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I expect I'll be shot down by someone or other for this, but I'm asking anyway. I'd be interested to know whether there's a skew amongst the people here in the direction of a certain genre or style.
I'm purposefully leaving out radio and literature so everyone can contribute (if they want to).
I'll reply in a separate post.
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Film:
Dr. Strangelove (partly because I'm a great Kubrick fan, partly because I enjoy black humour, partly because I enjoy Peter Sellars)
The Wallace and Gromit films (all four) (Nick Park)
The Appartment, Some Like it Hot (Billy Wilder)
Honorable mentions: Pixar's films. A Fish Called Wanda, The Life of Brian, Groundhog Day. Other work of Peter Sellars (The Party, some of the well-directed Pink Panther stuff) -- yes, I know it's slapstick.
Various more slightly below that on the list.
Television:
Fawlty Towers
Yes Minister
The Office (both varieties, actually)
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (I've got that in here even though I really think of that as a radio show)
Honorable mentions:
The Two Ronnies and most things with Ronnie Barker
Blackadder (and most stuff with Rowan Atkinson)
Most British sitcoms (generally older ones, not the more modern American-style ones)
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marc
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Needs to get a life! |
Registered: March 2003
Messages: 4729
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Dr. Strange love is a great film.... Although I believe so due to the performance by Peter Sellers. Kubrick however is good overall.
Wallace and Grommet is wonderful, especially when one has a bit of a buzz on and some nice cheese and crackers for a little nosh....
The rare classic, "The Illustrated Man" featuring Rod Steiger is a very good film as well..... the plot line is complex and bears watching 3-4 times to fully appreciate it. I would remove my big toe with a belt sander on city hall steps for a copy of it.....
Peter Sellers, "Being There" is a wonderful film as well.....
The 50's classic, "One Million Years To Earth"..... creeps me out to this day..... and I've seen it 100 or more times.....
I also enjoy all Film Noir.... as a genre, short lived B movies featuring many up and coming actors and actresses from the 40's and a poor effort at a resurection in the 90's..... In general, the earthy plot lines of classic noir films show the seedier side of life..... admittedly not every ones cup of tea but give some a try.... they are generally so bad they are good......
I LOVE movies..... I always have..... Back in the day when I was able to go to the cinema we would spend entire weekends seeing one movie after another, only breaking to get food in between.... Now I just wait to see the DVD at home.....
For TV....... Hmmmmmm..... The series "The Prisoner" from the late 60's early 70's is very good.....
Also, "The Avengers" classic series.... as well as "The Saint".....
Faulty Towers, Keeping Up Appearances, Waiting For God, Viccar of Dibley, As Time Goes By, Are you Being Served, and several more I just do not remember the names of are GREAT.....
All the Dr. Who episodes are good.....
There was a science fiction series of about 6-10 episodes from the early 80's that I cant put a name to that was good too.....
The Sci Fi series "Day of the Trippids" ....... great.....
The series, "All Creatures Great and Small".... A must see..... can be gotten thru the library here.... well as can most others mentioned as well...
Life is great for me... Most of the time... But then I meet people online... Very few are real friends... Many say they are but know nothing of what it means... Some say they are, but are so shallow...
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timmy
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Has no life at all |
Location: UK, in Devon
Registered: February 2003
Messages: 13796
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The interesting challenge with TV comedy is that it tends to get dated at once. I grew up adoring Marty Feldman's sketch shows. I even once enjoyed Stanley Baxter, but mainly for his "Parliamo Glaswegian" sketch (back in the days when the BBC has "Parliamo Italiano" to try to teach us to speak Italian.
I had a period of liking Morcambe and Wise, and enjoyed much of The Two Ronnies. Like all sketch shows, Little Britain has good and bad sketches, as did The Fast Show.
If you're asking for a TV sitcom, not much chance. Most are not at all funny the first time and almost all do not merit a second viewing. Possibly the most enduring was Bread, by Carla Lane, since it dealt with a somewhat eccentric but real enough Liverpool Catholic family in a Toxteth like environment. I did try to see every episode of that.
More "British" was Red Dwarf. I think I have to come down on the side of Red Dwarf.
Now, movies. Are there any funny movies, or do they all involve Steve Martin or Adam Sandler? I don't go for comedy movies. The one that surprised me by being both banal and funny was Road Trip. Somehow there was more behind it than the "in your face" stuff. It cold have been as bad as the American Pie series, but it lifted itself above that and actually poked fun at itself.
[Updated on: Mon, 23 April 2007 07:00]
Author of Queer Me! Halfway Between Flying and Crying - the true story of life for a gay boy in the Swinging Sixties in a British all male Public School
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I am surprised that no one has mentioned "My Family". I think that every episode that I have seen has been quite hilarious.
J F R
The paradox has often been noted that the United States, founded in secularism, is now the most religiose country in Christendom, while England, with an established church headed by its constitutional monarch, is among the least. (Richard Dawkins, 2006)
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I'm afraid I was thinking of it when I said,
>Most British sitcoms (generally older ones, not the more modern American-style ones)
It's American-style because it's written by a team of writers, rather than one or two, which is the traditional British way of doing it. I find it gets wearing rather quickly -- it relies on the same (type of) jokes over and over again, and silly characters when they've run out of amusing situations.
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>Now, movies. Are there any funny movies, or do they all involve Steve Martin or Adam Sandler?
Ouch! None of the movies I mentioned are even remotely like that ...
[Updated on: Mon, 23 April 2007 10:24] |
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A bit like the Vicar of Dibley. Aaargh. Thank God it's over.
Sorry, I must sound like a grumpy old (young) fart.
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timmy
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Has no life at all |
Location: UK, in Devon
Registered: February 2003
Messages: 13796
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However, some of the best comedy is also a tragedy. Victoria Wood's "Dinner Ladies", while it had its awful parts, was worth watching precisley for that. Regrettably Julie Walters was its awful parts.
However that does remind me that Billy Elliott (lost with Ls and Ts there) was a comedy underneath, and that leads me to The Full Monty, a comedic triumph though lacking reality.
But there are no belly laughs aywhere.
For TV sketch shows, "Broken News" is so fast moving that you dare not laugh in case you miss the gags, and there is often more than one gag running at a time. I think it is based on "The Day Today"
"Coupling" is by stages hilarious and cringeworthy, and I do like the idea of Susan as a trotting little elf.
Author of Queer Me! Halfway Between Flying and Crying - the true story of life for a gay boy in the Swinging Sixties in a British all male Public School
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>However that does remind me that Billy Elliott (lost with Ls and Ts there) was a comedy underneath,
It was? It had the occasional comic moment, but I would say it derives more from Northern, working-class drama. It blends genres a bit, however -- it's Loachian realism for a 90s, feel-good Working Title-viewing audience.
>and that leads me to The Full Monty, a comedic triumph though lacking reality.
Well, that belongs to a similar but different genre from Billy Elliot, I think -- it's another Northern working-class drama but one that deliberately attempts to lighten the situation by making itself into a comedy.
I'll shut up; I'm too much of a film studies geek.
David
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Films::
Monty Python and the Holy Grail
Monty Python's Life of Brian
TV:
The West Wing Seasons 1-3 -not technically a comedy i know, but i can't help laughing its so funny in places
Bremner Bird and Fortune
Yes Minister and Yes Prime Minister
tbh, i don't watch TV anymore, through not having one lol
Odi et amo: quare id faciam, fortasse requiris.
Nescio, set fieri sentio et excrucior
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timmy
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Has no life at all |
Location: UK, in Devon
Registered: February 2003
Messages: 13796
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I saw huge comedy in both. The little girl with the stick on the riot shields in Billy was a good start, as was the nude chase in Monty, and the damned gnomes.
The tragedy was all to near the surface, and yet some of the best comedy comes out of tragedy.
Author of Queer Me! Halfway Between Flying and Crying - the true story of life for a gay boy in the Swinging Sixties in a British all male Public School
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The Full Monty's definitely a comedy. I would not dispute that.
In the case of Billy Elliot, I think you'd be pushing it to call it "huge" comedy. Most dramas have comic elements.
I'm not sure that Billy Elliot is terribly tragic, either -- it's rather "manufactured" tragedy (the strike setting is actually pretty irrelevant to the story), and it does have a cop-out happy ending.
That's not to say I didn't enjoy the film, incidentally.
David
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Continuity failed. Young Billy Elliot (Jamie Bell) has bright blue eyes. The adult Elliot has brown eyes.
Hugs
N
I dream of boys with big bulges in their trousers,
Never of girls with big bulges in their blouses.
…and look forward to meeting you in Cóito.
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timmy
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Has no life at all |
Location: UK, in Devon
Registered: February 2003
Messages: 13796
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So much comedy, almost all from Julie Walters, but also the tutu scene is truly tragi-comic.
Author of Queer Me! Halfway Between Flying and Crying - the true story of life for a gay boy in the Swinging Sixties in a British all male Public School
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timmy
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Has no life at all |
Location: UK, in Devon
Registered: February 2003
Messages: 13796
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Ah, and the young Billy's legs were the wrong shape to grow into the adult one's legs And the former was a hoofer and the latter a dancer! But an enjoyable film for all that.
Author of Queer Me! Halfway Between Flying and Crying - the true story of life for a gay boy in the Swinging Sixties in a British all male Public School
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Are You Being Served by far.
Tad Durham
Belfast, Maine U S A
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In thinking about this post it seems that most of my favorite movies are the drama/comedies (as so classified by IMDB).
I love anything that Wes Anderson touches particularly Bottlerocket, Life Aquatic, and The Squid and the Whale.
Ma Vie En Rose was great and is considered Comedy/Drama.
I LOVED Pedro Almodovar's What Have I Done to Deserve This (¿Qué he hecho yo para merecer esto!!).
The recent Will Farrell movie Stranger than Fiction was great (and had an amazing soundtrack).
Then there are the classic comedies like Harvey and Arsenic and Old Lace.
As far as comedic television shows, it seems I like mostly dramas again there, but The Daily Show and the Colbert Report are great. I also really enjoy the cartoon Foster's Home For Imaginary Friends as well as the Fairly Odd Parents and Jimmy Neutron. I also still find myself watching reruns of Seinfeld.
david
It's always the old to lead us to the war
It's always the young to fall
Now look at all we've won with the sabre and the gun
Tell me is it worth it all
~Phil Ochs "I Aint Marching Anymore"
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I would also like to add John Waters' Female Trouble to my list of favorite comedies.
It's always the old to lead us to the war
It's always the young to fall
Now look at all we've won with the sabre and the gun
Tell me is it worth it all
~Phil Ochs "I Aint Marching Anymore"
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Oh I forgot Ugly Betty too (which is almost on). I love Ugly Betty. It has a gay character who recently had a coming out with his mother. It also has a younger boy who isn't all about sports.
It's always the old to lead us to the war
It's always the young to fall
Now look at all we've won with the sabre and the gun
Tell me is it worth it all
~Phil Ochs "I Aint Marching Anymore"
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I find that most TV comedy is laughing AT, not laughing WITH, and as a result I tend to find it depressing rather than comic! Monty Python was good at the time, but hasn't worn well. Radio Comedy is more my thing - "I'm sorry, I'll read that again" and similar stuff.
Films that I find funny - things like Harold and Maude, IF.... , although I admit to a weakness for National Lampoon's Animal House.
"The ultimate weakness of violence is that it is a descending spiral, begetting the very thing it seeks to destroy. ... Returning violence for violence multiplies violence, adding deeper darkness to a night devoid of stars." Martin Luther King
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Re: What is your favourite television comedy series and film(s)? 
