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Is there a film clip that will make me laugh?

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I confessed on the ‘Do you really like that? Honestly?’ thread, (which sits comfortably at the top of the charts), that I didn’t understand why people liked ‘Laurel and Hardy’. Tediously unfunny, imho.

OOAA, as was very evident – masters of their art, precursors of much of successive comedy, a gift that their performances are captured for posterity. Such were the responses of the cognescenti.

Each to their own. But then I was challenged by the good @Douglas to come up with my top 5 films. Not having one to hand, I hastily scanned various online polls to see if there were any I had seen or enjoyed actually remember laughing at. There were very few, but I just about scraped together a list that passed his muster.

I was troubled. Did this mean I have no sense of humour? Or just don’t like slapstick? Maybe the answer is to put it to the Massive:

Here I sit, arms folded. ‘ Entertain me!’ I bellow. If the prospect doesn’t discourage you, please would you post some clips from movies you can’t help laughing at, and I’ll let you know if I can uncover a funny bone under my middle-aged spread.

Thank you kindly!

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Comments

    • Nice one to start this off with, Dave, thanks! There was a warm smile of recognition for me on seeing this clip. I used to find the Pink Panther films delightful, and remember the billiards scene well. There was a lot of comedy in that, but it was the straight acting, the silly dialogue and the deadpan and almost corpsing facial expressions that made me laugh, not the slapstick with the cues and balls, which is just hard to watch (speaking as a clumsy oaf, myself).

      I love this:
      “Telephone call, Monsieur, for Inspector Cleauseau”
      “That’ll be for me”.

    • Thanks, rocker. I was going to say it’s a no from me. Eddie Murphy looks good as all those different characters – inhabits them well – but it all seemed such broad comedy on first viewing.

      Then I watched it again, and again, and though I couldn’t make out all the dialogue, I thought it was pretty good, just would have been funnier with other actors performing it straight, not gurning for the camera, as it appeared. Mind you, it was just a clip – possibly, having got to know the characters first, it might have been more natural.

      I liked the salacious uncle, though – pretty much the only character you could see interacting with the girlfriend meeting the family.

    • Rigid, I think you know the route to my tickle zone, for DRI is indeed one of my 5 comedy film favourites, as much for the savage putdowns between Martin and Caine, as for this particularly joyful scene.

    • I must admit, Bingo, your comment made me laugh out loud, in a way that the clip, as you rightly pointed out, didn’t. It’s only the Candyman that stops this from being a horror film. I mean, fuck, there’s a bloody great bear, and there are kids, and it’s only the idiot’s skin-deep sangfroid that’s preventing everyone in that scene screaming their tits off in hysteria.

      Any film with John Candy in is good in my experience – he’s so lovable. But it’s only Trains Planes and Automobiles, with the icy juxtaposition of Steve Martin that makes me laugh (2 down, 3 to go of my top 5)

    • For sheer hit rate, that made it into my top 5. You guys are good. But (unless you peek at my comment on the other thread), the other two films are less mainstream.

    • Another of the good guys, Gene Wilder. I’m very fond of his films, though I’d say they make me grin fondly, rather than laugh out loud. Thanks for posting. Young Frankenstein is one I haven’t seen in ages.

    • Jackpot! The Simpsons, not that I’ve watched it in years, is one thing that is almost guaranteed to make me laugh. That whole clip was good, from Homer being an outrageously bad father, through the Austin Powers-style coincidental genital coverage, and even more when reversed, but it was the ending that tipped me over the edge – Flanders, who else?

      Was that from a recent show, do you know?

      Oh, and thanks for posting!

      • Ooh, I’m glad it hit the spot – it’s actually from The Simpsons Movie, so qualifies as a film clip too.

        The actual series hasn’t been worth watching in years – possibly as much as 20 years depending upon your yardstick. But at its finest it was pure gold.

  10. The scene in Toni Erdmann where he turns up at his daughter’s (rather unconventional!) party for her colleagues had me crying with laughter. But if I posted it here, I can’t imagine anyone even being mildly amused. Context is everything.

    It is not often that I laugh out loud a lot these days.

    Both the Jump Street reboots are very amusing. In the second, the two bumbling cops go undercover as college students. In the first scene, they are reporting to their boss.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IA87N1n_0Fw

    I don’t suspect it will make you laugh out loud, but this is superb comedy of embarrassment and Ice Cube is magnificent.

    • Go on, KFD, post the Toni Erdmann! I’m defective enough to probably enjoy dat shit.

      That was a pretty funny clip you just posted. I saw the first Jump Street remake (can’t think how, but I did), so I kind of knew the characters. It didn’t start well, which was probably good, as it let my guard down for the restaurant scene, which did have me laughing out loud – at the extended silence. Sometimes less is more with comedy, and giving it a bit of time to sink in made the pay off for me. The rest of it was pretty meh, though – the tantrum and the juvenile response from his partner.

      Still, maybe there’s hope for me yet.

      Thanks for posting!

      • Glad you enjoyed that. Agree with you about the partner’s unfunny, juvenile response. And definitely agree that Less is more in comedy.

        Sorry! Not posting that Toni Erdmann clip in isolation. It will make no sense at all. You’ll have to see the whole film. Which everyone should anyway. It’s not a comedy though. Do not expect a rib-tickling, Teutonic laughathon. A German, or indeed Swedish, comedy is usually a contradiction in terms!

        Swedish TV comedy! Aaaargh! Do not get me started.

    • One of my favourite films, but it’s the comedy of recognition for me – happy smiles, rather than laugh out loud funny.

      The repartee (is that a better word than banter?) between Pegg and Frost is so natural and so enjoyable, that it makes me snigger, particularly the more playful, childish conversations – you can tell it’s just the tip of the iceberg of their unfilmed interactions.

      And it’s always good when Dylan Moran’s character gets picked on.

      Thanks, Gary!

    • Oh my WOW! You have been busy, Bingo! Thanks for your contributions – I shall enjoy them at leisure (maybe not all in working hours, then), and report back verbosely and long-windedly, as I seem to do. (Fortunately, people can skip those bits and just enjoy the clips)

    • The Stir Crazy clip was a bit flat – I’m sure there are funnier clips from the film. I do like Silver Streak, so I think I’d like that one too.

      Super Troopers was excellent – I’d like to see that. I t looks like a riot. It was hard to know what was going on. And I did laugh out loud (comedy of recognition) at the multiple scene with the police at the car door.

      So, no and a big yes to those two.

    • Chevy Chase and Steve Martin, and still not that funny? Definitely something wrong, somewhere.

      Leslie Nielsen is, of course, funny,. I think he was better in earlier films when his deadpan wasn’t such a big thing, Ii kind of became expected, whereas the joy was that such an ordinary schmo could generate those laughs. From the same film, this was funnier for me – the cumulative effect of the assault of Richard Griffiths and then the detail of the changing newspaper headline

    • Sorrry. Stoneface at both of those. I remember Jackass from the TV with those middle-aged parents (with one other fat bloke as well) getting pranked by gigging kidults – lamely reacting to obvious self-indulgent, and pretty spiteful tricks. Loathsome and unimpressive on every level. The silly things Steve-O and co did to themselves were OK, though. Much less malice involved.

      And Tim Curry? Did he need the money? Home Alone may be funny for hermetically-sealed, spoiled rich kids, but that just made me want to slap ‘Kevin’ and tell the other ‘actors’ to give up (as if those were perfect performances),

      Tell me you really like this stuff, Bingo, because it feels like you’re just posting to provoke.

  17. And last but not least, the greatest standup performance of all time. Not a single funny joke, but his delivery is absolutely incredible and the audience reaction is brilliant.

    • Thanks, Retro. I haven’t seen this film as a whole yet, but the scenes I have seen were best when you can see the barely-concealed enmity between the two main bridesmaids (I think the two with the sugared almond). Gross-out humour is a bit meh for me, though there isn’t much better than the gradual build towards the climax of this scene:

    • This is one of those examples of something that is so funny, just mention of it makes me chuckle. Although Frasier is primarily for me a comedy of sharp cracks and putdowns, the well-created and lovable characters make this slapstick scene the genius creation that it is. It’s Niles’ reactions to what happens to him, more than the accidents themselves that is so funny.

      Laurel and Hardy were such unsympathetic buffoons, I just wanted them to stop their coy affectations, whimpering and*goshdarnit,welllookatme* overreactions to their pratfalls.

      Thank you for posting a reminder of the sublime joy that is Frasier. (God, I sound like him).

      • naw you’re welcome. I took out the ironing board last evening and this popped into my head. I had to delay ironing for 10 minutes as i scouted out this clip for a watch. DHP probably deserved an Emmy for this five minutes alone.

        Heck, the dog probably deserved one as well.

    • Thanks, DFB. I’m sorry to say I rarely get Reeves and Mortimer, apart from their Mulligan and O’Hare sketches. Glad they were having a good time though. Maybe you had to be there?

  23. This is a rare clip of British comedian Dickie Henderson on the Ed Sullivan show in the 60’s (ignore the bizarre Japanese subtitles!) I had vague memories of Henderson on 1970’s TV variety shows as a kid, but had no idea what a brilliant physical comedian he was, as seen in this hilarious pastiche of Frank Sinatra’s One For The Road

    • That is very good, Droogie. Thank you! It’s great how he manages to maintain sang froid and singing voice all while pratfalling with such elegance that every foot placed wrongly is placed exactly where it needs to go – and in time with the music. Every beat is there.

    • I’m glad it makes you chuckle, Milkybarnick. It’s cleverly done, and I can spot some of the references, but I can’t say it passed the laugh test. Sorry.

  28. Two clips that may not lead to a belly laugh but have me breaking out in a big smile.

    It happened one night
    Colbert is a spoilt brat millionaire’s daughter on the run from her dad. Gable is a down-at-heel journo helping her in the hope of a story.

    Guardians of the Galaxy 2 – opening scene
    Peter Quill and his motley crew prepare to save the galaxy yet again. And they are squabbling yet again.

    No overblown bombasticism here. It’s the sort of conversation a quarrelsome family would have on their way to the mall. Hulking superheroes do not usually have over-sensitive nipples.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bg1PLZOQbCQ

    • Not such a great strike rate with that post, KFD – the first one wasn’t funny at all. The second was ok, good-natured ribbing, rather than laugh out loud funny. Though I did enjoy the “Gardens of the Galaxy” exchange. I’m still giggling about that now, in fact.

      • It is fun trying to amuse you, Sal. Even if it doesn’t always work.

        But once again, it is all about context.

        A comedy sketch is one thing. A film in which characters develop, something else. The first clip is funny for me as the Colbert character has lived a life of such total sterile luxury: a bird in a gilded cage. Suddenly she starts to have fun in down at heel camping site.

        Ace movie anyway.

  31. Not a movie, but Les Dawson’s wonky piano playing always makes me do a lol. This clip from a ’70s Parky features the great organ-botherer Harry Stoneham falling about laughing in the background.

    • Never really liked One Foot In The Grave, and that clip was seriously overplayed first in an advert for the TV Licence, and then as part of UK Gold’s Top 100 Pant Wetting Moments.

      In recent years though, I’m beginning to see it as a biopic of my life
      (and wry smiles and chuckles abound)

    • Short, but sweet. I hadn’t seen that clip before, but, a bit like Rigid, the comedy of recognition is slowly taking over from the tedium of self-indulgent obviousness that I used to think of OFITG

    • He does go on a bit doesn’t he? I’d seen it before, so I went straight for the nothing song – which makes me laugh because it’s so silly, so absurd. Otherwise it feels like the comedy of endurance, as he painstakingly ad methodically steps back through history, dismantling all human progress,

  40. The talk of Sleeper upthread reminded me of Bananas, which is a very uneven film but the court scene is great, peaking at around the 4 minute mark here when Woody’s character cross-examines himself.

    “Are you being coy, Mellish?”

    • Thanks, MtM. I found that a bit uneven – lots of wisecracks which made me smile slightly, but the highlight was Brian Murphy drinking out of a fishbowl – that made me laugh.

  41. I just wanted to say thank you to everyone who contributed to this thread. I enjoyed watching everything you posted, even if I didn’t laugh at all I saw. I think I do have a bit of a tin ear for comedy, but I’m glad there are some things that can make even me laugh.
    It was a terribly self-indulgent thread, but I hope others also enjoyed the clips (and ignored the snarky little sheep in between).

    • Snark on Sheepy! That was great fun! And raised all kinds of interesting questions about what makes something funny. Thanks to this, I’m currently planning a new thread on Favourite Siberian Sitcoms. It will be a hoot.

    • Thanks, @Declan. I’m a bit late in responding, but Python’s intellectual juxtapositions are dryly entertaining what-ifs (both the Life of Brian and the Philosophers’ football match) rather than guffaw-inducingly silly. There’s only one recent football-related sketch that made me laugh and that was this one:

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