Posted on 09/06/2012 7:27:33 PM PDT by nickcarraway
Airplane - which features classic one liners such as 'I am serious and don't call me Shirley' - came out top in research conducted by a panel of members of movie subscription service Lovefilm.
They calculated the precise number of 'laughs a minute' for the top 10 comedies chosen by Lovefilm members. The panel recorded the total number of times each film generated a laugh, before dividing it by the films' total length in minutes to calculate the precise 'laugh a minute' rating for each movie.
With a 'laugh A minute' score of three, Airplane beat nine rival comedies to top the list which has been created to mark The Hangover becoming available to stream on Lovefilm Instant.
The Las Vegas man-movie featuring the bachelor party to end all bachelor parties marked its arrival onto the Lovefilm Instant service by scoring a 'Laugh A Minute' rating of 2.4
Airplane - which features classic one liners such as 'I am serious and don't call me Shirley' - came out top in research conducted by a panel of members of movie subscription service Lovefilm. They calculated the precise number of 'laughs a minute' for the top 10 comedies chosen by Lovefilm members. The panel recorded the total number of times each film generated a laugh, before dividing it by the films' total length in minutes to calculate the precise 'laugh a minute' rating for each movie.
With a 'laugh A minute' score of three, Airplane beat nine rival comedies to top the list which has been created to mark The Hangover becoming available to stream on Lovefilm Instant.
The Las Vegas man-movie featuring the bachelor party to end all bachelor parties marked its arrival onto the Lovefilm Instant service by scoring a 'Laugh A Minute' rating of 2.4.
(Excerpt) Read more at telegraph.co.uk ...
I knew it when I saw it. It was a bittersweet moment, though, because I thought, How long before I see something this funny again?
OTOH, their follow-up movies were very funny too. But nothing matched the original.
I'll definitely check that out...I don't think I've seen it - Thanks!
Where's Mel Brooks' The Producers and Young Frankenstein? The Marx Brothers in virtually anything they made? Bringing Up Baby?
Also MIA is a film that could possibly out-do even the redoubtable Airplane for sight gags and verbal by-play, The Tall Blond Man With One Black Shoe (the original, not the horrid Tom Hanks remake). No Amazon Women on the Moon or Kentucky Fried Movie? (Untitled)? Nun on the Run? Better Off Dead? What's Up Tiger Lily? There's Something About Mary? Bananas? Some Like It Hot?
Geez, off the top of my head I can think of 50 movies funnier than some of the clinkers on their list.
"Serpentine, Shel, Serpentine!!"
And this scene, laughing so hard my sides hurt:
Vince Ricardo: "Sheldon, it was unbelievable. I saw things.... They have tsetse flies down there the size of eagles."
Sheldon Kornpett: "Really."
Vince Ricardo: "In the evening, I would stand in front of my hut and watch in horror......as these giant flies would pick children off the ground and carry them away."
Carol Kornpett: "My God."
Jean Ricardo: "Oh, the things he told us."
Vince Ricardo: "Oh, it was an incredible sight. Peasants screaming, chasing these flies down the road, waving brooms. You can imagine the pathetic quality of this, waving these crudely fashioned brooms at these enormous flies as they carried their children off to almost certain death."
Jean Ricardo: "That is just the most horrible thing."
Sheldon Kornpett: "You're sure these are flies you're talking about?"
Vince Ricardo: "Flies. Natives had a name for them. José Grecos de Muertos. Flamenco dancers of death."
Jean Ricardo: "You took those slides of them that never came out, remember?"
Sheldon Kornpett: "Well that's a shame. I really would've liked to have seen those slides."
Vince Ricardo: "Yeah, I left them in a jacket that got Martinized. I tell you it broke my heart, because those slides would've won me a Pulitzer Prize. The enormous flies flapping slowly away into the sunset. Small brown babies clutched in their beaks."
Barbara Kornpett: "Wow."
Sheldon Kornpett: "Beaks...flies with beaks."
Vince Ricardo: "A sight I'll never forget. I was stunned. Appalled."
Carol Kornpett: "What did you do?"
Vince Ricardo: "What did I do?"
Carol Kornpett: "As a consultant, what did you do about the flies?"
Vince Ricardo: "Sadly, there's very little you can do because of the tremendous red tape in the bush."
Sheldon Kornpett: "There's red tape in the bush?"
Vince Ricardo: "Enormous red tape, Shel. These files, for example. They're protected against pilferage under the provisions of the Guacamole Act of 1917."
Agreed. The Grail is the comedy everybody quotes lines from. LOB had some funny parts, but overall was not nearly as funny. All the Pythons and many so-called film cineastes say LOB is Python's best, but plainly it's not. I'm always amused when various people in the arts and entertainment industry say some particular piece of work of theirs is their best when often it's not their best. Peter Sellers thought he'd be remembered for his non-Clouseau roles, when most people remember him specifically for him playing Clouseau.
Ding, ding, ding, ding, we have a winner!!
Of course, the Mad Magazine parody was called "It's a World, World, World, World Mad".
That's the same mentality that has declared rap to be "music", and graffiti vandalism to be "art".
AIRPLANE! (4 minute long movie trailer)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?NR=1&v=GTgmDCkmzOc&feature=endscreen
(BTW: I worked with Julie Hagerty’s uncle,Ken, back in the mid 80’s. I believe Julie slightly altered her last name.)
:^)
Thanks for the Spinal Tap reminder. The mockumentaries put out by Christopher Guest are fantastic: Best in Show & A Mighty Wind rank up there, too.
Amen, followed in a close second by Young Frankenstein
I see your point, but the prepositional phrase following the quantity could only have two syllables else it lose its flow.
Everything Slim Pickens said in that movie was gold.
One of the best.
“Tell them I said ..OW!”
Only Mel Brooks could get away with dialog like this:
Taggart: I got it! I know how we can run everyone out of Rock Ridge.
Hedley Lamarr: How?
Taggart: We’ll kill the first born male child in every household.
Hedley Lamarr: [after some consideration] Too Jewish.
Exactly my opinion!
Or what followed as Slim decided to 'work up a number six on 'em'.
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