Lots to like about Variety’s list of 100 Best Comedy Movies of All Time, but Coming to America at #46 and no Trading Places at all make me question the list’s credibility.
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A friend of mine had a birthday party a couple years ago where we watched Coming to America and Trading Places back-to-back!
Coming to America was much better than I remembered, and Trading Places was worse. Trading Places has some significant YIKES scenes, not limited to Dan Aykroyd in blackface, while Coming to America held up fairly well imo.
This seems pretty similar to AFI's 100 Years.. 100 Laughs list from 2000, but with some oddballs thrown in to get people arguing about it on social media. Some Like It Hot, Annie Hall, Tootsie, Dr. Strangelove, and Duck Soup were AFI's top five, and all make the top 15.
Always interesting to see what lists like these leave out. Fargo makes the top 10 and Lebowski is #72, but Raising Arizona doesn't make the cut. No Ghostbusters, but Groundhog makes the top 10. Seems like John Hughes is snubbed entirely: Planes, Trains, and Automobiles should obviously be there, but also no Breakfast Club, Ferris Bueller's Day Off, Home Alone, or National Lampoon's Vacation. (Christmas Vacation, and Animal House also don't make the list.) Dumb & Dumber must be too dumb.
I think I'd be just as interested to hear what everyone's favorite comedies are here that didn't make the list, or that had no chance of making it on the list because they're too divisive or not critically-loved.
Joe Versus the Volcano and Moonstruck, both written by John Patrick Shanley, would be very high on my list. Defending Your Life, Pee Wee's Big Adventure, Palm Springs, and Real Genius are all personal favorites too.
Zero animated films? Hmm!
And someone on social media pointed out that there's no Galaxy Quest or Grosse Pointe Blank!
I was scrolling through, certain “Planes Trains and Automobiles” would be in the top 10, if not #1. Nope!
I can’t take seriously a list that doesn’t include Raising Arizona or any John Hughes.
100%. Raizing Arizona and Ferris are top 15 for me. Also, no Rushmore or Royal Tenenbaums?
Two French movies that should easily be in the top 25: Delicatessen and Amelie.
Also “The Dinner Game”
This list doesn't really take itself seriously. Napoleon Dynamite over Blazing Saddles is pretty dumb. No Ghostbusters is insane. And given the type of movies they prioritized and demoted up until that point, having Naked Gun #1 is bizarre.
As for what it omitted: there's a lot of Apatow-era stuff missing. I have a big soft spot for Forgetting Sarah Marshall and This is the End. Both movies make me laugh ridiculously hard (and FSM is so unconventionally sweet to boot). And Step Brothers is a masterclass in silliness, which is meaningful.
I do always appreciate a list that gets Young Frankenstein into its top ten though.
Also, where is Midnight Run??!?
I missed the omission of Step Brothers. One of the top 30 for sure.
It is a truth universally acknowledged that Everybody Hates A List.
But Pretty Woman is on it. Come on now.
I find it interesting when lists like this use a single film as a sort of stand in for an individual's whole oveure. For example, this list includes The Waterboy, but could as easily have picked Happy Gilmore or even 50 First Dates. Clerks may not be your favorite Kevin Smith movie; Elf is not my favorite Will Farrell movie. But as long as there's at least one Monty Python, at least one Eddie Murphy, Woody Allen, & Nancy Myers, the list doesn't seem incomplete.
Like others, I'll note some blind spots: there are some truly hilarious moments in Jackie Chan films. Is Big really funnier than Freaky Friday? Why are Shrek & Tropic Thunder snubbed?
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