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!