8 Great: The Funniest Comedies of the Modern Film Era

Big Nyuks!
Interestingly enough, it is much harder to make people laugh than it is to make them cry.
Comedieswith a tough row to hoe given that opening facthave been mainstays of filmmaking from
the earliest hand-cranked camera days, however.
What passed back then for comic moments on film comprised relatively unsophisticated slapstick
vignettes of now-tired visual clichs: the comic chase scene; slipping on a banana peel; a pie in the
face; an innocent bystanders taking an accidental konk on the head from an oblivious worker
shouldering a lengthy two-by-four.
The comedic shorts of Mack Sennetts Keystone Kops, almost all of Charlie Chaplins movies, and the
cliff-hanging antics of physical-comedianwunderkind Harold Lloyd all relied on pratfalls as the basis
for their humor.
Most of these early efforts, while funny within the context of their time, have not aged well though
many are still amusing and are considered pioneering efforts in filmmaking (Sennetts camera
techniques, Chaplins storytelling and character development, Lloyds derring-do in his stunt work).
When silent films, and their broad physical comedy, gave way to sound motion pictures audiences
came to appreciate the more cerebral humor offered by on-screen verbal jesting/jousting. A keystone
of good comedy is timing of shtick: sound made possible capturing that intangible variable. And none
had better timing with a wry or sardonic take on a situation than the incomparable Groucho Marx.
The films made by his brothers and him rank as classics, not only in the comedy genre but in motion
picture history overall as well.
Like run-of-the-mill dramas and big-budget action/adventure films, there are many popular comedies
made yearly, with some years being much worse than others (such as 2008: Forgetting Sarah
Marshall, Zack and Miri Make a Porno, and Pineapple Express, all totally unfunny, though lucrative).
Bad comedies probably comprise the worst films of any time frame: the coming-of-age, got-to-goto-the-big-party teen movie (filled with lame sex, supposedly funny drug references, and other
shenanigans some idiot filmmaker thinks is clever); the buddy film (as in The Hangover franchise);
or the crummy ensemble, barely there, concept of all the Police Academy movies.
Good comediessuch as the rom-com When Harry Met Sally (1989), the sincerely disjointedly goofy
Caddyshack (1980), or the funny horror of Ghostbusters (1984)are clever, well-written, and wellacted. Good comedies stand out among the dreck, and there are many.
Great comedies, on the other hand, are rare. They can be easily differentiated from their lesser
brethren; the tell, mostly, is in the writing. Are the one-liners and comedic set-ups truly funny or
merely pandering (as in making flavor-of-the-minute jokes or sex jokes for no reason when such
humor may not further the films premise nor add depth or pathos to a character)?
The ones that manage to overcome that lowest-common-denominator appeal and reach a desirable
level of quality dwell in the collective psyche well after their initial runs. These films are durable

because of their acting, excellent joke writing and set-ups, and their character development. Many of
their best gags and wordplay are quoted as meaningful and of-the-moment, even finding ways into
common parlance.
The following chronological ordering isnt a ranking of favorite comedies (which is why Happy
Gilmorefunny, but not greator Stripesmildly amusing, but also not greatarent here). This is a batch
of truly great, fall-down-funny comedies of the modern era. They are smart, made by sharp people
who know a good joke and who clearly understand humor.
Here youll meet a black sheriff in the American Old West; Arthur, King of the Britons; a naive
simpleton; a rockin band with problems; a white trash Odysseus; a team of anti-terrorist
mercenaries; a middle-aged man who cant make it with the ladies; and a babe-in-the-woods foreign
tourist.
If your favorite isnt here, go watch another Porkys or American Pie moviewhat follows is brilliance,
not tripe!
No, gol dang it, dang blum it! The new sheriff is a ni
In the early 1970s, race issues and racism were hot-button topics in America. On the small screen
the subject of racismwas handled (or mishandled) by actor Carroll OConnors working class slob,
Archie Bunker, in the classic American sitcom, All in the Family.
The big screen, though, barely touched on the subject (unless you want to count blaxploitation films
like Shaft or Scream, Blacula, Scream as vanguards of race sensitivity.)
It took a Jewish comedian to really bring racism into the light of day for what it was: a silly,
malicious waste of time. That guy was Mel Brooks. And his take on racism (with some writing help
from stand-up comic, Richard Pryor) was immortalized in a Western comedy, Blazing Saddles.
The film starred Cleavon Little (d: 1992) as Bart, a black railroad worker in post-Civil War American
West. It is discovered that, thanks to an unavoidable quicksand patch, the rail line on which Bart is
working must be diverted to go right through Rock Ridge, a small, typical, late-19th Century
Western town filled with WASP-y people. A corrupt state politician wants the Rock Ridge land for
cheap so he can make a fortune selling it for right-of-way to the approaching railroad. To do that, he
needs to rid the town of its citizens.
He first tries using thugs and criminal types to drive them off. This doesnt work. Then, Bart, the exrailroad worker (just as he is about to be hanged for striking a white man) is appointed as the new
sheriff of Rock Ridge. The idea here is that the good people of Rock Ridge will be so incensed about
the new black sheriffs presence they will abandon the town, leaving it wide open for the politician to
move in and grab up the land. Either that or they will kill him, thus creating a civil strife issue
wherein a move can be made on the town.
The towns denizens are all named Johnson (theres even a Howard Johnson; in the cantankerous
prospector role is a grubby townsman named Gabby Johnson). When Sheriff Bart hits town, the good
folk there are taken aback by this black man in their midst.
This movies jokes are sharp, and over its course hilarious anachronisms abound. For example, a pair
of Klansmen can be seen wearing the iconic yellow-and-black Have a Nice Day happy face on the
backs of their late-19th Century white robes. References to other movies are put in the dialog for

fun.
And there are musical numbers, too. The townspeople croon a little lament early in the film about
how the town is going down the drain thanks to the hired thugs sent in to torment them. Madeline
Kahn (in her role as a Bavarian songstress, Lili von Shtupp (!), billed as The Teutonic Titwillow)
sings a song about being tired of men.
Most notable, though, is the great Frankie Laines take on the films theme song, Blazing Saddles. In
an anniversary edition of the DVD Mel Brooks noted in the bonus features that Laine was
approached to do the song without being told what the movie was about. [He only knew it was a
Western, thats about it.] Since Western movie songs were part of his body of work (High Noon,
among others) he readily agreed to do it.
He gave his all on that recording, and the sincerity is clear in his voice. He also did it live, giving
very emotionally charged performances. Until he finally saw the movie: then, he distanced himself
from the song.
The movie breaks the fourth wall in a few places, most notably in its final scenes in a non-sequitured,
surreal finale that, among other things, features a gay chorus line singing a tune called The French
Mistake.
In the end, Sheriff Bart saves the town of Rock Ridge, and the people all come to (mostly) realize
that racism is wrong.
Ni!
In the realm of totally lunatic comedies none transcends the sheer silliness combined with screwball
non-sequiturs better than the granddaddy of all parodies, 1975s Monty Python and the Holy Grail.
[For the fetus-y reader, Monty Python was the name of a mid- to late-20th Century British comedy
troupe and was not the name of any one person. The group had a classic, groundbreaking British TV
show, Monty Pythons Flying Circus, which ran from 1969 to 1974.]
This movie was made in the wake of their first one, And Now for Something Completely Different
(which was really nothing more than a series of comedic sketches performed by the Python guys). [It
was financed by Hugh Hefners Playboy juggernaut; it did fairly well in the UK for very little cash
outlay. Its intent, though, was to help bring the Python brand to the attention of Americansthe movie
was not successful in the US.]
For their next outing the Python fellers wanted something more epic with a narrative, a complete
story with a beginning, middle, and an end. They chose a retelling of the Arthurian legend with their
particular twist on events.
Its opening scene sets the silly tone for the whole film. King Arthur (played by Graham Chapman of
the Python group) emerges from a mist on the heath accompanied by the sound of hoof beats.
Immediately you notice he is pantomiming riding a horse, with his hand raised as if holding reins,
and galloping with his legs as a child does when using a stick horse.
The hoof beats? The sound is made by his squire, Patsy, who rides behind Arthur clacking a pair of
coconut shells together. This old Foley artist sound trick is hilarious! It is also the basis for a few
plot developments. [And use of the clacking coconut shells, instead of real horses, was a cost-cutting
measure. The films budget was very low, only $400,000 (around $3 million today). They simply

couldnt afford the care and maintenance of animals, going so far as to borrow a white rabbit from a
local woman for the killer rabbit scene.]
Scene after scene pushes the envelope of comedy further than ever before presented on-screen.
Arthurs hilarious battle with The Black Knight (which includes much smack talk), a knights
encounter in Castle Anthrax (occupied only by young, virginal women), and the crusaders comically
terrifying encounter with The Knights Who Say Ni (a syllable whose utterance causes severe distress
to those who hear it) among many others can stand alone as episodes within the film.
The movie also functions as a brilliant satire on the ignorance and superstitions of the Dark Ages,
and this scene is one of its funniest:
Monty Python and the Holy Grail contains musical numbers, great visual and verbal gags, running
jokes, and a true surprise of an ending.
You mean Im gonna stay this color?
Steve Martin had already established himself as Americas, and perhaps the worlds, main celebrity
stand-up comic by the late 1970s. He had carved a niche for himself with great one-liners, small
stories with funny endings, and theater-of-the-absurd type bits (such as doing a comedy routine for a
small audience consisting of dogs). He was a favored talk show guest and host of Saturday Night
Live. Hed even written a book, Cruel Shoes, which consisted of several, mostly one- to two-page,
comedic musings.
He was a household name, and some of his catchphrases from his stand-up (Excuuuuuuse meeeeee!,
Because I am a wild and crazy guy!) passed into everyday usage.
Perhaps wanting to stretch he took on acting with 1979s comedy-gold classic, The Jerk. The title
alone is funny. In a late-night, talk-show interview Steve said the title came from simply thinking
about what kind of person the central character in the movie was, and claimed that he thought it
was something that even the Judeo-Christian god might use as an appellation for such a person:
What a jerk!
This film opens with a grubby, slow-speaking Navin R. Johnson (the character Steve Martin portrays)
obviously living, homeless, on the street talking to the camera. He is engaged in a one-sided
conversation with an unseen party: Im not a bum; Im a jerk . . . my story? . . . I was born a poor black
child . . . The movie is then told mostly in flashback form.
We see a younger Navin, very Caucasian, living in a ramshackle Mississippi sharecroppers hovel
with a large African-American family. He calls the adults Mom and Dad, and he has several brothers
and sisters. He knows this is his family; yet, something is wrong (and the crocodile tears streaming
down his face clearly register his angst):
After learning he is adopted and discovering a kind of music on the radio that speaks to him (polka)
he sets out on a jerks odyssey to St. Louis, Missouri (the source of the radio broadcast).
His adventures along the way are uproarious. He gets a job first at a gas station, then at a carnival.
His first experience with the opposite sex is with a tough-acting carny, a female daredevil
motorcyclist. He then meets a nice girl, Marie (played adorably by Bernadette Peters with whom
Martin had a romantic relationship at the time).

During his brief employment at the gas station Navin met a customer, a businessman who was
having trouble keeping his eyeglasses from sliding off his face. The man holds out his glasses and
rhetorically states, Damn these glasses, son! Navin, pointing a rebuking finger at the glasses, says,
Yes, sir! I damn thee! He then takes the mans glasses into the stations automotive service bay and
returns a bit later having affixed a handle to the bridge of the glasses that anchors the frame
securely to the nose while giving the wearer something to hold when putting on or taking them off.
While Navin later struggles to find his place in the world with Marie the businessman takes Navins
eyeglasses gizmo and manufactures it to great success. Called the Opti-Grab, it makes Navin (who
was given 50% of the revenue generated from sales for the device) into a millionaire overnight.
He and Marie subsequently embark on the most mirthful white-trash spending spree ever filmed.
Their nouveau riche tastes are questionable as is their attempts to fit in with a more cultured
society. In an upscale restaurant, for example, Navin is incensed when he sees a plate delivered to
Marie (who had ordered escargots) with snails on it!

Many big comedic moments are here as well as some throwaway jokes (such as this gem):
Navin: You know, you have beautiful skin . . . Amazing. Are you a model?
Marie: No. Im a cosmetologist.
Navin: Really? A cosmetologist? Thats unbelievable! Thats impressive! It must be tough to handle
weightlessness!
The Opti-Grab, however, proves to be a loser for Navinits users (most notably film director, Carl
Reiner, appearing as himself) are all becoming cross-eyed. The placement of the Opti-Grab on any
pair of glasses, it seems, is a visual magnet, hypnotically forcing people to gaze inward at their
noses, rendering them permanently cock-eyed. A class-action suit against Navin finds him having to
issue refunds to all buyers.
Broke, Navin is forced to leave his new palatial home, taking only those things he thinks he needs (a

paddle-ball game, an ashtray, a remote control unit, a thermos, etc.). He ends up a street person.
But all is not lost. As he had been sending money home to his family in Mississippi from the time of
his first job, his dad invested the funds and now his formerly poor black family is rich. They even
built a bigger house (and in one of the movies funniest visual gags we see the new house is literally
that: a scaled-up Karina Lynne version of the exact same shack!)
This rags-to-riches-to-rags-and-back-to-riches comedy ranks highly in any published top or funniest
list of all time. The film was written by Martin (with two co-writers) and directed by Carl Reinerboth
produced terrific moments of genius in this hilariously absurd Everymans story.
These go to eleven!
The subject is a hard-rock band in its latter years struggling to stay relevant and to keep rockin.
1984s This is Spinal Tap (when properly printed it is missing the dot over the letter i and has a
heavy-metal looking umlaut over the n in spinal, which I couldnt make stick in MS Word here) is the
funniest movie about a fake band ever made.
Michael McKean (formerly Lenny from American TVs mid 1970s sitcom, Laverne & Shirley) is Spinal
Taps lead vocalist, rhythm guitarist, and songwriter, David St. Hubbins. [We learn in the film that
the little-known saint, Hubbins, was the patron saint of quality footwear.]
Christopher Guest (now Lord Christopher Guest, thank you very much), a British actor, featured on
Saturday Night Live (one year, 1984-85). He is the lead guitarist, songwriter, and resident dimbulb,
Nigel Tufnel.
Rounding out the main force is actor Harry Shearer, best known for his voice on Fox TVs long
running animated sitcom, The Simpsons (he gives vocal life to Ned Flanders, Mr. Burns, and many
others). Harry is the bassist, Derek Smalls.
The movie is done up in documentary style, which director and narrator Rob Reiner describes as a
rockumentary, about the band. The jokes are subtle and many. Straightaway, Reiner talks about Tap
as not only the loudest band in music but also the most punctual.
The film revolves around the bands US Tour (a sort of comeback, though in their minds they never
really went away) to promote their new album, Smell the Glove. After the groups management
received complaints about what would have been a very sexist album cover (and the parody here
about any metal-band album cover of the early Eighties is obvious) someone makes the decision to
release the record with a plain black cover with no graphics. [Metallica would steal the Tap idea for
their eponymous 1991 album, now known informally as The Black Album.]
In discussing the look of their new disc the band created a meme: a casual remark by Nigel Tufnel
about how black the cover is came out as None more black. This phrase became part of pop culture
as did many others from the film, particularly this one about the bands modified amps (so they can
be one louder):
This mockumentary follows Tap as they suffer a meltdown. Nigel quits as their tour dates keep
getting canceled, and theyre forced to play downscale venues. In the wake of his departure the rest
of the band forge ahead as a re-imagined jazz-rock fusion called Spinal Tap Mach II.
Tap cant keep drummersall have succumbed to accidental deaths. In one exchange, it was noted one

drummer choked on vomit, though it was never actually established that it was his vomit. Another
drummer died in what was called a bizarre gardening accident. [At the films closing credits onscreen you see their latest drummer spontaneously explode in a puff of smoke onstage.]

In the end, Nigel Tufnel comes back and the band reunites to find they are having huge successin
Japan!with a sophisticated take on love called Sex Farm.
The actors who portray Tap can all play instruments and sing. Their performances are genuine. They
have even cut some discs (This is Spinal Tap, 1984; Break Like the Wind, 1992; and Back From the
Dead, 2009). These are real, full-length sets you can buy (I own the first two myself) and the songs
are funny: Big Bottom; Hell Hole, Bitch School, they can all make you chuckle.
For anyone whos ever toured with a band Taps road issues are not only amusing but probably strike
very close to home. Again, I say, this is the best movie ever, comedy or otherwise, about a fake band.
[Much better than Spice World, 1997s not-so-funny movie about another fake group.]
Yer my sister!
Yeah, you dont want to hear it, but listen up: 2001s Joe Dirt, starring David Spade in the title antiheroic role, is comedy platinum!
This film is a millennial version of The Jerk. It follows the adventures of a sad-sack, white trash
Everyman named Joe Dirt as he searches for his birth parents to find out why they abandoned him as
a child at the Grand Canyon while on vacation.
Oh, and Joe Dirt has another problem: when he was born, his skull was unformed and his mother
plunked a longish, blond, womans wig on his head to cover it. Over time his skull and scalp fused
into the wig material and its now stuck on his head. In the intervening years, Dirt cut his wig into a
mullet, and that is how we see him when he first appears in the movie, driving a beater car, with
razored longish sideburns and that horrific, dated mullet. [Business in the front; party in the back!]
Dirt has a janitorial job at a radio station and one day he gets corralled by a radio talk show host
(played snarkily by Dennis Miller). He is having a slow day on-air and he talks Joe Dirt into giving his
life story for broadcast. Dirt does, and the movie takes off from there in a series of flashbacks
interlaced with the present.
David Spade plays Joe Dirt to the white trashiest hilt, but you cant help but like the guy. Hes
pathetic in many ways but is loyal and carries his own personal code of honor. He is a horrible
braggart which gets him into trouble, and he also carries a false sense of bravado.
He finds a great town in which to live and meets a wonderful girl, but a local muscle-car drivin bully,
played smarmily enough by Kid Rock, interferes with Dirts plans time and again.

Because he is a wannabe gearhead, Joe Dirts ultimate goal is to own a specific sweet ride and he
finds such a car only to lose out on it when he is suddenly carried away in a hot air balloon.
Afterward, he meets up with an ex-Mob guy in witness protection (played for terrific laughs by
Christopher Walken, who almost seems to be doing a parody of himself). He finds some other
friends: an Indian who wants to sell fireworks; a woman who runs an alligator farm; another girl
whom Joe Dirtafter having sex with herthinks might be his sister (!). [Spoiler alert: shes not.]
The juvenile exchanges between Dirt and Kid Rocks punk-ass white trash thug are funny. Rock,
tormenting Dirt, asks him if hes going to cry: You want me to call you a wahhhh-mbulance? and You
want some French cries with your wahhhh-mburger?
Dirts travels finally lead him to his parents; he finds that they are complete white trash losers with
whom he wants no part. He ends up with the girl he was crazy about, gets his classic car back, and
shows up Kid Rock. He also has his wig hair done up in dreads (to keep up with the times).
David Spade and comedian Fred Wolf (a writer for Saturday Night Live for several years as well as a
performer there) crafted a brilliantly funny and, yet, sympathetic character in Joe Dirt. The oneliners are excellent, and the take on Christopher Walkens character is hysterical. There is also a
howlingly funny reference to Silence of the Lambs:
It puts the Joe Dirt in the hole!it dont git no bettern that!
You may not think much of it, but this small movie is great comedy, and its greatness will be better
appreciated in the upcoming years, especially if Joe Dirt 2, which will almost certainly suck out loud,
gets made.
[Note: Joe Dirt 2:Beautiful Loser was released by Sony Pictures on its Sony-owned website, Crackle,
on July 16, 2015. The film was direct-to-digital, the equivalent of direct-to-VHS status back in the
day. The plot involves Joe Dirts traveling back in time; as predicted by Yours Truly in the original
text above it sucked out loud!]
Remember, there is no I in Team America
The administration of presidential pretender, 43rd US President, George W. Bushwho stole his first
election thanks to election-fraud cronyism in Floridawas the worst of times for America.
In the wake of the 9/11 attack (September 11, 2001, on Ws first watch) on the World Trade Centers
Twin Towers in New York City, and on the Pentagon outside Washington, DC., terrorism was
suddenly front page news. Never mind such activities had been with us from shore-to-shorein the
form of domestic terroristsand elsewhere in the world for decades. It was this nuevo foreign
terrorism that, we were told, was our main concern.
According to W (I cant bring myself to type his full name more than once, I hate him and what he did
to our country so much) our problems didnt stem from his driving our economy into oblivion (that
ultimately put us into a very bad recession). Nor was it the related joblessness, or a lack of a
presidential presence on the home front. Nope, it wasnt even that we were stuck with a president
who was mentally retarded that was wrong with America. No, it was terrorism that was the cause for
all our fiscal and moral-decay issuesThey hate us and our way of life!
Because W should never have been president, but somehow was (and even got re-elected in, that
one instance, a fair election), we ended up in a very stupid and expensive war in Iraq in the wake of

the 9/11 attacks from which only the subsequentand more intelligent and competentpresident,
Barack Hussein Obama, extricated us. [Oh, and while W might have got Iraqs evil dictator, Saddam
Hussein, President Barack Obama got the king daddy of all evil doers, Osama bin Ladenresponsible
for 9/11which makes Obama mas macho than W and his dadwho failed to get Saddam Hussein the
first time around during the artificially constructed first Iraq warcombined.]
During Ws administration it seemed terrorists lurked everywhere. Under his revisionary
McCarthyism it was our job, as Americans, to not only ferret out terrorists but to ensure that other
countries, who had been doing fine without our intervention, somehow benefited from our wisdom
(or at least Ws take on what he thought might be construed as wisdom).
Thankfully, we have the creators of the animated Comedy Central series South Park, Trey Parker
and Matt Stone. Bringing home the stoopidity of Ws War on Terror to the sheeple who voted for him,
this pair gave us Team America: World Police in 2004. This film absolutely and splendidly skewers
everything that was brain damaged about the junior Bushs administration (which was pretty much
everything). And in this movie the writers recognized that the real threat to world peace wasnt Iraq,
it was North Korea (which the entire international intelligence community has known and tried to
make clear to the world for decades).
The War on Terror (which meant creating the evil that is the United States Homeland Security, an
organization that, like the IRS, has absolute right of search and seizure, can arrest you and detain
you without cause or due process, and can ruin your life while doing its dirty work) is exposed in
parody and satire in this movie for what it isan expansionist joke that costs billions of dollars and
much more in terms of human life while destroying those things that might be good in other
cultures. [And the United States has no expansionist policy, thats the real irony here. We dont
colonize: we only go in and force our will on people, then leave! Kinda just like real police, only were
the worlds police, get it?]
Oh, the fun part I forgot to mention: while pimp-slapping Americas Bush-driven idiocy this movie
uses puppetsspecifically marionettesto get its comedic job done.
And do that job well it does indeed. The puppeteers work was initially so good, with the action so
smooth and human-like, that the marionettes operators had to be told to rough it up to make it
funnier. This means, for example, you see a scene in which a female puppet pokes a male puppet in
his eye while talking about how he may feel in here (referring to his heart).
Team America is a covert group of mercenary types, operating under the aegis of the US
Government. They have a lair behind the faces of Mt. Rushmore and a lot of expensive, James
Bondian toys (aircraft, special ground vehicles, high-powered weaponry). Team America globe trots,
ferreting out terrorists wherever they may be and eliminating them even though a given countrys
cultural artifacts may become collateral damage in the process.
They pretty much blow up and shoot everything in sight. For example, they destroy Paris Eiffel
Tower and Louvre. Team America lays waste to Egypts Great Pyramids. But, the terrorists have been
thwarted!
The late North Korean dictator, Kim Jong Il, is featured as the films baddy, and his caricature is sidesplitting. He apparently has access to weapons of mass destruction (WMDs). [Which Iraq never had,
and thus we had no reason to be at war with Iraq in the first place. Thanks, W, for the nearly trillion
dollars of war expense and debt we never needed!] And, feeling lonely, Kim sings a song about how
ronery he is (the song almost makes you feel sorry for him, its so sadly pathetic).

Another amusing, ongoing riff in the movie is a swipe at Hollywood. These days, actors and
actresses, thanks to their celebrity, seem to think they are experts on things outside the realm of
acting. This is no more true than with that waste of protoplasm, Jenny McCarthy (who is not an
actress, but merely a former TV personality and one-time Playboy model). She gave birth to a kid
with autism but rather than face the fact that it is likely her defective genes or that of her baby
daddy that caused the defect she went on a crusade to blame childhood vaccines (based on a wildly
insane, and discredited, hypothesis).
The Hollywoodites noted in the filmportrayed in gross caricature by marionettes and with purposely
bad voice imitationsare infamous for their pseudo-activism. The movie trounces them maliciously
and deservedly.
The humor and dialogue is fairly raunchy as can be expected from the South Park team, but there
are some sublime moments like when stage actor/Team America potential recruit, Gary Johnston,
encounters Team Americas handler, Spottswoode, for the first time and takes a ride in a flying
limousine:

Gary Johnston: Okay, a limousine that can fly. Now I have seen everything.
Spottswoode: Really? Have you seen a man eat his own head?
Gary Johnston: No.
Spottswoode: So, then, you havent seen everything . . .

There is a sex scene (riotous) between two of the puppets. And the movie also includes several very
funny songs, not the least of which is the theme, America [expletive deleted] Yeah! [It describes our
foreign policy to a tee: . . . Comin in to save the mutha[blank]in day, yeah!] Also featured is Freedom
Isnt Free, perhaps the most entertaining because it slams the bejesus out of those knee-jerk Country
artists who made all those crappy bald-eagle-and-apple-pie songs in the wake of 9/11. [Toby Keith
and Lee Greenwood, suck it!]
As an indictment against Hollywoods pretentious activism by its celebrities, Americas stupidity when
it comes to dealing with foreign cultures, and the rampant and absurd extreme right-wing
conservatism prevalent today this movie nails it all to the wall.
Cartoony, frantic, and truly great.
Im a virgin. I always have been.
Okay, some comedies must rely on sex jokes to get their point across particularly if the main plot
device involves sex.
Or, in this case, the lack of it.
Steve Carell (formerly of Comedy Centrals Daily Show and NBC TVs adaptation of the killer Ricky
Gervais British comedy, The Office) really broke out as a true star in his first big-screen role, The 40-

Year-Old Virgin (2005).

The movie centers on a socially inept man played by Carell. He lives alone, collects Star Wars action
figures and other geeky memorabilia, works in an electronics store and is a total doofus when it
comes to women. He tries dating, but cant seem to connect enough to get to the sexually intimate
level.
The film also uses the buddy system for laughshis friends at the store where he works all deride him
about his virgin status while also trying to help him out. He goes to a speed dating session. [This is
where women sit around and men wanting to meet women have about two or three minutes time to
have a face-to-face with a woman before an alarm signals them to move on to the next woman.
Ideally, the short interchange is enough to pique a womans curiosity and she will agree to see the
man later for a real date.] Carells babe-in-the-woods acting in this scene is hilarious as are the
women he meets in the session (with great one-liners and quirky character flaws).
Some of the movies funniest bits are toss-offs by Carells co-workers. And one particular scene where
the actors Seth Rogen and Paul Rudd sit around playing a video game while ranking on each other
with the theme You Know How I Know Youre Gay? is a highlight (or lowlight, dependent upon you
feel about such humor, but dammit, its funny!)
Over the course of the movie Carells EveryVirgin finally gets to meet an interesting, caring and
compliant woman. He marries her and finally has sex!
High five!
Probably one of the strangest and funniest movies of the past 40 years, Borat: Cultural Learnings of
America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan, boldly goes where no Borat has gone
before.
This 2006 film was shot in mockumentary style by its lead character, Borat Sagdiyev (played by
Sacha Baron Cohen, a British comedian, on one of the most inventive film roles ever created). Borat
hails from the very real country of Kazakhstan (in Asia, just south of Russia). Because he wants to
help his country gain cachet on the global front he sets out (with limited funding and blessings from
his government) on a public relations tour of America to help bring recognition to his little-known
land.
The movie comprises little in the way of a plot, though one develops as he becomes fixated on TV
actress, Pamela Anderson (of televisions Baywatch fame) and treks across country to find her in
hopes of marrying her.
Cohen (a notorious prankster who tends to stay in character when making a film both on- and offset) made the Borat character look and act like a foreign tourist, complete with cultural navet and
broken and mangled English. Borat has little understanding of vernacular and uses it inappropriately
throughout the film. His other quirk is wanting to high five people for the least little thing, often at
inappropriate times (as in one outtake scene where police are harassing himhe tries to high five one
of the cops who is having none of it).
The movie is made up of vignettes where he interacts with Americansthe people he meets are not
aware the whole act is a put-on; they think he is really from another country, and they treat him as
their personalities might tend to treat any foreigner on US soil (patronizing, or with the patience of
someone talking with a mentally challenged child, or with outright hostility).

Borat travels with a male companion who is there to ensure Kazakhstans best interests are being
met with Borats filmed odyssey. This man is a great, fat, hairy slob of the type that homosexual men
refer to as bears. In the movies grossest scene (but one of its funniest nonetheless) Borat is angry
with his aide-de-campboth men happen to be naked and they begin fighting. The man-on-man nude
wrestling romp that follows is truly riotous.
In the end, Borat meets a bunch of Americans from all walks of life and generally makes them look
silly on camera. Cohen, as a real person, in fact got into some legal trouble when some of his
subjects realized how ridiculous they came off onscreen (racist, homophobic, etc.) and wanted to sue
him.
The movie, for those with very thin skins, could be considered majorly offensive, but thats the whole
point. Its racist and ethnic humor, its mild homophobia, jingoism, and any other topic that the
average sensitive person holds dear get soundly corkscrewed by Borats foreign innocent barbs.
Strangely, the film was banned in all Arab countries except Lebanon (go figure), and the Russian
government threw its two rubles worth in by asking cinema owners not to run it.
Not for the faint of heart, this film is one of the funniest to emerge in the new millennium; someone
will have to go a very long way to beat it for sheer audacity and laughs.
More Stuff to Consider
The movies presented here represent the finest and most durable of comedies; they do not grow
tiresome from repeated viewings (and Ive watched Blazing Saddles and Monty Python and the Holy
Grail more times than I care to admit).
There are, of course, many other, very funny films not included here. Objectively analyzing comedy
is toughone person may go into a laughter induced apoplectic seizure from hearing a joke based on
flatulent sounds (we call them fart jokes) while another (obviously more intelligent) person may not
even smirk.
However, when looking at any comedy and its potential for greatness even a shlub who laughs at the
basest humor should be able to recognize the difference in quality between crummy movies like
Bachelor Party (1984), the truly rancid Weekend at Bernies (1989), or Ride Along (2014) and far
better efforts like Back to the Future (1985) and Office Space (1999).
Its in the writing, the acting, the gag set-ups, and the execution that makes a great comedy great.
And worthwhile.
***
Honorable Mention: Airplane! (1980). This is a typical plane-in-trouble movie, albeit a comedic one.
It is in-your-face-funny with some fantastic and clever word play: A hospital? What is it? Its a big
building with patients. But thats not important right now. And the scene where Beaves mom, June
Cleaver (Barbara Billingsley), speaks jive to a pair of African-American passengers no one on board
can otherwise understand is classic.
The film is a straight-up parody of the horribly formulaic, craptacular Airport movies (the original in
1970, with sequels in 1975, 1977, and 1979) which no one growing up today has probably seen.

Airplane!s gags are all good, but some of the pop cultural reference (allusions to certain TV
commercials that were common then, a scene that recreates a Saturday Night Fever-style disco
dance, et al) havent aged well.
It is still very funny nonetheless. In one scene where a roughly 10-year-old boy offers a cup of coffee
to a similarly aged girl, in response to her being asked if she wants cream in her coffee, she says, I
take it black, like my men. Many of its other jokes are quotable today. And there are a few other
references to classic movie tropes that work well, too.
The ground crew, with Lloyd Bridges and a flamboyantly gay and histrionic air-traffic control
worker, provides other killer laughs. And Leslie Neilson, playing a doctor on board the plane,
deadpans his way through this epic. Good acting from a diverse cast (that included basketball
legend, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar!) and great writing made what could have been a run-of-the-mill
parody film far funnier than it had a right to be.