"I am the pater familias! "
- Ulysses Everett McGill
Friday, March 11, 2005
MARCH MADNESS (with a twist):
For those of you who know nothing about college basketball, March Madness is upon us. This is the annual tournament of 65 teams that play for three weekends until a national champion is crowned victorious. Fans everywhere go crazy, Survivor appears a night earlier, local news comes on at midnight and then it's over.
MSN.com has decided to offer a twist to the bracketology [taking a tournament bracket and deriving a winner before a game is played by picking future winners] adopted by most sports fans into an interesting diversion I think most Thinklings and visitors might enjoy.
Here's how it works:
MSN has collected 64 of the greatest comedy movies of all time and situated them into a somewhat organized bracket. You go through the rounds and pick the winner of each "game" until you arrive at a final four and eventual champion.
Click here to play!
When you get your final four and championship round finished, post them in the comments so we can see where each other's tastes lie. Have fun!
HT: Somewhat frequent commenter David (who resides mainly in the Harry Potter thread) has a relative who contributed to this article. David forwarded it to me knowing I would play immediately . . .
Trackbacks:
Trackback URL: http://thinklings.org/bloo.trackback.php/1928.
Comments on "Did someone say cabbage?":
2. Jema
- 03/12/2005 1:59 am CST
Wow, I had some toughies. Spinal Tap was up against Best in Show at one point in the Smart category.
Final four:
Dirty Rotten Scoundrels defeats Happy Gilmore
Monty Python's Holy Grail defeats Best in Show
Champeen:
Monty Python It's an unbeatable classic.
3. jen
- 03/12/2005 2:58 am CST
It's just wrong that they put Holy Grail against Young Frankenstein in the first round.
4. jen
- 03/12/2005 3:00 am CST
My Final Four:
Meet the Parents vs Blues Brothers
Princess Bride vs Young Frankenstein
Final Game:
Blues Brothers vs Young Frankenstein
Winner: Young Frankenstein
9. Ellen from MI
- 03/12/2005 3:59 am CST
I have to confess I only saw four movies in the classic bracket.
I have 4 (okay, maybe five) teenagers around - I think maybe I'll start a video marathon with all those classics.
We could make this a running thing (maybe til June) - and disqualify the movies I won't have in my house.
;-)
10. Quaid
- 03/12/2005 4:28 am CST
Only 4????
whoa. I have seen all but 5 in the classic bracket. The ones I have not seen are 9 to 5, His Girl Friday, Philadelphia Story, The Thin Man, and Slapshot.
Airplane:
Kicked off the stupid genre for real. Hilarious.
"Surely you can't be serious."
"I am serious. And, please, don't call me Shirley."
-VERY QUOTABLE MOVIE
Arsenic and Old Lace:
Pretty funny movie. I saw this in High School. My favorite part was the senile uncle who thought himself a military general and would yell "charge" every time he went upstairs.
Blazing Saddles:
My winner in the Classics category. Every time I watch this, something new is funny. This movie is one of my all-time favorites.
The Graduate:
You've seen this, haven't you???
Producers:
Gene Wilder, me likey.
Annie Hall:
Isn't this Woody's first? VERY smart comedy. So smart that it's a classic.
The Jerk:
Steve Martin is very funny in this film. Because I hadn't seen Philly Story, I gave The Jerk the victory. Who knows what would have happened otherwise?
Dr. Strangelove:
Stroke and I quote this all the time. My favorite quote:
[deadpan voice] "Mr. President, Premier Kissoff's on the phone and he's hopping mad." One of the classics and maybe the all-time greatest acting job in a comedy movie by Peter Sellers.
Some Like it Hot:
AFI's #1 comedy of all time is pretty dang funny. This also happens to be the only movie with Marilyn Monroe that I've ever seen.
The Classics are, well, classics and you should start a marathon or something. I will do what I can to catch these other five movies soon.
12. Kory
- 03/12/2005 5:47 am CST
Bad seeding in round 2 where Groundhog Day faces off against Caddyshack, knocking out Caddyshack way too early. Also, missing entirely is another comedy that should be in the Final Four - My Cousin Vinny.
Given the brackets as they are, my Final Four are:
Ferris Bueller vs. Groundhog Day
Princess Bride vs. Holy Grail
And it is The Princess Bride in a nail-biter over Groundhog Day.
13. jen
- 03/12/2005 5:49 am CST
The Thin Man is great - sharp, witty, great portrayal of a married couple.
Philadelphia Story is fantastic, classic - I'm not a fan of Kate Hepburn, but I love her in this and Bringing Up Baby, which could have been on the list, too.
14. David
- 03/12/2005 5:58 am CST
My final four are: Strange Brew, Groundhog Day, Princess Bride, and Airplane, with Strange Brew beating the Princess Bride for the championship. I must confess, I am not the movie critic my brother (the author of the article) is and haven't seen probably 20 of these movies, but isn't that how the real tournament works anyways?? :-)
I agree with Kori though with Strange Brew over Ferris and Airplane over Holy Grail.
17. Andy Thompson
- 03/12/2005 5:09 pm CST
My Final Four:
Tommy Boy v. Spaceballs
Princess Bride v. Blazing Saddles
My Championship Round:
Tommy Boy v. Blazing Saddles
Winner:
Tommy Boy, by a rim shot.
18. stroke
- 03/12/2005 8:09 pm CST
there were some tough early pairings, as most of you have noticed... but it seems my taste is rather different!
Final Four
Raising Arizona vs. Vacation
Spinal Tap vs. Strangelove
Final Two
Raising Arizona vs. Spinal Tap
Champion
Raising Arizona
"don't forget the boo-kay, ed.";"0
19. Shrode
- 03/12/2005 11:39 pm CST
This was fun!
But man I hated having to choose between Christmas story and Spinal Tap, while choosing between the thin man and slapshot (neither of which I've seen.) So The thin man makes it to round 3, while Spinal Tap doesn't? That's just wrong. And having to pick between Christmas story and Princess Bride was tough. If Christmas Story had won out (a decision I'm still struggling with), it would have been the champion instead. But I guess final four stuff is supposed to work this way. :)
my final four-
Raising Arizona v. Groundhog
Princess Bride v. Jerk
Final- Raising Arizona v. Princess Bride
Princess Bride won by an after the clock foul shot. I remembered that I technically could quote more lines from Princess Bride, than Raising Arizona.
20. Darren
- 03/13/2005 6:30 pm CST
"Ferris Bueller" over "Ghostbusters"
"Princess Bride" over "Holy Grail" (by a hair)
"Princess Bride" wins! "Princess Bride" wins!
22. Rob T.
- 03/14/2005 3:41 am CST
Wow, not only do I think the early round pairings on the actual bracket are pretty bad, but I'm amazed at the picks here. Tommy Boy made it out of the second round? Really?
Here's how mine ended up:
Final Four:
Raising Arizona vs. Caddyshack
Princess Bride vs. Airplane
Cham-peen-ship round:
Caddyshack vs. Airplane
Pretty easy winner:
Airplane
23. Bob
- 03/14/2005 9:17 am CST
I can't believe I had to choose between Wayne's World and Animal House before I even got to the final four. So unfair. Anyway, Dr. Strangelove edged out the Blues Borthers by one gutbuster and three chuckles to take the tournament.
24. Anastasia
- 03/14/2005 10:00 am CST
I can't be the only one who likes Office Space. People, go see Office Space!
Final Four:
Raising Arizona vs. Rushmore
Office Space vs. Holy Grail
Raising Arizona vs. Office Space. And Office Space takes it.
27. Quaid
- 03/18/2005 3:44 am CST
Well, here are everybody's champions summed up as of now:
Princess Bride-4
Tommy Boy-2
Young Frankenstein-2
Airplane
Blazing Saddles
Christmas Story
Dr. Strangelove
Ferris Bueller's Day Off
Happy Gilmore
Office Space
Monty Python and the Holy Grail
Raising Arizona
Strange Brew
Does anyone have any opinion on this?
I don't want to over-analyze anything (ok, maybe I do), but when everyone filled out their brackets how did they decide which movies won? Was it the movie that was more funny or the better movie overall?
For example:
The Graduate was an okay funny move, but overall the movie is a classic. For those who promoted movies that were good overall, this film should have gone far (imho).
Princess Bride, however, which won many championships, is not nearly as funny (although quite humorous) as most of the other 64 movies listed. If you ranked the films purely by how funny they were without regard to the total, overall experience, how did this get so far on your list?
Here's my deal:
Blazing Saddles, Young Frankenstein, Airplane!, Holy Grail are all funnier movies than Princess Bride by far. An argument can be made for Tommy Boy, Dr. Strangelove, Ferris Bueller and Raising Arizona. Still, four whole people had PB on top. Can someone help me?
28. shrode
- 03/18/2005 4:05 am CST
Quaid,
In my opinion it has to do with the amount of funny quotable lines that people remember. Of course, people will have their own reasons/criteria for what they picked, so I'll let them speak for themselves.
And don't forget, even in picking which movie is funnier, people have different opinions about what is funny. There's no accounting for taste. 
In your own list of four movies that are "funnier by far" in your opinion, it seems that you think spoofs are funnier. Not everyone will agree. (Me, for example. I do like spoofs. But I'm not a huge fan, and I generally put other movies above them in the "funny" category. A spoof for me is generally only good for 3 or 4 laughs. The rest I just see as stupid. But that's just my opinion...which is my point. :)
29. Rob T.
- 03/18/2005 4:19 am CST
For me Princess Bride went as far as it did because of the competition. I Don't like seeing it as far along in my bracket as it was. I think it's a great movie. Definitely funny, but not one of the 4 funniest movies of all time. And certainly not the funniest.
I tried to rank the movies based less on my personal opinion and more on how they are regarded by critics, whether they were copied (that's a good sign of success), things like that. Based on that, I can see the few movies you listed, Quaid, as winners, but not any others. And not Tommy Boy...
My Final Four:
Dumb and Dumber defeats Ghostbusters
Blazing Saddles defeats Spinal Tap
My Champion:
Blazing Saddles defeats Dumb and Dumber