Opinions Guaranteed To Annoy You

Jeff Cohen

In no particular order:

 

The Ten Funniest Comedies Ever Made

1. Duck Soup
2. Young Frankenstein
3. Horse Feathers
4. My Favorite Year
5. Bringing Up Baby
6. Tootsie
7. A Shot in the Dark
8. The Producers
9. Singin' in the Rain
10. Sullivan's Travels

NOT:

1. Some Like It Hot
2. There's Something About Mary
3. The Hangover
4. The Pink Panther
5. Look Who's Talking
6. A Day at the Races
7. Knocked Up
8. Dr. Strangelove
9. It's A Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World
10. Caddyshack

The Ten Best TV Shows Ever

1. Hill Street Blues
2. The Dick Van Dyke Show
3. The Man From U.N.C.L.E. (first two seasons)
4. The West Wing (first four seasons)
5. Homicide--Life on the Street
6. Star Trek (NOT the third season)
7. NBC's Saturday Night (Live)
8. M*A*S*H (first four seasons)
9. Sesame Street
10. The Daily Show with Jon Stewart

NOT:

1. The Sopranos
2. I Love Lucy
3. Star Trek--The Next Generation
4. Law and Order
5. All in the Family
6. E.R.
7. Seinfeld
8. Lost
9. Murder, She Wrote
10. Mad Men

The Ten Best Mystery Novels Ever Written

1. Yeah, like I'm going to list those.

The Ten Most Overrated Movies Ever Made

1. Gone With the Wind
2. The Wizard of Oz
3. The Hurt Locker
4. Titanic
5. Citizen Kane (dies after its terrific first hour)
6. Lawrence of Arabia
7. Schindler's List
8. The Empire Strikes Back
9. Vertigo
10. Guess Who's Coming To Dinner

(You should have seen the "Most Underrated" List I deleted because even I didn't agree with it.)

 

Unrecognized National Treasures

1. Gene Wilder
2. Jim Croce
3. Phoebe Snow
4. Laraine Newman
5. Susan Werner

Recognized, But Treasures Nonetheless

1. Jon Stewart
2. Paul Simon
3. Robert B. Parker
4. Derek Jeter
5. Carole King

Greatest Acoustic Guitar Performances

1. George Harrison--"Here Comes the Sun"
2. Maury Meuhleisen--"One Less Set Of Footsteps"
3. Paul Simon--"Peace Like A River"
4. Phoebe Snow, Jimmy Vivino--"Big Leg Blues"
5. Paul McCartney, "Blackbird"

 

Go ahead, feel free to argue. I don't even agree with them all myself.

Comments

[Nora-Adrienne Deret]

Since I'm only interested in your comedy ratings... The only movie I disagree with your opinion of is "Some Like it Hot". As a child I remember sitting in the air cooled theater where I watched it four time. To this day I think it's one of the best comedies ever made. So all your yes's are right... 1 of your NOT's in my "humble" opinion is wrong.

[Lartonmedia]

I love lists! I agree totally with Homicide: Life on the Street. I'd have to find a space for The Wire, though.

And on the list of the crappiest movie remakes of all time, I'd start off with Edge of Darkness and The Wicker Man!

[Robin Agnew]

I have to agree with the commenter above about "Some Like it Hot" - it's wonderful. "The Hurt Locker" mystified me - it seemed like an OK, well made documentary. But just OK. But your TV list! No NYPD Blue? No MARY TYLER MOORE?? I know several women (myself included) who actually MOVED to Minneapolis thanks to "The Mary Tyler Moore Show." I never could find her cool apartment, though...

[Jeff Cohen]

Yes, I realize that many people think "Some Like It Hot" is the best comedy ever made (those people include the American Film Institute, by the way). Comedy being the most subjective of all art forms, all I can say is, it doesn't work for me. It's a one-joke movie whose joke isn't that funny. Your mileage certainly may vary.

[Patty Andersen]

I never argue with opinions, even if I have different ones. Not being a Marx Brothers fan I knew we would differ there but mostly I agree with your comedies. I like Some Like It Hot, but its not an all time favorite. I would have to add Arsenic and Old Lace but then I'm a huge Cary Grant fan. As for tv, my opinions change as new things come out but agree strongly with the Dick Van Dyke show!

[Clothdragon]

Husband finally read Gone with the Wind, but since I read the book first and the movie missed a marriage or two I never cared much for it or requested he watch it so while I have strongly held opinions on the book, I don't feel any need to defend the movie. :) But using Husband's opinions (I haven't seen it), I think I need to add one to your overrated movies list.

He tells me Avatar (the one with the blue people) is Pocahontas in space. If he's right, there's been a lot of excitement over a movie that's been done before.

[KK Brees]

The Producers and The Dick Van Dyke Show: Yessirreeee!

[Jonathan E. Quist]

As a college student in 1982, in an ironic move, I contracted infectious mononucleosis. (Ironic, because while mono was once known as "The Kissing Disease", and I had means and motive, I had no opportunity to contract it in that way.)

At the peak of the symptoms, I was sleeping up to 20 hours per day. On the worst weekend, at the suggestion of friends, I checked myself into the campus infirmary, where I lay in bed, half awake, staring out the window and listening to the progress of the Falklands War on the network news.

Watching The Hurt Locker on DVD was as close as I have ever come to recapturing the experience of that weekend.

I think my list for the 10 best comedies would include many of Jeff's, but would also include The Mad Adventures of Rabbi Jacob
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Mad_Adventures_of_Rabbi_Jacob

[Kevin]

I am appalled at this shameless attempt to stir up meaningless controversy in an attempt to garner eyeballs.

Post like this require full scale massive blog retaliation in a blow by blow carpet bombing campaign.

[Jeff Cohen]

Smile when you say that, Stranger.

[Patti Abbott]

SOME LIKE IT HOT is sublime. Have never found Mel Brooks even remotely funny. MAD MEN is incredible, IMHO. Laraine Newman????
But other than that, a pretty good group of lists.

[michael]

The problem with lists, besides needing to rewrite your own every time you read it, is lists are limited to one's own experiences and when one experienced it.

Limiting great comedies to movies only, I still wonder if you have ever seen Wheeler & Woolsey (the Marx Brothers without the censoring studio and directors) or the works of Rene Clair or Ernst Lubitsch. Where is your loyalty to the neglected comedy mystery films such as Mad Miss Manton, The Thin Man, Who's Killing the Great Chefs of Europe?, Trouble In Mind, Highway 61, Support Your Local Sheriff, His Girl Friday, etc.

Granted your list is better than the other. I agree with your 2,3, and 10; I agree with their 8. Which is of course why any Top Ten should contain many more than 10 as there are so many ties.

Any Best TV series list that does not mention Ernie Kovacs Show is not worth reading.

[Jeff Cohen]

I havent seen enough Kovacs to say, just the same clips they always show. I have seen Wheeler Woolsey, and disagree with your assessment of them--they were still too polite. Like Rene Clair and Lubitsch, but not as much as Preston Sturges. What you see as neglected, I see as well, there were only 10 spaces. So given that this is entirely subjective, you agree with you and Ill agree with me.

[Mike Dennis]

In your Top 10 Movie Comedies NOT, I'd remove DR STRANGELOVE and insert AMERICAN PIE in its place.

In your Top 10 Most Overrated Movies, I'd remove SCHINDLER'S LIST and insert AVATAR in its place.

In your Top 10 TV Shows, I'd remove MASH and insert THE HONEYMOONERS in its place.

Now, with theTop 10 TV shows NOT, I'm assuming you really mean overrated TV shows, not just bad TV. Otherwise, shows like JOANIE LOVES CHACHI and THE NEW DATING GAME would populate the list.

Therefore, in your Top 10 TV Shows NOT, I'd remove THE SOPRANOS and MAD MEN and insert OPRAH and FRIENDS.

I would also add Treasures NOT: Chevy Chase, Geraldo Rivera, David Letterman, Madonna, and Oprah Winfrey.

[Brenda]

Wow. You were SERIOUS
about not liking
"Some Like It Hot"!?
Have you seen it more
than once? I merely loved
it the first time & now
my feelings are more
positive than that.

[Sarah W]

I wholeheartedly agree with you about Sesame Street! I'm still watching it with my kids - and am grateful for the excuse.

In the same vein, I'd add The Electric Company and Curious George to that list. And maybe Phineas and Ferb.

Maybe my kids watch too much tv . . .

[Fishea52]

I would move SOME LIKE IT HOT into THE PRODUCERS place, and also add THE RUSSIANS ARE COMING THE RUSSIANS ARE COMING and A FUNNY THING HAPPENED ON THE WAY TO THE FORUM and just make it the TOP 12 list.

I would replace SESAME STREET with MISSION IMPOSSIBLE. My children never watched SS thought they and I love all the Muppet movies, still. Your "nots" are definitely nots. I agree.

For the most over-rated I would remove THE WIZARD OF OZ...I love WOZ and it is laying right here next to me waiting to be watched. I would replace it with a 3-way tie of THE WAY WE WERE, JAWS and REDS.

[Carrie]

I AM SO ANNOYED.

(Congratulations!)

Some Like it Hot and The Hangover? AS NOTS????

For your punishment, good sir, I shall now sing you the Tiger Song out of The Hangover. Please know that I cannot carry a tune in a bucket as you imagine me singing this:

What do tigers dream of, when they take a little tiger snooze./Do they dream of mauling zebras, or Halle Berry in her cat woman suit./Don't you worry your pretty stripped head we're gonna get you back to Tyson and your cozy tiger bed./And they we're gonna find our best friend Doug and then we're gonna give him a best friend hug./Doug, Doug, Oh, Doug Douggie Douggie Doug Doug./ But if he's been murdered by crystal meth tweekers, well then we're s-hit out of luck

[Jeff Cohen]

Youre right, Carrie. Thats hilarious. How could I have missed it?

[Dale Spindel]

Where's Who Framed Roger Rabbit on the best movie comedy list? Bob Hoskins driving the cartoon car is one of my all time favorite movie moments. Yeah, Tootsie's up there too; I also thought that Hangover was sooo not funny. Thanks also for not loving Lucy - I've always gotten the impression that it was considered somehow unAmerican not to love it. I also totally agree about ER and the Sopranos and I don't think that Mad Men comes close to deserving the level of reverence it's treated with. But how could you have left Fawlty Towers off the funniest comedies list?

[Spartan ab workout]

I couldn't disagree because I wasn't able to watch some of it, but maybe I should learn to watch them all. :D