5 Thoughts on the BBC’s List of the 100 Greatest (Oldest?) Comedies of All Time

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Some Like It Hot (1959)

Who’s ready to argue! The latest bit of semi-arbitrary rankings designed to have us in spirited disagreement for the bulk of a workday is today’s BBC list of the 100 Greatest Comedies of All Time. This list of 100 movies — topped by Billy Wilder’s gender-bending provocation Some Like It Hot — polled 253 film critics from 52 countries and had them list their picks for 10 best film comedies. Definitions of “best” and “comedy” were left to the interpretation of the voter, and the resulting top 100 list is both eminently respectable and yet highly worth arguing about. Here, we’ve already taken the liberty of coming up with five starting observations to get your squabbles started.

The Classics Are Well- (Over-?) Represented

The top 10 of the list looks like this:

Some Like It Hot (Billy Wilder, 1959)
Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (Stanley Kubrick, 1964)
Annie Hall (Woody Allen, 1977)
Groundhog Day (Harold Ramis, 1993)
Duck Soup (Leo McCarey, 1933)
Life of Brian (Terry Jones, 1979)
Airplane! (Jim Abrahams, David Zucker and Jerry Zucker, 1980)
Playtime (Jacques Tati, 1967)
This Is Spinal Tap (Rob Reiner, 1984)
The General (Clyde Bruckman and Buster Keaton, 1926)

Couple ’80s movies, Groundhog Day as is required by law, and then a whole bunch of films that have been designated comedy classics for decades. Which isn’t to say that Dr. Strangelove and Annie Hall aren’t funny. But these movies — and the Marx Brothers, and Buster Keaton — are what you cite when you want to extoll the virtues of comedy and still sound like a Very Educated Film Professional. This isn’t a pretentious top ten, but it’s a top ten that is very aware of its need to look like a top ten, if that makes any sense.

In the full top 100, the breakdown is actually pretty even. By decade it looks like this:

1980s: 18 films
1970s: 14 films
1930s: 13 films
2000s: 12 films
1990s: 10 films
1960s: 10 films
1940s: 9 films
1950s: 7 films
1920s: 5 films
2010s: 3 films

But the Top 25 tells a slightly different tale, with the first 5 decades outpacing the 5 most recent decades 15-10. There are four Charlie Chaplin films in the Top 25, but nothing more recent than 1998’s The Big Lebowski.

The counter point to this un-recency bias is that it’s actually good. Lists like this should lean more heavily towards the classics. They should give weighted scores to films that have stood the test of time. They should take in things like context for the eras in which these films were made. Otherwise, it’s just the results of an EW fan poll, and what good are the results of something like that? Especially in this day and age, with Netflix catalogs shrinking by the day, we’re in danger of forgetting the classics. Who better than a jury of film critics to remind of that these pieces of film history are still vital and worthy of elevated placement. No, Duck Soup may not make you laugh as much as Wet Hot American Summer, but you’re still going to know what Wet Hot American Summer is, as will your children. Film critics voting on this list are doing their best to make sure you can say the same about the Marx Brothers, and that’s admirable … if kind of boring if you’re reading the list.

This List Is Veddy, Veddy British

Two Monty Python movies in the top 15, including the deeply overrated Life of Brian at number 6 (!!). The cult British comedy Withnail and I at number 24. Kind Hearts and Coronets at number 86. This is a BBC list, after all, and it is their prerogative to do with it what they wish. But then why not find some room for Four Weddings and a Funeral somewhere, then? I might have helped alleviate the burn from having so few romantic comedies on the list.

The Choices for Films After 2000 Are … Curious

Fifteen films in total made after 2000 made the list, which is a good thing. But which fifteen is certainly a topic for debate. The highest ranking 2000-present film? 2004’s Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy. Solid. The second-highest ranked? Borat. Haven’t we all decided as a society that our momentary Borat fever was misplaced? Same with Team America: World Police (#61) and The Hangover (#98).

That said: Two Edgar Wright movies (Shaun of the Dead at #60 and Hot Fuzz at #66); two Wes Anderson movies (The Royal Tenenbaums at #71 and Rushmore at #94); two Christopher Guest movies (Waiting for Guffman at #84 and Best in Show at #55); In the Loop at #70, Step Brothers at #64, Mean Girls at #57, and in a most pleasant surprise, What We Do in the Shadows at #62. Sure, they’re all crammed in the back half of the list, but these are all pretty great choices.

One rather surprising omission was any film by Judd Apatow, who has essentially shaped a generation of American comedy. One would have expected to have seen The 40-Year-Old Virgin on this list at the very least.

Also There Are a Couple Real Head-Scratchers

Pulp Fiction‘s presence on a list of all-time best films is no surprise. Pulp Fiction placing at #46 on a list of the 100 best comedies, though? Look, genre is difficult to place, and Pulp Fiction certainly has its fair share of comedic moments. But I would be hard pressed to define it as a comedy outright. Certainly not after sitting through that Bruce Willis section.

Then there’s the case of Toni Erdmann, the most recent film to make the list, at #59. Subjective opinions being what they are, take this with a grain of salt, but: Toni Erdmann is not a funny movie. It’s just not. It’s taking up space on this list that could be occupied by a better, funnier film.

That said, Toni Erdmann director Maren Ade is one of two female directors on this list, and it would feel wrong to cut that number in half.

Two Women. TWO.

Oh yeah, that’s right. Two. TWO women directors on this list. Now, to be fair, the overall imbalance of male and female directors working in Hollywood is the problem here, and the male-female imbalance of this list is a symptom. But … there weren’t ANY other women besides Maren Ade and Amy Heckerling (whose Clueless gets a highly deserved #34 placement) who could have cracked this top 100? None of Nicole Holofcener’s quietly affecting and well-observed modern comedies qualified? Or, perhaps more outrageously, NOTHING from Penny Marshall? I suppose I should be used to Penny Marshall being perpetually underrated, but either Big or A League of Their Own, and probably both, should have made this list.