To my mind, this still from the movie establishes a proposition I've long been aware of: Zeppo was the funniest Marx Brother. For the uninitiated: Zeppo is second from the left.
Now, for those of you who don't want to read anything written by A.I., it's time to leave. Here's the prompt I took to Grok: "Is it true that in the opinion of those whose opinion counts most Zeppo was the funniest Marx Brother?"
The answer is yes.
First, Groucho said it, repeatedly. Grok writes: "He described Zeppo as having the best natural comic timing and delivery in real life, a dry, deadpan wit that killed in a room, but that Zeppo simply didn’t care enough about performing to push himself forward on screen. Groucho claimed Zeppo could have been the breakout star if he’d wanted it."
Then there was George S. Kaufman, co-writer of "The Cocoanuts" and "Animal Crackers," who "reportedly said Zeppo was the funniest of the brothers in rehearsals and in person." Other authorities who said the same thing included Steve Allen, Woody Allen, and Billy Crystal.
So Zeppo was given the “straight man/romantic lead” role until after "Duck Soup" he quit movies altogether and "became a successful theatrical agent and inventor (he held patents related to the cardiac clamp used in open-heart surgery)."
I was motivated to say: "If the other brothers saw him as the funniest, they had something to strive to excel. Zeppo was maximizing the comedy by performing that role and he didn't have the motivation to excel anyone. He was secure."
Skimming Grok's somewhat lengthy mirroring of what I'd just said, I got a new idea: "I want to expand this into a larger life lesson and write a self-help book — in the manner of 'Let Them' — that would be titled 'Be the Zeppo.'"
1. By "write a self-help book," I meant write a blog post that would earn the tag "Unwritten Books," that is, the blog post you are reading now.
2. Of course, Grok immediately outlined this book for me, replete with subtitle options — like "The Power of Radical Non-Competition" — and 10 chapters — including "The 'Anything Further, Father?' Principle/One perfectly timed sentence beats a ten-minute monologue. The power of strategic silence."
3. Here, you can read everything Grok said.
4. Here's Mel Robbins, the author of "The Let Them Theory," quickly explaining the whole book to Bill Maher.
5. Anything further?
5. Anything further?
Posts
112 comments:
JD is the Zeppo of the 47 Admin. CC, JSM
Awesome, Althouse. I never knew any of this. And I'm a huge Marx brothers fan. In their public art, he's not funny at all. But in private, he's hilarious. I love it.
A Day at the Races
A Night at the Opera
Duck Soup
Another thing I love is how their comedy is vaguely Marxist, with the brothers attacking the upper class. But they also attack themselves and the lower classes, too.
Slogan for New York's new mayor? "The Marx brothers have never been tried."
And I spent all those years thinking that Zeppo only invented the cigarette lighter because he thought Gummo was getting too much fame for inventing that stuff you can chew that isn’t tobacco.
I can see how the same person would be a movie agent and a patent holder. You establish a structure where you keep getting a cut.
And his position in the Marx Brothers was similar, set up so that they frenetically worked and he got his cut.
Reacher said nothing.
I am, I believe the only person who bought Barbara Sinatra's "Lady Blue Eyes: My Life with Frank" because I wanted to read what she has to say about Zeppo Marx.
Blogged here: https://althouse.blogspot.com/2011/05/perhaps-it-was-zeppos-ardent-pursuit.html
Mrs. Sinatra was previously married to Zeppo, so think about what that must mean about what he was like in private and how he had too much of a sense of personal security to need to beg for attention.
"Let Them" is basically stoicism.
Blogger James Lileks recently wrote that "Grok was designed and engineered for old women who live alone because their cats can't talk back to them."
I say dolphins change my mind
Any list of of top 100 comedies that doesn't include "Tom Jones" and the original "Cage aux Folles" is seriously deficient, in my humble opinion.
I believe that in their Broadway days, Zeppo would understudy all three of his zany brothers.
Zeppo only got into the act because brother #4, Gummo, was drafted into WWI and the act needed a replacement.
"Blogger James Lileks recently wrote that "Grok was designed and engineered for old women who live alone because their cats can't talk back to them.""
So if the cats actually talked some human man would join the household?
Interesting ambiguity.
I googled it, wondering if the AI got it right. Google's AI says the exactly opposite.
Groucho Marx had a complex relationship with his younger brother Zeppo, often viewing him as the least funny and most serious. While Groucho frequently teased Zeppo about his straight-man roles, he also acknowledged that Zeppo's business acumen was successful after leaving the act. Groucho also said Zeppo’s stage name was a reference to the Zeppelin airship, while a less flattering account by Groucho claimed he named Zeppo after a chimp named Mr. Zippo that he imitated.
Comedy and seriousness: Groucho viewed Zeppo as the "straight man" and often made fun of his younger brother's seriousness, particularly in the context of comedy.
Business success: Groucho acknowledged Zeppo's success in the business world. Zeppo became a successful talent agent who represented other actors, and his net worth at his death was notably higher than his brothers, who continued to perform in comedy.
Stage name origins: In his 1972 Carnegie Hall concert, Groucho Marx said Zeppo's name was a reference to the Zeppelin airship. In contrast, Groucho also claimed to have named Zeppo after a chimp named Mr. Zippo, though this account is less flattering and less consistently repeated.
Role in the group: Zeppo was the youngest of the Marx Brothers and appeared in the first five films, often in a romantic lead role that was eventually phased out. His departure from the group to focus on business was a turning point for the Marx Brothers' comedy, which Groucho felt was not the same without Zeppo.
The super annoying thing, is that when you ask the AI to do it again, the AI will give you something that is completely different. AI quotes disappear and new information is added.
AI is bad for journalism and non-fiction, obviously. We can't trust it. It's very authoritative-sounding. And then it authoritatively says the exact opposite.
old women who live alone because their cats can't talk back to them
Where do you find cats who don't talk back? Mine are pretty mouthy.
"The super annoying thing, is that when you ask the AI to do it again, the AI will give you something that is completely different. AI quotes disappear and new information is added."
Yeah, you've got to learn how to use AI wisely (or don't use it).
For the record, my original prompt was based on what I remember from books and what I had personally observed in the movies.
So you check some books too and see what you get.
Something I learned from reading The Making of the Atomic Bomb was that on the flight to Hiroshima, the bomb was secured to the B-29 by use of a Marman clamp, which was invented by Zeppo.
As for "Groucho viewed Zeppo as the "straight man" and often made fun of his younger brother's seriousness, particularly in the context of comedy" — that's not inconsistent from what i have in the post and what you see at Grok. Zeppo didn't want to put much into comedy — certainly not the madcap antics the other 3 did — so he was used in the straight-man role. It wasn't because he wasn't funny that he was chosen for that role.
IIRR in "Grouchophile," when Groucho was ill during the run of one of the plays, Zeppo stepped in and did so well that Groucho joked [?] that he got well quickly before he was replaced.
There's also the story about Zeppo or Gummo (both were theatrical agents) trying to encourage an actor to sign with them during a restaurant dinner. A belligerent drunk was bothering them and Marx stood, belted the drunk, turned to the actor and said, "There! Would any other agent provide this service?"
The method of the heuristic how the Ai remembers and what it leavss out
"Groucho viewed Zeppo as the "straight man" and often made fun of his younger brother's seriousness, particularly in the context of comedy" — that seems like a twisted way of saying what I'm saying: He made the straight role funny (as you see in the "Anything further, father?" clip). It's funny to be serious. There are various comedians who are funny through the mechanism of seriousness — from Buster Keaton to Stephen Wright. I find that kind of thing especially funny.
That list doesn't have "Tommy Boy" or "My Cousin Vinnie" on it. Nonsense.
"Animal House" isn't on the list either.
You'd think AI might make in-roads in fiction, since AI is completely unreliable and facts are out the window. I find AI fiction completely unreadable. AI has never made me laugh. AI has no sense of humor and cannot do humor.
I am hopeful that humor writers will have a fantastic future, as humor is one of the hardest art forms to master. Drama can be entertaining, even if it's not dramatic. If you try to be funny and fail, that's dead air. And an impossible read.
For the publishing industry, the worst part is how easy it is for non-artists to create something. "Give me a 90,000 word Agatha Christie mystery, please." And then you self-publish or submit to agents and editors.
If this was a bad movie, we'd call it The Slush Pile. A.I. empowers the slush pile and makes it 100,000 times bigger, and the Slush Pile is stomping, possibly oozing, through New York City, destroying all the publishing houses in its wake.
If I can try for an Andy Warhol quote...
In the future, everybody will write a book, and nobody will read them.
Art will survive, I hope. Although I think the movie houses are dead. Going to the movies is a dying experience. Technology shifts, all the time. And the human experience evolves with it.
The list omits “Animal House”, “There’s Something About Mary”, “Dazed and Confused” and “American Graffiti”.
Did they leave “Pet Sounds” and “Revolver off their greatest albums list, as well”?
Idiots.
AI is best for opinions.
As far as Zeppo - I must live under a rock because I really don't know.
AI is like an old fashioned gum ball machine. ?
In my new book -- I just finished the first draft yesterday -- I had several foreign characters, and they were speaking Irish, French, Spanish and Korean. I'm bad at languages. I took Spanish over and over. I'm doing Spanish again with (free) Duolingo. Spanish I kinda know, and French, a little. Irish is strange and Korean is super-strange.
Anyway, AI authoritatively translates English to foreign languages. So that was super-helpful to me. I could have my foreigners speak actual sentences. The problem, of course, is the damn AI gets the sentences wrong and makes up words.
It looks like French, Spanish, Irish and Korean. So that's helpful. It's superficially a foreign language. I suspect that these are really bad translations.
Humor is authentic and entirely subjective.
Fargo is great. I also love Miller's Crossing. The Coens had a lot of humor in their early works. But these movies also had a lot of violence and drama.
My mom and I saw Fargo in the theater. This scene cracked us up. The two of us were laughing out loud. And we were the only ones in the theater laughing.
Joel seems to have lost the plot in his last few film
Narciso, do you mean Ethan?
I've been trying to see Hellzapoppin forever. It's supposedly a classic comedy. Not out on DVD. Couldn't find it. No distribution. So it's not in my movie book. Really annoying. So I want to think Althouse, and Variety, for digging that movie up again. I just ordered it on Amazon!
I'm so mad at Netflix for shutting down their massive DVD library. Now I have to buy shit, ugh. The DVDs are pilling up in my place, along with the books. Hopefully Variety is right, and it really is funny. Based on their list, I figure I got about a 70% chance of loving it.
I don't know about Zeppo, but the right answer to the question "Who is your favorite Beatle?" was always Ringo. Just like the best James Bond has always been George Lazenby.
I note that Variety overlooks the N-word breach in Blazing Saddles.
Plot idea for a comedy: Film professor plays Blazing Saddles for his class. "The fart scene is hilarious!" And then he gets fired.
Reporter: "How do you find America?"
Ringo: "Turn left at Greenland."
Did they put A Hard Day's Night on the list? Oversight.
Oops, they did. #41. Good call!
The Marx Brothers' legs look too long in the picture. Zeppo's waist looks especially high. Primitive doctoring?
No one really speaks Irish. It's a sort of a petting zoo of a language. Of course, many CAN speak it after a fashion, and they are inordinately proud of this fact.
I'm not at all convinced about Zeppo; he's always popcorn time in my book.
But I agree that Variety provides a nice cross-section of comedies. I was pleasantly surprised seeing them include Buster Keaton's "Sherlock Jr." at #11.
This video appreciation may not be "the opinion of those whose opinion counts most," but at least it is pointing to something we can view and assess. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7qTcigKYGJc
I didn't see Stripes on my scroll-through of their list, either. Hmmph!
No Bob Hope on the list.
When I was a kid, I thought Bob Hope was lame. I saw him when he was old. I thought he wasn't funny. And then I saw his old stuff. Dude.
Never Say Die (1939)
Fantastic Bob Hope movie. The screenplay is phenomenal. Co-written by Frank Butler, who is English, it’s about Americans abroad in the rich enclaves of Europe. Butler and Don Hartman teamed up on a lot of the great Hope movies, including some of the Road pictures. But what makes this really special is Preston Sturges is a co-writer as well. This movie skewers high-class Europeans and low-class Texans and you just love everybody. Andy Devine should have won an Academy award for this one. It’s like a mishmash of P.G. Wodehouse and Mark Twain, with Bob Hope playing a hypochondriac millionaire. Criminally underrated, I’d never heard of this movie. Wow.
Nothing But the Truth (1941) Bob Hope has to tell the truth for 24 hours. No lies. Oh no!
Road to Morocco (1942) For years, I never appreciated Bob Hope. I was too young for him. A few years ago I saw Son of Paleface, which is very funny, but I put that down to Frank Tashlin brilliance. It's not Bob Hope, I said to myself. His jokes are bad. I had seen the first Road picture, and I was unimpressed, so I didn't bother with the rest of them. Wow, my mistake. This is the third one, and believe you me, they got the hang of it. It's a great flick. I knew once I saw Bob and Bing singing on that camel, while they look directly into the camera, that I was going to love this movie. Were they influenced by Brecht? Did Godard watch the Road pictures? You got me. But they break the fourth wall and talk directly to the audience. Come to think of it, Bugs Bunny did that too. No wonder Tashlin wanted to work with Bob Hope. And aside from all the postmodern deconstruction of narrative in Bob Hope cinema, they're so frickin mean to each other! That's the other thing that seemed so original and new. If it's not Bing selling Bob into white slavery, it's Bob setting Bing up to be decapitated. It's, I dunno, innocent Bob Hope sadism. Or something. Anyway, it's brilliant cool. Bob Hope is edgy. Who knew?
Road to Zanzibar (1941) Bob and Bing find some war drums and start beating on them like they're a jazz duo. 200 angry cannibals show up with spears. "Hi, fellas. Who's got the dice?" It's a racist line, maybe, but also funny as hell. Whenever Bob runs into life-threatening situations in some third world hellhole, that's his favorite thing to say. "Who's got the dice?" It's his fear that makes this funny, his wanting to be pals with people who are not like him at all. Bing is never afraid. Why should he be, it's Bob who has to be shot out of a cannon or wrestle a gorilla. Hanging out with Bob makes Bing zippier, and hanging out with Bing makes Bob cooler, although his nerves betray him more than once. "Who's got the dice?" That kills me. He wants to be cool so bad. Can't we play dice and be friends?
I feel like there's racism in here somewhere, and I should not laugh at this, but I also feel a great deal of humanity and vulnerability in Bob Hope's art. He's afraid like W.C. Fields but he tries to cover it up with inane jokes that don't work, and he knows it. And Bing Crosby is the perfect foil for Bob Hope. Bing is always blasé and cool, a master at underplay. I love how they riff off each other and unite in the face of danger. They acknowledge racial fears and are cool anyway, all the while undermining any pretense at white superiority. It's brilliant, really, and damn funny.
Old and Slow
so the IRA will not be mad at me! good to know
Irish is funny to me because she's white, and Christian (presumably) but her inability to speak English makes her suspicious and annoying. The Marshal who bought her in a mail-order catalog wanted a high-class girl from England. But he was drunk and ordered up a firecracker from Ireland by mistake. And she's pregnant.
Never thought about Zeppo or Gummo much. Harpo always gave me the creeps. Groucho got boring fairly quickly. But I always enjoyed Chico.
John Henry
Hellzapoppin is here, St Croix https://youtu.be/c2TOriWWSLE?si=agiyA29f9fF9pDsH
John Henry
The whole job of a straight man is give the funny guy setups and ammunition. Margaret Dumont was great at her job and probably the best Groucho straight "woman". Groucho later said she didn't get the jokes - which is absurd.
I like watching the Marx brothers on DVD, because I can skip the horrible music numbers (I wish someone had broken that damn harp) and Harpo's "Comedy". I usually just rewatch scenes with Groucho in them. When he's not onscreen, the whole thing becomes duller than dishwater.
Chico is good at interacting with Groucho. But by himself, he's a bore.
Never heard of Marman clamps but now that I know what they are from Wikipedia, I recognize them in almost daily use as Sanitary Clamps (Tri-Clover or TriClamps), as Victaulic pipe fittings, as the closure ring for drum lids and more.
Not sure if they are technically "Marman Clamps" but they are very close first cousins.
John Henry
I like watching the Marx brothers on DVD, because I can skip the horrible music numbers (I wish someone had broken that damn harp)
I agree 100%.
I suspect the Marx brothers wanted to show the audience they weren't actually low class and worthless. They were attacking opera, after all, and high class people like opera. So they put that in for non-comic reasons.
The first time I saw the movie, I was like, "I cannot believe he's playing a damn harp." For like 3 minutes! The second time, I fast-forwarded through that. The third time I saw that movie, I was like, "Maybe it's real beauty, and I ought to try to listen." I gave it a minute.
“Planes, Trains, and Automobiles” not being on that list invalidates it for me.
thanks John Henry!
SC - it was part of their vaudville act, and they never changed it. And now...Here's harpo and his magical harp.
I agree with boatbuilder on My Cousin Vinny. Holds up incredibly well, on multiple viewings. Joe Pesci's best movie, by far, not even close. And it remains the best cross-examination I've ever seen, in art or law school. Dude. And that extra who sucked down a chicken leg. And the clicking biological clock. And the death penalty! An innocent man, wrongly accused. Hitchcock approves. That's the formula. Not to mention the finest use of grits in cinema.
Also agree about Animal House. That's a strange one to omit. Maybe they're punishing John Lassiter for killing some people on The Twilight Zone. I actually rate Oscar higher now. If you think Sylvester Stallone can't be funny, check that one out. I've noticed Stallone is willing to give disgraced people (Landis, Gibson) another chance at redemption. Good for him. And I liked his willingness to produce Creed and take a small funny role in it. "Where's the cloud?"
thanks RCO, I never saw their vaudeville
I think for the most part, they wanted to do their old trusted routines for the camera. I know Groucho did not like Sam Wood. I think he called him Dead Wood? Thalberg might have been the real artist behind the scenes. He died at 37. And that was the beginning of the end for the Marx brothers, in my opinion. I still love Room Service and At the Circus. There was a big fall off in quality after that. And then WW2 hit and they were pretty much done.
One weird thing about Groucho, apparently, is that he was always acting like Groucho, even when away from the cameras. He did it with his family and his children. He had assumed a persona and he did not release himself from it.
Don't be the Zeppo. Be the Gummo.
Oh, for fuck's sake, this is a terrible list. I wouldn't criticize it too much except for the films that got added with the glaring omissions. How does Animal House not make it on this list? How does Trading Places get omitted? How does Being There get omitted? Or the following:
High Anxiety
Shrek
Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me (better than the first one)
War of the Roses
Throw Momma From the Train
Ruthless People
Any of the Pink Panther movies
The Party
The Mask
There's Something About Mary
Dodgeball
Additionally, how isn't Airplane above The Naked Gun in this list?
Please, someone, kill my italics blunder.
Its those dolphins again
The thing about vinny was it was written by two englishmen who also did yes minister
Sorry, Ann, Chico was always my favorite. Faux Italian, gets me every time.
Family Plot
Roxanne
All of Me
The Life of Brian
Who Shot Roger Rabbit?
Forest Gump
Uncle Buck
Hot Shots!
Another theory about Zeppo is that he is classically handsome. So he's a natural pick for a romantic lead. Nobody would pick Groucho for romance. That was one of the funny things, how Margaret Dumont was always in love with him. And he just wanted her money and was brutal to her. Those two are the perfect screwball couple. The screwballs weren't romantic at all, they were dark and cynical, with adultery and bigamy and female stalkers.
Zeppo as the romantic lead was to give the audience a break from the madcap humor. We love Duck Soup today, but audiences hated it back then because it was non-stop, and they wanted times for their brains to rest.
Katharine Hepburn made Bringing Up Baby, which is hilarious. I didn't enjoy it when I was a kid. But I love that movie once I got my mind right, and got into the spirit of the thing.
Bringing Up Baby (1938)
One problem in appreciating a comedy like this is you have to approach it with the right mindset. 20 years ago, I would have insisted that Animal House is a much funnier movie. But once you understand the conventions of the 1930's and 40's--particularly how people dealt with issues of sex (specifically, how they repressed their sexual desires)--the screwball comedies of that era are hysterical. Repression screws you up, man. That's why they're screwballs. To get the humor requires a level of maturity and knowledge that most teenagers simply don't possess. Sexual repression is something adults do. Kids are like, "hey, want to see my ass?"
Animal House is like your crazy id battling against the superego of Dean Wormer. Bringing Up Baby is the exact same conflict, except it's all bottled up in the character of Cary Grant. This woman is driving him crazy. She's stalking him, she's ruining his career and his wedding. She's trashing his life. And he's so polite and chivalrous about the whole thing. And his id is screaming, "let me out! let me out! I want to strangle her or have sex with her or both, anything, I'm going crazy all bottled up in here." So Grant is starting to stutter. This battle, this little war between his id and his repression of his basest desires, this is what makes Bringing Up Baby the epitome of the screwball, and a brilliant film. When I was young I didn't laugh at this. Now it puts me in stitches. It's funnier every time I watch it. Hawks is a genius.
St Croix: I have always found Animal House depressing. I think it triggers my SAD. So much of the film is at night. The palette is kind of dark. Even back then, jokes like the angel/devil date rape dilemma and the juke joint scene were pretty clearly beyond the pale. And to be clear, I have always liked sick humor. Just this particular manifestation of it doesn’t do much for me.
I do use the “back to the couch with the turban guy” gag a lot, because it happens so much in life. MAGA can be seen as a mass refusal to go back to the couch. CC, JSM
Audiences back in 1938 hated Katherine Hepburn. Specifically, I think, women hated Katherine Hepburn. They did not like her stalking Cary Grant. They did not like her ruining his wedding, or screwing up his life. They wanted to kill her.
The studio executives were like, "how are we going to handle this? The mob is after Katherine Hepburn. Did we pick badly? Is she not a star?
So they made The Philadelphia Story, which is not funny at all. Or, as I like to call it, Let's All Pee on Katherine Hepburn. It's the rom-com version of Kill the Man with the Ball.
my review of Animal House. I gave it an A+.
The president of the fraternity, whatshisname with the pipe, kinda reminds me of John Kerry. Otter is Bill Clinton. Bluto is Ted Kennedy. I basically see these guys as a Democrat Party organization. And the bad guys are Republicans. Kevin Bacon is Orrin Hatch. "Thank you sir may I have another?" I don't know who Neidermeyer is. Goldwater, maybe. "Pledge pin!"
I do use the “back to the couch with the turban guy” gag a lot, because it happens so much in life. MAGA can be seen as a mass refusal to go back to the couch.
January 6 might have been inspired, in part, by Animal House.
Nancy Pelosi is...Dean Wormer.
The guy with the buffalo headdress and the war paint is funny. It's like he's dressed for a football game. Antifa is not funny.
What was insane was the left treating the misdemeanors of January 6 like it was the end of the republic. It was the moral equivalent of the climax of Animal House. Kind of a riot, but not really.
"Top Secret" didn't make the list. One of my favorites.
I love *parts* of Animal House. Great cast - and i don't think John Vernon or the guys who played Wedemeyer or "flounder" get enough credit. Every comedy needs a good straightman and supporting cast.
But they way too much "boone" and "otter". And what the fuck is Donald Sutherland doing in the movie?
I don't they realized the hit they had on their hands, or how popular Belushi was. LIke I say, parts are the greatest ever, but the script needed another rewrite.
But man, Belushi is great. Vernon is great. The whole "you fucked up, you trusted us" is great. Other parts? Not so much. Target audience was teenagers, so some of more ridiculous stuff wasnt aimed at me.
Which was funny because of vernons previous roles in mclintock and point break where he was a mid level gangster
The end credits suggest the butt of the joke were those conformist silent majority types (in the end credits)
Clearly chansley was terry gilliam from python
Humor is so subjective, though. It's really just a matter of taste. People have strong opinions, of course. The basic test is whether you're laughing or not. If you're laughing, it's funny!
Its crazy that Hepburn became such a beloved star, because she really had limited appeal. Her characters in the 30s and 40s are borderline obnoxious. We're supposed to sympathize and laugh at that because she has an intelligence and sincerity behind it. You have to wonder what she would've done if she hadn't hooked up with Spenser Tracy, or had all those "Spinster Roles" in the 50s.
I was a huge Marx Bros. fan through my life, though I have not actually sat to watch them in recent years. I should. I could use that laugh. They were brilliant. I did not know Zeppo was such a man for all seasons. And so funny. He played us well.
As for the list.
1) Blazing Saddles only at 77? And behind Private Benjamin and Napoleon Dynamite? Zoolander? Are you kidding me?
2) Bridesmaids at 25? Please.
Yes...humor is completely subjective, but...this is a shit list. Or just a strange list. Many are not so much laugh out loud comedies, but more nice stories that will make you smile from time to time. Some are just crap movies (see those mentioned above).
And there are many simply missing from the list. "There's something about Mary" still makes me laugh out loud in parts.
And then there's this. I dare you not to laugh: Biggus Dickus, from 'Life of Brian'.
One weird thing about Groucho, apparently, is that he was always acting like Groucho, even when away from the cameras.
@Saint Croix, there’s an old story from Hollywood. Groucho Marx is working on his lawn in grubby old clothes. An expensively dressed woman drives up in an expensive car, sees the excellent shape the lawn and gardens are in, and imperiously asks what he charges to maintain a yard.
Groucho, realizing he hasn’t been recognized, quickly answers “The pay ain’t so good but the woman of the house lets me sleep with her.”
I didn’t see two movies with scenes where I laughed uncontrollably and with tears. The Wedding Singer, when Sandler sang his “The Cure” song and Bowfinger, with the ridiculous part toward the end with the camera on the crane. I’m a broken record…Eddie Murphy was robbed of an Academy Award nomination for his role(s). I still quote Wedding Singer (“they’re CONES!”)
A lot of stuff on that list I would omit. Credit though, for putting Lost in America on it. But overlooking The In-Laws with Peter Falk and Alan Arkin is criminal. I started out liking Groucho but the more I watched the Marx Brothers the more I liked Chico. Harpo not so much. Must be the week for the Marx Brothers. Just yesterday I saw something about Harpo. A classical harpist said he was an exceptionally good harpist and had even written some quality pieces.
my top 100 comedies
(one man's opinion)
Singin' in the Rain
Shall We Dance
After the Thin Man
On the Town
A Day at the Races
His Girl Friday
Bringing Up Baby
A Hard Day's Night
Pillow Talk
The Graduate
Donovan's Reef
Dr. Strangelove
One, Two, Three
The Man Who Knew Too Little
Summer Holiday (Sammi Cheng)
Needing You... (Sammi Cheng again)
You Were Never Lovelier
A Night at the Opera
Top Hat
The Lady Vanishes (this is light Hitch, and so much fun)
Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (Marilyn is a comic genius)
My Cousin Vinny
The Lady Eve
Chungking Express
Love Crazy
50 First Dates
A Fish Called Wanda
The Apartment
The Gay Divorcee
Hannah and Her Sisters
Clueless
The Navigator (Buster's best, and his most popular)
Rushmore
The Gold Rush
The Awful Truth
The Bank Dick
Some Like It Hot
That Thing You Do!
Almost Famous
Ninotchka
Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid
The Knack...and How To Get It
Never Say Die
City Lights
Nothing But the Truth
Lady and the Tramp
The Paper
The Corpse Bride
Road to Morocco
16 Candles
The Nightmare Before Christmas
Oscar
Bottle Rocket
Room Service
Walking and Talking
The Wedding Singer
101 Dalmatians
It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World
Shakespeare in Love
Office Space
Easy Living
Happy Gilmore
At the Circus
Where's Marlowe?
Rocket Science
St. Vincent
Duck Soup
Four Weddings and a Funeral
Radioland Murders
Ball of Fire
Midnight
Guardians of the Galaxy
Support Your Local Gunfighter
Unfaithfully Yours
Gold Diggers of 1933
Road to Zanzibar
Miller's Crossing
Gold Diggers of 1935
The Slammin' Salmon
M Hulot's Holiday
Addicted to Love (screwball version of Rear Window)
Vincent (short film by Tim Burton)
State and Main (Mamet is a comic genius)
Along Came Polly
Larceny, Inc.
Men in Black
Arthur
I Married a Witch
Big Deal on Madonna Street
La Fee
The Palm Beach Story
Le Million
Clue
any random episode of The Neighbors
Booksmart
My Favorite Wife
Rumba
Flirting
Caddyshack
Good Morning
oops I left off a bunch
At the Circus is too high, oops
Two epic pictures:
What's Up Doc and The Great Race
I think What's Up Doc? is the best picture of 1972. I rate it higher than the Godfather. Sacrilege, I know, but that's how I roll.
It's a remake of Bringing Up Baby, of course.
A major difference in our culture is that the USA did not hate Barbra Streisand in 1972. Nobody wrote letters to the studio demanding that she be fired. That's because Madeline Kahn is a comic genius.
Also, Streisand is both hot and not hot in that movie. She's hotter than Hepburn, not even close. But her nose keeps her from being a 10. Right? I'm like, "You would be a 10, if you fixed the nose. But I can't mention that. It would be rude. So I'm just going to stare at you for a while. No I'm not, I'm going to leave. Why don't you fix your nose? And why are you so confident? You shouldn't be this confident. I'm going away now. Why are you following me?"
You wouldn't think they could bring that screwball into the 1970's. But that's a very fine remake.
And in Wikipedia a quote from a mag reviewing a broadway marx show: The New Yorker describing it as “the very concoction for which the word ‘wow’ had been coined”.[93]
“Where’s Poppa” it’s the funniest movie I have ever seen. I saw it in ReykjavÃk Iceland in 1974 in a mostly empty theater where my laughter must still be echoing off the walls. The natives must’ve thought I was out of my mind.
Took me almost an hour to get through this bloody list on my phone. All the while I know it’s all horseshit now that’s dedication.
Zeppo story: He's in his car, pulling away from a friend's house, while still finishing a conversation with the friend. He keeps pulling away very slowly as he continues to wind up the conversation. The friend unthinkingly walks along. Zeppo stops, starts again, stops again, deftly keeping the conversation going the whole time. Meanwhile the friend is getting further and further away from his house. Zeppo very gradually speeds up until his poor friend is a half mile down the street and practically running to keep up with the car, oblivious to the joke Zeppo has played on him.
I think this says something about Zeppo's comic timing.
I would've included We Want Our Mummy (1939) by the Stooges. Curly at his greatest.
They could've have gone with It's A Gift instead The Bank Dick. Both are Fields' classics. The good professor Althouse prefers the former; I the latter.
This list is terrible. Interestingly, I count only 4 titles since 2010, and of those I only thought one was really a comedy. What happened to Hollywood's sense of humor in 2010?
They left out the hangover films
BudBrown: "the very concoction for which the word ‘wow’ had been coined"
Now that would make a great masthead motto! CC, JSM
Big Mike, that's a funny story, thanks.
EAB, totally agree on The Wedding Singer. That movie has a song that is, arguably, the funniest song in cinema.
"Big Deal on Madonna Street" is great. As is "divorce italian style".
that clip leaves out two great lines
his warning "it's a little uneven"
and her response "I like it!"
ROC, if you like Italian comedies, you might enjoy The 10th Victim.
Insanely funny sci-fi flick from Italy starring Marcello Mastroianni and Ursula Andress. It's set in the future, and people are so bored with their lives they create this game where you get to kill people. And you're assigned someone to kill, and someone else is assigned to kill you. And Marcello and Ursula are the best killers ever, so of course they have to kill each other. You know the fembots who killed with their boobs? Total rip-off of this movie.
I don't know if anybody wants to cry. Why would humanity want to cry? Apparently, some of us do.
Anyway, Umberto D. has so much pathos. It's just a pile on. I was in a war with the movie. "You're not going to make me cry. You're not going to make me cry." And De Sica got me.
Tokyo Story almost made me cry. I had an urge to call my parents.
I haven't actually seen Old Yeller. But Bill Murray says, you will cry. Apparently, the dog dies. I hate kill the dog movies. So I've been avoiding it my entire life.
The saddest movie I've ever seen is, hands down, Bang the Drum Slowly. And it's De Niro's most surprising performance. Funny and sad, funny and sad. Dumb baseball catcher is dying of Hodgkin's disease. I love that movie. Now when I watch it, I start to cry before the sad parts. I'm dying today.
Nobody cries in that movie, by the way. It's a cinematic rule. If your characters are crying, the audience is not. But if your characters are holding it in. The audience cries for them.
Variety must hate Mel Brooks. No The Producers, Spaceballs, and Blazing Saddles comes it at a pitiful 77. Really, the Nutty Professor is much better than any of them?
Buffy the Vampire Slayer season 3 episode 13 The Zeppo
Thanks St C. for the recommendation.
Personally, as opposed to variety's list,. my list would contain a lot more WC Fields, Lubitsch Mel Brooks, Preston Sturges, Keaton, and Harold Lloyd. Not to mention more British films - like Earling and Python.
As for "Funny films after 2010". I don't know of any. If there are more than 4 - name them.
When I first watched it in a theater as a callow youth, I thought Apocalypse Now was a dark serious film about the degradation of humanity in war. I've seen it often over the years and now view it as the very best dark comedy ever made. Prove me wrong, I've got all day.
As to the Marx brothers, I look forward to the day an AI generated crossover proudction either pairs them up or pits them against the Three Stooges. Hilarity will ensue. What further father, indeed. Yuk, yuk, yuk. Wiseguy, huh!
RCOCEAN II quotes Groucho way far above, re Margaret Dumont "she didn't get the jokes" and RCO also doesn't get the joke there, which Groucho makes about her role in the movies. She indeed didn't get the jokes, Groucho got the jokes and she didn't, BECAUSE SHE WAS PLAYING IT STRAIGHT while he got the laff lines.
This explains so very much of the commentary presented here by this individual. I am glad I came here today and read his comment. It gave me a deeeeeeep understanding of his perspective on things. I'm leaving now with a smile on my face, a song in my heart, and a Yuk yuk yuk for him.
RCO, Booksmart is great. High school girl wants to be Hillary and discovers she has missed out on fun. Highly recommended. We are not the target audience.
I just saw Playdate on Amazon Prime. Jack Reacher is funny! Not the best but solid B+.
Most people have not seen Rocket Science. Beyond fantastic. Battle of the sexes in a high school debate tournament. Anna Kendrick is the bad girl. I love her. Great movie about becoming a man. See also Flirting, ditto.
RCO mentioned Ealing studios. The Maggie was so damn funny I hurt my rib. Need subtitles because the accents are rough.
In the Loop is the funniest political comedy I have ever seen. Very raunchy British humor
Also, if you like sci-fi comedy The Neighbors is hilarious. Only one season .
Zeppo was even secure with being perceived as the "worst Marx brother" by regular movie goers. As an agent, he'd often get his clients signed up by saying "if you don't sign, I'll start making movies again".
"The saddest movie I've ever seen is, hands down, Bang the Drum Slowly. And it's De Niro's most surprising performance. Funny and sad, funny and sad. Dumb baseball catcher is dying of Hodgkin's disease. I love that movie."
Like "Casino Royale (Barry Nelson as an American James Bond, available on ewetube)" and "No Time for Sergeants," among others, before it, "Bang the Drum Slowly" was an episode of a TV anthology series before it was a movie. Paul Newman played Henry Wiggen and Albert Salmi played Bruce Pearson in the TV version; as I recall and as might be expected, the TV version was very set or stage bound, there's not much to choose between Newman and Michael Moriarty as the lead (I don't think much of Moriarty as an actor generally, but his low-key performance as almost a narrator and spectator-based I think on the character's role in the TV version-was effective in this role) and DeNiro was better, in an unusual role for him, than Salmi (albeit I thought Salmi was still pretty darn good, I think he was thought to be an up and coming serious dramatic actor at this stage of his career).
Anyway, as you say, a very sad and emotional film, and one of my favorites as well. And it gives Wiggen a great closing line (quoted from memory, so I might be a bit off): "From here on in, I rag nobody."
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