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SOXTALK'S TOP 50 FUNNIEST MOVIES


knightni

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TOGA! TOGA!

 

1. National Lampoon's Animal House (1978)

 

200px-Animalhouseposter.jpg

 

(12 of 23 lists - 177 points - highest ranking #2 Controlled Chaos)

 

National Lampoon's Animal House is a 1978 comedy film in which a misfit group of fraternity boys take on the system at their college.

 

The movie was adapted by Douglas Kenney, Christopher Miller and Harold Ramis from stories written by Miller based on his experiences in the Alpha Delta Phi fraternity at Dartmouth College, Ramis's experiences in the Zeta Beta Tau fraternity at Washington University in St. Louis, and published in National Lampoon magazine.

 

The film was directed by John Landis. It is considered to be the movie that launched the gross-out genre[1] (although it was predated by several films now also included in the genre).

 

It is Rush Week 1962 at fictional Faber College in Pennsylvania. Vietnam, the Sexual Revolution and the counterculture movement are not even blips on the horizon. A 1950s mentality still pervades the campus, typified by the Omegas—the most prestigious, elitist fraternity. At the other end of the spectrum (but right next door) stands the Delta Tau Chi House, a repository for campus misfits.

 

Two freshmen, Larry Kroger (Thomas Hulce) and Kent Dorfman (Stephen Furst) are trying to pledge a good fraternity. They first try their luck at the Omega House rush party, but are out of their league. The Omegas quickly steer them to an area where they have segregated the other "undesirables": Mohammed, Jagdish, Sidney, and Clayton (who is blind and in a wheelchair).

 

Larry and Kent then try the Deltas next door. As they approach, a headless female mannequin comes flying out of a window and lands at their feet. They meet John "Bluto" Blutarsky (John Belushi), outside taking a leak. Bluto turns to greet them and urinates on their pants. Another member, "D-Day" (Daniel Simpson Day) (Bruce McGill), rides his motorcycle through the front door and up the stairs, where he gives a rendition of the William Tell Overture—using his throat as a percussion instrument. The Deltas "need the dues" so Larry and Kent are allowed to pledge Delta (in Dorfman's case, mainly because he is a legacy since his brother Fred was a Delta). They are sworn in as pledges and given the fraternity names "Pinto" (Larry) and "Flounder" (Kent).

 

Meanwhile, Dean Vernon Wormer (John Vernon), is trying to kick the Deltas off campus. Since they are already on probation, he puts the Deltas on "Double Secret Probation" and orders Omega president Gregg Marmalard (James Daughton) to assign Doug Neidermeyer (Mark Metcalf) the job of finding a way to get rid of the Deltas once and for all.

 

As the campus ROTC detachment drills, Neidermeyer, the pompous cadet commander, spots plebe Flounder wearing a pledge pin on his uniform and begins berating him. Two Deltas, "Otter" (Tim Matheson) and "Boon" (Peter Riegert), witness this and object to the mistreatment (only they are allowed to abuse their pledges). They take turns hitting golf balls, aiming for the horse Neidermeyer is riding. A ball eventually strikes the horse, causing it to rear up. Then, a second ball hits Neidermeyer on the head, knocking him out of the saddle. The already spooked animal bolts, dragging a screaming Neidermeyer behind, entangled in the stirrups. Later, he orders Flounder to clean his horse's filthy stable stall.

 

Bluto and D-Day talk Flounder into sneaking the hated animal into the Dean Wormer's office. They give him a gun and tell him to shoot it. Unbeknownst to Flounder, the gun is loaded with blanks. He can't bring himself to kill the horse and fires into the ceiling, but the noise causes the horse to have a heart attack and die. The next day, a chainsaw is required to remove the carcass, in rigor mortis, from the office.

 

In the cafeteria the next day, Bluto provokes Gregg and Omega pledge Chip (Kevin Bacon) with his impression of a popping zit and triggers a wild food fight. Not done, Bluto and D-Day rummage through a trash bin to steal the answers to an upcoming psychology test. Unfortunately, the exam stencil had been planted by the Omegas, and the Deltas get every answer wrong. Their grade point averages drop so low that Wormer only needs one more incident to revoke their charter.

 

Undaunted, the Deltas organize a toga party. Pinto invites Clorette (Sarah Holcomb), the cashier at the local supermarket; she turns out to be the underage daughter of shady Mayor Carmine DePasto (Cesare Danova). When she gets drunk and passes out, Pinto is tempted to take advantage of her (an angel and a devil appear over his shoulders and have a frank discussion of his choices); in the end, he takes her home in a shopping cart. A drunken Mrs. Wormer (Verna Bloom) crashes the party (both figuratively and literally) and spends the night with Otter. That turns out to be the last straw. Wormer gets the fraternity's charter revoked, and everything is confiscated. Bluto is horrified when they take "the bar, the whole f***in' bar!"

 

To take their minds off their troubles, Otter, Boon, Flounder, and Pinto go on a road trip. They pick up some girls from Dickinson College, a local liberal arts college, and by mistake, go to a club with an all-black clientèle. Some of the hulking regulars are not amused and intimidate the guys into fleeing without their dates, badly damaging their car in their haste.

 

Things go from bad to worse. "Babs" (Martha Smith) lies to Gregg Marmalard, telling him that his girlfriend, Mandy (Mary Louise Weller), and Otter are having an affair (in fact, they only had a one-night stand). Marmalard and some of his fellow Omegas lure Otter to a motel and beat him up. The Deltas' midterm grades are so bad that they are all expelled from school (and their draft boards notified of their eligibility) by the ecstatic Wormer.

 

For revenge, the Deltas decide to wreak havoc on the annual Homecoming parade, inspired by Bluto's impassioned speech invoking the memory of the "Germans" bombing Pearl Harbor. In the ensuing chaos, Bluto steals a car, abducts Mandy and drives off into the sunset...or rather to Washington, D.C., as the futures of many of the main characters are "revealed" (Bluto and Mandy become Senator and Mrs. John Blutarsky).

 

. . .

 

In 2001, the United States Library of Congress deemed the film "culturally significant" and selected it for preservation in the National Film Registry.[2] This film is first on Bravo's "100 Funniest Movies."[3] It was #36 on AFI's "100 Years, 100 Laughs" list of the 100 best American comedies.

 

Animal House was the first movie produced by National Lampoon, the most popular humor magazine on college campuses in the mid-1970s.[5] The periodical specialized in humor and satirized politics and popular culture. Many of the magazine’s writers were recent college graduates, hence their appeal to students all over the country. Doug Kenney was the magazine’s first editor-in-chief and also wrote for the Lampoon. He had graduated from Harvard College in 1969. He was responsible for the first appearances of two characters that would appear in Animal House – Larry Kroger and Mandy Pepperidge. They made their debut in National Lampoon’s High School Yearbook, a satire published in 1975.

 

During the toga party, Bluto smashes an acoustic guitar belonging to a folk singer (portrayed by singer/songwriter Stephen Bishop, credited as "Charming Guy With Guitar") who is serenading a group of girls with the folk tune The Riddle Song. Bluto then hands him a splintered piece and says "Sorry." Bishop wrote and performed the "Animal House Theme". and claims to have framed the smashed guitar. One of the girls whom he is serenading is John Belushi's wife Judith.

 

Chevy Chase, Bill Murray, Brian Doyle-Murray, and Dan Aykroyd all turned down roles in the film due to prior commitments.

 

Kevin Bacon in his on-screen debut, is trampled by the panicking crowd at the end of the movie.

 

Meat Loaf was the second choice for Bluto in case John Belushi dropped out of his role.

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movies that juuust missed the top 50.

 

 

Major League - 3 of 23 - 27pts.

Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me - 3 of 23 - 27pts.

Waiting for Guffman - 2 of 23 - 27pts.

Some Like It Hot - 2 of 23 - 25pts.

National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation - 3 of 23 - 24pts.

Shaun of the Dead - 2 of 23 - 22pts.

Zoolander - 2 of 23 - 22pts.

Dodgeball - 2 of 23 - 20pts.

Monty Python's Life of Brian - 2 of 23 - 20pts.

Fast Times at Ridgemont High - 2 of 23 - 20pts.

 

 

HOW CAN YOU GUYS FORGET DODGEBALL?!

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QUOTE (knightni @ Apr 25, 2008 -> 02:52 PM)
movies that juuust missed the top 50.

 

 

Major League - 3 of 23 - 27pts.

Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me - 3 of 23 - 27pts.

Waiting for Guffman - 2 of 23 - 27pts.

Some Like It Hot - 2 of 23 - 25pts.

National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation - 3 of 23 - 24pts.

Shaun of the Dead - 2 of 23 - 22pts.

Zoolander - 2 of 23 - 22pts.

Dodgeball - 2 of 23 - 20pts.

Monty Python's Life of Brian - 2 of 23 - 20pts.

Fast Times at Ridgemont High - 2 of 23 - 20pts.

 

 

HOW CAN YOU GUYS FORGET DODGEBALL?!

With Old School, Wedding Crashers and Swingers in my top 20...One more Vince Vaughn movie and people would have started to talk about me!!! :unsure:

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Other movies:

 

Bad News Bears

Hard Day’s Night

A Christmas Story

Monty Python's Meaning of Life

Sleeper

The Jerk (!)

Better Off Dead

Tape Heads

Juno

Black Sheep

Snatch

Dirty Work

The Wedding Singer

Serial

RV

Annie Hall

What About Bob?

Bachelor Party

High Anxiety

The Ref

Dazed and Confused

Army of Darkness

Mystery Science Theater 3000: The Movie

Sgt. Bilko

Oscar

Van Wilder

Road Trip

Porky's

Idiocracy

The Money Pit

Back To The Future

Slapshot

Saving Silverman

Taking Off

Me, Myself and Irene

Robin Hood: Men in Tights

My Cousin Vinny

Father of the Bride

Liar, Liar

Jay & Silent Bob Strike Back

White Men Can't Jump

Who Framed Roger Rabbit?

Rocky Horror Picture Show

Trading Places

Wayne's World

Stripes

Cheech and Chongs up in smoke

One who flew over the cuckoos nest

Talledega nights

Mallrats

Austin Powers: Goldmember

Mean Girls

School of Rock

Super Troopers

Grandma's Boy

Naked Gun 2 1/2

Naked Gun 33 1/3

Canadian Bacon

O Brother, Where Art Thou?

The Royal Tennanbaums

Sideways

Little Miss Sunshine

Bottle Rocket

The Producers (1968 version)

Made

The Goonies

Pee-Wee's Big Adventure

Revenge of the Nerds

Police Academy

Beetlejuice

The Nutty Professor (Eddie Murphy version)

Galaxy Quest

EuroTrip

Elf

Mr. and Mrs. Smith

Top Secret

A Fish Called Wanda

Lost in America

A Shot in the Dark

Whats up Doc?

Clerks 2

Hot Fuzz

Analyze This

Bowfinger

Get Shorty

Love Stinks

Midnight Run

Cannibal the Musical

The Breaks

I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry

Blades of Glory

Strange Brew (!)

Coming to America

Shrek

Back to School

Weird Science

PCU

See No Evil Hear No Evil

Weekend At Bernie's

 

 

 

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A Christmas Story

Serial

RV

Annie Hall

What About Bob?

Porky's

Slapshot

Rocky Horror Picture Show

Wayne's World

Stripes

 

The first five were ones I nominated the second half are ones I wish I had listed. How could we not have Slapshot?

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QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Apr 25, 2008 -> 04:21 PM)
Thanks for the hard work good sir Knight :cheers

Gracias!

 

Next month:

 

 

20 Best/Greatest Chicago Athletes.

 

Born, lived in or played in Chicago.

 

 

Craig Grebeck better not finish above Ernie Banks.

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And for you people who have never seen Love Stinks...and I would say that's about 99.9% of you. Rent it. It's with French Stewert...whom I never liked, but I laughed pretty good at this movie. Not so much of the intellectual humor though...

 

Edited by Controlled Chaos
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QUOTE (knightni @ Apr 25, 2008 -> 03:18 PM)
I can't believe that no one likes Coming To America or Dodgeball.

 

I liked Coming to America. The whole bootleg McDonalds thing makes me chuckle...

 

 

Anyways, if you still got my list, can you pm it to me when you get the chance?

 

Also, maybe someone can list the top 50 all together. I'm kinda lazy. :(

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QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Apr 25, 2008 -> 11:37 AM)
I think the age of BS has something to do with its rank, especially when you look at all of the "new" movies on the list. I seriously consider it, by far, the greatest comedy of all time, and its not even close. The one liners, the double entres and the suble genius that is Mel Brooks really shown through in that movie. I think I have seen it at least 100 times over the years, and it never gets old.

 

BY FAR the funniest movie I've ever seen. Some of the movies on this list shouldn't even be mentioned in the same sentence as it.

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1. Animal House

2. Dumb and Dumber

3. Monty Python and The Holy Grail

4. Office Space

4. Airplane

6. Blazing Saddles

7. Tommy Boy

8. Caddyshack

9. Dr. Strangelove

10. Anchorman

11. The Blues Brothers

12. The Big Lebowski

13. Old School

14. Young Frankenstein

15. Wedding Crashers

15. The Naked Gun

17. Happy Gilmore

18. 40-year-old Virgin

19. Swingers

20. This Is Spinal Tap

20. Planes, Trains, and Automobiles

22. There's Something About Mary

23. Groundhog Day

24. The Graduate

24. Austin Powers

26. Meet The Parents

26. South Park Movie

28. Clerks

28. The Princess Bride

30. Spaceballs

30. Knocked Up

30. Ghostbusters

30. American Pie

34. Forrest Gump

35. Superbad

36. Harold and Kumar

37. Borat

38. Vacation

39. Fletch

40. Ace Ventura

41. BASEketball

41. Kingpin

43. Billy Madison

43. Ferris Bueller

43. Rushmore

46. Half Baked

47. It's a Mad Mad Mad Mad World

47. History of the World: Part I

49. Team America: World Police

50. Napoleon Dynamite

 

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Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas is funnier than a bunch of the movies that ended up on the list :P

 

Good stuff knight, it was fun seeing the end result, regardless of whether or not I agree with the choices ;)

Edited by Felix
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