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'laughing is not objective..'
(Joseph Fiennes, The
Darwin Awards)
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Dodgeball |
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Talledega Nights |
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Tropic Thunder |
No matter how extremely
funny this bunch often is, with all the hit and miss new faces are kind of
welcome. Ben Stiller still is the king, no contest. From Dodgeball
to Zoolander and from The Royal Tenenbaums to Meet the
Fockers, just to name one percent of his works, does this guy ever
sleep? Next in line is Will Ferrell, who became a master of profession
parody. He did figureskating in Blades of Glory, newsreading in
Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy and, the best of the lot,
autoracing in Talledega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby. In
popularity Ferrell passed the Farrelly brothers, who did absolutely
nothing worth mentioning. Truly a man of this decade, his big breakthrough
in 2000 as a magnificent sidekick in High Fidelity, is Jack Black.
He hasn't led anything as great as The School of Rock ever since
and turned out to be a little of a one trick pony, but he's still one of
the nicest blokes around. Surrounding this trio is a steady support cast
who get to lead every now and then: Vince Vaughn and Owen Wilson, Sacha
Baron Cohen (also Borat and Brüno), superb Woody Harrelson
and sublime John C. Reilly (scroll down to #3). An avalanche of actors and
parts like this is not complete with an definite standout. White Robert
Downey Jr. made it all the way to Oscar stage with his stereotypical black
soldier in Tropic Thunder, triggering controversy and major awe.
It's not his fault Eddie Murphy totally Failed this decade. It's ironic that
the major comedy to end
all war movies was a disappointment, with the exception of Downey.
  
Jokes about movies are
terrible. I googled for four minutes to find one remotely ROFL, without
success. Parody posters, fake scripts and absurd reviews are all over the
place, being great entertainment. If all else fails, real bloopers come to
the rescue. A simple joke seems too much to ask. Maybe it's just me, I
don't laugh at movies that much anyway and seriously consider
Shriek If You Know What I Did Last Friday the 13th to be funnier
than Shaun of the Dead. The mixing of genres is generally a bad
idea, but 'horror' has been hijacked to exceptionally annoying amount. Sex comedy is a tad better, because sex is a bad joke anyway.
Steve Carell happened to be the only one who could keep it up for its
entire length, in
The 40 Year Old Virgin. Actresses are having a hard time too, being
reduced to supporting roles or required to shift between comedy and
feelgood (Isla Fisher, Mila Kunis and others). Don't give me this 'women
are less funny' crap, even if it's true! I mean, think of very amusing
fashion bible The Devil Wears Prada, who do you remember as the
joking sidekick? That's right, gaylord Stanley Tucci, even though Emily
Blunt delivered the comedy breakthrough performance of the decade.
Tromaesque
Bubble Boy Jake Gyllenhaal is male, like
fellow nerd Napoleon Dynamite. Even Vin Diesel got his share of
laughter, big mouth defending himself alternatively in Find Me Guilty.
The best way for a female to get a bit of recognition in this area, is to
french kiss Woody Allen, in the morally acceptable grownups section. It's
not the same.
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Name one foreign
comedy that caused you to bust your spleen? Perhaps the genre is
just not fit for international distribution, like bug dishes and
nascar racing. The French brought us domestic smash hit Bienvenue
chez les Ch'tis and wheelchairs in Aaltra, but to call
them dominant beyond the borders would be stretching reality. Aki
Kaurismäki's funniest part is his name, I just love to pronounce it
regularly. Roy Andersson probably doesn't want to be included in
this happy category anyway, his fabulous Du levande is more
black than jolly. Michael Schorr's Schultze Gets the Blues is
an adorable lederhosen tale which manages to exceed the usual
grinning. Bollywood comedies have gained a lot of popularity, but
sorry, to me they're still among the least attractive films
imaginable. Food for thought: the only non-English comedies that got
more than a chuckle out of me were Dutch. Great director Alex van
Warmerdam recently played a dog and Eddy Terstall's necessary Vox
Populi shows ridiculous Holland in all its pettiness. I guess
I'm just a xenophobic fascist racist! Bring out
Team America: World Police, while Kevin Smith presents the best comedies:
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5. Wet
Hot American Summer
(2001, David Wain)
Eighties summer camp
movies revisited, it's about time someone came along to show all
these awful modern sex driven comedies how it's supposed to be done,
without getting porky. Nostalgic Wet Hot American Summer
stars the gorgeous Janeane Garofalo, has a correct amount of
nerdiness and is very, very sweet. Lots of gay things make it such
lighthearted love: canned vegetables, capture the flag, d20s, a Cure
shirt and group heroin shooting.
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4. The Aristocrats
(2005, Paul Provenza)
It hasn't been proven
scientifically, but it's entirely possible you won't be able to enjoy
cumedy if you don't laugh at any version of this worst joke ever,
as told by Carlin, Cartman, Silverman, basically everyone with vulgar
capability. A punchline isn't even necessary, however: Bob Saget turns
out to be fucking hilarious! How can it be, what's the intellectual
reason? Explaining is a sin, that's why The Aristocrats suck
giant shitstained incest cock.
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3. Walk
Hard: The Dewey Cox Story
(2007, Jake Kasdan)
Parody so good it
isn't even pure comedy anymore, Walk Hard seems to take a
little too long while at the same time rushing through life. All
ingredients for award winning biopic are present: the childhood
trauma, tumultuous romance, dramatic moments inspiring cheesy lyrics
and a career full of ups and downs. The songs are legendary silly.
Watching sources Walk the Line and Great Balls of Fire
with a straight face has become impossible.
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2.
Poultrygeist: Night of the Chicken Dead
(2006, Lloyd Kaufman)
Feminazi veggiedildos by
the maestro himself, still lonely at the top, friends all over the
world. Poultrygeist is not only the most outrageous comedy, but
also the best musical of the decade and greater than former best movie
ever Citizen Toxie. Fast food is bad, protestors are even worse,
so chickens get evil, corporate crime and human hypocrisy get shredded
to bodily fluids all over jihad. Muslims, lesbians and jerkoffs unite,
this orgy is for you!
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1.
Idiocracy
(2006, Mike Judge)Two in a row for
Mike Judge! Office Space was the best comedy
of the nineties, Idiocracy beats the odds and wins the naughts.
Within the first two minutes its philosophy is clear and proven: western
civilization can and will get a whole lot stupider. Luke Wilson used to
be average. Defrosted in 2505, in garbage dump pimp & ho paradise, he's
a messiah. This superduper intelligent, inventive, moronic new world
should've been an instant classic. |
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