What's Never Not Funny?
The Philadelphia Inquirer Blog - Flickgrrl
What's Never Not Funny?
Carrie Rickey, Film Critic
Enjoyable, profanity-laced round table in the August 2010 Esquire (hat tip: Throwing Things) on the inexhaustible subject of what is never not funny. The players: Judd Apatow, John Landis, Adam McKay, Todd Phillips and Edgar Wright.
An excerpt:
Adam McKay: Animals. We always have animals in our movies—bears in Anchorman, a cougar in Talladega Nights, a German shepherd in Step Brothers.
Judd Apatow: True. Narcoleptic dog videos on YouTube: Never not funny.
Todd Phillips: What about talking animals?
McKay: Ooh. Todd just found the hole in the argument. Animals talking are very rarely funny. But animals behaving as animals—always funny.
In general outline, I agree -- and must add that the piglets in Nanny McPhee Returns [pictured] had me in stitches. But that rare exception to the talking-animals-are-not-funny rule: Babe. Confession: while I didn't love the movies, I laughed at Drew Barrymore's voice as the Beverly Hills Chihuahua, Bill Murray's as Garfield and Owen Wilson's as Marmaduke.)
Other things never not funny: Steve Martin's deadpan, Diane Keaton's dither, Groucho Marx punctuating a crack with a puff on his cigar, Chris Rock's bug eyes, Bill Murray's "we-are-not-amused" silences, Queen Latifah's "he didn't just say that, did he?" doubletake, Cary Grant's triple-take, Hugh Grant's polite stammer, Owen Wilson's coinages (chipichawa, kachow!), the leopard in Bringing Up Baby, Asta (the wirehair terrier in The Thin Man and The Awful Truth), Gromit (of Wallace & Gromit), Monty Python...
Thoughts? Nominations?
The ever-anxiety-ridden Jack Lemmon tugging at the collar of his shirt. He performed that comic gesture in so many movies that I've lost count.— Pash- John Cleese as any upper-class twit or upper-class twit wannabe.— John Brumfield
- Homer Simpson can never not laugh when someone is kicked in the crotch. Does that coun't? I have a little bit more sophisticated, not to mention DARKER sense of humor, but of course, I can never not laugh at the Simpsons.— garyk
Steve Carrell's understated brand of self-deprecation and subtle humor.- Will ferrel is never not funny,especially when he crosses the line of good taste.(my 63 year old mother thought will and the drumset on stepbrothers was the funniest thing she ever saw and she blushed when she told me that.— jimmythec
- Albert Brooks's puzzled looks. (Rhyming win?) Also – and I almost hate to admit this – adding The Office's "that's what she said" to anything that seems as if it can remotely take it (and a few which clearly can't). And Madeline Kahn as Eunice Burns in "What's Up, Doc?" (And, really, the entire movie; it never gets old. Especially the courtroom scene at the end.)— pianistcomposer
- To that I'd add Albert Brooks' oboe voice which makes anything he says sound plaintively funny.— carrierickey
- First, a small correction: I, too, enjoyed the 'What's Never Not Funny' roundtable, but it appears in the August GQ, not Esquire. They are getting somewhat indistinguishable, aren't they? My suggested addition is, admittedly and unabashedly, gender-centric (with rare exceptions). What's never not funny to males?: Anything that follows Moe Howard snarling "C'mere!" to Larry and Curly.— JBiscontini
- Jack Nicholson is a master of when and how to use his eyebrows, be it in a comedy or a drama.— edwardcopeland
- John Cleese as any upper-class twit or upper-class twit wannabe. football chants , Duncan Edwards , Manchester United , David Beckham , ryan giggs (HTML deleted)— football123
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- Flickgrrl posts 2/07 through 5/08
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