What's the funniest scene you've ever seen in a movie?

xps i was sort of non-plussed by the dave foley train jumping scene until it resolved into the little forehead clunks on the ladder, then i lost it.

on thinking closer my answer is now "the moment when 'stonehenge' is lowered in This is Spinal Tap and Nigel registers a look of abject shock at the abysmal size of the thing as it lowers"

I'm laughing just thinking about that one, it's a contender.

Probably the crossing-guard interview in Lost in America.

― clemenza, Tuesday, 13 June 2023 02:19 (ten months ago) bookmarkflaglink

^^ this was the first thing that came to mind for me when I saw the thread title.

Or maybe the "I want out of the marriage!" scene from The Heartbreak Kid.

also the "would that it were so simple" bit from Hail Caesar

the waitress scene from Jerry Lewis's Cracking Up is another favourite, and I think that these are maybe all funny in similar way: two people having a strained conversation where they are not really connecting or communicating, at least one of them is dying inside

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ENZglTjDrA

The Heartbreak Kid/"I want out of the marriage!" scene is so great in how it starts out with Jeannie Berlin oblivious and Grodin dying inside while he tries to get his point across, and then when she realizes what's happening it switches to him being oblivious and her dying inside (and of course he perks up once he has the chance to get into his sales pitch about why this is actually a good thing for both of them), like she's contingently oblivious where he's essentially oblivious

this line always makes me laugh, the fact that it was apparently improvised makes it even better

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NhdNT1dnoL8