Airplane

"Surely you can't be serious...I am serious, and don't call me Shirley..."

"Don't tell me which zone is for loading and which zone is for unloading..."

"Looks like I picked the wrong week to quit drinking!"

It's like call and response for me. Drop one of these lines in mixed company, and someone is bound to show a knowing smirk and join in. If there is one way I can be sure to illicit a roll of the eyes from my wife, it is to suggest that we watch this movie when we are trying to decide a movie to watch. There are movie comedies, and then there is Airplane. Don't get me wrong, there are other comedies which are every bit as funny or every bit as clever. There are other comedies that seem to make significant cultural contributions. This one stands on its own.

Watching this movie now can become almost liturgical for me. There is almost a comforting order to its pranks and its pratfalls. I read somewhere once that one of the reasons this movie works so well is that it did not cast comedic actors in its roles. That really does go a long way toward explaining why this movie is so funny. Since the genre being parodied is disaster drama, it helps to have its characters deliver their lines in a completely dead pan way. Also, there is the almost vaudeville approach to the jokes, where so many jokes are tried that even if some of them don't work, they are still funny merely due to the volume.

Waxing on about this movie misses the point. It makes me laugh when I watch it. It makes me laugh when I talk to others about it. It makes me laugh when I think about it. There aren't too many movies that have that kind of payoff. There are so many jokes and sight gags that it is pointless to talk of the plot or of anything higher regarding this movie.

Put in the dvd and enjoy the ride.