I want to laugh my fool head off.

July 2, 2007 12:40 AM

As a guy with a lot of free time on his hands (Student over the summer), I want to catch up on my comedies.

So, what are the funniest films (or collections of TV shows) of all time?
Specifically, I want to laugh my fool head off.
I know I like: 'smart' humor, python-esque absurdist humor (Life of Brian, Holy Grail), movies that are hilariously terrible ( The Last Dragon), 'well done' lowbrow stuff (I loved Anchorman and Zoolander, but could have lived without Talladega Nights), and satire.

Those are more of a guide than guidelines, though, so please reccomend anything that will make me laugh, chuckle, giggle, snort, roll around in mirth, or any combination thereof.

posted by The Esteemed Doctor Bunsen Honeydew to society & culture (47 comments total)

The Office.
posted by mdonley at 12:42 AM on July 2, 2007

Arrested Development.
posted by almostmanda at 1:06 AM on July 2, 2007

no contest: the Big Lebowski
posted by Akke at 1:10 AM on July 2, 2007

Fawlty Towers.. can get Pythonesque, especially since John Cleese is the main character!

It seems to jostle with Only Fools and Horses for #1 on all the "best comedy" polls here in the UK.. but I've certainly never found a foreigner who even heard of OFaH (probably because it wouldn't make any sense).
posted by wackybrit at 1:15 AM on July 2, 2007

My votes are Some Like it Hot and Annie Hall.
posted by Mr. President Dr. Steve Elvis America at 1:17 AM on July 2, 2007

On the movie front, I'm going to come out of left-field and say.. Mon Oncle or Playtime by Jacques Tati. They're definitely comedies, but not in any of the usual senses conjured up by the word. They're really mockeries of society or groups of people, low on dialogue, but high on visual gags, sound effects, and things going on in the background. The whole last 40 minutes of Playtime is a riot. It'd need someone far more cultured and eloquent than myself to come here and explain their true greatness though!
posted by wackybrit at 1:18 AM on July 2, 2007

Behind the Mask: Rise of Leslie Vernon. Perfect mocumentary spoof of the horror/slasher genre.
posted by zoey08 at 1:36 AM on July 2, 2007

From the UK, Peep Show is excellent, my favourite of the last few years.

Father Ted is also hilarious, probably my favourite of the 90s.

For all time classics, there is always Yes Minister
posted by Touchstone at 1:40 AM on July 2, 2007

Two other out-of-left-field movies are Le dîner de cons (The Dinner Game) and Le placard (The Closet) - even if you don't speak French, they're both a good time.
posted by mdonley at 1:42 AM on July 2, 2007

I would say in regards to recent tv shows, watch: How I Met Your Mother, My Name Is Earl, Curb Your Enthusiasm, It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, 30 Rock, Psych, and The Loop (1st season only though).
posted by thelongcon at 1:47 AM on July 2, 2007

I've recently stumbled across a new series on BBC called The Mighty Boosh. Man, it's genius. :-)
posted by lockle at 2:05 AM on July 2, 2007

2nd-ing Peep Show

Extras

Film-wise "Dumb and Dumber"
posted by MarvinJ at 2:16 AM on July 2, 2007

Obviously, anything Woody Allen ever did. Go chronologically and stop the moment you don't find one funny.
posted by themel at 2:37 AM on July 2, 2007

Movies: The Castle, Kenny
posted by cholly at 2:42 AM on July 2, 2007

By no means comprehensive:
but alphabetized!
Airplane! (series), Animal House, Austin Powers (series), Back to School, Baseketball, Big Lebowski, Blues Brothers, Brain Candy, Breakfast Club, Clerks, Club Dread, Dead Man on Campus, Dogma, Ferris Bueller's Day Off, Four Rooms, Grandma's Boy, Heathers, Idiocracy, Kung Fu Hustle, Lake Placid, Mallrats, Mars Attacks, National Lampoon (Vacation series, Van Wilder), Office Space, Old School, Orgazmo, Pretty in Pink, Rushmore, Shaun of the Dead, Super Troopers, Team America: World Police, UHF, Waiting, Weird Science
.........

As for tv shows, any televangelist will do.
posted by hypersloth at 2:44 AM on July 2, 2007

arg, crap, baseketball.
posted by hypersloth at 2:45 AM on July 2, 2007

Home Movies (animated TV series)--animated in Squiggle-Vision, it features as its main character a young boy obsessed with making movies with his video camera. Lots of good dialogue and wry humour.

Creature Comforts (TV series from Aardman, same people who do Wallace and Gromit)--uses audio from average-British-citizen interviews along with lovely clay animation to produce amusingly synchronous results--you may have seen the original award-winning short where various animals are talking about their lives in the zoo. Apparently there is now an American version.

Twitch City--slightly surreal, very funny Canadian comedy from the CBC about an agoraphobe who watches a lot of TV and manipulates his roommates (one of whom rents a closet as a bedroom) into doing his errands for him. Stars comedic genius Don McKellar and pre-Deadwood Molly Parker.

I don't laugh out loud very often while watching movies or TV, but each of these shows made me laugh out loud.
posted by hurdy gurdy girl at 2:57 AM on July 2, 2007

seconding Home Movies. I liked the first season of 30 Rock, too.
posted by funkbrain at 3:06 AM on July 2, 2007

If your goal is to laugh until it hurts, you could do worse than Trigger Happy TV. Some excerpts can be found here and here.

It comes in nice digestable chunks.
posted by dbateman at 3:38 AM on July 2, 2007

Don't forget the classics... by which I mean the Marx Brothers. Arguably their finest work is Duck Soup.
posted by Faint of Butt at 3:53 AM on July 2, 2007

The first two answers are spot on. Arrested Development is awesome to say the least.
posted by Meagan at 3:54 AM on July 2, 2007

If you go for sarcastic British middlebrow humor, rent Blackadder 2 and 3 (British TV series starring Rowan Atkinson, 1 is not as funny).

Also, very surprised that I'm the first to mention it, but you must watch Young Frankenstein.
posted by zippy at 3:54 AM on July 2, 2007

If you want some classics in there, the American Film Institute list of the 100 best comedies is not a bad list, though the omission of The Big Lebowski is criminal and the list omits several films that are just purely funny, such as the Naked Gun and Hot Shots series, as well as great British comedies like the Monty Python movies. Many of the movies on the list are more heartwarming than funny, i.e., the Tom Hanks movies.

TV-wise, Arrested Development, Fawlty Towers, The Office, Curb Your Enthusiasm, Seinfeld, and 30 Rock are the best exemplars of the form. If you liked the Naked Gun movies, it was based on the very short American series Police Squad!, which was hit or miss, but very funny when it hit.

Don't forget short films. The Aardman Collection series of Wallace & Gromit shorts are highly entertaining, and the feature-length movie wasn't bad either.
posted by commander_cool at 4:23 AM on July 2, 2007

I omitted the Simpsons from that list, but I presumed you knew about them already. Seasons 2 through 8 or 9 are consistently funny.
posted by commander_cool at 4:25 AM on July 2, 2007

The Thin Man films. Especially After the Thin Man.
posted by quentiniii at 4:40 AM on July 2, 2007

Kentucky Fried Movie should meet your definition of hilariously terrible. It includes the best sendup of Enter the Dragon.
posted by zippy at 4:53 AM on July 2, 2007

Black Books
posted by chuckdarwin at 4:53 AM on July 2, 2007

I can't believe that no-one has mentioned Father Ted yet... Also, I don't know how available outside of the UK it is, but my most recent discovery is The Smoking Room - very deadpan, very funny.
posted by unless I'm very much mistaken at 5:10 AM on July 2, 2007

Wet Hot American Summer, The Lost Skeleton of Cadavra and Girls will be Girls.
posted by FreezBoy at 5:44 AM on July 2, 2007

Uk sketch show Big Train is plenty clever and absurdist, although only the first series is really any good.
posted by low_horrible_immoral at 5:56 AM on July 2, 2007

You are clearly an individual of taste and distinction. Perhaps you could go old school and take in some recordings of The Goons.
posted by Dr. Zira at 6:10 AM on July 2, 2007

How about stand-up? Eddie Izzard's Dress to Kill is my personal favorite. And it's incredibly smart (he does bits on history, of all things!).
posted by phatkitten at 6:14 AM on July 2, 2007

Votes for 3 british comedies not mentioned so far, Spaced and Green Wing and The League Of Gentlemen. All odd and wonderful.
posted by merocet at 7:38 AM on July 2, 2007

Nobody says Spinal Tap yet? Seriously?

Seconding the Thin Man series, I LOVE them. I also love Young Frankenstein, Ghost World, Wallace & Gromit, Absolutely Fabulous, Arrested Development, The Office, Batman from 1966, MST3000, Monty Python, Fry & Laurie, and a bunch of other things I can't think of of the top of my head at 7:45 in the morning.
posted by miss lynnster at 7:45 AM on July 2, 2007

We seem to have similar tastes, so you should be able to take advantage of the answers given when I asked pretty much the same question.
posted by Robot Johnny at 7:58 AM on July 2, 2007

3rding Peep Show. Just absolutely outstanding.
posted by alby at 8:20 AM on July 2, 2007

It just doesn't get any more "hilariously terrible" than Shakes the Clown, the Citizen Kane of alcoholic clown movies.
posted by JaredSeth at 8:25 AM on July 2, 2007 [1 favorite has favorites]

Buster Keaton's The General is 80 years old and still one of the funniest films I've ever seen.
posted by futility closet at 8:34 AM on July 2, 2007

Don't forget the Christopher Guest Movies. Do This Is Spinal Tap first, then waiting for Guffman. If you like those, go on to Best In Show, A Mighty Wind and For Your Consideration.
posted by lpsguy at 9:06 AM on July 2, 2007

The Lost Skeleton of Cadavra, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, Clue, High Fidelity, Mitch Hedberg: Mitch All Together, Jackass Number Two, Borat, Strangers With Candy, Groundhog Day, Waiting For Guffman, Galaxy Quest, Bad Santa, The 40-Year-Old Virgin, Noises Off, MST

Hilarious/ly bad: The Quick and The Dead, Zardoz, Reanimator, Cannibal: The Musical!
posted by Ambrosia Voyeur at 10:03 AM on July 2, 2007

Oh yeah! Wizard People, Dear Reader!!!!!
posted by Ambrosia Voyeur at 10:28 AM on July 2, 2007

nth-ing Arrested Development. I rented all three seasons in one go and couldn't stop laughing for hours. It's especially brilliant because of the callback gags/

I'm fond of Coupling (British version) with its decidedly low-brow humour. It's sex and relationships, but can be incredibly poignant - there's this one episode with the Spiderman theme song, for example that is cringingly embarassing yet romantic too.

If you're interested in anime, Hare nochi Guu is unbelievably absurdist fun. It's a parody of soap operas, anime conventions, family relationships, everything. So many crazy, weird things happen that aren't explained fully explained (a cat with a hundred legs? the girl character Guu who has 2 people living in her bottomless universe of a stomach?) I've also seen the fan-translated eps via friends who d/l them off the net, but the official DVDs are currently on my Blockbuster DVD waiting list.
posted by sweetlyvicious at 11:51 AM on July 2, 2007

I just finished the Freaks and Geeks series. I found myself dreading the passing of each episode. It's one of those series you wish would go on forever.
posted by tfmm at 6:27 PM on July 2, 2007

Two awesomely bad movies:

Corvette Summer (starring Mark Hamill just out of Star wars)
Xanadu.
MeatBalls 2

Two under appreciated Amazing comedies:
Bedazzled (the orginal)
Being there.
posted by filmgeek at 9:10 PM on July 2, 2007

mdonley: Seconding "Le dîner de cons".. that film was totally hilarious! I wasn't expecting it, just because it was on late night TV, but great stuff.

And I'll third it, but I wanted to give it a separate mention, but.. Curb Your Enthusiasm definitely.
posted by wackybrit at 9:32 PM on July 2, 2007

For the love of god, Arrested Development. The whole series goes something like this.
posted by lubujackson at 11:40 AM on July 3, 2007

Lubu, thanks for that hilarious link.

So, lots of ones said above that are on my list-love Christopher Guest, Arrested Development, My Name is Earl, Scrubs, The Office. Folks seem to be avoiding the lowbrow category here, though, and so I'll have to step up to the plate. My two current favorites:
-Tommy Boy (this almost made me go into labor). Chris Farley and David Spade. Truly stupid and absolutely hilarious.
-Eurotrip (the unrated version). Oh, my god. Also stupid. I could die. You must see this.
posted by purenitrous at 10:29 PM on July 3, 2007