I want to watch something funny

seelafa

Member
I'd like to watch some funny movies. Suggest me some? Assume I haven't seen even some of the most obvious of comedy picks. But my favorites are *Blazing Saddles,* *Groundhog's Day,* Caddyshack, Ghostbusters, Stranger than Paradisse, and Withnail & I. Spinal Tap too. And that is all the reall goods one I can think of just now. TV shows count I suppose. The best one is Arrested Development.
 

Mr. Tea

Let's Talk About Ceps
Kung Fu Hustle is probably the funniest film I've seen. Might be my favourite film, actually.
 

blacktulip

Pregnant with mandrakes
Those are high watermarks in comedy. I rewatched Groundhog Day a few months ago and it was a very good experience.

I would point to the TV series named Curb Your Enthusiasm, the TV series Seinfeld, and the films The Ruling Class (way underrated), The Jerk, and Fletch (along the lines of the stuff you listed), as well as The Room & American Movie (unintentional but hilarious comedies both).
 

mistersloane

heavy heavy monster sound
Galaxy Quest does it for me.

Also East is East if you're in the UK. Not sure it would translate to other countries.
 

Mr. Tea

Let's Talk About Ceps
I love Curb but can't stand Seinfeld.

Both Curb and Peep Show have got better, I think, as they've progressively got more outrageously cringemaking and less realistic.

Some obvious choices: Flight of the Conchords, Jam or any Chris Morris really, Big Train, The League Of Gentlemen (the first two series and the Christmas special). Father Ted never gets old, unlike a lot of comedy of that era. Even a lot of The Fast Show stands up surprisingly well. 15 Stories High was pretty good but never seemed to really take off to the extent that it deserved to. Spaced was wicked.

I've only seen The Thick Of It a couple of times but it's great, need to see more. In The Loop was masterful.
 

blacktulip

Pregnant with mandrakes
All this Iannucci talk reminded me to say Larry Sanders. I have enjoyed Eastbound & Down a lot recently but it probably doesn't belong in such hallowed company.

Also the scene in The Pope of Greenwich Village when the guy comes back with no thumb cracks me up every time.
 

Mr. Tea

Let's Talk About Ceps
Yeah, I've seen a couple of episodes of EB&D but it seemed more like a farcical drama with funny moments than a comedy per se. Quite good though.

Ianucci's done loads of great stuff - the Armistice, Time Trumpet (remember that? Tesco declaring war on Denmark...), I'm Alan Partridge. Most Coogan stuff actually - Saxondale wasn't as quite good as Partridge but still good for a laugh.

Simon Munnery's The League Against Tedium. That guy Dave something who set out to contact all the people in the world with the same name as him, that was quite good.

I know loads of people who think Black Books was amazing but I found it rather so-so. Just a fairly standard sitcom with Bill Bailey acting a permanently bamboozled stoner and that Irish fella who's always panicking. Meh.
 
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baboon2004

Darned cockwombles.
Great thread. It's a while since anything on screen has made me cackle (apart from the Thick of It, but I'd seen that before).

Heathers is the funniest film I've ever seen.

Iannucci thirded/fourthed. His own series from 2001-ish was excellent, and I just finished watching the Thick of It all the way through. Fucking brilliant, and I didn't even take to it immediately.

As far as typical sitcoms go, I found Black Books rather meh too, but the IT Crowd is massively underrated and often very, very funny (they're both written by Graham Linehan, aren't they?). Flight of the Conchords has similar charm.

Most overrated show ever: Curb Your Enthusiasm. I watched four-five episodes, laughed once.

Interviews with Roy Keane are pretty funny too.
 
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Mr. Tea

Let's Talk About Ceps
I decided to give Seinfeld a chance once. There was actually quite a good joke at one point but what was funny about it was the implied, unspoken punchline. Then one of the characters had to go and spell out the punchline, and I stopped laughing just as the audience went into roflgasms. Really weird. Just one of those transatlantic divide things, I guess.
 

e/y

Well-known member
the first season of The Thick Of It is really great - I think I've seen each episode at least 10 times now and they still make me laugh. I also really love Arrested Development - and I think it actually gets better with repeat viewings.

as far as films, Four Lions is quite funny (though maybe not laugh out loud funny...).
 

Mr. Tea

Let's Talk About Ceps
Blazing Saddles has got Leslie Neilson in it, hasn't it? I still reckon the Naked Gun fillums are worth a watch. It's not 'clever' humour but it hits the spot.

Shaolin Soccer, by the same guy who did Kung Fu Hustle, isn't quite as good but is still pretty funny. Classic good team/bad team sports movie formula (the bad team are called 'Team Evil' and thunderclouds fill the sky as they walk onto the pitch) with physics straight out of an old Warner Bros cartoon and the most ridiculous football scene in any film, ever. And, oddly enough, a genuinely touching love story in amongst all the ridiculousness.
 

crackerjack

Well-known member
Fawlty Towers and Porridge - both classic oldies that (mild racism aside) haven't aged a bit. Fall & Rise of Reginald Perrin from the same era is awesome and really quite radical in its skewering of 70s English middle-class life.

Sacha Baron Cohen is funnier than its fashionable to admit. The Dictator is good and Borat is fucking hilarious (though Bruno should be avoided at all costs).
 
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