Movies Under 90 Minutes Part 4: Comedies

 

Part Four

Brevity = Soul of Wit: The Comedy Genre

 

There are over a dozen movies in competition for best comedy under 90 minutes, which might seem like a lot, but actually, I’m surprised how few there are. Comedy is a genre that, for much of cinematic history, has been quite consistent at being on the conservative side for runtimes. There will be some unexpected absentees here because they just didn’t quite qualify. Monty Python and the Holy Grail is considered one of the funniest films ever made, but guess how long it is? One hour thirty-two minutes! 120 seconds disqualifies it from this competition, even though the back of the DVD case I have incorrectly states the runtime is 89 minutes (maybe if you don’t count the credits, but we do). Many other classics, like The Big Lebowski, Ghostbusters, and Dumb and Dumber aren’t even close to qualifying, in terms of runtimes.

CONTENDERS

Unlike horror, I feel as though comedy tends to age quicker and become more obsolete as it gets older. Black-and-white horror movies are probably still appreciated by more genre fans today than black-and-white comedies. What audiences find funny now is not all the same as what used to make people laugh, but as time has gone by and film has evolved, humour on screen has evolved, too, and become far less restrained. So, when I look back at something like Duck Soup (1933) and hold it up against something like The Naked Gun (1988), then yeah, it’s a bit like comparing apples to oranges. Duck Soup is, for the record, the oldest comedy in the running here, but let’s look at the rest of the short comedies before we get to the eliminations, grouped by type of comedy. There are an additional three spoof movies competing against the original Naked Gun, two of which are from the same creators. Airplane! (1980) and Top Secret! (1984) complete the trifecta of Zucker, Abrahams and Zucker 80’s spoof productions, and some of those guys went on to work on sequels to the fourth and final spoof in the running here: the original Scary Movie (2000), at 88 minutes.

Adjacent to the spoofs are the satires. There’s the first entry in the Austin Powers franchise, International Man of Mystery (1997), as well as Zoolander (2001) and two from writer/director Mike Judge: Office Space (1999) and Idiocracy (2006). Following from there are the mockumentaries. There’s the classic This is Spinal Tap (1984), the less classic but still important Borat (2006), and the New Zealand-produced What We Do in the Shadows (2014). I better also mention that the legacy sequel, Spinal Tap II: The End Continues (2025), is only two minutes longer than the original, at 84 minutes. The next movie is not quite a mockumentary or a satire. It’s kind of hard to define Jackass: The Movie (2002), but it’s a comedy film, it’s 85 minutes, and it’s in the competition. Finally, we have two stoner comedies to compete against all these others: Up in Smoke (1978) and Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle (2004). I’ll have to give an honourable nod to Fast Times at Ridgemont High (1982), which is hilarious, and exactly 90 minutes, but not less, so it doesn’t count. 

 

ELIMINATIONS

To keep this a fair elimination process, I think it’s worth noting that several of these comedies pack in a number of great jokes for how short their runtimes are, so I will not base the winner on the number of jokes alone. I will work backwards, starting with the two stoner comedies. Up in Smoke is an all-time classic stoner comedy that introduced the world to the duo of Cheech and Chong, also providing a template for future stoner comedy duos, which would include Harold and Kumar. There are some similarities between the two debut movies, but if I’m being honest, I think I’ve laughed at White Castle more upon a rewatch than Up in Smoke, despite both being among the best comedies of their kind. Though the premise of White Castle is even more straightforward than Up in Smoke, there’s a bit more variety to the humour, and the main characters are a bit more endearing and better balanced against one another. Between the two, I’m keeping Harold and Kumar around for the moment.

Jackass is a revolting, depraved, ridiculous concept for a film, and it’s kind of genius in its stupid simplicity. The first movie was so successful it led to several more films, but even as someone who would call them a collective guilty pleasure for how hard I have laughed at certain segments and stunts, my hardest laughs have not been from the first movie. The first Jackass is oddly quaint to look back on compared to what they got away with in later movies and how their ambitions for stupidity kept growing, but I don’t think Jackass: The Movie, for all its funniest parts, has a real shot at being the best comedy film that’s less than 90 minutes. Three movies that do have a real shot are the mockumentaries.

It's tough to compare This is Spinal Tap and What We Do in the Shadows and Borat because they couldn’t be more different from one another despite all sharing the same idea of presenting fictional stories as if they are real stories taking place in our real world. Starting with the oldest of the three (and the shortest, at 82 minutes), Spinal Tap is a movie that just gets funnier the more times I rewatch it. In contrast, I would say Borat was probably the funniest the second or third time I saw it, just because of its shock value and the unpredictable nature of the character as he searches for Pamela Anderson. That being said, some of the lines from Sacha Baron Cohen and the absurd political incorrectness still remain uniquely hilarious. It’s not one I can rewatch as easily, but it’s still a distinctive contender in this genre. What We Do in the Shadows is a difficult one to beat for me, though, as I unabashedly love Taika Waititi’s take on vampires in the real world and all the incredibly creative jokes that come from the premise. Of these three movies, it’s the one I’ve watched the most times over, but is it the best?

Let me consider the Mike Judge double feature before I decide which mockumentaries to keep. Office Space is an essential late 90’s comedy, not just for anyone who has worked in an office (but especially those people), and in many ways, it’s a precursor to The Office TV show with its cast of recognizably quirky characters and relatable workplace frustrations. I really, really enjoy that film, but I also just know it’s not going to win here. It isn’t hilarious enough through and through, as much as I adore watching that copier get the crap beat out of it in slow motion. Idiocracy is an interesting one because it’s probably one of the most ambitious under-90 comedies ever made, encapsulating a significant amount of progression through a great premise: stupid people overpopulate the earth and make the human race dumber than early hominids despite technological advancements, and a dimwitted modern-day dude unwittingly becomes the smartest person in the world who needs to save them all. It’s a problematic premise in many ways, but in some ways, it’s even funnier than Office Space. While messier narratively, it’s also less predictable and more outrageous. Neither one, though, are as consistently funny as Harold and Kumar.

Zoolander is like Spinal Tap, to me, in one key way: I appreciate it more now than I did the first time I saw it, but I’m pretty sure I liked Spinal Tap more even after only seeing each one just once, so Zoolander is eliminated. Austin Powers is, believe it or not, another easy elimination, because while I do like International Man of Mystery, with its many memorable gags and the joyous comedic masterwork of Mike Meyers in now-iconic dual roles, I prefer the second Austin Powers over the first, but it’s longer than 90 minutes. Of the spoof movies, Scary Movie is the easiest one to dispose of, because like Austin Powers, it is not the funniest entry in its franchise. Top Secret! is underrated compared to Airplane! but I’m eliminating both, because neither are as consistently funny as The Naked Gun.

It's down to Harold and Kumar, This is Spinal Tap (sequel lumped in), Borat, What We Do in the Shadows, and The Naked Gun. They’re all eliminated because the winner is Duck Soup!

Just kidding. I thought I would try one of those things you sometimes find in a comedy called a “joke”, and I apologize. Duck Soup, to circle back around and be real, was actually much funnier than I expected given its age. I would say at least 75 % of the jokes still hit as intended, but it’s eliminated because it just isn’t as timelessly funny as the other five films in consideration, nor do all the best jokes connect to the other elements of the film, such as story and character. Borat is also not going to win this elimination round because while it has some high highs and is unlike any other comedy I can think of (despite its mockumentary status), it just doesn’t have the adequate laugh-to-length ratio, and the types of laughs it goes for are sometimes a bit too cringey or off-putting. Harold and Kumar has to go, too, for a similar reason: it’s funny, but not that funny. Even This is Spinal Tap is gone, despite its greatness, and it pains me to say farewell.

There are only two I’m bringing along to the next round from comedy: one spoof and one mockumentary. What We Do in the Shadows is one of those golden comedies with so many jokes it demands to be rewatched just to hear all the funny lines, never mind seeing the visual gags or the occasional combo of the two. Even beyond having so many jokes crammed into such a short runtime, The Naked Gun outshines all the others for so many more reasons, but it’s worth noting that for all those jokes, it doesn’t come off as overstuffed or unwieldy. It’s a perfect comedy premise with a perfect cast that maximizes its 85-minute runtime for the greatest sustained heights of hilarity, and for that, it is the frontrunner between the two.    

Next time, we branch over into another stacked category and give some appreciation to a form of storytelling as old as cinema itself: animation!  

Movies Under 90 Minutes Part 3: Horror-Comedies

 

Part Three

Scared Silly: The Horror-Comedy Subgenre  

Now that I’ve worked my way through all the films that are purely scary, it’s time to tackle a special group of films that ride the line between the genres of horror and comedy. I always appreciate horror-comedies that work because it’s not an easy feat to make something that can be both scary and funny. Often a movie will be more comedy than horror, perhaps with a couple elements typical of something scary, like monsters or a killer. Those kinds of movies I’ve delegated to just the comedy category to be examined later. 

CONTENDERS

Let’s start with the Abbott and Costello movies, even though they really do belong in the comedy genre, but many fans count them among the classic Universal Monsters, and since I just spent all that time going through the majority of those films in part two, I better cover them before the rest, which are all more recent. Abbott and Costello had already been in many films together for Universal prior to their careers getting rejuvenated with the first monster crossover Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein (1948), which also rejuvenated the dusty old monsters of the 1930s, having gotten stale in the early ‘40s after a number of sequels. Following that hit there was Abbott and Costello Meet the Killer, Boris Karloff (1949), Abbott and Costello Meet the Invisible Man (1951), Abbott and Costello Meet Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1953), and Abbott and Costello Meet the Mummy (1955). All of these movies are between 75 and 85 minutes long, but only three really stand out: the one with the Frankenstein monster (which also includes Dracula and Wolf Man), the one with the Invisible Man, and the one with the Mummy.

I’ll go through the remaining contenders in chronological order. There’s a pretty big time gap between the last Abbott and Costello monster film and the first in a trilogy of horror-comedies that are sure to be heavy hitters in this round of eliminations. The Evil Dead (1981) is the 85-minute start to a franchise that has had a surprisingly long life, with sequels, remakes, reboots, a TV legacy sequel, comics, video games, and even a musical. Evil Dead 2 (1987), like its predecessor, is under 90 minutes—one minute shorter, in fact—and is arguably one of the best horror sequels ever made, comedy-horror asterisk notwithstanding. Also released the same year, there’s The Monster Squad (1987), which includes several classic monsters from some of the previous best under-90 horror films. Army of Darkness (1992), the third film in the Evil Dead series, runs under 90 minutes whether we count the international cut (88 minutes) or the original US cut (81 minutes). Less of a contender, but still worthy of inclusion, is the campy Christmas slasher Jack Frost (1997), which just barely qualifies at 89 minutes. The last four films are all heavy hitters from the 21^st century: Trick ‘r Treat (2007), Zombieland (2009), Tucker & Dale vs. Evil (2010), and The Wolf of Snow Hollow (2020).

How the hell am I supposed to eliminate any of these?

 

ELIMINATIONS

I feel bad for the comedy duo of Budd Abbott and Lou Costello here, but they are the first ones to go. Even the best films of theirs cannot compare to the other films they are up against. Abbott and Costello were pretty funny in their time, and they are still funny to this day, but even to compare something like Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein to the original 1931 Frankenstein, there really is no comparison. I’m also saying farewell to The Monster Squad, Jack Frost, and Army of Darkness. The problem is how stiff the competition is not just for how funny and scary these movies all are, but how good they are. Some fans would cite Army of Darkness as their favourite Evil Dead film, but I, like most others, see it as a very entertaining slapstick medieval comedy with some Evil Dead horror elements, though not quite as thoroughly entertaining or as well realized as Evil Dead 2.

The most recent film on here, The Wolf of Snow Hollow, while a surprisingly funny and well-made werewolf tale, just doesn’t stand out as funny enough or rewatchable enough in comparison to several others. In the trio of Zombieland, Trick ‘r Treat, and Tucker & Dale vs. Evil, it’s very tough to pick just one. Zombieland is incredibly rewatchable and is more than just a great spoof of zombie movies. It tells such a complete and entertaining story with excellent characters, and really has no big faults. Tucker & Dale is arguably a cleverer film and does more with even less. It, too, has great characters, and has moments that are just as funny as the best comedic moments in Zombieland. Trick ‘r Treat, though, has a unique advantage of being one of the ultimate Halloween movies, and telling multiple stories with its anthology format, threading them all together into a festive tapestry of thrills and chills. It isn’t as funny as either overall, but I can watch it anytime in the Halloween season very easily.

Where do The Evil Dead and Evil Dead 2 stand in comparison to these three, then? Do they even stand a chance? I’ve always appreciated The Evil Dead for its commitment to being so disturbing despite the obvious production limitations, and I sometimes go back and forth as to which one I enjoy watching more: the original or the sequel. I can’t say The Evil Dead would win out over Trick ‘r Treat or Zombieland, for me, but when I consider the movie that really goes for broke in terms of shocking violence and pitch perfect humour, Evil Dead 2 nails it. That movie set the bar for horror comedy, and on those terms alone, I can’t say any other movie in this conversation outshines it. But, I’m not eliminating movies based solely on how well they compare to Evil Dead 2.

As much as it pains me to do so, I’m eliminating Zombieland and Trick ‘r Treat. What it comes down to is they just cannot compete with the originality of The Evil Dead, Evil Dead 2, or Tucker & Dale vs. Evil. Zombieland is ingenious with its gags and characters, but the story is nothing too exceptional in terms of zombie plots. Even Trick ‘r Treat, for all its clever ways of blending many short stories together, ultimately is a tribute to the Halloween season and ends up playing on tropes and familiar storytelling techniques. Even in the case of Evil Dead 2 being a sequel, it manages to find ways to separate itself from the original and not just duplicate what made that one great in the first place. It even gets a weird distinction of being partly a remake, streamlining what happened in the whole first movie to just part of the first act, then continuing from there with all-new creative scares and laughs. The effects, the acting, and the balance of humour and horror all hold up so well that even though I appreciate the original a bit more for how was made, I can’t deny that Evil Dead 2 is just a better movie overall.

We are down to the final two for horror-comedy: Evil Dead 2 (1987) and Tucker & Dale vs. Evil (2010). I’m surprised with these results, to be honest. I thought Trick ‘r Treat would make it to the end, but without it, I’m left with these two competing for the top spot in this sub-genre. Tucker & Dale vs. Evil holds up upon a rewatch, but once you know the premise and the twists and the deaths, it maybe isn’t quite as entertaining as it is with the initial surprise of it all. That’s not to take away from its underrated qualities and how funny it is, but I think what it all comes down to here is this: which movie is the most timeless for what it is, and has the most consistent entertainment value, regardless of content, production quality, and when it was made?

I have to declare Evil Dead 2 as the undisputed winner in the horror-comedy subgenre. I love Tucker & Dale for what it is, but between that movie and Evil Dead 2, I would have to pick Evil Dead 2 to watch again. Even though it’s not necessarily my favourite out of all these great movies, I think it holds up as the most well-rounded horror/comedy experience with a runtime of less than 90 minutes.

Next time I am tackling another big genre. We started with horror, and now bridge from horror-comedy to straight up comedies, featuring numerous spoofs, mockumentaries, and much more!