See if this makes you smile

I’m not a 3 Stooges fan. Not big into the guy-centric physical humor. However, when slapstick does strike me funny, I laugh way harder than I do at the verbal humor that I really gravitate to. And I end up giggling like, well, a little girl.

Here are my favorite moments of physical humor that I can think of today.

1. The. Funniest. Thing. Ever. The Ministry of Silly Walks from Monty Python. When John Cleese flings his legs into the air to walk to his ministry office, I fall apart.


2. John Cleese again. Fawlty Towers. Basil Fawlty doing his Hitler impression for visiting German tourists. Pants-wettingly funny.


3. Will Ferrell playing the cow bell in that Blue Oyster Cult skit on Saturday Night Live. Here’s where things get a little cloudy, physical-comedy-wise, because - was he funny because he was sashaying around giving ‘er (or Tonkin it) with his cow bell and his gut hanging out, or was he made so much funnier because Christopher Walken just killed by saying, “I got a fever, and the only cure is more cow bell”? See the dilemma? I’m going to go ahead and count it.


4. If you didn’t see this, I’m sorry you missed it. Several years ago, Mo Rocca and Steve Carrell used to do this recurring bit on the Daily Show which started with them both sitting at typewriters busily typing away. The funny part was the way they typed like major spazzes. Mo Rocca, jazz hands out, wacking on the keyboard with his flopping hands. I don’t know why I found it so funny, but I will follow both of them until they die (or I do, whichever comes first), hoping to laugh like that just one more time.


5. Jim Carrey. I used to adore Jim Carrey when he was funny. I think he was way funnier when he seemed to be so filled with rage that it came out - as funny - in every direction. I’m sure it’s better for him that he has less rage, but a bummer for me. The funniest physical thing I’ve ever seen him do was in his stand-up act. He had the best pratfall - it started with a lunge forward and ended up flat on his back. Hard to find, but worth it.


6. One more Jim Carrey moment: the asparagus scene in Ace Ventura: When Nature Calls (“do I have something in my teeth?”), followed closely by wearing a rude little man as a stole. Hard to explain. But funny.


7. Okay, one more Jim Carrey moment from the same film (where’s the Oscar, Academy?): the rhino birthing scene. I’m not going to try to explain that one either.


8. Let’s go back to Monty Python for a moment and relive the catapulted cows in Monty Python and the Holy Grail. Mooooo.


9. Seinfeld was mostly verbally funny, but there was that one dance. You know which one I mean. Elaine’s dance. The stuff of legend.


10. Zoolander. Will Ferrell in the brain-washing scene.


11. Zoolander. The pose-off.


12. Dana Carvey’s stand-up. Specifically, his bit about guitar players. And his kids who like to run around naked.


13. The opening scene of Austin Powers – Man of Mystery. Yeah, the dance sequence. Brilliant.


14. Speaking of dance sequences, the closing scene of Forty Year-Old Virgin was good too.


15. Speaking of Forty Year-Old Virgin: the drunk-driving scene with Steve Carrell and Leslie Mann, who kills in this scene. I say More Leslie Mann.


16. Here’s another iffy one: Jack Black in High Fidelity when he sings with his band. I don’t think this would be nearly as funny if we didn’t know so much about Jack Black’s character – how he abuses the record store customers and is so annoyingly opinionated. But still.


17. A couple more Jim Carrey highlights: There’s a moment in Me, Myself and Irene, where he is perched on the hood of a car, and then, on the spur of a moment, slides off like his bones have melted. It’s a moment of pure squeal.


18. And the final Jim Carrey moment: the scene in Ace Ventura – Pet Detective where he is pretending to be crazy to get access to the – well, whatever the plot is. And of course, funny is always amplified by a tutu.


19. And lastly (for today), gag reels in general are often funnier than the film, but there’s a portion of the gag reel for Dodgeball which shows the little skinny cheerleader guy getting pelted with dodgeballs. Gets me every time.

Add your own. It’s fun.