Ten Great Comedy Movies

I just love This Is Spinal Tap - I have watched it countless times and always seem to find something different to laugh at. For those that haven't seen it, this is a spoof documentary about a stereotypical rock group on a disasterous tour.

Some of the most famous and amusing scenes include the song "Big Bottom", the amplifier that goes to eleven and a piano solo called "Lick my love pump". I love the ending of the movie in which the lead singer explains that his namesake, St Hubbins, is the patron saint of quality footwear and the lead guitarist contemplates life working in a shoe shop.

This video clip shows the "Stonehenge" Spinal Tap set where they end up with a piece of stage scenery that is way too small and gets crushed by midgets. A classic clip.

Bowfinger is a very amusing fim about a director (Steve Martin) making a movie whilst his starring actor (Eddie Murphy) is unaware of featuring in it. The rest of the cast do not know that the star is participating without realising it and chaos ensues.

One of the most amusing scenes is when Steve Martin's character is obtaining a film crew and goes to the Mexican border where illegal immigrants are running away from border control and are ushered into the back of the director's van. I also love the scene where Eddie Murphy attempts to cross a busy road having been told that the "stunt drivers" will miss him. of course there are no stunt drivers, just a very busy road full of speeding traffic.

Although much of the humour here is unsophisticated, Bowfinger is a very funny movie, with a suitably silly ending.

Borat is a spoof reporter from Kazakhstan making a documentary about American culture and the comedy works at two levels: viewers can enjoy the ridiculous antics and cultural faux pas of Borat and also be amazed at the reactions he gets from the people he meets unaware that he is a comedy character.

From start to finish this film is full of ludicrous acts and statements from Borat who is from a culture completely at odds with the western world. Some may find him offensive, but only the most sensitive, for the jokes are supposed to be on the cultural expectations of the viewer and on the foolish people he meets.

My favourite moments from the movie include when Borat turns up at a children's park in an ice cream van, with music playing. A crowd of kids run cheering towards the van only to run away screaming when a bear pokes its head out of the window. Another highlight is when Borat enters a new age church where people are speaking in tongues and leaping around in suits while the preacher spouts cliched dogma. Borat needs to do very little by the way of comedy as the antics of the churchgoers are funny enough on their own.

Another strange moment is this deleted scene below where Borat visits the cheese counter of an American supermarket.

For Borat Fans there is also a guidebook to Kazakhstan: Borat - Touristic Guidings to Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan.

The Time Bandits has been one of my favourite movies since I was about 7 years old and I still love it. The movie follows a group of midgets who are on the run from the supreme being, having stolen his map of time holes: holes which are the result of the shoddy workmanship of creating the world in just seven days. This map of time holes is misused by the group of midgets -used to go back in time to rob rich historical figures, hence "Time Bandits".

Many of the Monty Python team were involved in this movie and consequently the humour bears a close resemblance to other Monty Python movies, but the sheer weirdness of this movie is impressive moving from Napoleonic France to Sherwood Forest, to ancient Greece but it is not until the bandits approach the fortress of ultimate darkness that things get to their most bizarre.

My favourite moments from this movie include when the bandits walk into an invisible barrier and one of the group says, "so that's what an invisible barrier looks like" and the ending when two characters touch a piece of concentrated evil and are instantly vapourised. This is a silly movie full of comic asides and works well for kids and adults alike.

The following video clip shows The Evil Being bemoaning God's lack of interest in technology.

Monty Python and the Holy Grail is full of laughs from beginning to end. The quest of King Arthur and his knights for the Holy Grail becomes quite ridiculous as they go from one comic obstacle to another.

This movie also makes use of the famous Monty Python style animation which adds to the surrealism of the story which is full of jokes and incidents that one may not notice on the first view.

The most famous scenes in this movie are the Knights who say "Ni" who send King Arthur on a quest for a shrubbery, the dark knight who continues to fight after losing all his limbs and French soldiers abusing King Arthur's band by saying that their fathers smelt of elderberries. However, my favourite moment is in this video clip where Robin the not-so-brave is followed by his singing minstrels into an encounter with a three-headed knight, but he ends up "chickening out and buggering off".

Monty Python and the Holy Grail has one of the daftest endings of any film when a hoard of knights charge at a castle but are prevented from storming it when they are arrested by the police who stop the movie by turning off the camera.

Stir Crazy stars Gene Wilder and Richard Pryor as two guys wrongly convicted of a bank robbery. Sentenced to hundreds of years of hard labour they decide to escape whilst riding at the prison rodeo.

There are a number of truly hilarious moments in this film including the clip below where the two stars are thrown into a jail cell full of hardened criminals. Some of the funniest moments come when Gene Wilder is abused in order to persuade him to ride in the rodeo - on one occasion he is locked in a hot, dark box for three days with no food or water and pleads for just one more day on his release.

A great film with two great comedy actors.