3. Caddyshack 1980:
Any movie that ridicules golf per George Carlin, an “arrogant, elitist game which takes up entirely too much room in this country” is OK in my book. Riding Rodney Dangerfield’s boorish irreverence, 1980’s Caddyshack does so with a style that smacks the smarm right off a country club member’s face.As brash, obnoxious nouveau riche protagonist Al Czervik, Dangerfield is both fish out of water and bull in a china shop. After yelling “Fore!” and hitting one of his antagonist’s square in the nuts with a tee shot, a self-satisfied Dangerfield declares “I shoulda yelled two!”. Later, at a posh party chock full of snooty septuagenarians, Dangerfield deems the shindig “The dance of the living dead.”The movie also showcased two early Saturday Night Live cast members. Chevy Chase showcases his unsurpassed ability to deliver deadpan lines as an offbeat straight man. “Do you take drugs, Danny?” he asked the caddy. When Danny answers in the affirmative, Chase replies “Good.. so what’s the problem?” Meanwhile, Bill Murray takes a break from his groundskeeping duties for a horticulture hole in one, teeing off on flowers while mimicking a subdued TV announcer (“He got all of that one!”)As a bonus, 1988’s Caddyshack 2 was one of the rare sequels worth making. Not as funny as the original, but in the same ballp… I mean, on the same fairway.
2. South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut 1999:
By far, the funniest animated movie ever is Trey Parker and Matt Stone’s adaptation of their envelope-pushing cartoon series, South Park. At a time when musical acts like Eminem and Marilyn Manson were causing parental uproar, Parker and Stone decided to troll the audience and society at large with one of the most subversive comedies ever.I was in college when the movie came out. Sitting in the theater, I was surprised to see parents there with little kids; after all, the movie was rated R. Then it hit me: Parker and Stone had done this on purpose, luring unsuspecting parents to take their kids. After all, how raunchy could a cartoon really be?At about ten minutes in, “Uncle F*cker,” the movie’s second musical number yes, it’s a musical a brilliant, foul mouthed musical, answers this question with authority. “Shut your f*cking face unclef*cker, you’re a c*cksucking asslicking unclef*cker…” From there, a full album’s worth of uproarious songs, including the Grammy-nominated “Blame Canada,” amount to the funniest soundtrack in film history.The movie’s plot the South Park kids must rescue a pair of scapegoated comedians from being executed for telling fart jokes ingeniously mirrors the reception Parker and Stone knew the movie would receive. The movie, then, both causes controversy and responds to it. And if you don’t like it, well, Cartman has a message for you.
1. Airplane! 1980:
Surely you didn’t think I’d leave Airplane! off this list. Produced for what even 40 years ago was the astoundingly low budget of $3.5 million, the ensemble-cast laugh-fest gets my vote for funniest film ever.If comedy were boxing, Airplane! is a lightning-fast bantamweight that peppers rapid-fire jabs. Airplane! is spaghetti at a wall shot with a machine gun: the comedy comes so fast that the audience isn’t done laughing before the next joke lands.Of course, that recipe can only work if enough of the jokes are good. And from the main character’s drinking problem to an old lady who helps the stewardess translate jive, Airplane! is so fast and laugh-out-loud funny that it’s hard to catch your breath.Of note, Airplane! excels at comedy welded with wordplay. When a flight attendant tells passenger and disgraced fighter pilot Ted Striker that “there’s a problem in the cockpit,” he replies “The cockpit? What is it?”, prompting her to explain that “It’s a little room in the front of the plane, where the pilot sits.”This device, in addition to recurring jokes like “I picked the wrong week to stop…”, allows Airplane! to fill 90 minutes with a plot that could have been told in 15. “Plane in danger, hijinks ensue” is a simple way to put the plot on autopilot and clear the path for undistracted comedy brilliance.
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