Some like it funny: Comedy films

Brian McCredie in the May edition of Spotlight serves up five excellent classic film genres along with a top film each. Now, we note that he leaves out comedy. Why is that so? Well, just try to name a single favourite comedy and you'll find yourself in hot water. Nothing helps a group bond quite like laughing together. But by the same token, different tastes in humour underline the differences between people.

So what full-length comedies do we here at Spotlight like best? Our tastes range widely and include:

• Screwball comedies like Billy Wilder's Some Like It Hot (1959)
• Monty Python's Life of Brian (1979)
• Rowan Atkinson's slapstick world of Mr Bean
• Romantic comedies both old and new, like the classic When Harry Met Sally (1989) written by Nora Ephraim
• Woody Allen's sophisticated dramas, like Annie Hall (1977)
• Genre spoofs like Mel Brooks's mock horror film, Young Frankenstein (1974)
• This Is Spinal Tap, the cult takeoff on rock documentaries (1984)
• Spike Jonze's comic fantasy film, Being John Malkovitch (1999)

On the next few pages, we'll take you through three of our favourites — Some Like It Hot, Life of Brian and This Is Spinal Tap — to quiz you on the dialogues, summaries and genres the films lampoon. Enjoy!

Anne Hodgson