The Ancient Classics

 

 Buster Keaton, The General and everything else.

 W. C. Fields; for starters, The Bank Dick and, with Mae West, My Little Chickadee.

 The Marx Brothers, most everything, especially Duck Soup and A Night at the Opera.

 Charlie Chaplin, The Tramp and anything that followed.

 

 The Overlooked Classics

 

Preston Sturges, The Lady Eve; Sullivan’s Travels; The Miracle of Morgan Creek

     Only true connoisseurs seem to know about this forgotten comic genius. Influenced the Coen brothers.

 

 The Modern Classics

 

Woody Allen, especially Bananas; The Purple Rose of Cairo; Bullets over Broadway.

     Still one of America’s greatest cultural gifts to the world

 Arthur

     Great script, fine acting.

 Harold and Maude

     Exhibit A of the theory that the improbable is the heart of comedy.

 Monte Python’s Search for the Holy Grail

     The British lads prove they can patch together a feature film.

 Monte Python’s Life of Brian

     The British lads prove they can take irreverence to a higher pitch.

 Airplane!

     Even gets “serious people” to laugh in spite of themselves.

 Being There

     Not a box-office triumph; shows that lots of people don’t fathom satire.

 La Cage Aux Folles

     Forget the philosophers. Farce seems to be what the French do best. Might explain why they like Jerry Lewis?

 The Bird Cage

     The American version of La Cage. Just as funny.

 The Dinner Game

     The latest intelligent French farce.

 The Gods Must Be Crazy, I and II.

     Drove the P.C. crowd crazy. Recommendation enough.

 Fargo

     Ever met a comedy buff outside of Minnesota and the Dakotas who doesn’t rate this one near the top?

 From Nine to Five

     Morality play as comedy.

 Tom Jones

     See the movie, then read the book.

 The Remains of the Day

     A rarity: a movie as good as the book.

 Life is Beautiful

     Comedy conquers all—almost. Among the best films, comic or dramatic, ever made.

 Black Cat, White Cat

     Gypsies on the Danube. If you’ve seen this, count yourself a true aficionado of comedy. P.S. A box-office flop.

 Being John Malkovich

     Endlessly inventive. Were there justice in the world, ’twould have won the Oscar.

 Brother, Where Art Thou?

     If the Coen brothers hadn’t already given us Fargo, this would have been their magnum opus.

 With a Friend Like Harry

     See it with friends, then argue whether it is fundamentally a thriller or a comedy. Much to be said both ways.

 Little Miss Sunshine

            Best cinematic comedy of the third millennium.

 

 And a Short Selection of Television Classics

 

“Monte Python’s Flying Circus”: the series

     Many gems among the occasional adolescent duds.

 “Fawlty Towers”: the series

     John Cleese teams up with Connie Booth, Prunella Scales, to create a dozen near-perfect farces.

 “Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman”: the series

     A parody of soap operas. With Louise Lasser, Dabney Coleman, Martin Mull. Where are the reruns?

 “Rumpole of the Bailey”: the series

     John Mortimer, barrister-turned-writer, focuses his wit on his former profession. Leo McKern as Horace Rumpole.

 “Bed among the Lentils”

     Poignant but comic monologue, written by Alan Bennett, acted with great subtlety by  Dame Maggie Smith.