Here's a top 20 we can all (not) agree on: the funniest movies of all time. I based these on a few factors: Quotability: how much I quote these movies, how much they change my everyday speech, etc. Immediate re-watchability: When these movies first come out on DVD, do I immediately wear it out, or do I watch it once then shelve it for months? Long-term re-watchability: Do they hold up over time? Or do they get old to the point where they become un-watchable at a certain point? And lastly and most basic, how much do I laugh when I watch them? The vast majority of the movies I have on my list do not feature intricate plots of subtle humor. I want to be laughing out loud, or "LOLing" throughout the movie. Usually, newer movies, or movies I have seen less, will be rated higher, so I tried to factor in how much I liked the movie at the time it came out, so as to pay proper respect to them. So without further ado:
The Last 5 Out: Baseketball, Austin Powers 2, Dodgeball, Borat, Caddyshack.
20. Wet Hot American Summer Pluses: If you like stupid comedy, this is one for you. A couple of LOL scenes. Paul Rudd. Minuses: A few realllly stupid parts. One of the worst endings ever.
19. Ace Ventura Pet Detective Pluses: When it came out, arguably the funniest movie I had ever seen. Lots of good quotes, changed how we all talked for awhile. Minuses: When it came out, I was like 11. It has not held up very well.
18. Zoolander Pluses: This one sort of started the whole "Frat Pack" with Ben Stiller, Owen Wilson, Will Ferrell, etc. Great movie to watch while hammered. Good quotes. Great re-watchability. The kind of movie where you're always happy when you stumble across it on TV. Minuses: Not many, so I'll say that Ferrell should've been more involved.
17. Superbad Pluses: Great one-liners. The whole sub-plot with McLovin and the cops. Jonah Hill finally gets his shot at headlining a movie. A couple of parts where I am doubled over in laughter. Minuses: A few parts drag. Like the other movies done by this comedy troop (40 Year Old Virgin, Knocked Up), could be about 20 minutes shorter. I just saw this, so this rating is undoubtedly either too high or too low.
16. Billy Madison Pluses: Adam Sandler in a nutshell. Lots of good one-liners. At the time was a top 5 movie. Minuses: Adam Sandler in a nutshell. Still good, but has fallen a lot for me the last couple years.
15. Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery Pluses: I can't really say enough about Mike Myers. The Austin Powers movies were a whole new kind of comedy. Dr. Evil is one of the funniest characters ever. Re-watchability is really, really high. Minuses: I can't think of many. The only reason this movie is so low is that all the movies in the trilogy kind of run together for me.
14. South Park: Bigger, Longer, and Uncut Pluses: I am a HUGE fan of Trey Parker and Matt Stone. For whatever reason, they own the keys to my comedy car. Great re-watchability. It's getting up on 10 years and I still love this movie almost as much as when it came out. Minuses: Most of the songs are hiiii-larious, but a couple aren't. This movie is dangerously close to a musical.
13. Team America Pluses: Once again, Parker and Stone. Puppets always, always make me laugh. There is lots of blatantly stupid humor, but also legitmately funny, well-written parts too. Maybe the hardest I have ever laughed in a movie theater was during this movie. Minuses: Like South Park, lots of songs. Although pretty much all of these songs are great, especially the montage song. The more I think about this movie, the more I think I have it too low.
12. Big Lebowski Pluses: Hall of Fame performances by Jeff Bridges and John Goodman. Good re-watchability. Great soundtrack throughout. Gratuitous use of swear words, which makes for a great drinking game before kickball. Good minor characters by John Turturro and Steve Buscemi. Minuses: This is easily the worst movie on this list to watch on TV, due to the editing. "You see what happens Larry? This is what happens when you find a stranger in the Alps!" Schneweis will be very angry at this somewhat low rating.
11. Super Troopers Pluses: Immediate re-watchability is through the roof. Tons of good one-liners that become incorporated into everyday speech, to the point that I don't even realize I'm quoting this movie. I loved this movie before it was popular, and got to pimp it to all my friends. In the theater, there was only one other couple in attendance, and they walked out halfway through, and I had to put my foot down with my girlfriend at the time because she wanted to walk out too. Minuses: I haven't watched it recently,and I'm thinking it might fade quite a bit over time. We'll see. Also, I could do without full frontal male nudity.
10. Austin Powers: Goldmember Pluses: We have discussed A.P. already. I chose this one as my favorite maybe because it has more one-liners, or maybe because it's newer. Whatever, they're all awesome. Minuses: Beyonce. She is, by a wide margin, the worst of the Powers' Girls. I could say that some of the running gags get a little old after 3 movies, but they really don't. I wish they would make a 4th movie.
9. 40 Year Old Virgin Pluses: I can't say enough about the first hour and a half. The "You Know How I Know You're Gay?" scene. Paul Rudd. Seth Rogen. Romany Malco (maybe my favorite under-the-radar actor. He is also awesome in the TV show Weeds and the VH1 movie where he plays MC Hammer. If you watch the end credits when they are all dancing, Malco even pulls out the Hammer dance.) If the entire movie was about those guys, this might be top 5. Minuses: The last half hour is pretty much unwatchable for me. I literally shut it off every time with about a half hour to go. As good as the first 75% is, that's how bad the last 25% is.
8. Harold & Kumar Go To Whitecastle Pluses: Tons and tons of re-watchability. Good one-liners. Great soundtrack. The scene where they pick up Doogie Howser is fantastic. Who knew that Van Wilder's assistant and the Asian guy from the MILF scene in American Pie would be so funny? Minuses: Not many of my friends know of or like this movie very much, so I'm usually going it alone on this one. What can I say? This movie just does it for me.
7. Knocked Up Pluses: Awesome one-liners. Seth Rogen and Paul Rudd again. Rogen, in particular, is fantastic. And I don't know if Rudd has done anything I haven't found hilarious. The immediate re-watchability is great; I have seen it 3 times and it's not out on DVD yet. The scene at the dinner table where they talk about Back to the Future. The whole subplot where they make fun of their friend's beard to get him to shave it. Minuses: Basically the exact same drawbacks as 40 Year Old Virgin. Judd Apatow (who wrote and directed both movies), apparently likes to make a great hour and a half comedy, then add another half hour to have a moral/happy ending, which features only a couple of laughs. I won't quite shut off this movie....but it'll be close. Also, there is a deleted scene where Jonah Hill talks about Brokeback Mountain which features the line "I don't need to see Anne Hathaway's tits! I need to see Jake Gyllenhaal on all fours gettin' a mouth full of Ledger!" Here, watch it. This needs to be in the movie. Somewhere.
6. Happy Gilmore Pluses: Great immediate re-watchability. Still holds up over time. Lots of great one-liners, and lots of everyday use one-liners. Julie Bowen in her prime. This movie had a couple effects on society: people calling each other Shooter mockingly, and people trying to hit golf balls like Happy, at least once. The minor characters are unparalleled: the caddy, the crazy fan, the big scary guy, Kevin Nealon as a fellow pro golfer, Ben Stiller as the retirement home director. The fight with Bob Barker= legendary. Even the names are awesome: Happy Gilmore. Shooter McGavin. Chubbs Peterson. Minuses: Horrible on TV. Tons and tons of bloopers/errors. That's about it.
5. Wedding Crashers Pluses: Approximately 38,117 one-liners. Turned the activity of wedding crashing, which everyone can do, into an art form. Vince Vaughn at his best. Some of the funniest stuff was improvised by Vaughn and Owen Wilson. Plenty of eye candy throughout the movie. Great re-watchability. Minuses: The last part drrrraaaagggs. If not for the appearance of Will Ferrell, it would be just about unbearable.
4. Grandma's Boy Pluses: Finally, Adam Sandler's buddies who appear in all of his movies get a chance to make their own. This is pretty much a movie with one one-liner after another. You don't go more than a minute or two, max, without laughing hard. I fell madly in love with Nick Swardson after this movie. The geek from Dodgeball returns to play one of my favorite characters ever: JP, the child prodigy who talks in a robot voice when he's nervous. Jonah Hill, Kevin Nealon, David Spade, and even Diesel (my favorite WWF wrestler when I was 10) have great roles. Re-watchability is ridiculous. This movie holds a special spot in my heart because I introduced it to just about every single person I know before it blew up. Minuses: On the flip side of "discovering" it in my part of the world, now I get mad when I hear random people quoting it, like I own rights or something. Especially when Swardson came to G.F. to do stand-up, and everyone went out to rent it so they knew what he was talking about.
3. Tommy Boy Pluses: Rewatchability. One-liners. Everyday use one-liners. Altered my life when it came out. Chris Farley and David Spade were a pretty much unbeatable team. Absolutely ridiculously funny to a 6th grader. Minuses: I don't know how much of this ranking is me trying to pay homage to my favorite movies growing up or if it's deserved. There are lots of movies I would rather watch on this list right now. It stills holds up pretty well, but the comedy is definitely not as edgy 12 years old.
2. Anchorman Pluses: I can say with a straight face that 95% of everything that comes out of someone's mouth in this movie counts as a one-liner. This movie changed my life more than any other. I regularly talk in an Anchorman tone of voice when being sarcastic now. When it first came out on DVD, St. Aubyn and I watched it probably 25 times the first week. When we were out drinking, we magically morphed into Ron Burgundy and Brian Fantana, to the point where we would piss everyone else off, to which we would reply in some Anchorman line, laugh, and continue on. After a year and a half, I had to get a new DVD because my first one wore out. I don't even know if I can adequately describe how much this movie means to me, and this paragraph is borderline non-sensical, so I'll stop trying. Minuses: The plot really is awful. Just awful. But you're laughing throughout, so you barely have time to realize how dumb it is. Also, is this rating boosted because of memories of St. Aubyn and I acting afool? Probably. I suppose that's part of the ranking system.
1. Dumb & Dumber Pluses: As much as I can go on about Anchorman, Dumb & Dumber was even better. It taught a whole generation of kids about comedy. Rewatchability. Holds up over time. Good from start to finish. One-liners. Everyday use one-liners. Even mannerisms from this movie have become part of my everyday personality. Jim Carrey hitting his ceiling. I can't remember a movie that had more hype right when it came out, and this is when I was 12, before I read things on the internet and things like that. This was the first movie I ever saw twice in the theater, which is big because it was like a week's allowance just to go see it. Minuses: None. I defy someone to find something wrong with Dumb & Dumber.
My brain hurts. Argue away.
