Funniest Movie Decade Ever-The '80's: Where have all the funnymen gone?

Funniest Movie Decade Ever!

I’ll leave the dissection of our Dear Leader’s state-of-the-union address last night to the other bloggers and pundits.  With the academy award nominations going out this week, I have another more important topic to discuss.

Were have all the funnymen gone?  I guess they are still stuck in the ‘80s.  While some have argued that the ‘80s was the worst decade ever for music and fashion, there is no doubt that it was the funniest decade for movies, ever!  There is one outlier year* but I will get to that later.  I know lists like this are very subjective and open to significant debate, but let’s take a look at the ‘80s together:

Airplane, Caddyshack, A Christmas Story, Vacation, The Blues Brothers, Trading Places, 48 Hours, Beverly Hills Cop, Coming to America, Ghostbusters, Back to the Future, Planes, Trains and Automobiles, Stripes, Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, History of the World: Part I, Spaceballs, Major League, Fast Times at Ridgemont High, The Naked Gun, Arthur, This is Spinal Tap, The Princess Bride, and Revenge of the Nerds

How can you argue with that list?  What happened to these guys?  Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd, Eddie Murphy, Steve Martin, Billy Crystal, Chevy Chase…  I know these guys are getting a little long in the tooth, but did they forget how to be funny?  When was the last time one of these guys did anything that even evoked a mild chuckle? 

This is not to say that there haven’t been any funny movies made in the last 22 years, but true comedic classics are few and far between.  The ones that spring to mind are:  The Big Lebowski, There’s Something About Mary, Happy Gilmore, Anchorman, Wedding Crashers and Dodgeball.  But what have Adam Sandler, Bill Stiller, Vince Vaughn, or Will Ferrell done recently that really made you laugh?  For any of you who say yes, I present to you Jack and Jill, The Little Fockers, The Dilema, and The Land of the Lost and say, REALLY?  Bridesmaids and The Hangover were funny, but I wouldn’t call them classics.

With the world ending this year, have we just run out of funny?  When our Dear Leader, Joe Biden, Debbie Wasserman-Schultz, Nancy Pelosi, and Harry Reid make me laugh harder than anyone in Hollywood, it is a sad state of affairs.  Come on Mel… John… Ivan…, don’t you guys have just a few more in you? Please?

*The outlier year is 1974 which gave us Holy Grail, Blazing Saddles, and Young Frankenstein.  Leave it to a few brits and a little Jewish guy to make three of my top five all-time favorite comedies in one year.