It's a Wonderful Night for Oscar!

AFI's 100 Funniest - Comedy and the Oscars (a List in Progress)

Greetings Oscarphiles and everyone else!

Now that we're knee deep in hotter than hot weather and forced to hibernate where the air conditioning takes us, it's time to revisit the American Film Institute lists, our latest yardsticks to hold up against Oscar in terms of measuring movies.  Plus, we're halfway through our Oscar-eligible year, which means more popcorn blockbusters and random comedies and less art.  So, what better time to consider the place of the comedy as it relates to the Oscars?

The new AFI's 100 Funniest Films list represents the third of AFI's 100 Years series.  The list is being compiled and described.  In the meantime, take a look and see if you agree with whether or not these are truly the funniest movies of the past 100 years.  Are there any funnies the list missed?  Do you agree with what's there? 

Re: AFI's 100 Funniest - Comedy and the Oscars (a List in Progress)

How timely - perhaps you've noticed a new list that's popped up.  While trolling the internet as I do from time to time, I came across a newly published comedy list from Premiere Magazine - their top 50 comedies of all time.  I thought, hey, since we're discussing what's supposed to be the funniest movies and how they hold up to Oscar (as fallible as the Oscars are), why not include that for comparison?

I will say, in my opinion, that the AFI list made a hugely gross oversight by neglecting to include Monty Python and the Holy Grail on its list.  Premiere, though it only contains 50, also ignored Ghostbusters.  Whatever you may say of Ghostbusters II, the first one is quotable from beginning to end and still holds up.  Drag it out sometime and watch it.  I do pretty regularly.

What do you think of these lists?  Just as a note, the Premiere list was not presented in order of 1-50, per se, but by year it was made/released.  They don't have rankings, therefore.  Those are just the 50.

Re: AFI's 100 Funniest - Comedy and the Oscars (a List in Progress)

I thought I'd revive this discussion, even though I am the only one who seems to have been having it.  I just watched Some Like It Hot again (for the second time), and I'm still baffled as to why this gets top honors on AFI's Funniest List when it fails to make me laugh.  I sort of chuckle at Jack Lemmon, but it's not the roll-on-the-ground-clutching-your-sides-type-funny you would expect it to be for such a high ranking, at least not to me (but I know I'm not the only one who feels this way).  Which makes me wonder if I've even got it right.  Is my sense of humor out of wack?  Or do I not appreciate the finest sensibilities of art versus comedy?  Can't comedy be an art form?  If comedy can be artsy, does the artsy quality detract from the funny?  What's the perfect balance?  And is there a film that strikes it - and if that film is Some Like It Hot, let's talk about why.

A SpoutBlogger raised a similar question here:
http://www.spout.com/blogs/spoutblog/archive/2008/1/3/23470.aspx

Talking about filims such as Superbad and Juno, successful comedies of 2007, versus arguably classier fare (nevermind that Juno was nominated for Best Picture, but the point is made).

And one of the commenters provided an indepedent film society's annual ranking of what they consider to be the funniest films:

http://www.chlotrudis.org/favorite/funny.html

Here, Some Like It Hot is rated #4, while Monty Python and the Holy Grail, a film I personally find gutbustingly hilarious is #1 (and that film never even made the AFI list!).

How does comedy get measured?  What criteria go into deciding what constitutes a funny film (and the funniest of all, no less)? I compiled that Premiere magazine list in 2006 (pop culture mag yes, but a good gauge of non-hoity toity institutions like the comedy-snubbing Academy or the AFI), which didn't even bother to rank their list of 50 funny films.  Maybe that's the way to go.

So how do we do it?  How can this classification be anything but suggestive?  Is it a matter of classifying the craft of comedy versus the response of whether or not the film makes you laugh?

I invite the group to discuss this.  What do you think?

Re: AFI's 100 Funniest - Comedy and the Oscars (a List in Progress)

pippin06:

I thought I'd revive this discussion, even though I am the only one who seems to have been having it.  I just watched Some Like It Hot again (for the second time), and I'm still baffled as to why this gets top honors on AFI's Funniest List when it fails to make me laugh.  I sort of chuckle at Jack Lemmon, but it's not the roll-on-the-ground-clutching-your-sides-type-funny you would expect it to be for such a high ranking, at least not to me (but I know I'm not the only one who feels this way).  Which makes me wonder if I've even got it right.  Is my sense of humor out of wack?  Or do I not appreciate the finest sensibilities of art versus comedy?  Can't comedy be an art form?  If comedy can be artsy, does the artsy quality detract from the funny?  What's the perfect balance?  And is there a film that strikes it - and if that film is Some Like It Hot, let's talk about why.

I saw Some Like It Hot not too long ago as well, and was quite disappointed knowing it's reputation.  I did not laugh too much.  It was also my first Marilyn Monroe movie too, and I find her quite irritating.  This is also now my least favorite Billy Wilder film I've seen.  So I have no idea why it's number one on this list.

There are a couple others high up on the list that I don't laugh at all either like The Graduate.  Annie Hall and MASH don't really make me laugh out loud either.  But then you get Airplane!, the Marx Brothers, and Mel Brooks films all up high on the list too, and those all make me laugh outloud almost constantly.  And then of course there is Dr. Strangelove at #3 which is no only one of the most laugh out loud hilarious movies, it is also one of the greatest movies of all time in every other category as well.  I guess there's just quite a mix on the list of movies for people with different senses of humor.

pippin06:

Here, Some Like It Hot is rated #4, while Monty Python and the Holy Grail, a film I personally find gutbustingly hilarious is #1 (and that film never even made the AFI list!).

Well you seem to forget that this is the American Film Institute's list of America's Funniest Movies.  Monty Python is 100% British so I don't think it counts.  If we started letting those Brits and even those Canadians in we'd have a lot more to contend with.

Re: AFI's 100 Funniest - Comedy and the Oscars (a List in Progress)

Oh yes, you're certainly right.  I forgot about the American part.  Though, there's lots of examples of when they bent those rules to include some films with American filmmakers or simply produced by American studios (such as Lawrence of Arabia).  But I guess Monty Python doesn't qualify, even with bendy rules - which is good.  Though Terry Gilliam is an American, and he was a co-director....but that's probably too bendy. 

I actually like Annie Hall.  It makes me laugh more than any other Woody Allen film that I've seen, anyway.  But I would look at that film being more of a comedy drama.  As I would the Graduate (I didn't laugh at that film either!).  So it seems the AFI didn't restrict their list exclusively to straight comedies.  I think I want to be come a member, just to see how these films get chosen.

I guess there's just quite a mix on the list of movies for people with different senses of humor.

And that's what begs the topical questions.  How do you rank films that have so many styles of sense of humor and say one is better than the other one?  And I'm not just talking about the AFI.  I'm talking about any list.  Where does a ranking institution even begin, knowing that humor is so opinion-based, so varied by individual?  I mean, lots of people clearly like Some Like It Hot, but it obviously does not have universal appeal on the comedy front.

So, I'll start a poll, a la the Top 5 concept (stolen from the Top 5 group - thanks).  What are the five funniest films you've ever seen, and explain why you chose them.  I think this'll be an interesting experiment.  Don't look at any lists.  Just pick the five that strike your funny bone the most and tell us about them.  I'll tally anything that gets the most votes.  This will only work with participation.

I'm going to think about mine for a bit, though I'm positive a Monty Python movie will make the cut (it'll be tough to choose between Holy Grail and the Life of Brian, but I'm thinking I might favor the former, just because I quote it all the time).