Christ alive... Is Life of Brian too obvious a choice for your favourite movie of all time?
Feverish online activity in the Observer's poll to find the funniest film ever made might be motivated partly by the offer of a prize for the five best posts (three nominations per post, please). But it's evident that this is a debate that is raging constantly. Compiling our lists of favourite anythings is one of the ways by which we define ourselves, and there's not much else that is as revealing, or as fiercely defended, as your personal sense of humour.
For what it's worth, I was raised on Mel Brooks, and consider the 1968 version of The Producers, and Young Frankenstein (which will follow The Producers onto Broadway later this year), to be pretty much perfect. I guess the test is longevity - does familiarity with a comedy breed contempt or contentment? If a movie keeps us laughing for years, throughout repeated viewings, then it's likely to find a place in such a list. It would be a tough one for me - The Producers and Young Frankenstein would face stiff competition from Tootsie, This Is Spinal Tap, The Rutles: All You Need Is Cash, Sir Henry at Rawlinson End, Groundhog Day, Team America: World Police and Borat.
Then there's The Bank Dick - does anyone else out there have a fondness for WC Fields? I scoured the posts but couldn't find any fellow fans. Ditto Preston Sturges' The Palm Beach Story, a pick-me-up for any occasion that got me through one memorably apocalyptic post-Christmas hangover (nice to see showings, though, for other Sturges comedies, like Hail The Conquering Hero).
As we enter the final week of the poll, it's interesting to find support for Life Of Brian and Withnail & I waning slightly. "Life of Brian at number one is as drearily inevitable as Imagine or Bohemian Rhapsody topping the equivalent surveys of pop songs," complained bluestoner. But Besonders retorted: "What's the problem with Life Of Brian and Withnail & I dominating the polls? Many people come across as trying to think of a film that nobody else has mentioned (exclusive) or to show off their good taste. Imagine how Python or Bruce Robinson would send that up!" The Big Lebowski is proving to be a frontrunner, understandably so (I think it's not just the Coens' funniest film, but their most accomplished). And, as if in response to previous posts about the lack of older films, fans of Buster Keaton and Laurel & Hardy (the duo championed by Martin Freeman in the original Observer feature) are sticking their oar in.
Many of the favourites you've listed have quotability on their side. This seems an important factor, a way of being able to recognize fellow sympathisers, as well as to have the films playing on a constant jukebox in your mind. But ultimately it's all so personal. I liked the comment from Jupiter77, who justified his or her choice of the gently absurdist Napoleon Dynamite by saying: "You can't explain it to people. It's just funny." I must remember that next time I try to tell someone exactly why the Bad Grandpa sketch from Jackass 2 should be preserved in a time capsule to be marvelled at by future generations.
