BBC asked 253 critics to determine the best comedies ever made. The results are...

kruis said:
They'd not be in my personal top 500 of best comedies. I loved them when I was ten and I would laugh each time at the same joke: Bud Spencer hitting bad guys on the head.
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when you were ten, exactly.

as for de funes, its best moments are very noteworthy.
 
Rupetta said:
Coming to America was top 50 for critics from South and Central America, one of the Brazilian critics had it listed as 1st.

I think one thing people forget is that each critic only listed their top 10, not top 100 which actually explains a lot of omissions.
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the exercise of making a list with critics from around the world is noble. it has clear shortcomings since humor can be very locale.
 
De Funès was a great comedian. Maybe even a genius. But I don't think any of his films really deserve to be on this list. And I can't really think of a single french comedy that would qualify (edit: well, outside of Tati of course, completely forgot about him). Stephen Chow is definitely more deserving in my opinion.

Messofanego said:
Ghostbusters was fun but how do people argue it being one of the greatest comedies of all time? I rarely see it brought up in greatest of all time comedy discussions. Top 100, sure. Top 50, even? I don't see it. There are so many funnier films.
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Where are you from?
I might be wrong but I get the impression that Ghostbusters is a cultural milestone in the US, maybe not on the same level as Star Wars but close for a certain generation of americans. I don't think the movie resonated nearly as much overseas. It's a famous film and it's well liked (for good reason) but it's not treasured in the same way. Cultural differences I guess.
 
wazoo said:
the exercise of making a list with critics from around the world is noble. it has clear shortcomings since humor can be very locale.
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Right, that's why broke down the list into regions - it is quite interesting for example to see that What We Do in the Shadows is ranked top 20 film by the middle eastern critics and top 30 by Eastern Europeans but is not listed top 10 by a single critic from Australia or New Zealand, likewise that more SA critics list Coming to America as top 10 than NA critics, or that Hot Fuzz got only a single vote by UK critics..
 
Sgt. Kabukiman said:
Where are you from?
I might be wrong but I get the impression that Ghosbusters is a cultural milestone in the US, maybe not on the same level as Star Wars but close for a certain generation of americans. I don't think the movie resonated nearly as much overseas. It's a famous film and it's well liked (for good reason) but it's not treasured in the same way. Cultural differences I guess.
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UK. I was a big fan of Ghostbusters as a kid. The films, the cartoon, and even had a storybook. But I chalk that up to nostalgia, like after revisiting it, I don't see why it should be much further up than 95 in the best comedies of all time. It's just good fun with great chemistry among the cast, but not one of the funniest things I've seen.
 
Messofanego said:
UK. I was a big fan of Ghostbusters as a kid. The films, the cartoon, and even had a storybook. But I chalk that up to nostalgia, like after revisiting it, I don't see why it should be much further up than 95 in the best comedies of all time. It's just good fun with great chemistry among the cast, but not one of the funniest things I've seen.
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Yeah, I hear you. I was always a Blues Brothers man myself. That one might be in my personal top 10.
 
Sgt. Kabukiman said:
Yeah, I hear you. I was always a Blues Brothers man myself. That one might be in my personal top 10.
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Yes!
Rupetta said:
Right, that's why broke down the list into regions - it is quite interesting for example to see that What We Do in the Shadows is ranked top 20 film by the middle eastern critics and top 30 by Eastern Europeans but is not listed top 10 by a single critic from Australia or New Zealand, likewise that more SA critics list Coming to America as top 10 than NA critics.
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At least the NZ critic Russell Baillie put down Hunt for the Wilderpeople, but at 10 smh
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Peru said:
Golden age Hollywood was without a doubt the peak period for mainstream comedies. I'm glad the Marx bros are in the top 10 but I have literally hundreds of candidates from 1930-1960 that I could add to the top 10.

The biggest tragedy in modern film consumption is that streaming services are so shit at offering classics - now that a wider audience than ever can watch films at the click of a button, they're less likely than ever to discover that "old movies" can be as gripping and relevant as modern ones.
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Yep. It's even worse in Europe, or to be precise, in the Netherlands. No streaming services that have classic movies. Retail stores only have movies from the last ten, fifteen years plus a handful of popular movies from the 70/80/90ies (Godfather, Star Wars, Back to the Future, Alien, etc). I have to order everything from Amazon UK.

BTW I'd like to hear what comedies you'd add to the list.

My picks would have been:

- Midnight
- Libeled Lady
- The Thin Man
- Theodora Goes Wild
- My Favorite Wife
- Hands Across the Table
- Twentieth Century
- It's Love I'm After

And I'd add a ton of Harold Lloyd movies because I think Lloyd is funnier and cleverer than Chaplin and Keaton. And something by Charley Chase ("Mighty like a Moose") and Harry Langdon. And Mary Pickford's "My Best Girl", the best rom com of the silent era.
 
I'm surprised that there's just only one Harold Lloyd film on there, but goddamn it, I can't think of Safety Last without going straight to the department store scene and not struggle to keel over from laughing. For as iconic as the clock gag is for all of cinema, that film offers so much more than that image.

Even a year on from seeing it, I'm still amazed someone made something like PlayTime in any era. Tati literally created an entire world to show off what he can do, and damn near everything lands in that with stellar results.
 
kruis said:
Yep. It's even worse in Europe, or to be precise, in the Netherlands. No streaming services that have classic movies. Retail stores only have movies from the last ten, fifteen years plus a handful of popular movies from the 70/80/90ies (Godfather, Star Wars, Back to the Future, Alien, etc). I have to order everything from Amazon UK.
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What about Amazon Prime? Isn't that a global VoD service?

(briefly searched for it, it seems we have 'prime video' but I haven't found the catalogue yet. edit: never mind, it's basically Netflix)

edit: so yeah, we really do have an issue getting classic movies.
 
RRockman said:
Where is rush hour?
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Not worthy. Top one hundred is pretty elite territory.
It's a buddy cop movie which is more in the action genre anyway.

I also think that Pulp Fiction doesn't belong even though it's extremely funny at times.
 
Switch Back 9 said:
Mean Girls was like a cultural stone for a whole generation. I've never seen it myself but the impact its had on people I know is huge. There's something to it.

The Hangover sucked though I can't believe its on there instead of a few of the movies mentioned in this thread.

EDIT: A Shot in the Dark should be on there! My god that's a crime.
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You might be shocked to learn that for a very significant portion of the black community Coming to America is a multi generational milestone.
 
kruis said:
Tootsie was so bad, it was only the second highest grossing movie of 1982 after ET and got just a lousy ten Oscar nominations.
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Lots of terrible movies get oscar noms. Some of them even win a bunch, happens all the time, and if box office is a barromiter of quality then we are all in trouble.
 
Commanche Raisin Toast said:
This and Me Myself and Irene destroyed my sides when they first came out. My dad nearly has a heart attack from laughing at both of them too.

One of the rare times our movie tastes line up.
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I had the pleasure of seeing There's Something About Mary at an advanced screening back in the day. I've never heard an audience laugh as much at one movie before-this is before everyone knew about "those" scenes.

Damn. That will be 20 years next year.
 
No Pee Wee's Big Adventure?

No Who Framed Roger Rabbit?

Fuck this list. If Pulp Fiction is a comedy then so are those and they are much better comedies.

Im also displeased at Anchorman being so high up and 40 Year Old Virgin not even being on there, which is a better movie and funnier. I mean fucking Step Brothers made it and not 40YOV? GTFO.

Hell Anchorman over Fish Called Wanda? No way, Jose.
 
How I feel about half the posts in this topic is how y'all are going to feel in 10 years time when people are saying shit like "No SMOSH: THE MOVIE??? LIST IS TRASH"
 
TwEE-N-Toast said:
No Ghostbusters 2016?
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Critics got that one right at least.

Funny lots of people are going about - often good - comedies that arguably didn't appeal globally.

Given the method behind the list the top half films and top 10 in particulate should skew to films that really good broad critical awareness from a more international perspective.

Ultimately in collating a large number of top 10s you're going to see that affect order of list.
 
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