List time! I was originally going to be doing a 2012 5 years later retrospective but naturally my plans were thwarted. You’ll get to see that piece in a couple of weeks. Today, I want to talk about comedies, specifically the best ones. BBC recently polled a whole bunch of people and asked them what the greatest comedies were. The list was…interesting. You’ll hear Kristen and I talk more about how we made our choices on the podcast tomorrow, but honestly this list was one of the toughest I’ve had to make, not because I didn’t know what to pick but because a) I don’t really like many comedies and b) my idea about what a comedy is changes with the film. Like what do you do with genre comedies or movies that feel more dramatic than funny? I really go back and forth on this but here’s the list I’d come up with, based on my Great Movies list, in order of release.
Top 10 Comedies of All Time
Bringing Up Baby
Arsenic and Old Lace
The Producers
Monty Python and the Holy Grail
Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown
Steel Magnolias
American Pie
Undercover Brother
Hot Fuzz
The Wolf of Wall Street