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Viewers Pick The Greatest Comedy Films: Something Is Wrong With Their Sense Of Humour

August 14, 2009

Viewers Pick The Greatest Comedy Films: Something Is Wrong With Their Sense Of Humour As I sometimes glance through the so-called lists of best comedy films that are usually compiled on the basis of polling the British viewing public, I get a feeling that there is something seriously wrong with people’s sense of humour nowadays. And I mean seriously, seriously wrong.

Films like South Park, Bigger, Longer And Uncut and Team America: World Police pop up in these lists and they could have only been selected by people with no sense of humour at all. None at all. I am sorry to be so blunt, but that is how it is. Anyone who has seen these two films should have kept it a secret, because it does say lot about people who like to watch total rubbish like that. It is in the Big Brother category of cinematography. No, it is actually even lower than that. You have to be a really sad person to like this sort of stuff.

The same goes for Happy Gilmor and Dodgeball, the two disastrous films that suspiciously creep into the top lists of the best comedy films as chosen by the public. This is the sort of humour that can only satisfy prepubescent teenagers or people who have not really progressed much in their development.

As for Return Of The Pink Panther, the so called golden oldie that I often encounter in lists of best comedies, I find it quite bizarre that it makes it there at all. Peter Sellers has never been a good comedy actor. In fact, he was not a good actor generally and I find it strange that so many people simply accept him as some huge superstar without actually bothering to see him for what he really was – an overblown ego with practically no acting talent.

I would like to specifically single out the film Trading Places, which seems to be popping up in lits and polls as one of the best loved comedy films of the British public. The film is not just bad because it is outrageously politically correct and because Eddie Murphy is in it. That is beside the point, because Murphy is not the worst of the lot. The thing that is seriously wrong with Trading Places is that it actually promotes the idea that you can break the law for a good reason. Remember: the two main characters forge a report on the price of orange juice to punish the two greedy brokers of the firm Duke&Duke who set them both up? The moment they do that they become exactly the same disgusting people as the two Dukes. They are no longer better than them. They turn into thugs and conmen themselves. And another thing about the film that is wrong: a prostitute with a heart played by Jamie Lee Curtis. Prostitutes are never good people. They are hustlers who will take you for a ride at any moment. That is why they are prostitutes in the first place.

But let us move swiftly to other films that seem to infest the lists of the best comedies ever made. The ones I personally cannot stand are: Ghostbusters, Beetlejuice, Ferris Bueller’s Day Out, Shaun Of The Dead, American Pie. How on earth these five so-called comedies get a mention is beyond me. I would like to challenge anyone to show me these films and check whether I would produce a single smile. Because they are anything but funny. You really have to have a weird sense of humour to laugh at these films, especially the three horror flicks that are supposed to be hilarious.

The most overhyped film that is often mentioned in polls and in lists is There Is Something About Mary. For some strange reason it is presented as some politically incorrect, outrageous comedy. It is nothing of the sort. It is actually very tame, quite boring and generally not very funny. Teaming up Cameron Diaz and Ben Stiller was not a good idea in the first place. Both are not very good actors and cannot really do comedy. Not to mention that the plot is not all that great and even the rare funny moments in the film are crass and in your face. But most importantly, politically incorrect this film is certainly not. I cannot understand how people fell for that bluff.

And once we are on the subject of political correctness, let me tell something about Hollywood: it practically never does politically incorrect films. It is politically correct in its nature. It would rather die than be politically incorrect. Do not confuse explicit sex, extreme violence, drug taking and constant swearing to be politically incorrect. It is actually quite the opposite. It is part of the message that Hollywood, that fifth column of bad taste, has been peddling for years by attacking decency, ridiculing family life, mocking religious beliefs and glamorising crime.

Another comedy that I find deeply unfunny is Austin Powers: The International Man of Mystery. When I saw it, I remember thinking to myself: how on earth does Mike Meyers get away with this sort of rubbish? Because it is really pathetic. It is not just bad comedy, it is appallingly bad comedy. Meyers is to acting what impotence is to marriage. He is abysmal. He is beyond criticism. Luckily for everyone he has finally revealed himself in all his ‘glory’ in his last film, The Love Guru, which was a total flop at the box office. I remember one film critic saying that after watching it he finally realised that Myeres never actually had it in him. My point exactly.

A few words about the film Blues Brothers that is always mentioned among the comedy greats. Has anyone actually seen it to the end? Because it is extremely boring and unfunny. And John Belushi and Dan Ackroyd look pathetic in it. I tried several times to watch it to the end but could not. It gets worse as it progresses.

And now we come to the top two supposedly ‘greatest comedies ever’ that are always mentioned in polls. First, it is Mel Brook’s Blazing Saddles, a politically correct spoof on Westerns that is filled with buffoonery and farce. I am always amazed when some people actually call it the greatest comedy film ever and praise that disgusting scene with the farting cowboys eating beans. The film has its moments but on the whole it is not funny. Greatest comedy of all times it certainly is not.

And the film that gets most of the praise in all sorts of polls in Monty Python’s Life Of Brian. You do not really have to be a genius to understand what the message in the film is all about. It would be in the same category as a comedy spoof about the Holocaust or about the life of the Prophet Mohamed. People should simply not make films like that and then pretend that they do not understand what all the fuss is about. And for viewers to pick a nasty film like that as the best comedy ever is simply wrong. It has got nothing to do with choosing a film on its merit. It is just an attempt to be seen as original and controversial.

By the way, you might not know this but the film was financed by that ‘quiet Beatle’ George Harrison. The Monty Python team were dropped by their initial sponsors and had to turn for help to their big fan George, who  put up £3 million. He also got a couple of other rock stars to chip in.

I have a feeling that people who compile these lists of most popular comedies lend a hind in selecting the films. Because most of the choices of comedies in the lists usually turn out to be very strange indeed. I know that there is a crisis of English humour, but it cannot be that bad, can it?

Here is the list of top 40 best comedy films as provided by Channel Five’s website some months ago:

1. Monty Python’s Life Of Brian
2. Blazing Saddles
3. Shrek
4. American Pie
5. Meet The Parents
6. Groundhog Day
7. The Blues Brothers
8. Shaun Of The Dead
9. Ferris Bueller’s Day Off
10. Mrs Doubtfire
11. Some Like It Hot
12. Austin Powers: International Man Of Mystery
13. Dumb And Dumber
14. There’s Something About Mary
15. This Is Spinal Tap
16. Men In Black
17. Beetlejuice
18. A Fish Called Wanda
19. Ghostbusters
20. Dr Strangelove
21. Home Alone
22. Toy Story
23. The Naked Gun
24. Happy Gilmore
25. Dodgeball
26. Carry On Camping
27. Planes, Trains And Automobiles
28. Wayne’s World
29. Trading Places
30. The Incredibles
31. Father Of The Bride
32. Police Academy
33. Team America: World Police
34. The Princess Bride
35. Return Of The Pink Panther
36. South Park: Bigger Longer and Uncut
37. Ace Ventura: When Nature Calls
38. Scary Movie
39. School Of Rock
40. Dirty Rotten Scoundrels

– End –

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One Response to “Viewers Pick The Greatest Comedy Films: Something Is Wrong With Their Sense Of Humour”

  1. matt on September 10th, 2008 8:26 pm

    sure your not german? either that or you’ve had a sense of humour by-pass. some of the newer films are up there because there still fresh in peoples minds. Crisis in British humour hmmmm how about sahca baron cohen and steve coogan or alan partridge and borat to layman. total geniuses

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