Observer readers' 50 funniest films: preview

Best in Show: Christopher Guest as Harlan Pepper, and his beloved hound. Spinal Tap frontman Christopher Guest directs this sublimely deadpan doggy-show docu-spoof, which lays bare the rabid insanity of canine competition. Co-writer Eugene Levy joins a cast of Guest-regulars, including Michael McKean and Parker Posey, all of whom retain straight faces amid the escalating madness. Guest’s own ‘naming nuts’ soliloquy makes ‘Macadamia’ the funniest word ever. Photograph: Ronald Grant archive

The Odd Couple: Walter Matthau and Jack Lemmon had combined to good effect for Billy Wilder’s The Fortune Cookie but it took this Neil Simon script to cement them as one of the great comic pairings. Lemmon’s Felix Ungar is a neurotic New Yorker recovering from divorce by moving in to share a flat with his slovenly poker game friend, Oscar Madison. Their bickering forms the backbone to a sharply observed film about male friendship. Photograph: Kobal

Kind Hearts and Coronets: Alec Guinness as the Admiral. The most sparkling jewel in the Ealing Studios crown, this beautifully crafted black comedy by a great British Francophile is a wickedly accurate account of a class-bound society and compels us to sympathise with its Edwardian antihero as he moves ahead by murdering aristocratic relatives. Dennis Price is not overshadowed by Alec Guinness’s tour de force, playing eight roles. Photograph: Allstar

The Blues Brothers: Ackroyd and Belushi shake it. John Landis’s spectacular film became a cult for music fans as well as comedy fans. Jake and Elwood, the titular brothers, were originally created by John Belushi and Dan Aykroyd on TV’s Saturday Night Live. There’s a wealth of musical stars, a cameo from Steven Spielberg, the most expensive filmed car chase and lots of comedy. Photograph: Kobal

The Naked Gun: Leslie Nielsen finds himself in a tight spot. Based on a series of six TV programmes called Police Squad, the Zucker-Abrahams-Zucker team (ZAZ) expanded the concept into a movie largely due to the revived popularity of Fifties actor Leslie Nielsen as Lt Frank Drebin. The vague plot sees Drebin ordered to protect the Queen on a state visit but the film’s success owed much to the revelatory comic playing of Priscilla Presley as Drebin’s romantic interest Jane. Photograph: Allstar

Way Out West: Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy in another fine mess. The premise is as simple as ever. The hapless pair are hired to deliver the deeds to a goldmine to the daughter of a dead miner but unfortunately give it to the wrong woman. Cue: mad rush to put things right, cheesy song-and-dance routines and plenty of slapstick mishaps in frontierland. Arguably the duo’s most enduring film. Photograph: Allstar

Raising Arizona: Nicholas Cage and Holly Hunter. Fans usually cite The Big Lebowski as the Coen brothers’ funniest, but this cracking comedy about the pitfalls of baby-kidnapping tickles as many ribs. An ex-con (Nicolas Cage) and an ex-cop (Holly Hunter), unable to conceive a child, decide to relieve a local furniture magnate of one of his quintuplets. Visually flamboyant, this film contains one of the most hilarious chase scenes. Photograph: Allstar

Team America, World Police: Kim Jong-il takes a moment off from being busy. Thunderbirds go to hell in a movie that the British censors succinctly categorised as containing ‘strong language, violence, sexual references and sex – all involving puppets’! South Park creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone deftly defecate on Alec Baldwin, Michael Moore, Kim Jong-il et al as Team America attempt to avert a disaster that will be like ‘9/11, times a hundred… 91,100!’ Photograph: Kobal

The General: Buster Keaton checks his weapon. Not even Jack Benny has obtained so many laughs while remaining deadpan as the great silent comedian dubbed ‘Old Stone Face’. This American Civil War comedy about a Confederate engine driver defying northern guerrillas is Keaton’s longest, best, funniest picture. The spectacular chases are as hair-raising as they are hilarious. Photograph: Allstar

Trading Places: Eddie Murphy chats with two of New York's finest. This delightful social comedy features two elderly Hollywood stars (Don Ameche, Ralph Bellamy) manipulating the lives of two young comic stars (Murphy, Aykroyd). Photograph: Kobal