What makes a movie funny? What's your favorite comedy?

What makes a movie funny? What's your favorite comedy?

arsenic is lethal. is that guy a serieal killer whos gonna murder that lady?

>What's your favorite comedy?
pic related

No, watch the movie, but don't read what it's about.

What makes it funny?

In my opinion a great comedy involves more than just being funny. The best ones have pathos and an aim beyond simply making people laugh.

But to answer your question, Cary Grant and Kate Hepburn have such fantastic chemistry, and the crack-whip script suits them perfectly. Fast-paced verbal humor is the best kind IMO.

Everything comes together perfectly in the film, nothing since has matched it. It isn't just my favorite comedy, it's my favorite film of any genre.

It Happened One Night> Arsenic and Old Lace

I guess I should really watch it.
>In my opinion a great comedy involves more than just being funny.
I've found that most good comedies are serious premises executed in silly ways, movies built around a "comedic" premise usually lose steam very quickly.

>TFW no more Screwball comedies

is it just too hard to write? Everything seems to be awkward humor or gross out now

Absolutely

Arsenic & Old Lace leaves me cold actually, I think it's one of Capra's weaker efforts

And why is that?

>Arsenic & Old Lace leaves me cold actually
are you out of your fucking mind?

Mel Brooks said something similar to that. That they wanted to make the plot to Spaceballs funny but it worked better with a real story line with a bunch of silly stuff happening around it.

>are you out of your fucking mind?
Possibly

I typically love golden age comedies, but I was quite disappointed with it. I didn't think it was bad per se, just average. Then again personal mood and setting counts for a lot, I plan on rewatching it in the near future

I like the two main characters in It Happened One Night more than the two in Arsneic and Old Lace

Wow, I can't believe that I'm Mel Brooks.

I haven't seen a lot of golden age comedies, so maybe I'm wrong, but I doubt it.

Can't argue with that. The protagonist of Arsenic & Old Lace is just the straight man archetype that previously had something against marriage. Most of the humor is reactionary and comes from the other characters.

>watch His Girl Friday
>didn't laugh once
anyone else experience this?

Not laughing out loud doesn't make it unfunny, not every comedy needs to be a gut-buster. As long as you are entertained, that's what matters.

Unless you're saying you didn't like the movie, in which case kill yourself

>girl is unlikeable, and cheats on her fiance
>the guy character just abuses everyone and is a dick, an overall unlikeable character
>bad things happen to the fiance for no good reason
of course i didn't like it

>Not laughing out loud doesn't make it unfunny,

>can't enjoy a film because the characters are unlikable
pathetic

it's true though

Some humor just makes you smile or giggle a bit, and there's nothing wrong with that

Dr. Strangelove for instance, a film that never makes me laugh, and yet I still think it's a brilliant and very funny comedy. Shouldn't be a difficult concept to grasp

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Cleverness doesn't equal funniness. Just admit you don't like the movies.

Comedy ages like roadkill

Depends on the comedy.

Absolutely not.

I liked the snappy dialog, but as I hate the whole "it's okay to steal the girl from her fiance/bf because I'm the leading man in this picture" trope I didn't enjoy it overall that much.

Walter Matthau and Jack Lemmon's 1974 remake Front page works a lot better because it cuts the romance angle in favor of more screeball comedy so it's largely about Matthau just fucking around with Lemmon in attempt to make him stay at his job, which is always hilarious thanks to their great chemistry

>The Front Page (1931)
>His Girl Friday (1940) based on The Front Page
>The Front Page (1974)
>Switching Channels (1988) based on The Front Page and His Girl Friday
Interesting how that happened.

his girl friday is grant's best comedy

...

I can back this, saw it recently and it was funnier than I expected. I want to watch all of Gilliam's films now.

There was a pretty good section in Capra's autobiography where he talked about working on Arsenic & Old Lace, and that it was kind of a mess

Doesn't make the movie any less good. There are a lot of good movies with messy production.

The only negative thing I've got to say about Arsenic and Old Lace is that it was kinda unfortunate that the Broadway show was so successful that it was still going on as Capra was making the movie, so Karloff couldn't/wasn't allowed to take time off and his reprise his role for the movie (not sure which, the latter would be weird as he was an investor on the play so you'd think he might have some pull on the matter) , and thus Raymond Massey had to replace him.

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