often)
Superbad
The Foot Fist Way
I Heart Huckabees (i remember many, including our own DP, absolutely trashing this thing when it came out. I continue to love it)
and I don’t consider Wonder Boys a comedy but want to echo all the love it is getting here. LOVE that movie.
and it wouldn’t make my top ten, but i dig LexG’s Slackers pick. That movie is pretty great. the dude from Pete & Pete slays.
I struggled with the whole Great Movies that Happen to be Funny vs. The FUNNIEST movies period.
These are my, off the top of the dome, THE FUNNIEST movies for me of the 2000s…
1. The Forty Year Old Virgin
2. Anchorman
3. Zoolander
4. Wet Hot American Summer
5. Superbad
6. The Hangover
7. Old School
8. Observe and Report
9. Borat
10. The Aristocrats
Good calls everyone on FREDDY GOT FINGERED, TEAM AMERICA and HOT ROD, which I’m also a fan of…
One of the most genius moments of WET HOT AMERICAN SUMMER, that no one has brought up yet, is where the kids get to leave the camp and end up robbing/beating an old woman and shooting heroin in a dingy hallway…
Black Dynamite. Good call.
Lex I love that you called out the chase scene in WET HOT. Single biggest laugh in the decade along with them freaking out at the apparent heroics on the river (never actually seen) WET HOT has to be the most consistent innovative comedy of the decade. Along with HOT ROD its one of the most underrated comedies in these lists. It’s so subjective though, I mean I like much of WORLDS GREATEST DAD but can see why its a total turnoff for some. What is surprising is how high some of these really mediocre comedies rank for some.
Kudos to JKILL for THE BREAKUP which I also think is a terrific film that was much better than most expected from it.
WET HOT
GREENBERG
PUNCHDRUNK LOVE
WEATHERMAN
BAD SANTA
CHOPPER
THE BREAKUP
In no particular order:
40-year-old virgin
Amelie
Napoleon Dynamite
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
My Big Fat Greek Wedding (Yeah. I said it)
Anchorman
Little Miss Sunshine
Mean Girls
Best in Show
Shrek/Finding Nemo (it’s a toss-up, really.)
Bad Santa
The 40 Year Old Virgin
Borat
Kiss Kiss Bang Bang
The Foot Fist Way
Death at a Funeral (UK)
Hot Fuzz
Burn After Reading
Scott Pilgrim
Hot Tub Time Machine
My turn, for me this list is only movies that makes me laugh hard and often, not just smile and have a good time or be profound (nothing wrong with those, but they are not what I would consider ‘comedy’)
1) Borat
2) Bad Santa
3) Knocked Up
4) Bad Lieutenant: Port of New Orleans (it’s a comedy, I am very sure of that)
5) Zack and Miri make a Porno
6) Old School
7) Bruno
8) Forgetting Sarah Marshall
9) Wedding Crashers
10) Zombieland
Honorable Mentions: Best In Show, The Hangover, 40 Year old Virgin, Tropic Thunder, In The Loop, American Wedding, Y Tu Mama Tambien
Sort of in order:
Team America
Dodgeball
Shaun of the Dead
Idiocracy
Talladega Nights
Zoolander
Observe and Report
Tropic Thunder
Monsters Inc.
Borat
Ben Stiller can be is lazy, rotten shit but when the guys lands a punch, it’s good one. White Goodman is classic. Idiocracy is probably under-realized, but I find it so brilliant in so many spots that it overpowers the missed targets. “Extra big ass fries.”
Just a question, and I don’t mean to be rude. I just want someone to explain how Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind list as a top comedy by some people here? Don’t get me wrong, I love the movie, it’s my favorite film the past decade. But it’s not a comedy…
Just curious how some people here define comedy…
With the usual caveats, and not much fretting about order:
Ghost World
Kung Fu Hustle
Knocked Up
Bad Santa
Hot Fuzz
The Dish
The Break-Up
The 40 Year Old Virgin
Superbad
Stuck on You
Funny People and Sarah Marshall should be there, but I wanted to give some non-Apatow productions a chance. I Love You Man made me laugh as much as anything in the last ten years, and kudos to the brave souls who included Freddy Got Fingered (which might well make my top 20). And a shout-out to the compromised but original Idiocracy.
Some of the funniest people on the planet are in the cast of DODGEBALL, but it only gave me a couple of chuckles, a few smiles and exactly zero belly laughs. Funny how these things work.
Fuck me, I forgot Idiocracy. I love that movie. I use Upgradde references all the time and just saying the word “Beef Supreme” makes me laugh.
Joe, I wonder if it’s a generational thing about Wet Hot American Summer; I remember Ebert seemed to hate it and dismiss it simultaneously, which to me is mind-boggling. The tone of it has a mix of sincere genre parody and utterly insincere almost everything else that I feel like some people don’t really cotton to (Ebert, my favorite critic working, obviously doesn’t share my sense of humor; he hated Kids in the Hall: Brain Candy, too, and while he didn’t mention that movie in his Wet Hot review, I imagine his reaction was similar).
Nothing any of those State guys have done since, worthy as some of it’s been, can touch it.
I dig the is-it-a-comedy classification debates that some of these movies cause. For the record, I’d say Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind isn’t a comedy (though it is a masterpiece and sometimes very funny — “I’M BUILDING A BIRDHOUSE”). And though the Pixar movies are often hilarious, I wouldn’t consider many of them outright comedies (especially not The Incredibles, even though I love it). Strangely, I think the funniest Pixar of the past decade or so is probably UP, though I think Toy Story 2 has the most laughs of any of them.
Juno and Ghost World, love ’em both, and both are funny, but for whatever reason I don’t think of them as comedies. Yet Wes Anderson’s movies do mostly strike me that way. I find Tenenbaums moving, but also laugh-out-loud funny. God the dialogue in that movie is incredible.
But I would say Observe and Report is a comedy… Punch-Drunk Love kinda-sorta is, although I was ambivalent enough to keep it off my list despite it being one of my favorites… and I’d say Margot at the Wedding kinda is, too, even though I left all of Baumbach’s off for being a bit more on the serious side, and also few other people I know find that movie (Margot) funny at all. But it is! Kind of. Just also kind of unpleasant. Like Step Brothers!
Lots of Best in Show love. Interesting. I’ve always respected Guest’s movies but if I’m honest I’ve liked each one a bit less than the last. I guess that still puts Best in Show highest up for the past eleven years, but I find it more amusing than hilarious.
If I’m picking a David Wain comedy based on laughs, I’m picking ROLE MODELS, but WET HOT AMERICAN SUMMER is excellent too.
Jesse:
Well, this is what I had to say about it back in the day.
http://www.movingpictureshow.com/archives/mpsWetHotSummer.htm
nitpickle, but it was anghus – not jesse as credited by DP with the idea – who suggested, “How about TEN BEST COMEDIES FROM 2000-2011?” in the other thread
I find Monsters Inc to be a straight-up workplace comedy, and it remains my favorite (and most quoted) Pixar film. You can make the argument that it’s fantasy, but I think it’s the closet to just being a pure comedy that they have made. But I kept Scott Pilgrim off my list because while i find it very funny I see it as more of a 50/50 action comedy. It depends on how you personally weight some of these films.
I also want to say that I nominated John C Reilly as comedy MVP of the decade. He takes Talladega Nights from ok to outstanding, for my money. Same thing in Step Brothers, and he is insanely good in Walk Hard. Those 2 could very easily be on my list. Hell, he was great in The Promotion, too.
Yeah I have no idea how anyone can see Wonder Boys as a comedy. It’s a dramedy. I don’t even remember there being that many laughs in it, so could someone who finds it to be a comedy point out what’s so funny there? Yeah that’s a loaded question but not as perplexing as WONDER BOYS as a comedy!
My top ten would be:
Tropic Thunder
MacGruber
Anchorman
In The Loop
Intolerable Cruelty
I Heart Huckabees
The Jackass Trilogy
Zoolander
ETA: Jesus, I forgot Walk Hard. Damn, I love that movie for no other reason than the Brian Wilson freak out scene.
narrowing it down to 10 is brutal, i can’t do it.
in no particular order:
kiss kiss, bang bang
bad santa
in bruges
in the loop
shaun of the dead
school of rock
bubba ho tep
ice age
sideways
lovely and amazing
royal tenenbaums
the whole nine yards
napoleon dynamite
little miss sunshine
pineapple express
team america world police
boy
1. THE ROYAL TENENBAUMS
2. ANCHORMAN
3. BORAT
4. PINEAPPLE EXPRESS
5. IN BRUGES
6. TEAM AMERICA: WORLD POLICE
7. OBSERVE AND REPORT
8. SUPERBAD
9. JUNO
10. ZOOLANDER
haven’t seen bridesmaids yet, itching for it to come out here
On the other hand: I am pleased to see so much love for Observe and Report. I remember feeling quite alone when I praised that one.
i hated observe and report when i first saw it. i watched it a couple of times on hbo and it grew on me, but i still think it’s one of those movies where the lead character is so infinitely unlikable that i don’t care about anything that happens to anyone in the film.
I kept asking myself ‘who am i supposed to be rooting for?’.
When the answer is ‘no one’, you end up in a weird place.
i don’t hate it anymore. i find it kind of an interesting dark piece. strange. unsettling.
Wut, no Mighty Winds or Best in Shows?
THESE LISTS ARE DEAD TO ME.
Christopher Guest movies are amusing, quirky, fun but i wouldnt put any of them on a best of list.
And i’ll probably catch hell for saying it, but they’re all kind of the same to me. The gang gets together for their show. They put on different hats, try a different story, and you get the same charming little movie that never really gets to a laugh out loud state of funny.
Abghus: That is one of several subversive things about Observe and Protect — rationally, you shouldn’t be rooting for anybody. Remember: It’s not the the job of a filmmaker to make things easy for you. Yeah, I know: That sounds pretty pretentious when talking about a silly comedy. But that’s the point: I don’t think this movie — or MacGruber, come to think of it — was quite as silly as it was advertised to be.
All these lists only continue to prove how desperately poor the state of film comedy is these days. There’s very few things in there that really stand up against time. I myself can’t get no further then these:
Borat
Superbad
Funny People
Sideways
Juno
In The Loop
Little Miss Sunshine
errr…that’s about it.
1. ANCHORMAN/TALLADEGA NIGHTS
2. BAD SANTA/GHOST WORLD
3. IN BRUGES
4. 40 YR OLD VIRGIN
5. JACKASS TRILOGY
6. BORAT/BRUNO
7. IDIOCRACY
8. FOOT FIST WAY/OBSERVE AND REPORT
9. NACHO LIBRE/GENTLEMEN BRONCOS
10. SHAUN OF THE DEAD/HOT FUZZ
Honorable mention to the top 10 TV comedies which are probably biggest influence on current state of contemporary comedy:
CURB YOUR ENTHUSIASM
THE OFFICE (UK)
PEEP SHOW
EASTBOUND AND DOWN
THE IT CROWD
CHAPELLE’S SHOW
PARKS AND RECREATION
PARTY DOWN
ARCHER
LOUIE
Me, Myself & Irene (2000)
Undercover Brother (2002)
Old School (2003)
Bad Santa (2003)
Dodgeball (2004)
Superbad (2007)
The Hammer (2008)
Observe and Report (2009)
Kick Ass (2010)
Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World (2010)
Honorable mentions to Kikujiro, Little Miss Sunshine, Juno, Hot Fuzz, Shaun of the Dead, Harold and Kumar Go To White Castle, The Closet, Zombieland…
Hobbyist, the problem I have with this sort of thing, is basic categorization. While the Royal Tennenbaums has some really funny moments in it. I find it to be a dramedy and to me, dramedies should not be a on a list with comedies. Which could be the whole problem with comedies these days, is that few people make a straight comedy, and when they do make a straight comedy. Well it sucks.
io, i certainly see your point, but it’s impossible (and unnecessary) for me to separate what are technically dramedies from comedies, because the element of drama doesn’t negate comedy, it only serves to make it deeper and more comedically satisfying for me at the end of the day.
what’s the most-listed flick so far? seems to be lots of ‘bad santas’
what about an award for great unexpected unheralded heartbreakingly awkward painfully funny out-of-the-blue comedic gems that should’ve been shouted from the rooftops (but instead went seemingly unnoticed)?
while colin ferrell deservedly got beaucoup props for his outstanding turn in ‘in bruges’, pierce brosnan as ‘julian noble’ in ‘the matador’ seemed to get bupkis (unless somehow i just missed the hoopla, entirely possible) and he fucking KILLED in that movie, so i nominate brosnan for the above award. his turn as julian noble should be the stuff of legend.
Wow, Dave – I just put on that list earlier impulsively while on a cross-trainer. Thanks for the shout-out!
I knew it as soon as I hit “Submit” on my list several hours ago – Knocked Up was funny and touching, but sorry, it was no About a Boy. Hugh Grant was never better than he was in that movie and I would easily put it among the top ten comedies in the first decade of this century – easy call and you now have two Nick Hornby adaptations in my top ten. How has no one named About a Boy, as of yet?
And yeah, I get there is a fine line here with some of these movies between funniest and best comedy – the criteria for me is that the movie should be an all-around comedy AND it must have several big laughs. I get that Wonder Boys is not the same type of movie as Anchorman, but I would put it in the category just the same – how are people not seeing that as a comedy? The movie is a light and breezy 1:45 with at least a dozen big laughs: Tobey Maguire spitting out the pill, Alan Tudyk asking Douglas about Errol Flynn’s dick, Maguire smoking up in Douglas’ ex-wife’s childhood house, Downey asking about the whole “Chinatown” deal…..the movie is fucking funny. Same with High Fidelity – several scenes between Todd Louiso and Jack Black that kill, just off the top of my head.
Now, there are some others that I see mentioned which I would not put as “comedies” – sorry, it was clever, but NO way In Bruges is a comedy. The movie gets jet-black dark and grim for about half of the screentime. Same with Eternal Sunshine….probably the best film of the past decade, but just not a comedy. I get that it’s subjective…..
Wow, there are actually people on this planet that found Scott Pilgrim vs. the World watchable, yet alone funny.I am truly shock.
I think BAD SANTA is not only the best comedy of the aughts, but one of the best comedies to come out of Hollywood ever. After that, in no particular order…
1. BAD SANTA
2. BURN AFTER READING
3. MONSTERS INC.
4. HOT FUZZ
5. GHOST WORLD
6. SUPERBAD
7. OBSERVE AND REPORT
8. SCHOOL OF ROCK
9. O BROTHER WHERE ART THOU
10. TEAM AMERICA: WORLD POLICE
Geoff, Wonder Boys is just a painful movie for me to watch. How any finds any joy and comedy out of it, again, is perplexing for me.
I agree with that. I love Wonder Boys, but find it to be a total downer, really melancholy and mournful and with a pinprick-perfect mood about it. It has some amusing chuckles, but it’s a 70s style character piece, no more a “comedy” than Last Detail or Carnal Knowledge.
Then again, as I sort of stated somewhere upthread, I consider character-based dramedy to be its own animal. If pressed, I don’t even consider “The Graduate” to be a comedy. Or, really, “Risky Business.” Comedy to me is like Landis and Ramis and Reitman and Sandler, Mel Brooks not Albert Brooks.
But others are free to disagree.
crap, i forgot ‘burn after reading’, my sense of humour and the coen’s are apparently simpatico (brad pitt alone is worth it and i kinda can’t stand pitt 87% of the time)
superbad might be giving ‘bad santa’ a run for its money in the ‘most listed’ stakes
(and i’d have to retort re: ‘in bruges’ as most certainly being a comedy, geoff; black, acerbic comedy but comedy nonetheless, it cracks me up no end. perhaps it’s cultural and anecdotal, but in my experience brits/colonists consider ‘in bruges’ a comedy, certainly as much so as ‘wonderboys’, which is a deeply melancholic movie. ‘bruges’ is also dramatic and weirdly touching and ambiguous, but comedy and drama aren’t mutually exclusive, one could argue that many of the greatest comedies of ALL TIME have bountifully-realised dramatic elements, and that true comedy can not exist without the dramatic elements of conflict/resolution)
In Bruges is a really good dark comedy. Sure it has it’s dark moments but that seems to be the point of it’s existence… dark and twisted comedy.
what is ‘JS partisan’, is that a thing? what a mouthful. it’s a bit like ‘J F sebastian’, at least i can remember that
also, a surprising # of people dig ‘school of rock’, strangely comforting, i stupidly giggle thru that movie never fail, jack black’s unfiltered magnum opus of id (along with ‘high fidelity’, in which he is also priceless)
what the heck happened there, some weird double-up
Leah, it’s a thing.
That’s true, Leah, original parameters for this list were all anghus, not me! And it’s turned into a really fun thread.
Geoff, About a Boy doesn’t seem like a big omission to me because while I liked it, I don’t find it all that funny. I mean, amusing, sure, but I feel like the book is both funnier and more touching, and the movie never felt like more than a pretty good adaptation (as opposed to High Fidelity which has some of its own charm in addition to Hornby’s).
Also, Nikki Whisperer, I don’t know if I’ve ever heard anyone express (or imply, I guess) such admiration for Jared Hess’s post-Napoleon Dynamite movies! I didn’t hate Nacho Libre or even Broncos as much as some, but they did diminish my faith in ND being more than a fluke (a fluke which I still adore, even though its “moment” has passed and I’m sure lots of people have backlashed or dismissed it).
Jesse: Ironically, I was never really much of a Napoleon fan. I find it kind of forced and overly cloying, but I think Nacho and Broncos are pretty close to masterpieces, with an insanely controlled and pitch-perfect tone all their own, and they get absolutely funnier and funnier upon repeated viewings. To this day, the savage critical response and studio dumping of Broncos totally eludes me.
Ok, obviously comedy is subjective….but I do NOT get how people found Wonder Boys so sad of a movie.
It’s a meandering comedy in the vein of Swingers or Flirting with Disaster – some pathos and sadness in there, for sure – but it never get heightened and the stakes are really never high enough to make it truly “melancholy.” The movie ends on an uplifting note and pretty much every major character ends up in a better place than where they started – remember the scene where they’re applauding James Leer??? Just not a sad movie, I found it pretty smile-inducing.
And I’ll say again, there’s some really funny shit in there – Maguire has a about a 15 minute sequence where he’s just off his ass on pot, eating donuts, drinking OJ, bouncing around….he absolutely kills. And Downey, too: “I guess I just didn’t meet their corporate profile….competence.” That’s just a great line, paraphrasing. Funny stuff – hell, you can watch Spiderman and Iron Man and absolutely see how these roles planted the seeds for how they each gave their own spins on superhero roles. It the movie non-stop gags like Anchorman? Not at all, but I found it funny and not sad at all.
And have any of you watched About a Boy lately? That movie kills, Hugh Grant has never been a better comedian than in that role. His voice-over narration completely makes the movie – tons of funny lines. And even the climax of the movie (Killing Me Softly) is basically a comic climax.
Shit, I forget about Burn After Reading – very underrated and probably the best pure Coen Brothers comedy after Big Lebowski. Now given the criteria some of you folks are discussing, I would say that A Serious Man was ALMOST a full-blown comedy, but no way with that ending.
That said, I would probably bump out Dodgeball for Burn After Reading – as an avid bicyclist, it has the best movie line in recent memory relating to bikes: “You thought that was a SCHWINN!”
There’s quite a few on these lists that I haven’t seen that I feel I should to be well qualified. I tried, I TRIED, to go with just the ones I laughed at the most but it was hard to not include some that were all around so enjoyable, like Fantastic Mr Fox. I probably laughed more at Idiocracy but I dug Mr Fox more. Same with The Simpsons movie, which isn’t on my list but maybe should be. When they people run from the church/bar, that was genius. It maybe should be on there over Easy A but the nod to Can’t Buy Me Love made that movie too cute.
In no order, except I will say that I definitely laughed the most at In The Loop. I feel like I’m missing something totally obvious…
In The Loop
Fantastic Mr Fox
Balls of Fury
Old School
Hot Fuzz
Talladega Nights
Harold & Kumar
Hangover
Baby Mama
Easy A
Tally of top vote-getters thus far:
The 40 Year Old Virgin – 17 votes
Borat and Superbad – 15 votes
Anchorman – 14 votes
Bad Santa – 13 votes
Tallageda Nights
UnderCover Brother
Anchorman
Superbad
Tropic Thinder
Wonder Boys
The Hangover
The Royal Tenebbaums
Baby Mama
Bridesmaids
PS, Borat doesnt hold up for me.
I think re-watchability is my standard. When someone mentions the title and I immediately smile and can’t wait to go home and put the DVD in and see it again.
So, it’s great to see all the love here for BAD SANTA, TEAM AMERICA and KUNG FU HUSTLE.
Full-on satire seems to have a tougher go of it, but I really like THANK YOU FOR SMOKING and AMERICAN DREAMZ.
I’m not much of a list guy, but this moment ranks up there for me as one of the biggest single laughs:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lngY_OFIoSI
That’s fucking ACTING.
My top-ten would look like a mix of the above, but I would add:
Super Troopers
24 Hour Party People
About A Boy is just as depressing as Wonder Boys, Geoff!
About all I can come up with is
Zoolander
Shaun of the Dead
Dodgeball
Your Highness
I would have chosen The Emperor’s New Groove but that came out in 2000 and the header says “Since 2000”, which I take to mean “after”.
I have not seen a single Apatow comedy because they all seem to be described as “comedies without jokes”. I actually like my comedies to have jokes and be funny, not squeamish or uncomfortable. Lines I can repeat over and over are absolutely necessary (I consider Monty Python the pinnacle of civilization), and for merely giving us “The Fuckening” I have put Your Highness on my list.
I know this movie will be debated as a comedy, but I sured as hell laughed enough at Adaptation for it to fit into such. Anyway, the list, in no particular order…..
Adaptation
High Fidelity
The Royal Tenenbaums
Scott Pilgrim vs. the World
The Hangover
Black Dynamite (If nothing else, the last ten minutes alone)
Ghost World (Even if it fits into the Wonder Boys realm where, yeah, there are a lot of laughs, but it doesn’t make me feel like I’ve seen a comedy)
Amelie
I’m struggling to find two more, but I’m just finding a lot of movies that I “like” but I’m not sure I’d put on a list. Team America is at the top of that, so it’d be a solid #9, but I think it’s one my friends kind of wore out. Not really the fault of the movie, though.
frankbooth: that clip is amusing. i feel bad that rudd isn’t in any of the movies on my stupid list because i think he’s the cat’s meow.
i’ll add ‘role models’ just for that reason (plus, ‘role models’ does crack me up, and jane lynch is a hoot)
i’d think ‘adaptation’ certainly qualifies as a comedy, and i’ll go one further and add to my list of 20+ now because i think it’s unique and wonderful (complete with cool pre-tree of life ‘evolution of life’ montage), weird third act veer into the swamp and all.
Damn I forgot about Role Models. Shit. I do dig the hell out of that film and it’s nothing but comedy. It also features one of my fave Jane Lynch performances ever.
yeah, lynch is certifiably brain fried in ‘role models’, classic. sweeny with her hot dog.
Sam: Yeah, I like my comedies to be funny, too, which is why there are so many Apatow movies on my list or bubbling under it. 🙂 Of course, whether or not a movie makes you squeamish or uncomfortable is a matter of taste, but I certainly don’t consider such to be the overriding tone of Apatow’s stuff (even the occasional random penis or crowning vagina just makes me laugh).
I guess I never really think of comedy dialogue as “jokes;” just semantics, maybe, but I think of jokes as something that comedians tell. Movies may have gags, one-liners, set-pieces, routines, riffs, etc., and maybe even characters who tell jokes. But I can’t recall ever coming out of a movie saying, “Wow, one great joke after another.”
leah, JS: Count me in for finding ROLE MODELS to be quite hilarious.
Yancy, one review of Hangover II put it in the Apatow category as a comedy that doesn’t have a single memorable line in it. The closest the reviewer could come up with was something like “I know why you’re gay,” which isn’t really something you could put on a T-shirt or signature line.
Oh, by the way, do you have to be drunk and/or high to “appreciate” these “comedies”? That would be another strike against them for me.
EDIT: “Visioneers” looked like it might be interesting until I read one thing: “George Washington Winsterhammerman”. Giving a character a “funny” name is a sure sign of mental lethargy.
For what it’s worth, I didn’t laugh all that much at Idiocracy, but I do find it one of the scariest and most depressing films released in recent memory. Actually included it in a list of recent horror classics last Halloween.
“It’s got what plants crave!”
There you go. And yes, definitely depressing; I believe Judge even said it wasn’t meant to be a prediction but a comment on today. Stupidity and obnoxious behavior is becoming the norm, and MTV is telling teenage girls they might make ’em a star with their own show if they’ll just get knocked up first.
One depressed comic said reality isn’t like Seinfeld, where a guy who coughs on a salad bar will look embarrassed and say “I’m glad that sneeze shield was there.” No, he’ll just glare at all the people staring at him in shock and say “I didn’t do nuthin.”
EDIT: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-4056644458485033927#
That about sums it up, for the movie and for humanity. These people are taking over, and we are all doomed.
And no, it’s not funny.
i like Role Models, but i had to go with I Love You Man for the Rudd slot.
You know what’s funny. We’re talking the best comedies of the 2000’s. Is there an Adam Sandler mention in 99% of the comments besides a few people who brought up Funny People or Punch Drunk Love?
The biggest comedy star in the world makes terrible, unmemorable comedies.
Sam wrote: “Oh, by the way, do you have to be drunk and/or high to ‘appreciate’ these ‘comedies’? That would be another strike against them for me.”
Sam, I don’t drink or do drugs, so either they aren’t necessary to appreciate these comedies (no quotation marks required), or I’m the exception to the rule.
Sam wrote: “Giving a character a ‘funny’ name is a sure sign of mental lethargy.”
Boy, I wish W.C Fields, Groucho Marx and Preston Sturges were around to respond to that one. 🙂
anghus: Re Sandler, actually I forgot about YOU DON’T MESS WITH THE ZOHAN, which might well have made my list (must be the Apatow connection). I’ve only seen a couple other of Sandler’s Happy Madison produced films of the aughts: CLICK and BEDTIME STORIES, which are middling with interesting bits, and 50 FIRST DATES, which compromises a seemingly decent basic script with stuff like a vomiting walrus.
1. Wet Hot American Summer
2. Ghost World
3. The Royal Tenenbaums
4. Wonder Boys
5. High Fidelity
6. Superbad
7. In The Loop
8. Bad Santa
9. In Bruges
10. American Splendor
Honorable Mention: I Heart Huckabees
oh and There Will Be Blood is the most I’ve laughed during a film since the second Blair Witch movie.
I love American Splendor. For some reason in my head i don’t classify it as a comedy.
I was wondering why Ghost World kept showing up on the list until I was struck by an idea: “If you think it’s a comedy, then how old are you?”
Perhaps because I was closer to Seymour’s age than Enid’s I saw the movie from his POV, and to me it’s depressing as heck. Perhaps if you identify with Enid the movie becomes funnier?
And yet I’m unable to explain the humor some see in High Fidelity. Grosse Pointe Blank I see as a comedy but not this one. Midlife crisis? Dreams crushed and snuffed out? Umm…not funny, to me at least.
1. Anything with Jim Carrey!
2. Office Space
3. Idiocracy
4. Elf
5. Freddy Got Fingered
6. Trailer Park Boys
7. Scary Movie Series
8. The Hangover
9. Due Date
10. Napoleon Dynamite
These aren’t in order except for the first 3. I can’t believe nobody else has put any Jim Carrey movies or Office Space on their lists.
First I’d like to suggest that any top 10 comedy list which doesn’t have Super Troopers on it SOMEWHERE is clearly an uninformed opinion (@Kit Fisk, from what I see you’re the only other human on this thread). Conversely, any list which contains Napoleon Dynamite is disillusioned as well.
1. Super Troopers
2. Kiss Kiss Bang Bang
3. Grandma’s Boy
4. 40 year old Virgin
5. Stepbrothers
6. Anchorman
7. Dodgeball
8. Your Highness
9. Superbad
10. The Hangover
I realize these movies are mostly from newer slapstick / stupid comedies but I think that’s what’s so enjoyable about them, the quotes!
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Yes, for me it’s also about watch-ability…some films that I loved in a theater didn’t hold up at all on a second viewing (Superbad).
1. I Heart Huckabees (a great screwball comedy in the classic sb mode)
2. Bad Santa
3. Adaptation
4. The Baxter
5. Whatever Works
6. About Schmidt
7.Scott Pilgram vs. The World
8. Crazy, Stupid, Love
9. Beerfest
10. 40 Year Old Virgin
and…the movie I laughed at the most, for all the wrong reasons..but my friends and I were in tears of confused, wtf laughter…Jack And Jill
Worst comedy…easy, the remake of The Heartbreak Kid..which is not only terrible in its own right, but completely fucks up a serious classic
Exit Through the Gift Shop is a documentary. The only funny part about it is that “Mr. Brainwash” sucks and everybody knows it. Except the morons who paid thousands of dollars for his unoriginal work. Of course, that’s just my opinion…
My top 10 favourite comedies:
1. Role Models
2. The Change-Up
3. White Chicks
4. Dude, Where’s My Car
5. Little Man
6. Scary Movie
7. Ace Ventura
8. Vampires Suck
9. Dodgeball
10. Scooby Doo the movie
Don’t judge, Scooby Doo is a classic!
I’ve seen nearly every on of the 100 or so different movies everyone above has listed, and they are all funny. Anyone who says movies the last decade have lost their humor is clearly misinformed. And the folks who say the depressing subject matter of a film (Wonder Boys, About a Boy–all that dreams crushed rot) automatically makes it unfunny is wrong–the last images in Dr. Strangelove of a man plummeting to his death followed by nuclear holocaust are still funny. Anyway, the movies I laughed out loud the most at 2000-2010:
1. O Brother Where Art Thou?
2. The 40 Year Old Virgin
3. Superbad
4. High Fidelity
5. Wonderboys
6. Knocked Up
7. The Hangover
8. Wedding Crashers
9. Best In Show
Best Black Comedy: In Bruges
Best “Serious” Comedy: Sideways (I don’t consider Wonderboys serious)
Best Christmas Comedy: Elf (sorry Bad Santa)
Best Animated comedy: Team America (If only for the death kitty)
up in smoke (cheech and chong)
fast times at ridgemount high
hot wet american summer
take me home tonight
puff puff pass
role models
easy a
house bunny
all american pies (includng wedding and reunion
jack and jill
Okay so be prepared to see a slight theme but these are the top 10 films since 2000, I understand if you disagree with the order, but I don’t think you can deny that most if not all should be in there!
1. Old School
2. Wedding Crashers
3. Super Troopers
4. The Other Guys
5. Step Brothers
6. Role Models
7. The Big Lebowski
8. The Hangover
9. Anchorman
10. Zoolander
I know its a matter of opinion, but some movies listed above are stretches…Heres my quickly devised list, in no particular order:
-40 Year Old Virgin
-Wedding Crashers
-Superbad
-The Hangover
-Eulogy
-Life
-Knocked Up
-Super Troopers
-Grown Ups
-???
Im leaving the 10th slot available cause theres a few movies I wouldnt mind throwing in there:
-Bridesmaids
-Baby Mama
-The Changeup
-Role Models
-Bowfinger
-Carnage
-Eagle vs Shark
1: The Hangover (classic)
2: I hope they serve beer in hell
3: how high
4: step brothers
5: Grown ups
6: 21 & over
7: Beerfest
8: Meet The Parents/Meet the fockers/Little Fockers
9: Happy Gilmore
10: Anger Management
10: Harold and kumar goes to white castle
9: Hangover
8: me, myself and Irene
7: Horrible bosses
6: The dilemma
5: Grown ups
4: Thats my boy
3: LiarLiar
2: American pie 1&2, the wedding and reunion
1:dumb and dumber
Superbad
Forgetting Sarah Marshall
Get him to the Greek
Knocked up
This is the end
Dewy cox: walk hard
Team America world
Scott pilgrim vs the world
The 40 year old virgin
Anchorman