The putting together of any kind of “best ever” list is probably going to make some people angry. It’s just the way it works. But if your intention is to just have some fun and foster some healthy debate, you can mitigate any anger by putting together a list of things that make us laugh. That way, even when we don’t agree with the rankings, we still get to have some fun, like with this list of funny movie moments.
We first came across this montage of the 10 funniest movie scenes at Slate, and it was made by the good folks at Cinefix. Beyond just including a lot of great comedic cinematic scenes (way more than just 10), they also tried to explain the different types of humor that make us laugh. That includes relief theory, which is explained by the psychology of Freud as a type of humor that “lets us blow off some steam.” There is also Plato and Aristotle’s superiority theory, which is when we laugh at fools. And finally there is incongruity theory, found in the teachings of Kant among others, which says humor comes from a mismatch between expectations and what really happens.
But that’s enough about why we laugh, let’s get to the funny part. So what made their listâa list literally no one in the world will agree with?
10 – When Harry Met Sally
9 – The Princess Bride
8 – Monty Python and the Holy Grail
7 – Spaceballs
6 – His Girl Friday
5 – Dr. Strangelove: Or How I learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb
4 – This Is Spinal Tap
3 – Bruce Almighty
2 – Office Space
1 – Duck Soup
Don’t worry, they alluded to numerous other movie scenes within their own video that I think are much funnier than what made the top 10, but that’s the beauty of this type of list. We might disagree, but we still get to laugh with it instead of yell about it.
So tell us, what do you think is the funniest scene in movie history? Tell us in the comments below.
Featured Image: MGM
Image: Embassy Pictures
We’ve done funny, now here’s scary â check out our list of 9 unintentionally horrifying movies