THIS ONE GOES TO ELEVEN: THE FIRST OF FILMS THAT DIDN'T QUITE MAKE THE TOP TEN

Last night Rob and I were at the ArcLight in Hollywood. I wandered over to the magazine racks in their delightful gift store and immediately let out a laugh/snort that cleared the area around me as it echoed throughout their cavernous lobby. The cover of Vanity Fair featured three lovely, funny ladies - Sarah Silverman, Tina Fey and Amy Poehler. And Amy had her had cupped on Tina's booby. God bless them. God bless them, everyone.

For whatever reason this made me think of another hilarious babe and two movies that didn't make the top ten. They're both movies worth mentioning just the same and the films I'll talk about in "THIS ONE GOES TO ELEVEN (or films that didn't hit the list)" - what I'm sure will become a recurring sidebar as I make my way through those films that hold a rank.

Madeline Kahn worked it silly and sexy in BLAZING SADDLES and YOUNG FRANKENSTEIN. Both of the movies are comedy classics and would not be the same without Ms. Kahn's divine stylings. The sight of her strutting across a bedroom floor with her hair done up a la BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN and then making a sizzling noise after she touches her just wetted finger tip to her arse in YOUNG FRANKENSTEIN is funnier every time I see it. Her bizarre "Lili Von Shtupp" in BLAZING SADDLES makes a delicious mincemeat of prejudiced attitudes toward interracial relationships. She is/was aces at making comedy fun and important. It is/was so sad she died in 1999 at just 57.

And this seems like a good place to say I'm generally dismayed films which fondle our funny bones often get pushed aside as not meaningful or artful or significant. I think this is because somehow everyone thinks it's easy to be funny. Anyone who has had a joke bellyflop can tell you it's not.

In a screenwriting class I took about a year ago at Media Bistro we were workshopping scenes. I was lucky enough to get a belly laugh (in a good way) during one reading. Then - after reading another scene on the same night - I received an unfortunate din of silence. The instructor after being positive, supportive and talking me down from the ledge said something pretty fabulous: "You can't fake funny. If people don't laugh at what you've written you can't be bullshitted into thinking it works."

I will always believe comedy's most valuable contribution is truth telling with a soft landing. Somehow farce can say things with a sharpness and precision that's more difficult to handle in a strait up drama. It's not a question of one or the other being better or worse...but the difference is interesting to note. The tradition of the Jester telling truth to the King or Queen or public in general through a series of jokes and sketches most certainly lives in places like Saturday Night Live. And it's thrilling to watch at a time when the Poehlers and Feys and Silvermans of comedy are taking their places amongst the all time greats.