Thursday, June 28, 2007

Thursday Thirteen - 12 - 13 Funniest Film Scenes

These scenes have all sent me into paroxysms of laughter.





1 - The search for a brain in "Young Frankenstein". Ending up with an Abby Normal brain is a sentimental favorite of mine.







2 - The Stupid Prince segment from "Blackadder's Christmas". Hugh Laurie's Prince Regent has an original interpretation of the New Testament. Technically not a film, but I think this is one of the funniest things ever committed to videotape.







3 - "He has a wife, you know..." from "Life of Brian". Pontius Pilate torments his legionairies with tales of his great friend in Rome, Biggus Dickus.









4 - In the original 1967 "Bedazzled", Dudley Moore's character Stanley Moon has a magical way of getting out of the bad situations which the devil keeps placing him in - blowing a raspberry. But in one of these cases, he's crying too hard and can't blow hard enough.







5 - "Springtime For Hitler" from "The Producers". The newer one is funny, too, but I vastly prefer the original 1968 version with Dick Shawn.







6 - The Huggies chase from "Raising Arizona". The part where the doberman lunged but was stopped a hairs' breadth from Nicholas Cage is sweet.





7 - The psychedelic brainwashing in "Zoolander". Will Farrell is a scream anyway, but in this section he nearly killed me.





8 - The performance where everything goes wrong in "Noises Off". The title refers to a play term when an offstage noise is required, such as a ringing telephone. The ensemble cast in this film version of a stage comedy builds to such a pitch that when the performance starts to go wrong, you may think you'll lose your mind from laughing too hard.





9 - Mysterious man joins pillow fight in "Shanghai Knights". Owen Wilson engages in a pillow fight with the salloon gals, only to have a man we hadn't seen before show up in the midst of the dreamy fun.





10 - The chase ending with "You're the devil" in "Over the Hedge". The comic build-up in this scene is pretty phenominal when you consider it had to be storyboarded out.







11 - The drunk dancer in "The Turning Point". Leslie Browne plays a young dancer who joins a NY dance company only to fall in love with principal dancer Mikhail Baryshnikov. When he breaks her heart, she gets drunk, then has to go onstage anyway. She dreamily sways left while the rest of the corps de ballet sways right. When she realizes her mistake, it's priceless.







12 - John Candy turns into the devil in "Planes, Trains and Automobiles". During their long road trip by car, while Steve Martin sleeps, John Candy gets distracted, drives down an on-ramp, gets stuck between two on-coming 18-wheelers, and Steve Martin wakes up to see John Candy temporarily appearing as the devil.





13 -The humorous secondary character is killed off in "Lady in the Water". Bob Balaban plays a film expert who functions as a secondary character in the film we're watching. When he finds himself in a life-threatening situation, he comforts himself with the statistic that humorous secondary characters are rarely killed off.

16 comments:

Ire said...

Oh...how do u manage this? Nice. I enjoyed the Shanghai nights& i love Will Ferrel.

Camille Alexa said...

You've got some real winners in there.

Anonymous said...

Planes, Trains and Automobiles. John Ritter. Anything Ben Stiller. Raising Arizona ("H.I., I'm baring.") Funny stuff.
Blessings,
~Toni~

MsSnarkyPants said...

I started laughing when I saw that pillow fight scene and didn't stop for life five minutes. I just love Owen Wilson and Jackie Chan! Together or separately.

Akelamalu said...

Oh I love Black Adder and the Life of Brian. My son knows the whole dialogue to the Life of Brian - sad!
Anyway here's your request, sing along do....

Lovely Rita meter maid.
Lovely Rita meter maid.
Lovely Rita meter maid.
Nothing can come between us,
When it gets dark I tow your heart away.
Standing by a parking meter,
When I caught a glimpse of Rita,
Filling in a ticket in her little white book.
In a cap she looked much older,
And the bag across her shoulder
Made her look a little like a military man.
Lovely Rita meter maid,
May I inquire discreetly,
When are you free,
To take some tea with me.
Took her out and tried to win her,
Had a laugh and over dinner,
Told her I would really like to see her again,
Got the bill and Rita paid it,
Took her home I nearly made it,
Sitting on the sofa with a sister or two.
Oh, lovely Rita meter maid,
Where would I be without you,
Give us a wink and make me think of you.

:)

Miss Frou Frou said...

Love your TT - nothing like a great comedic moment to put the world right

Anonymous said...

Laurie's role as the stupid prince is precisely why I cant find him sexy like so many women do.

I will say, however, he does the best American accent I've ever heard from a Brit.

Unknown said...

Planes, Trains, and Automobiles is the funniest movie ever. I howl everytime I watch it.

Hugh Laurie makes me laugh in House too. I'm going to have to check out this Black Adder one. I don't think I've seen it, though I've watched some of the others.

I also love Dogeball. Rip Torn Made me cry! "If you can doge a wrench, you can doge a ball."

Classic!

Kelly Boyce said...

Planes, Trains & Automobiles is one of my all time favorite movies. I laughed so hard I cried. And then it made me cry too. I really have to get that on DVD.

Julia Phillips Smith said...

Akelamalu, I totally sang to it! I love that song. Thanks!! And what's sad about knowing the entire dialogue to "Life of Brian"...?

toni, Christine and Kelly - Planes, Trains has so many moments in it, basically I think it deserves to be a modern classic.

Lesley, the pillow scene did the same thing to my sister, my cousin and me when we were at the theatre. We just kept laughing and laughing, long after the movie had moved on.

Kelly said...

Those are all great funny films!

Lisa Andel said...

The dh and I catch ourselves quoting P's, T's and A's. And Young Frankenstein. And ... Well, you get the idea. (Heck we even had a good laugh at Fargo).

Anonymous said...

I don't know how many times my brother and I watched Young Frankenstein. It cracked us up every time. Just seeing the photos on your blog had me grinning.

Great list! Happy TT!

Susan Helene Gottfried said...

I'm howling just thinking about those! GREAT list!!!!

Julie S said...

Great list!!! You found some gems. I love Zoolander and Life of Brian so much.

Anonymous said...

Love Raising Arizona and Planes, Trains & Automobiles. The Big Lebowski is another good one.