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100 greatest comedy films

Radio Times 100 Greatest Comedy Films book cover
  • Posted at 5:55pm
  • 12 October 2009
  • by PaulJones-RT
  • 14 comments

After a great deal of debate, the experts at Radio Times have chosen their top 100 comedy films and published them in a handy little tome, cleverly titled 100 Greatest Films: Comedy(see below for details of how to buy it at a special offer price). Then, to narrow it down to a top ten, we turned to our users. Nearly 2,500 of you voted in our survey and the results are below.

1. Monty Python's Life of Brian
2. Airplane!
3. The Full Monty
4. Some Like It Hot
5. Blazing Saddles
6. Four Weddings and a Funeral
7. Monty Python and the Holy Grail
8. Shrek/Shrek 2
9. The Blues Brothers
10. Shaun of the Dead

Of course comedy, like beauty, is in the eye of the beholder. Not everyone's going to agree with the results. So tell us what you think of our top ten. Are there any glaring omissions? Or anything that really doesn't deserve its place? Feel free, too, to post your own list.

And in the 17-23 October edition of Radio Times magazine, you can find out the favourite comedy movies of some film-loving celebrities, including Jonathan Ross, Mark Kermode, Barry Norman, Eddie Izzard, Simon Pegg, Richard Curtis, Phill Jupitus, Leslie Nielsen and Graham Linehan.

Order RT's 100 Greatest Films: Comedy

Why not buy the book and see if you agree with the critics and celebrities? There's essential info on each film, including a plot synopsis, cast and crew details plus a review from RT's experts. Buy it from RT Direct for just £8.99 (usually £9.99) including free delivery. Or get it together with 100 Greatest Films: Thriller and the Radio Times Guide to Films 2010 for just £32.99 (usually £42.48). To order call 01908 828503 and quote RTFG1043.

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Comments

  • Posted on 01 November 2009
  • at 1:49pm
  • by Barbara

I thought there were some notable omissions here. Not sure I can immediately think of ten. For me truly funny means to be able to cry with laughter, so:

Those Magnificent Men in their Flying Machines, What's up Doc, The Full Monty, Sibling Rivalry and It's not Cricket.

  • Posted on 27 October 2009
  • at 11:40am
  • by Simon

While many on the list are great films, there are a large number that to me do not provide many belly laughs. I wish "What's Up Doc" had been on the list. This film has more gags (both vocal and visual) per minute than perhaps any film since the 1930s (deliberately so as it pays homage to them), and most of them work too. It would have made a worthy entry on the list.

  • Posted on 22 October 2009
  • at 6:00pm
  • by buggleskelly

Any list of the top 100 comedy films ever made, that does not include the Will Hay masterpieces CONVICT 99 or ASK A POLICEMAN, let alone the greatest of them all, OH MR PORTER! isn't worth the paper it's written on.

  • Posted on 21 October 2009
  • at 5:43pm
  • by TWF

I agree that Life of Brian should be top, but I also agree that Shrek is terrible. It is family orientated drivel. They should replace it with something funny, like the Wallace and Gromit film.

  • Posted on 17 October 2009
  • at 10:28pm
  • by billy jean

anchorman is the funniest movie ever and should definately replace shrek, thats awful

  • Posted on 17 October 2009
  • at 10:26pm
  • by bob

why isn't Anchorman there?

  • Posted on 17 October 2009
  • at 11:22am
  • by Ellis J. Wells

It was very interesting seeing the choices each person came out with (did Leslie Nielsen really have to make 2 out of 3 of his choices films he was the lead in?); but overall I was unclear if the list was "purely comedy" or included romantic comedy. There was a certain absence of some wonderful (and obvious) romantic comedies. As for the comment about foreign comedies; it is a much different ball-game. When watching any film in a foreign language some of the nuances of comedy is lost (unintentionally) between reading the subtitles and watching the characters reaction; unclear sometimes on which words specifically are being emphasized or played with (which is a good chunk of comedy). I don't think it's wrong that the list by English speaking critics was mostly absent foreign comedies. I second the Jonathan Ross comment below! Pee-Wee's Big Adventure... really? Really? Blades of Glory? Superbad? Really? Top Ten? Really? Then again, hats off to him for not trying to be pretentious in his choices. He was honest; at-least. Too honest? Who knows. ;)

As for comedies "missed out" I would put forward As Good As It Gets (1997), Bridget Jones' Diary (2001), Educating Rita (1983), Finding Nemo (2003), Moonstruck (1987), Romancing the Stone (1984), Sense and Sensibility (1995), Topkapi (1964), Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988) and Wonder Boys (2000). This not my "top ten"; just films I feel were wrongly left out.

  • Posted on 16 October 2009
  • at 6:15pm
  • by Ed

its all subjective of course but I cannot understand why Collins, Norman, Ross and Kermode can find it in themselves not to include either Local Hero (1983), Dr Strangelove (1964) or the more recent Sideways (2004) in their top ten. Jonathan Ross particularly reveals himself devoid of sound judgement with the inclusion of 'Pee - Wee's Big Adventure' or 'Superbad'. To be honest I've never been able to take him seriously as an authority on cinema and I would like to use this platform to have him removed from 'Film 2009' and replaced with Dr Kermode. Seriously, who's with me?

  • Posted on 16 October 2009
  • at 5:20pm
  • by Callum

I to, agree that Monty Python is not funny. Growing up you were either a Monty Python fan or a Goodies fan. I can still watch the Goodies now and see the sillyness to it. I understand that they did make any funny films but then again neither did Monty Python!! How the life of Brian can be listed as No:1 when the likes of Young Frankenstein didn't make the top ten is wrong.

  • Posted on 14 October 2009
  • at 9:43pm
  • by Kenny

I can only assume that the only foreign-language film the so called experts have watched is Amelie, which didn't exactly have me rolling about the floor p***ing with laughter! What about Italian cinema- Fellini(8 and a half, Amarcord) Benigni who directed and starred in Life is Beautiful and starred in Jarmusch's Night on Earth? France, Dinner de Cons, La Cage aux folles to name but a few. Spain, Pedro Almadovar, etc etc. Also no place for Adventures of Priscilla Queen of the Desert. Seems a very safe and conservative, middle-of-the-road top 100 to me!

  • Posted on 14 October 2009
  • at 7:50pm
  • by Charlie

What's Lost In Translation doing in the top 100. Don't get me wrong it's a good film with some funny moments but is it a comedy?, really??. I'd describe it as a quirky romantic drama.

  • Posted on 14 October 2009
  • at 12:55pm
  • by MazY

I am starting to think that I live in a bizarre parallel universe to my fellow Brits. Lord knows that I have tried to laugh at a Monty Python sketch. Damn, have I tried. And yet, time after time, I am left wondering what it is that the rest of the nation apparently finds funny.

But even more bizarre is that I frequently see Monty Python in such lists as these, and yet, I don't know a single person amongst all of my friends (all at around my age of forty) who will admit to finding them funny either.

Is it another Bob Dylan effect, where people quote the name because they think it's cool to quote it even though they never listen to the music?

Incidentally, how Shrek made it into the list and not Ice Age bewilders me.

  • Posted on 13 October 2009
  • at 10:51pm
  • by Ben

This is my top ten list of classic comedies:

1. Some Like It Hot (1959).

2. Blazing Saddles (1974).

3. Young Frankenstein (1974).

4. Annie Hall (1977).

5. National Lampoon's Animal House (1978).

6. Monty Pyhton's Life Of Brian (1979).

7. Airplane! (1980).

8. The Man With Two Brains (1983).

9. Groundhog Day (1993).

10. Clerks (1993).

  • Posted on 13 October 2009
  • at 12:34pm
  • by Charlie

Disappointed not to see the Preston Sturges classic The Miracle Of Morgans Creek anywhere on the list, no list of the greatest comedies of all time is worthy of the name without that on it.

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