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 The
American Film Institute in Los Angeles, California, in mid-June
2000 selected America's 100 Funniest Movies with a blue-ribbon panel
or "jury" of more than 1,800 leaders of the American movie
community including actors, directors, screenwriters, editors, cinematographers,
historians, film executives and critics. AFI's 100 Years...100 Laughs
revealed America's 100 funniest movies from a ballot of 500
nominated movies. According to the AFI, these are "the
films and film artists that have made audiences laugh throughout the
century." Brief descriptions of each
film are excerpted from AFI.
Judging
criteria for the selection process of the top 100 Funniest American
Movies of All-Time included the following:
- Feature-Length Fiction Film: The film must
be in narrative format typically more than 60 minutes long
- American Film: The film must be an English-language
film with significant creative and/or financial production elements
from the United States
- Funny: Regardless of genre, the total comedic
impact of a film's elements must create an experience greater than
the sum of the smile
- Legacy: Laughs that echo across time, enriching
America's film heritage and inspiring artists and audiences today
Facts about the 100
Funniest Films Chosen:
- Katharine Hepburn wins the title as the most represented
actress on the list with four films in the top 100:
Bringing Up Baby (14th),
The Philadelphia Story (15th),
Adam's Rib (22nd), Woman of the
Year (90th). Thanks to the Marx Brothers, Margaret Dumont has
three films in the top 100:
Duck Soup (5th),
A Night at the Opera (12th),
and A Day at the Races (59th).
- Actors appearing in the most films were Cary Grant,
with eight films (none in the top 10), followed by the Marx
Brothers and Woody Allen with five each, and then by Spencer
Tracy, Charlie Chaplin, and Bill Murray with four each. Peter
Sellers was represented by three films:
Dr. Strangelove (3rd),
Being There (26th), and A Shot in the Dark (48th). Marilyn
Monroe, Myrna Loy, Rosalind Russell, and Robin Williams were each
represented by two films. Dustin Hoffman also had two
films on the list, but both made the top 10 -- Tootsie (2nd)
and
The Graduate (9th).
- Spencer Tracy and Katharine Hepburn each appeared
in four of the top 100 comedies. Both were in Adam's
Rib (22nd) and Woman of the Year (90th). Tracy also
starred in It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World (40th) and
Father of the Bride (83rd). Hepburn
also appeared in
Bringing Up Baby (14th) and
The Philadelphia Story (15th).
- Danny Kaye, W.C. Fields, Laurel & Hardy, Jerry
Lewis, Eddie Murphy, Richard Pryor, Steve Martin and Mae West only
made the list once. Ruth Gordon co-wrote the screenplay for
one film on the list -- Adam's Rib
(22nd), and starred in another film -- Harold and Maude
(45th).
- On the whole, voters found men funnier than women
and verbal jousters such as Groucho Marx, Woody Allen and Bill Murray
funnier than slapstick geniuses, such as Buster Keaton, Jerry Lewis
and Peter Sellers. Recent comedy star Jim Carrey did not get a mention.
- Four films, including the top two vote-getters,
Some Like It Hot (1st) and
Tootsie (2nd), involved cross-dressing. Also, there were Mrs.
Doubtfire (67th) and Victor/Victoria (76th).
- Buster Keaton's
The General (18th) was the
highest-ranked film from the silent era. The five other silent era
films were:
The Gold Rush (25th),
City Lights (38th), Sherlock,
Jr. (62nd), The Freshman (79th), and The Navigator
(81st). In summary, there were only three silent-era Keaton films
and two silent-era Charlie Chaplin films. (Note: Chaplin's talkie
era films,
Modern Times (33rd) and The
Great Dictator (37th), brought his total to four).
- Theoretically, Sherlock, Jr. (62nd) should
have been disqualified - it was only a four-reeler with a run-time
of 44 minutes.
- Five Marx Brothers movies made the list:
Duck Soup (5th),
A Night at the Opera (12th),
A Day at the Races (59th), Horse
Feathers (65th) and Monkey Business (73rd).
- The 1980s were easily considered the funniest decade,
claiming 22 films on the list, while the 1930s were next on the list
with 19 total. The 1920s (the heyday of slapstick) and the 1990s,
however, were considered unfunny -- each with a total of only five
films on the list.
- Woody Allen was the most represented director - he
directed the most films in the top 100 (five total), including
1977’s
Annie Hall (4th), Manhattan
(46th), Take the Money and Run (66th),
Bananas (69th) and Sleeper
(80th). Woody Allen and Billy Wilder both wrote five films in the
top 100, and they both had the most nominations with 11 each. Billy
Wilder also directed three of the top 100 comedies:
Some Like It Hot (1st),
The Apartment (20th), and The Seven
Year Itch (51st).
- Directors of four films included: George Cukor
(
The Philadelphia Story (15th), Adam's
Rib (22nd), Born Yesterday (24th) and Dinner
at Eight (85th)), Charlie Chaplin (
The Gold Rush (25th),
Modern Times (33rd), The
Great Dictator (37th) and
City Lights (38th)) and writer/director
Preston Sturges (
Sullivan's Travels (39th),
The Miracle of Morgan's Creek (54th),
The Lady Eve (55th), and The
Palm Beach Story (77th)). Frank Capra directed/produced three
films: It Happened One Night (8th),
Arsenic and Old Lace (30th), and Mr.
Deeds Goes to Town (70th), as did Mel Brooks (Blazing
Saddles (6th), The Producers (11th), and Young
Frankenstein (13th)).
- Harold Ramis wrote (or co-wrote) four films
on the list: Ghostbusters (28th), Groundhog
Day (34th), Animal House (36th), and Caddyshack
(71st). (And Ramis directed two of these: Caddyshack and Groundhog
Day.) Director Blake Edwards was also represented by two films:
A Shot in the Dark (48th) and Victor/Victoria (76th).
- Mel Brooks was the director with the most top 15
appearances (three): Blazing Saddles
(6th), The Producers (11th), and Young
Frankenstein (13th).
- In the list of 500 nominated films, Cary Grant was
the most represented actor with 17 films, and Myrna Loy was the most
represented actress with 10 films. Jack Lemmon (at the time of the
survey) was the most represented living actor with 14 films, and Shirley
MacLaine was the most represented living actress with nine movies.
- Was the dark film Fargo
(93rd) really a comedy with lots of laughs?
- The Farrelly brothers' 1998 gross-out There's
Something About Mary (27th) was the most recent film on
the list, while silent film star Buster Keaton's two 1924 films Sherlock
Jr. (62nd) and The Navigator (81st) were the oldest.
- Unfortunately, there were no comedies from Ron Howard
(e.g., Night Shift (1982), Splash (1984), Cocoon
(1985), and Parenthood (1989)) or from John Hughes (e.g.
Ferris Bueller's Day Off (1986), Sixteen Candles (1984),
Home Alone (1990) (as producer), The Breakfast Club (1985),
Weird Science (1985) and Planes, Trains, and Automobiles
(1987)).
- A number of great "comedy" omissions included
the following (in alphabetical order): All of Me (1984), Animal
Crackers (1930), Babe (1995), Bachelor Mother
(1939), Back to the Future (1985), The Blues Brothers
(1980), Charade (1963),
A Christmas Story (1983), The Circus (1928), Clerks
(1994), Dumb and Dumber (1994), Fletch (1985), Foul
Play (1978), The Great Race (1965), Hail the Conquering
Hero (1944), The Kid Brother (1927), Life with Father
(1947), Married to the Mob (1988), Mary Poppins (1964),
Midnight Run (1988), No Time for Sergeants (1958), One,
Two, Three (1961), Pee-wee's Big Adventure (1985), Pillow
Talk (1959), The Princess Bride (1987), Risky Business
(1983), Romancing the Stone (1984), Sabrina (1954),
Safety Last (1923), Smokey and the Bandit
(1977), The Sting (1973), Support Your Local Sheriff!
(1969), Toy Story (1995), Trading Places (1983),
Trouble in Paradise (1932), The Truth About Cats and Dogs
(1996), and Unfaithfully Yours (1948).
Note: The films that are marked with a yellow
star
are the films that "The Greatest Films" site has selected as the 100
Greatest Films.
See also this site's sections on the Comedy
Films Genre and the Greatest Comedies of All Time and Funniest
Film Moments and Scenes.
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