repost of funny movies, people, and comedy sketches

I'm reposting this because it's summer and because I like to laugh. Also adding Hangover to the movie list--Lela says it's the funniest movie ever!

To avoid having to reinvent the wheel every time someone asks about funny movies, I'm putting this list on my blog. It has my own favorites and favorites from Lela, John, Pauline, Keith, Keith's friend Tony, Alec, Spike, Elizabeth, Nicky, Kathleen, Clarita, and Zoe, so it covers a variety of tastes as to just what is funny.

I'll update it as I hear from more people and if my memory about a funny film that I've forgotten gets jogged. And okay, okay, I know a few of these are TV shows, but you can rent them at the video store or online same as movies.

Here are 98 funny films and 26 funny people that will hopefully make you laugh, or at least cheer you up:

The 40-Year-Old Virgin - Tony
48 Hours - John
A Fish Called Wanda - Mary
All of Me - Pauline
Always - John
And Now for Something Completely Different - Alec
Annie Hall - Mary
As You Like It - Pauline
Back to the Future 1 - John
Being There - Mary, Pauline
Best of Saturday Night Live - John
Beverly Hills Cop - John
The Big Lebowski - Mary
Blazing Saddles - Mary, John, Kathleen
The Blues Brothers - John
Brain Donors - Alec
Bruce Almighty - Alec
Bugs Bunny classics, especially What's Opera, Doc? - Mary
Caddyshack - John
City Lights - John
Chris Rock: Bigger and Blacker - Zoe
The Dish (Australian) - Tony
Down and Out in Beverly Hills - Pauline
Dr. Strangelove - Mary
Duck Soup - Mary
Ed Wood - Mary
Eddie Izzard: Dress to Kill - Mary
Fargo - Mary
Ferris Bueller's Day Off - John
The Fifth Element - John
Forget Paris - John
Galaxy Quest - John
Ghostbusters - John
The Gods Must Be Crazy - Kathleen
Gold Rush - John
The Goodbye Girl - John
The Great Race (old one, not the remake) - John
Groundhog Day - John, Mary, Tony
Hangover - Lela
Happy Feet - Pauline
Honey I Shrunk the Kids - Pauline
Idiocracy - Mary
The Incredible Shrinking Woman - Pauline
It Happened One Night - Mary
It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World (old one, not the remake) - John
The Jerk - Pauline
LA Story - John
Lethal Weapon II - John
Liar, Liar - Alec, Pauline
Life of Brian - John, Alec
The Little Children - Nicky
Little Miss Sunshine - Mary, Tony
The Little Rascals/Our Gang - John
Love & Death - John
M.A.S.H. - Mary
MASH (old TV show) - John
The Mask - Pauline
Modern Times - John
Moonlighting (old TV show) - John
The Monster (Italian) - Clarita [stars Roberto Benigni, need I say more?]
Monty Python and the Holy Grail - John, Alec, Spike
Monty Python's Flying Circus (old tv show) - John
Moonstruck - Mary, Clarita
Napoleon Dynamite - Spike
Nurse Betty - Nicky
O Brother Where Art Thou? - Mary
Office Space - Mary
Old screwball comedies: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Screwball_comedy - John [It Happened One Night being the best]
Parenthood - John
Patch Adams - Alec
Pee-Wee's Big Adventure - John
Pee-Wee's Playhouse - John
The Pink Panther - Kathleen
Play It Again, Sam - John
The Princess Bride - Mary, Pauline
The Producers - Mary
Purple Rose of Cairo - John
Raising Arizona - Mary
Road Runner cartoons (pre-60s) - John
Roxanne - John
Saving Grace - Pauline
Shrek 1 - Mary, John, Pauline
Shrek 2 - Pauline
Singin' in the Rain - John
Sister Act - Mary
Sleeper - Mary
Some Like It Hot - Mary
South Park - Mary
Stalag 17 - John
The Sting - John
Stripes - John
The Tall Guy - Spike
There's Something About Mary - Mary, Tony
The Thin Man films - Mary
Tom & Jerry cartoons (pre-60s) - John
Tommy Boy - Tony
Trading Places - John, Pauline
True Lies - Pauline
Tootsie - Mary
Wedding Crashers - Clarita
What About Bob - Elizabeth
What Women Want - Mary, Pauline
What's Up Doc - John
When Harry Met Sally - Mary
Young Frankenstein - Mary
Zoolander - Spike

People who are funny:
Woody Allen - John
Lucille Ball - Pauline
Lewis Black - John
Victor Borge - Alec
Mel Brooks - Mary
Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Porky Pig - Mary
Jim Carrey - Mary, Pauline
Charlie Chaplin - John
Ellen DeGeneres - John
Jackie Chan - Mary
Johnny Depp in Pirates of the Caribbean - Mary
Whoopi Goldberg - Mary
Cary Grant - Mary
Goldie Hawn - Pauline
Danny Kaye - Pauline
Larry the Cable Guy - John
Harold Lloyd - John
Steve Martin - Mary, Keith, John
The Marx Brothers - Mary
Larry Miller - John
Ninja Turtles - Pauline
Paula Poundstone - John
Chris Rock - Zoe
Jerry Seinfeld - John
Peter Sellers - Mary
Gene Wilder - Pauline
Robin Williams in concert - Alec

And last but certainly not least, I'm adding a link to the 50 greatest comedy sketches. Click the title of this post to view. Many of them have video clips. Thanks, John!

aahhh, juneteenth

i'm home today because it is an unusual state holiday, juneteeth, the anniversary of the slaves in texas finding out---THREE YEARS LATER---about lincoln's emancipation proclamation.

the 81st legislative session is over, ended june 1, and life is returning to normal, whatever that is. a special session is on the horizon so they can finish unfinished business, but right now i do not care one whig.

i am sooo grateful for this day off.

this past session, my third at the legislative budget board, was a hard one for people at my agency, and maybe people at other agencies, but especially at my agency, because two of my fellow employees DIED during the session.

in the 20-something years of institutional memory of my longer-tenured colleagues, this is the first time an active employee has died. and not just one active employee, but two.

was it a coincidence that these deaths came during the session? that is unanswerable unless you can read god's mind. but session are stressful, and that could have contributed...

one colleague died in april. he had a seizure and was in the hospital where a week later, on Easter Sunday, he had a fatal stroke. the medical professionals discovered after the fact that he had had a brain tumor.

i didn't know him well at all--we bumped into each other in the kitchen occasionally. i was told that in the period before the seizure, he complained about being tired. but who wasn't making that same complaint?

a month later, another colleague didn't come into work one day. no one answered when they called. a couple of people went to her home. they called the police, who entered and found her in bed, dead. she had had a heart attack in her sleep.

what was particularly hard about this death was that this woman was still working at 68, putting in time to be eligible for a retirement pension, saving her pennies for retirement, and SHE DIDN'T EVEN GET TO ENJOY IT.

after my boss told me of her death, my second thought was "Way to go!" dying in yoru sleep is nice. and...you don't have to keep working under stressful conditions. reminds me of the humorous coffee mug with the statement, "I'm not calling in sick, I'm calling in dead".

don't get me wrong, there are perks, the main one being that i work in a pretty good office with a lot of really cool people, and we do get comp time for all that overtime we put in during sessions, so you get extra time off. if i use all my comp time and accrued vacation time this year, it adds up to about 7 paid weeks off from work. not bad.

the worst thing about the job is being at the mercy of the legislature's schedule, which is to meet from january through may in odd-numbered years and then do little in the interim. maybe have a special session or two, campaign for re-election, etc. that doesn't really affect me.

who came up with this crazy idea of meeting for 5 months every other year? my hunch is that way back when texas was first a state, the "founding fathers" decided that because it's such a big state, and there were no planes, trains, or automobiles, it would be efficient to condense legislation time so legislators could go back to their communities and farm, practice law, or do whatever else they did to make a living. (they still only get paid about $7 grand a year--yes, you do have to be rich to run the state government.)

so the schedule has been like that since 1845. and now we DO have planes, trains, and automobiles...

i ask you: people, does this make any sense? not to me it doesn't. count in deaths, stress, broken marriages, neglect of children, illness, exhaustion, nervous breakdowns, overtime and comp time, utilities from working late nights, etc., and it just doesn't seem very humane to me.

how do you change this? well. i asked. (you knew i would do that, right?)

this is what i learned. there would have to be a referendum, and the voters in texas would have to approve a change in the schedule. and that has been tried before, and the voters voted it down.

people, i'm asking you, if this ever comes up for a vote again, vote FOR change, not against it. i beg of you.

rivers

The session ended June 1, and I took a 4-day weekend this past weekend. Visited a friend in San Antonio for a couple of days, checking out the new extension of the Riverwalk (go check it out--not as crowded as downtown), the San Antonio Museum of Art, and the Texas Folklife Festival.

Then we went out to the countryside to connect with green vistas and clear waters and clean air. First stop, Guadalupe State Park in Boerne. My first time there. The river is low and slow, but wonderful for lazy floating.

I spent a long time in my float watching the ripples of light bouncing off the water onto the underside of a large driftwood branch arching out of the river. It was so alive! I felt the presence of spirit very strongly.

Realization: Dead things are really not dead, they are alive because they still exist.

We traveled on to our cabin near Vanderpool, which was comfortable and came with a hammock and a skinny hungry mama cat and three kittens. We drove into Leakey for cat food and saw the most gorgeous sunset on the way back, with large wide rays (God's fingers) against the sharp edge of the hills.

I don't know for sure, but it seems like the biggest hills in the Hill Country might be right out there in Real County. So many "Steep Grade Sharp Curve signs, it reminded us of the road to Hana on Maui. Breathtaking views, too.

We drove a scenic route from Leakey to Camp Wood, followed the Nueces north and the Frio south. Not much water access but spectacular views--and most unexpectedly, we saw a pasture full of kangaroos! They were curious but didn't come too close. Even saw a large "baby" in its mother's pouch!

We also saw buffalo and several types of exotic herd animals.

Then on to Garner State Park and the Frio. South of the dam, it's deep. I got a good snorkel/swim in, really working my arms and shoulders and feeling it, AND not being sore afterwards (must be the yoga).

Lovely brilliant green cypress trees and buff limestone rocks at both rivers.

The trip was fun, refreshing, inspiring, and a great way to spend the time. I'm already thinking, "How can I do more river swimming and floating this summer, and avoid the noisy drunken crowds?"

poem: Leaves of Grass, Walt Whitman (excerpt)

Love the earth and sun and the animals,
despise riches, give alms to everyone that asks,
stand up for the stupid and crazy,
devote your income and labor to others,
hate tyrants, argue not concerning God,
have patience and indulgence toward the people,
take off your hat to nothing known or unknown,
or to any man or number of men,
go freely with powerful uneducated persons,
and with the young, and with the mothers or families,
re-examine all you have been told in school or church or in any book,
and dismiss whatever insults your own soul;
and your very flesh shall be a great poem....


~ Walt Whitman ~

(from the Preface to Leaves of Grass, 1855 edition)