Over at The House Next Door blog, they've linked up with yet another list. This time, the British publication The Guardian has posted their top 50 comedy films of all time list comprised from reader ballots. It's actually a pretty conclusive selection, naming "The Big Lebowski", "Blazing Saddles" and "Young Frankenstein" in their top ten. There's still some elitism going on (i.e. "Some Like It Hot" and the I-just-personally-never-understood-it "This Is Spinal Tap" clocking in at numbers 3 and 4 respectively), but it's a nice list. They even go so far as to include recent hits such as "Shaun of the Dead" and there's much love for my John Hughes fav, "Planes, Trains and Automobiles". The problems? Well, "Anchorman" earns a spot at number twenty, beating out classic laugh-fests like "The Blues Brothers" and "The Naked Gun", but the inclusion of maverick favorites "Team America: World Police" and "South Park The Movie" make up for some of that. The whole affair is a distinctively British affair, as evident by Monty Python's "The Life of Brian" earning the top spot as well as the inclusion of very-English works like "Alexander MacKendrick's "The Ladykillers", "A Fish Called Wanda" and "Withnail and I"???! Still, I'm a little jealous that I never recieved MY ballot. Granted, I don't live in the U.K. or subscribe to the Guardian, but they could've reached out a little more. Still, its a very fun list.
So, because I missed out on the Top 100 Films thing that was going around the blog-o-sphere a couple weeks ago, this is my attempt to make up for that. I invite everyone within this next week to post their Top 50 Comedies of all Time list. If I were more adventurous, I'd conduct a ballot of my own, but, hey, we're all adults here and can post our own lists. You can either link to them or post in the comments section or display them on your own blog. Laughter makes the world go round!
UPDATED: Here's a brief list. Creating 50 of my favorite comedies became a chore, sort of. I never have given comedies the preference over drama or other genres, so this tested me a bit. I have about 40 or so, so my ballot would've looked like this, in no particular order after the first:
The Big Lebowski (Coen Brothers)
Blazing Saddles (Brooks)
Young Frankenstein (Brooks)
Monty Python and the Holy Grail
Swingers (Liman)
The Royal Tenenbaums (Anderson)
Super Troopers (Chandrasekhar)
Planes, Trains and Automobiles (Hughes)
Dr Strangelove (Kubrick)
Bob Roberts (Robbins)
Bull Durham (Shelton)
Austin Powers Goldmember (Roach)
Hott Fuzz (Wright)
Shaun of the Dead (Wright)
Ghostbusters (Ramis)
Waiting For Guffman (Guest)
Harold and Kumar Go To Whitecastle (Leiner)
Napolean Dynamite (Hess)
Airplane (Abrahams)
Office Space (Judge)
National Lampoons Christmas Vacation (Chechik)
Knocked Up (Apatow)
The Jerk (Reiner)
A Christmas Story (Clark)
Army of Darkness (Raimi)
The Princess Bride (Reiner)
Top Secret (Abrahms)
Quick Change (Franklin)
The Life Aquatic (Anderson)
The Blues Brothers (Landis)
Funny Farm (Hill)
Curb Your Enthusiasm, Rescue Me, Freaks and Geeks, Seinfeld?
2 comments:
not to complain or anything, but did they poll a bunch of english stoners? seems a bit recent and parochial... anyway, I may try to take you up on a list, though I find it particularly complicated to try to rank comedies. After Duck Soup anyway.
I think the stoner majority is well represented. I imagine if one were to do the same at the LA or NY Times, alot of the same ones would show up, as well as more votes for films like "Club Dread", "Billy Madison" and "I Now Pronounce You Larry and Chuck".
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