Today’s Top 10 is a good one for the people who love Halloween but don’t like being scared as much as they like the costumes and fun of it all. Brian Reeves from Kansas City contributed this good-humored list of funny horror films. If you have a Top 10 list you’d like to contribute, email me at eric@scene-stealers.com. Here’s Brian:

Another Halloween is upon us, which means it’s time for costume parties, trick-or-treating with the kids, and scary movies. Well, not always “scary” movies. I consider myself a big horror movie buff. I’m the guy in college who watched every horror movie I could get my hands on. Good ones, bad ones I didn’t care, if it falls in the horror section, chances are I’ve seen it. But I figure there are going to be a lot of articles this week talking about scary movies you should watch for Halloween, so I’m going to take this one in a little different direction. I was originally going to write a list of the Top 10 reasons “Paranormal Activity” was a sucky movie, but I decided there was only so many creative ways to call a movie boring and uneventful. (Really, a slightly moving door and people standing in the dark is scary? Really?) Instead, I decided to have some fun with this list. After all, isn’t Halloween really about having fun? Dressing up as crazy things, getting together with your friends or family, and having a good time is what it’s all about. With that in mind, my thoughts immediately turned to one of my favorite films of the year, “Zombieland.” It’s a perfect combination of a few scares and good laughs–a perfect movie for this time of year. So with out further ado, here are my Top 10 fun movies to enjoy on Halloween.

10. Transylvania 6-5000 (1985)

Okay, there’s more comedy here then horror to start off, but this one is safe for the whole family. A movie financed by the Dow chemical company in order to spend “frozen” finances that the company had in Yugoslavia, this 80’s comedy takes us straight to the heart of classic monster country. Frankenstein has reappeared in Transylvania and an American tabloid wants in on the story. They dispatch two reporters, Jack Harrison (Jeff Goldblum) and Gil Turner (Ed Begley Jr.) to investigate. With Carol Kane, Geena Davis, Jeffery Jones, and Michael Richards all making appearances in the film, it’s like a name-that-actor trivia challenge for the adults in the room. The presence of the Wolfman, two hunchback lab assistants, and even a mummy makes sure all of the classic Transylvania monsters are present to get in on the fun. Campy, Cheesy, Perfect.

Gil Turner: Do you smell perfume?
Jack Harrison: Yes. I know what was in this room.
Gil Turner: What?
Jack Harrison: The Creature from Estee Lauder.

9. Mars Attacks! (1996)

I had a hard time deciding if this movie even belonged on the list since it’s really more sci-fi than horror. But then I decided, “Screw it. It’s my list anyway, who cares!” The first film from director Tim Burton to appear on this list, “Mars Attacks!” is a campy send-up of 1950s alien invasion movies. The premise here is simple: The aliens are invading, they do not come in peace, and what the hell are we going to do about it? It’s the little things here that keep this one so near and dear to my heart. From the rayguns that take their sound from “War of the Worlds” to the subtle background taken straight from “Plan 9 From Outer Space” when the aliens first address earth, this film really shows it’s love for old-style matinee B-movies. “Mars Attacks!” also features yet another cast that reads as a who’s who of Hollywood, with Jack Nicholson, Glenn Close, Annette Bening, Danny DeVito, Michael J. Fox and many, many more recognizable faces (including one of the early roles for Jack Black) all come together to make this easily the most impressive cast on this list.

President Dale: I want the people to know that they still have two out of three branches of the government working for them, and that ain’t bad.

8. The Frighteners (1996)

Looks like 1996 was a pretty good year. Long before he was spinning tales about hobbits and rings, Peter Jackson was making some amazingly twisted horror movies. And while I love “Bad Taste” and “Dead Alive,” the Michael J. Fox vehicle “The Frighteners” is his film that makes the most sense for this list. Fox plays Frank Bannister, a psychic who can see and talk to ghosts. He uses this skill to open his own ghostbusting business.I don’t want to give too much away with this one, just know that this movie is a rollercoaster thrill ride and here things are never quite what the seem. Featuring great supporting performances from Jake Busey and R. Lee Ermey, “The Frighteners” is sure put you on the edge of your seat and tickle your funny bone at the same time.

Frank Bannister: Why is it that flies stick to you guys like shit to a blanket?
Cyrus: Ha ha, very funny. You’re a funny guy, Frank. You know, all you think about is
yourself. I could complain, too, you know. I would like some new clothes. You get to dress
nice. Here I am still looking like Linc from The Mod Squad.
Frank Bannister: You died in the 70’s. It’s a bummer.

7. Bubba Ho-Tep (2002)

Elvis and JFK, both alive and in a nursing home, fight for the souls of their fellow residents as they battle an ancient Egyptian mummy. Yes, you read that correctly. All that needs to be known about this movie can be summed up in four words: Bruce Campbell as Elvis. Well, what are you waiting for, go watch it! I mean like, right now!

Elvis: Ask not what your rest home can do for you. Ask what you can do for your rest home.
JFK: Hey, you’re copying my best lines!
Elvis: Then let me paraphrase one of my own. Let’s take care of business.
JFK: Just what are you getting at, Elvis?
Elvis: I think you know what I’m gettin’ at Mr. President. We’re gonna kill us a mummy.

6. From Dusk Till Dawn (1996)

Welcome back. A little more serious than the movies on this list so far, this Quentin Tarantino-written, Robert Rodriguez-directed journey into a lair of Mexican vampires is a little hard to classify. It starts out as a Tarantino-like crime movie about two brother bank robbers on the run. They take a family hostage to cross into Mexico, and then abruptly it turns into a B-movie horror splatterfest. While some point to the film’s unevenness as a flaw, I think it just adds to the fun. It certainly keeps it from getting boring. George Clooney and Harvey Keitel both help the movie keep its serious side, while never undermining the B-movie late night fun this film is obviously intended to be. Danny Trejo and Tom Savini (the man behind the effects in the original “Friday the 13th” and “Dawn of the Dead”) appear in supporting roles.

Kate: Are you okay?
Seth: Peachy, Kate. The world’s my oyster, except for the fact that I just rammed a wooden
stake in my brother’s heart because he turned into a vampire, even though I don’t believe in
vampires. Aside from that unfortunate business, everything’s hunky-dory.

5. Tales from the Crypt: Demon Knight (1995)

Ah yes, “Tales from the Crypt.” The HBO series that started in 1989 was always a favorite of mine. With this film, the premium cable series made its first and best transition to the big screen. The plot is fairly simple: A man carrying something very important holes up in a roadside motel while being chased by the forces of Hell itself. From there it becomes a simple survival tale. Who lives, who dies, who cares? Much like the television series, this film doesn’t take itself too seriously. And much like “From Dusk Till Dawn,” eventually this film becomes about the demon body count. With tongue firmly planted in cheek, Billy Zane, William Sadler, and Thomas Haden Church takes us through what the Crypt Keeper affectionately calls a “deadtime story.” This movie also has a killer soundtrack for any metalheads out there featuring music from Pantera, Machine Head, Biohazard, Minstry, Melvins and Sepultura.

Crypt Keeper: Fasten your drool cups, and ready your vomit bags! We’re going to the movies!
Frights, camera, action!

4. Planet Terror (2007)

Two words: Machine-gun leg! Robert Rodriguez makes his second showing on my list. The first half of the under-appreciated double feature “Grindhouse,” “Planet Terror” is an almost perfect homage to 70s B-level horror. A bio-virus is released on a small town and zombie style hi-jinks begin as El Wrey (Freddy Rodriguez), a man with a secret past, tries to save the town and the woman he loves. Rodriguez is able to again strike a nice balance between the horror and comedy. Purposely bad dialogue and plot holes galore (including a missing reel) are a great nod to the large number of terrible low-budget horror films that are released every year. But this movie never falls into the tedium that comes with most of the films “Planet Terror” parodies. Josh Brolin, Michael Biehn, Bruce Willis, and the smoking-hot Rose McGowan combine to give us yet another example of how Rodriguez can do big budget terror with a sly smile and Halloween fun sensibilities.

El Wray: I need someone to drive my truck.
Sheriff Hague: I’ll do it.
El Wray: You’re bleeding like a stuck pig. Your vision is probably blurred, and you’re on
your last leg…
Sheriff Hague: [sarcastic] Anything else?
El Wray: Don’t wreck it.

3. Beetlejuice (1988)

He’s the ghost with the most. Another Tim Burton film comes in at number three. It’s hard to imagine there’s anyone out there who hasn’t seen this Michael Keaton classic. In a role that was originally intended for Sammy Davis Jr., Keaton put on one of the iconic performances of his career as Beetlejuice. A recently deceased couple who’s stuck living in their own house for the afterlife wants to get rid of the new living family that’s moved in. They enlist the services of Beetlejuice to exorcise the living from their home. A wacky movie with ghosts, laughs, and island music numbers. This film is one of a kind. You know you love it, so go watch it again this Halloween.

Adam: What are your qualifications?
Betelgeuse: Ah. Well… I attended Juilliard… I’m a graduate of the Harvard business
school. I travel quite extensively. I lived through the Black Plague and had a pretty good
time during that. I’ve seen the EXORCIST ABOUT A HUNDRED AND SIXTY-SEVEN TIMES, AND IT
KEEPS GETTING FUNNIER EVERY SINGLE TIME I SEE IT… NOT TO MENTION THE FACT THAT YOU’RE TALKING TO A DEAD GUY… NOW WHAT DO YOU THINK? You think I’m qualified?

2. Army of Darkness (1992)

The third film in Sam Raimi’s “Evil Dead” series, “Army of Darkness” takes the camp of the first two to an entirely different level. Ash (Bruce Campbell again) has been sucked through a vortex and ends up in medieval times. He then must begin his quest to find the Necromonicon. Raimi’s trademark style and Campbell’s one-liners make this about a much fun as you can have battling an army of the dead. I don’t know what else to say about this one except if you haven’t seen it, I don’t think we can be friends anymore. There are simply too many great lines from this movie to pick just one, but I suppose I’ll have to try.

Ash: Alright you Primitive Screwheads, listen up! You see this? This… is my boomstick! The twelve-gauge double-barreled Remington. S-Mart’s top of the line. You can find this in the sporting goods department. That’s right, this sweet baby was made in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Retails for about a hundred and nine, ninety five. It’s got a walnut stock, cobalt blue steel, and a hair trigger. That’s right. Shop smart. Shop S-Mart. You got that?

1. Ghostbusters (1984)

If I have to tell you why this is number one then you haven’t seen “Zombieland” yet and that, my friends, is a true shame. Go see it and then re-live this Ivan Reitman-directed classic. It still makes me laugh out loud every time I watch it. Happy Halloween, everybody!

Dr. Peter Venkman: Alice, I’m going to ask you a couple of standard questions, okay? Have you or any of your family been diagnosed schizophrenic? Mentally incompetent?
Librarian Alice: My uncle thought he was Saint Jerome.
Dr. Peter Venkman: I’d call that a big yes.

Tags: 10, best, films, fun, funny, halloween, horror, lighthearted, movies, ten, top, Top 10 Fun Movies for Halloween, Top Ten Fun Movies for Halloween

Ever wondered what a special effects-driven disaster movie like the upcoming “2012″ would look like if all the FX were removed? Well, an editor has done just that, posting a minute and a half of footage from “2012″ with just the actors. John Cusack and company do a lot of screaming and reacting, and it’s hilarious. Want to know what the end of the world really looks like? Stick around for the closing shot!

Tags: 2012, actors, CGI, cusack, cut, effects, funny, Hilarious, no, video

Our friend and sometimes co-host Ryan Magnuson has started a new original web series called “The Sports Buddaye” and although episode two was released last Friday, I just found out about it today. Oops.

Here is episode two, which covers week one of the NFL and the continuing woes of Kansas City sports organizations. Only you won’t find any traditional TV news commentary here. As usual, it’s all presented with Magno’s unique visual style and quick-cut editing. This episode even features Scooter Jones, a “Sports Buddaye” spin-off character that’s destined for great things.

It even has a short cameo by me (because I’m such a sports expert–ha). Enjoy!

Tags: 2, episode, funny, jones, magnuson, ryan, scooter, series, Sports Buddaye, The Sports Buddaye, two, web

ThatGuyWithTheGlasses.com has boiled down Clint Eastwood’s 2004 Best Picture winner “Million Dollar Baby” to about 5 seconds and a hilarious punchline. I shouldn’t have to issue a HUGE SPOILER ALERT for a movie that’s five years old, but I am. So please, if you’re ever thinking of watching this movie, don’t watch this now. If you’ve seen it (who hasn’t?), enjoy.

Tags: 5, five, funny, in, Million Dollar Baby, Seconds, video

This is really, really cool.

In anticipation of competing in the U.S. Air Guitar Championship in Washington, D.C. Friday night, The Pitch’s Justin Kendall has written an awesome  coverstory on my past movie/TV/rock exploits and air guitar future.

Click here to read the entire thing (5 pages!) or click here to see a video I made in 1990 that proves I’ve been air guitaring for a long, long time. (It’s really funny and I have some pretty great late 80s/early 90s metal/grunge hair.)

Justin interviewed me several times and came out to watch me practice my routine at my house. He got it seriously right. Then I did a photo shoot with staff photographer Emily Henson that was really fun. The shot of me air guitaring in the produce section while a grocery store employee loads cantaloupe is one of my faves.

Here’s an excerpt from the article and I’ve embedded the video from 1990 below because I have no shame:

From Eric “Mean” Melin is a real musician — but it’s air guitar that might make him a star:

There’s a giant hole in the crotch of Mean Melin’s pants.

Seconds ago, he hoisted an imaginary guitar over and behind his head, strumming the invisible strings to Motorhead’s frantic metal anthem “Ace of Spades.” Then he dropped to his knees — and this became a bust-out performance.

He’s the last one onstage at the Kansas City regional air guitar finals June 9 at the Record Bar. He’s tonight’s favorite, although he faces stiff competition from Hammerin’ Cock And Thunderin’ Ballz, Longbottom Leaf, Banana Man, Dirk Tickler and Satanica.

And he’s already banged up. He bruised his foot practicing and could barely walk last night, but now adrenaline, tape and a few beers have numbed the pain. He keeps playing despite the rip in his pants. His head bangs, whipping sweat from his floppy dark hair. His fingers slide up and down the neck of his air guitar. He windmills and hammers on the imaginary chords. His fist pumps.

He spots a beer cup sitting on the edge of the stage and punts it into the crowd, then executes a flying elbow drop to end his set.

The crowd erupts. Longbottom Leaf jumps onstage and bows to him. Another fan dives onstage just to touch his red Chuck Taylors.

A goofy smile crosses Mean Melin’s face.

Air Guitar World Champion Hot Lixx Hulahan — the host of tonight’s battle — gazes down at Melin’s crotch.

“A testimony to his rock,” Hulahan says, getting an eyeful of Melin’s manhood. “Is that a fucking moose knuckle?”

This is exactly why Hulahan and air-guitar hall-of-famer Björn Türoque hopped on a bus for a 25-city tour of air-guitar competitions. They’ve been looking for new talent just like Mean Melin.

Now it’s time for the judging.

“I was going to give you less than what I was going to give you, but then you kicked that fucking cup,” says judge Charlie Burt, who DJs around town.

“Yeah, he did!” a woman screams.

Burt raises a satanic score of 666.

“I think it was the behind-the-head that convinced me,” says judge Lacey Storer, a former reporter for the St. Joseph News. “You are ready to play with the big boys.” She raises a perfect 6.0.

“Goddamn right!” a woman yells.

Impressing the last judge, Türoque, isn’t going to be easy. Türoque knows air and he knows “Ace of Spades.” That much is clear from the opening moments of the 2006 documentary Air Guitar Nation, which shows the genesis of competitive air guitar in the United States and follows Türoque’s heated rivalry with C-Diddy to become the first American to compete in the World Championships.

“I don’t know, dude,” Türoque says. “You guys thought that was all right?”

“Fuck, yes!” someone yells.

Türoque raises a 6.0.

“Mean Melin. Mean Melin. Mean Melin,” the crowd chants.

They’re cheering for a guy who just pretended to play guitar — and rocked their fucking faces off.

Mean Melin throws up the devil horns. He’s going to the U.S. Air Guitar Championships in Washington, D.C., on August 7. Read more>>

Tags: 2009, air, championships, funny, guitar, kansas city, mean melin, photo, regional, rock, stills, video

Wow. I’ve been on my fair share of game shows, but this is something special. He may not have won the game, but John certainly made an impression this afternoon on “Jeopardy.”

It’s not just his attention-grabbing sparkly new scarf either. Check out the way he wrote his name.

Well played, sir.

It kind of reminds me of the end of “Mallrats,” only way more subversive. Way to go, John!

Tags: 2009, alex, board, draws, funny, game show, jeopardy, john, name, penis, phallus, subversive, trebek, tv

It’s a timely week to be writing this because after this past weekend’s domestic box office take, we have a new number-one movie on this list. Comedies are not usually as big a box office draw as an action/adventure or superhero/fantasy film, but due to a minimal amount of money spent on casting, sets and costumes, and usually no special effects, they are one of the most affordable risks for a studio. However, an R-rating severely limits mainstream potential. The films on this list are rare beasts indeed. They all rode some sort of cultural wave to become the top-grossing R-rated comedies in America. If you have a list you’d like to contribute to Top 10 Tuesday, email me at eric@scene-stealers.com.

10. Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan (2006) - $128,505,958

Sacha Baron Cohen’s first reality-based prank movie debuted on only 837 screens in 2006, but grossed a wholly unexpected $26.5 million. “Da Ali G Show” was a mild hit on HBO, but it had a huge buzz and people were talking about this movie. Uninitiated moviegoers were intrigued by these strange ads and TV appearances by Cohen in character as Borat. Many people, in a funny parallel with “The Blair Witch Project,” thought this Borat guy was for real. The mix of real situations and a fictional plot made it hard for audiences to tell what was “real” and what wasn’t. They told their friends, and “Borat” did something few movies do. It grossed more in its second weekend. Expanding to 2,566 theaters, “Borat” made $28.3 million in its second week. “Brüno” opened this weekend with a bigger “30.4” million, but it was on 3,400 screens and—even though its material is more outrageous than “Borat”—it suffers from feeling a little too familiar following the groundbreaking status of its predecessor.

9. National Lampoon’s Animal House (1978) - $141,600,000

Besides entering the words “toga party” and “food fight” into the popular lexicon, “Animal House” also one of the most profitable movies of all time. This John Landis-directed comedy featured John Belushi (from the still-new late night “Saturday Night Live”), Donald Sutherland, and a cast of then-unknowns (including Kevin Bacon, Karen Allen, Thomas Hulce, and Tim Matheson). It only cost $2.7 million to make, and $50,000 of that was spent on Sutherland alone. (He was actually offered a lower salary at one point and percentage points, which he turned down—assuming the film would go nowhere—and costing him millions of dollars.) This was released back in a time when there were fewer prints and they remained in theaters for a longer time, making it the most impressive box office run on the list. Its opening weekend? A mere $276,538 in 12 theaters. Regardless, it ended up being the third biggest movie of 1978 and stayed in theaters even longer than that.

8. American Pie 2 (2001) - $145,103,595

1999’s “American Pie” was credited with bringing the R-rated teen comedy (a genre popularized by “Animal House”) back into vogue. Ads showing star Jason Biggs putting his—ahem—member into a warm pie were enough to stir curiosity and good reviews earned the movie positive word of mouth. While its sequel wasn’t so lucky in that area, “American Pie 2” falls into the category of films that benefitted from their predecessor greatly. The first “American Pie” was a $102,000 smash, but it only opened at $18 million. Two months later, it was still earning a million a week. The 2001 sequel scored a huge opening weekend of $45 million off of the first movie’s good name, but posted a bigger drop-off. Two months later, it was earning only $300,000.

7. Knocked Up (2007) - $148,768,917

The same might be said about Judd Apatow’s follow-up to “The 40-Year-Old Virgin,” an unexpected 2005 smash that launched the career of then-unknown Steve Carell. The posters for “Knocked Up” even featured Seth Rogen with a nerdy look—similar to Carell’s “Virgin” poster—and the tagline “What if this guy got you pregnant?” The difference between “Knocked Up” and American Pie 2,” however, was lots of critical acclaim and great audience response. It made several critics’ best-of-2007 lists (including the AFI Top 10, and lists from the New York Times, Newsweek, Entertainment Weekly, The Onion’s AV Club, Associated Press, Rolling Stone, and mine(!)). Like Carell before him, it made Rogen (a supporting player in “Virgin”) a star and began the onslaught of Apatow Frat Pack ‘Junior Varsity’ player movies—a stupid term used to denote anything starring, written by, or produced by Apatow or his friends. “Knocked Up” spent eight weeks in the box office top 10, the longest streak amongst May-June openers in 2007.

6. Sex and the City (2008) - $152,647,258

Really? Wow. Who woulda thunk it? Never underestimate the power of women. The magnitude of this 6-season HBO show spinoff’s box office take can only be described one way: Women like raunchy movies too, especially when they’re told from a woman’s perspective. The film was set three years after the series finale, and like “American Pie 2,” it benefitted from a huge opening weekend ($57 million), due mostly to a built-in audience from the popular show. Despite middling reviews, “Sex and the City” recorded the biggest opening ever for an R-rated comedy and for a romantic comedy. You know what this means: All four actresses (Sarah Jessica Parker, Kim Cattrall, Cynthia Nixon, and Kristin Davis), as well as writer-director Michael Patrick King, are set to return for “Sex and the City 2,” due in theaters May 28, 2010.

5. Scary Movie (2000) - $157,019,771

This Keenan Ivory Wayans-directed parody film struck a chord with viewers who had been big fans of the late 90’s rebirth of teen horror flicks—due mainly to the “Scream” trilogy that began in 1996. It was co-written by, and starred, his brothers Shawn and Marlon and it also launched the career of current go-to funnygirl Anna Faris. Unfortunately, it also launched the careers of low-budget parody hacks Jason Friedberg and Aaron Seltzer, who wrote and directed “Date Movie,” “Epic Movie,” “Meet the Spartans,” and “Disaster Movie” (which all also star the equally talented Carmen Electra and are hugely profitable affairs). The first “Scary Movie,” however, was actually very funny—a raunchy, no-holds-barred spoof that was also smart enough to make fun of non-horror flicks like “The Usual Suspects” and “The Matrix.” In addition to the Friedberg/Seltzer movies, “Scary Movie” spawned three sequels of diminishing returns, with David Zucker (“The Naked Gun,” “Airplane!”) taking over for Ivory Wayans in 2003 on “Scary Movie 3.”

4. Pretty Woman (1990) - $178,406,268

Is it weird to have never seen the movie that catapulted Julia Roberts into the spotlight? I missed out on this little $14 million romantic comedy in the theaters and by the time it turned into this big deal, I wasn’t really interested. Richard Gere was the name star at the time, but Roberts went on to become one of the most bankable stars of the 90s following the success of “Pretty Woman.” She even won a Golden Globe and was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actress (losing to Kathy Bates in “Misery”) for her star-making turn. “Pretty Woman” was initially intended to be a dark drama about prostitution in Los Angeles called “Three-Thousand,” but was reconceptualized somewhere along the line by screenwriter J.F. Lawton as a romantic comedy. Maybe if it would have stayed a drama Roberts would have had a better chance at that Oscar. Ha!

3. There’s Something About Mary (1998) - $176,484,651

First: The stats. By combining over-the-top gross-out humor with a dash of romantic comedy, the Farrelly brothers struck paydirt and made Ben Stiller a bankable comedy star. This movie absolutely exemplifies a word-of-mouth success. It opened in July, but didn’t hit the number-one spot on the box office chart until its eighth week of wide release in September! Second: The sad personal story. This movie cost me a chance at $250,000. Click here to read the story of how I lost an easy, easy question about “Mary” on VH1’s “World Series of Pop Culture.” (Hint: It involves me not answering the words “hair gel” correctly and an explicit second-by-second recounting of the thoughts in my head at that moment.) Third, an epilogue to this tragedy: I moved last year and discovered something awful in the bottom of a box—an official “There’s Something About Mary” promo item. What could it have been? You guessed it. It was a packet of hair gel with the movie logo plastered all over it. If only I had unpacked since the last time I moved. So lame.

2. Wedding Crashers (2005) - $209,255,921

Sure, it followed the success of “American Pie,” but the record-breaking gross of “Wedding Crashers” was only just eclipsed this past weekend, which is pretty amazing. Over $200 million for an R-rated comedy was unheard of. The high-concept “Wedding Crashers” really paved the way for “The 40-Year-Old Virgin” and lots of modern comedies’ willingness to “go there.” The movie feels about a half hour too long, but features a winning combination of raunchy sex humor and sweetness, anchored by Owen Wilson and Vince Vaughn’s natural rapport. This movie also waited for a while—three weeks—to hit number one at the box office. It was held back by Tim Burton’s “Charlie and the Chocolate factory,” which would gross a little more than half as much by the end of its run. This was one of the first movies Scene-Stealers.com reviewed, as evidenced by the clip we used in our Scene-Stealers trailer/parody of KISS’ “Lick it Up” video.

1. The Hangover (2009) - $222,442,000 (as of July 13,2009)

Here it is, folks—your new number-one R-rated comedy champ. Todd Phillips’ sloppy-but-funny “The Hangover” follows the same pattern as a lot of movies on this list: It combines raunchy, male-oriented humor with a cast of on-the-cusp stars and an easy-to-describe high concept. (“Oh, did you see the movie about the guys who wake up in Vegas with after a bachelor party and they’ve lost the groom?” It’s just like: “Did you see the movie about the 40-year-old virgin?” or “Did you see the movie about the guys who crash weddings to get unattached chicks?”) One big difference is that its producers saw its impending success before it was even released, ordering a sequel, which is already in the works. It remains to be seen whether Bradley Cooper, Ed Helms, and Zach Galifianakis are able to capitalize on their newfound fame like Carell or Rogen or Stiller did, but right now let’s just marvel that a movie as dirty as this IS the mainstream. “Brüno” certainly pushed the raunch factor further this week, but Cohen’s movie is too confrontational to be a $200 million hit. In the end, “The Hangover” has that “Wedding Crashers” sweetness, which gives it a much wider audience potential. It has only been out for 6 weeks, and last weekend’s $9 million take proves that it’s still got some legs.

Tags: 10, adult, best, biggest, comedies, dirty, funny, gross, grossing, highest, Highest Grossing R-Rated Comedies, list, rated, rated-r, raunchy, restricted, ten, top, Top 10 Lists, top ten

J.D. makes a triumphant return to Scene-Stealers in this review of Sacha Baron Cohen’s button-pushing reality-based prank satire “Brüno.” In the same vein as “Borat,” the surprise comedy smash from 2006, “Brüno” follows a strange foreigner to U.S. soil. Larry Charles directed this rude, obnoxious, and terribly offensive comedy. Is Bruno as funny as Borat? Does the same formulas strike lightning twice? Is it too familiar? How much farther does Bruno go than Borat did? Find out now. Also, find out why Cohen won’t do “Brüno” or “Borat” again and read hilarious excerpts from a “parental review” site that warns parents about explicit content.

Tags: 2009, baron, borat, Bruno, clips, cohen, Crazy, film, funny, insane, movie, prank, review, sacha, trailer

I’m so proud of our sitegoers. Less than a week ago, I said we would give away 50 free passes for a KC advance screening of “The Hangover” to the readers with the best hangover/Vegas/drunk/bachelor party stories. We only had two days, though, to collect them all and give out the tickets.

Boy, did you ever respond.

We got so many responses that the studio upped our ticket count from 50 to 100! I have to assume that some of these stories were made up just to get tix, but some of them have a level of detail so high and personal that they can only be true (even if they “happened to a friend”)!

First we’ll start with a highlight reel; then we’ll get on with the longer, really scary stories. Remember, these were all submitted by you. Again, you guys rule. Plain ans simple. We have the best readers and we love you.

It’s a good thing that social media tools like Twitter and facebook have taught us to overshare. Congratulations to everyone who opened up these painful moments to the public for a pair of free tickets to a movie. WARNING: THE STARK FACTS AND PHOTOS CONTAINED BELOW MAY SHOCK AND DISMAY MORE SENSITIVE VIEWERS. Here is a highlight sampling (with the names of the submitters removed to protect the not-so-innocent) of some of the scariest entries:

“…came home, went to the refrigerator looking for something to sober me up. Dove into what I thought was corned beef hash. Woke up the next day, suffering from a severe hangover headache and a churning stomach only to discover an empty can of dog food sitting on the counter.”

“I woke up with my partner and 2 other persons naked in one of the other person’s condo.”

“…many hours later, I awoke to find my friend Ted asleep on the floor of the guest room at the end of the bed. I was cold. And wet. And smelled of urine. Awesome. He’d peed on me in my sleep.”

“The lenses were basically stuck to her eye because they had dried out from the smoky atmosphere of all the bars, plus keeping them in while she slept. She got the contacts out of her eyes, but her eyes burned like hell. Turns out she the dried contacts absorbed moisture from her eye and caused her to tear off several layers of her cornea.”

“My old roommates and I got drunk in Manhattan before a Ultimate Fakebook/Anything But Joey show and found a [severed] turkey head and leg in someone’s lawn while walking to the venue. A “certain band member” watched us put the dead animal on Anything But Joey’s van. The best part is—we carried it with bare hands, but the band removed it with plastic bags.”

“About 8 in the morning I awoke from a deep sleep on my porch swing which was covered in hair. My friend was passed out on a couch with a fresh, crooked mohawk that I found out later in the day I had given him around midnight…”

“I once went out for dollar drinks down at what used to be Mickey’s Irish Pub and ended up waking up next to Kohl’s under a tree not having a single clue how I got there, then I hitchhiked home in Overland Park! Still don’t know what happened that night.”

“You know that you did a good job of drinking the night before when you wake up someplace that you don’t recognize and the first question that you ask yourself is, ‘Wasn’t I wearing underwear last night?’”

“…the rest of the night is hazy, but I know it ended with me head-butting the door on the way out of the bar, followed by a midnight trip to a golf course to look for an alligator named Elvis.”

“I hollered up at a buddy of mine on the top of the houseboat and asked for a beer. Unfortunately he threw 2 - I caught the first one, but the second one hit me right above my left eye, knocking me out and cutting my eyebrow open in two places.”

“I tried to get her to leave with me so I could take her home; however, someone convinced her to go home with this guy so she wouldn’t get in trouble for coming in too late. It turns out that this “guy” was really a girl and my friend found this out the next day.”

“We drank 4 bottles of Hennessy, got kicked out of a few strip clubs because one of the girls said we ‘touched’ them, while they were dancing, in an inappropriate place. Then we drove and got lost, ended up in some corn field and passed out. Woke up and was being towed by a tractor.”

“Watching a random crazy girl COVER a passed-out friend in ketchup! Pictures do it more justice!”

Those were just teasers. The stories that follow recall in harrowing detail some very specific moments that will live in infamy. These are a little longer, but worth the time. Thanks again everybody, and enjoy the movie tomorrow night. (Just think, all the people whom these stories happened to will under the same roof tomorrow night watching the same movie. Scary. And awesome.) Here’s the full stories:

1. So me and my friends went out for my buddy’s bachelor party and got pretty wasted in the bar district. My buddy Clay wasn’t aware that the bachelorette party was also going on in the same area, but due to planning ahead of time, the two parties wouldn’t interact. After getting pretty toasted we all left the bar to go to another one and Clay wasn’t with us. He had wandered off and thought we had already left and was trying to find us at a random bar across the street. When he was there, he saw a group of hotties and approached them and they were doing a game for a girl who was to be married the next day. For a dollar, you could grab a lifesaver from her shirt with your mouth. Clay decided he didn’t want to pay for that and just threw his head straight into her boobies then looked up and kissed her on the lips. The girls around him went insane and got him thrown out of the bar. He then wandered down the street and found us at another bar and told us the story of how he got thrown out. Needless to say, we were all rolling in laughter and brought our buddy over to hear the story. Once Clay connected the dots and realized that he had just planted his face in the bosom of our buddy’s “bride-to-be,” he insisted that he took a slap in the face from him. What followed was the hardest slap I’ve ever seen which took Clay down to the floor. Next day at the wedding, Clay had a pretty noticeable hand imprint on his face and the look on the bridesmaids when they saw him was priceless!

2. I got married in my early 20s (the first time). My college buddies arranged for my last night out the night before my rehearsal dinner. To say the least, we tied one on. Though we did avoid arrest when a cop in the Westport area caught us relieving ourselves in the alley way…who can find a bathroom among all the bars in that area? That night we stayed at a friend’s apartment (instead of taking me back to the apt. I shared with my future first wife). I proceed to relieve myself of all my day’s meals in a visiting friend’s duffle bag…hey, it was the first thing I saw to throw up in! The remainder of the night, I spent on the cool relief of the bathroom’s tile floor. Sometime during the evening, my lower intestines relieved themselves of all of their contents. In the morning, I was found still asleep, but with very awake bowels. They helped me get cleaned up—helped lifting me into the shower with my clothes still on in a kind of combination body and clothes wash cycle.
I rested as much as I could, but to be honest I was never (and still am not) much of a drinker. When they took me home late in the afternoon. My fiancée was not amused, since I was still very, very hungover.
I made it to the church, with only one stop on the way to throw up. I made it through the rehearsal and only excused myself once to throw up.
Before heading to the rehearsal dinner, my father took me aside and commented how angry my soon-to-be-wife was with me…and he was justified in being upset and that it probably won’t be the last time. WOW, thanks Dad for the “rah, rah, go get ‘em tiger” speech.
I made it through half of the rehearsal dinner before throwing in the towel and excusing myself. I thanked everyone for attending and said I look forward to seeing them all tomorrow. To my fiancée’s credit, she gave me a few choice words that night, but put it all behind her the next day.
Being a good friend, he left my soiled jeans in an airtight plastic bag under his apartment stairs. Being frugal, I did pick up the jeans after our honeymoon. I think the jeans lasted longer than my marriage.

3. I went to Vegas on business with my secretary and we stayed at the Hard Rock. Our flight gave us no food so being very hungry, we decided to have dinner. Unfortunately, the restaurant was booked for the next 2 hours. We decided to start drinking martinis at the bar. After the 5th martini, I could barely stand and was feeling dizzy. We decided to adjourn to our rooms. When we got to my room, I opened the door and pretty much we both fell through the door and landed on the floor. Sorry, this is not going to be a Penthouse forum story. After about an hour, she started to wake and did some of those dry throw-up heaves, but nothing was coming out. This went on for a few minutes and it was making me sick. As we were laying about a foot away on the floor, I started to vomit all over her. Within about 30 seconds of this, the foul smell caused her to vomit, and of course, she aimed her vomit on me. We started to laugh at each other, and laughed so hard we again ‘purposely’ vomited on each other. We then dry-heaved (in rhythm) for a bit more (as we were out of stomach food) and then I walked her to her room to get cleaned up. The looks of people as we were both walking down the hall were priceless as we were covered from head to toes with smelly vomit.

4. Before kids, my girlfriends and I would hop a plane and head to Sin City for a weekend of frolic every Spring. This was long before the slogan “what happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas,” but the feeling was the same. I don’t know if it is all the oxygen they pump into the casinos or just the warm sunshine but Vegas has a way of allowing you to let go. And let go we did. A particular night in question involved riding the camels outside the Luxor until we got kicked off the property. Mind you - that isn’t a pun for something else. We literally jumped the small chain keeping you off the grass and hoped on the backs of three huge camels. I do have the photos - but you won’t find them on facebook. We staggered our way, cocktails in hand to MGM where we thought it would be “fun” to kidnap Toto from the Wizard of Oz scene and skip around the casino singing “Follow the yellow brick road” - I still don’t remember if Toto ever made it back safely to Dorothy but we definitely weren’t allowed back to MGM. Or were we? We ended the evening or should I say morning loading up on a senior tour bus to Lake Mead. Luckily one of us had the sense to realize we wouldn’t be able to get any more booze if we stayed on the bus and we headed happily on our way after well wishes of our new friends. It sounds juvenile and ridiculous in the recounting of it all. Of course it was but man did we have a good time. If posted, please use an anonymous name, since all these things really did happen in Vegas.

5. On my 21st birthday, I woke up in the hospital with my mom staring down at me. The last thing I remembered was leaving the bar with my girlfriend. Come to find out, I had gotten out of her car at my apartment without her assistance, stood up, and then fell face forward onto the parking lot cement - without bracing my fall. I then tried to get up, without using my hands and proceeded to push my face across the pavement.
My girlfriend, seeing my face covered in blood and one of my front teeth missing, took me to the emergency room. I passed out on the way there. After the nurses and docs pulled my shirtless, bloodied body from the car, they ran a blood alcohol test on me, and it came back at .342. No, that’s not a typo - my blood alcohol level was .342.
Hence, my waking up in the hospital looking up at my mom. My first questions was, “How f’d up is my car?”
She replied, “There wasn’t a car wreck, you did this to yourself.”
I spent the next week w/ relatives and friends parading in and out of my apartment, all stopping by to get a look at the toothless, scraped up, idiot who had just celebrated his 21st birthday. I also need a root canal to replace my missing front tooth.

6. There’s nothing unusual about drinking at a wedding. It’s not really that strange to jump in a pool, fully dressed, at such an occasion. But waking up the next day only to discover you’re still at the reception and were supposed to deliver the bride and groom to the airport for their honeymoon is a bit daunting.
The horrible feeling you get when you see you have no less than twelve voicemails waiting for you on your phone, which you left in your car, at someone else’s house, which you now have to walk to, in a wet, crumpled bridesmaid dress, while passing a church just ending its service on a Sunday morning, really is best described in three words: more alcohol needed.
Let’s just say there’s one anniversary I won’t be forgetting. And it’s not mine.

7. I had a great time at a friend’s bachelor party. A couple of weeks later, I was having a few beers with my wife and her father. The groom showed up and proceeded to tell every minutiae of his bachelor party with a bit of a focus on my part. A few of the anecdotes raised my father-in-law’s eyebrows–to say the least! I am not going to put the details of the party online. Imagination will have to suffice. That evening, I could not shut the guy down from spilling all the f#%king beans. All the fun and seemingly innocent insanity of the party became another night’s damnation. I will say I earned a greater respect for the reasoning behind the line, “What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas.”

8. The best hangover I had in Vegas was when I woke up in my hotel room with a 2500$ check on my bed…not remembering because I drank wwwaaaayyyyy tooooo much…i won a jackpot on at a slot machine..till this day I cant remember what kind it was… :):):)
The funniest part is…a month later I received a letter from the casino with my winning picture..boy did I look trashed, I’m suprised they even gave me the money.

9. On my one and only trip to Vegas I impulsively married a guy I barely knew. It quickly turned into a bad deal because as soon as we returned he took off with my car for 3 days, purse inside, cashed out and overdrew my checking account, and ran up my credit cards. There was nothing I could do at this point because this guy was now my “husband.” I was stuck paying the credit cards and overdraft fees with money I no longer had and of course eventually had to come up with money to turn around and divorce him so he couldn’t continue to take advantage of me.

10. Before I was even old enough to REALLY enjoy the fruits of Vegas, I was there with my Uncle and my cousin visiting for the weekend. To give us something to do, we picked up a mutual friend of my cousin and mine (a girl). Her parents looked skeptical, probably because uncle looks like the perfect Mexican stereotype; pudgy, with a mustache, just put a sombrero on him. Later that night, while my uncle went out to get drunk and gamble his money away, my cousin, myself and our friend wandered the streets of Vegas causing havok and picking up as many fliers with boobs on them as we could. The girl was supposed to be home at 10, but had to say the night because my Uncle was too drunk to drive her home. The next day we took her back to her house with cop cars in the driveway, only to find out we were hours away from an Amber Alert and a city wide search put out on my Uncle. The End.

WOW. A MULTIPLE OFFENDER BARES ALL: Well, I woke up recently after a pub crawl with a broken, bloody nose & 2 black eyes. I can put some of the pieces together, but still not 100% sure how it happened! Good news is that the hangover headache was dwarfed by the incredible pain I was in.
Or there was the time I went shot for shot with a bartender and woke up with a broken arm. My friends & boyfriend put the pieces of the night together for me and I guess the broken arm happened when I fell in between Lucky’s and The Claret Room. It obviously didn’t bother me at the time because I proceeded to go into the Claret Room and, after making an obnoxious scene, threw up in the trash can. Then we went back to my boyfriend’s place and I was still a bit wobbly. I bit it in the kitty litter and I just sat there with cat poop surrounding me for a second looking at the mess I made. I still have absolutely no recollection of any of this.
And then there was the time I went to the Plaza right after I graduated college and I was still living with my parents. We met up with some random dudes and went back to their place for an after party. I accidentally left my phone there when we got picked up from their house by my friend’s ex-boyfriend ‘ he took us to his place where we all crashed. I woke up with an awful hangover, but suddenly realized I had to go to my sister-in-law’s wedding shower at my mom’s friend’s house. I think the guys that had my cell phone called one of my friends, so we rushed to their place to pick it up … After which I noticed my mom had called me about 20 times wondering where I was, thinking I was in danger or something. We rushed back to Overland Park where we all made the walk of shame in front of my parents, my grandma and my aunt & uncle. I got ready as quick as I could and we all headed to the wedding shower. I couldn’t talk to anyone at the party because I reaked of alcohol and the second I stood up, I felt pukey, so I just sat next to my grandma (who had a touch of alzheimer’s, so I got to hear the same story over and over for 2 hours) the entire time. I finally couldn’t take it anymore, so I got up to talk to some of my mom’s friends (who were mostly my old elementary school teachers). Before I could say 2 words, I could feel the vomit coming up .. So I rushed into my mom’s friend’s bathroom and proceeded to barf all over the place. Not my classiest moments.
And, I had a pretty crazy bachelorette party myself. A bunch of girls went to the lake and rented a condo down there. We all went partying at the Horny Toad and had a fantastic time, but I was still ready for more action when we all came back (although everyone else went to bed). The first thing I did to continue the party was to give everyone a fashion show of my new lingerie - one of which was a naughty santa outfit. Of course, plenty of pictures were taken (and one of my friends actually has one displayed in her apartment for everyone to see - awesome). We got bored of that, so a couple of girls and I snuck into the community pool (at 3 am) where we met some guys who were celebrating a bachelor party. They promised us that they had an awesome “hot tub” back at their place, so we went with them to continue the party. The “hot tub” actually ended up being their jetted bath tub - and they didn’t even have any hot water, so they had to bring buckets of water from the kitchen sink to fill the bath tub up. We were about to leave when the strippers showed up. Now, strippers who come to you from the Lake of the Ozarks at 3:00 are not necessarily the classiest of ladies. One of my friends decided to tell them that it was my bachelorette party, too, so one of them made me lie on the floor (while I was still in my bikini), poured chocolate syrup all over my stomach and then gave me a very graphic personal dance on top of me. This was definitely one of the most unforgettable experiences in my life - not the most enjoyable, but very memorable!
I have a billion Vegas stories, as well, but I’ll leave those for another time.

Tags: BACHELOR PARTY, BACHELORETTE PARTY, DRUNK, EMBARRASSING, funny, HANGOVER, HAPPENS IN, Hilarious, LAS VEGAS, reader, REAL, STAYS IN, STORIES, STORY, TALES, TRUE

The box office performance of “Observe and Report” this past weekend proves that subversive comedies usually have a way harder time finding an audience than a nice, family-friendly picture, even when that movie stars Seth Rogen. Funny thing is, subversive comedies often make a bigger impact and have a longer shelf life. To make this list, the movie has to challenge some culturally accepted notions or possess a generally rude rebellious streak. Oliver Stone’s “Natural Born Killers,” for example, doesn’t make the list because for all of its posturing and flashiness, it’s completely obvious and says nothing new about the media. If you have a Top 10 list of your own you’d like to contribute, email me at eric@scene-stealers.com. Enjoy!

Runners-up: Obviously, I like subversive comedy. I’ve already written about “Borat,” “Harold and Maude,” “Office Space,” “South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut,”  “Series 7,” the original “Dawn of the Dead,” “Bulworth,” “Happiness,” “The Graduate,” “Brazil,” and “Dr. Strangelove” on other lists, so I’ll make them runners-up (even though “Dr. Strangelove” should probably be #1 here—I can’t have it on every list!) and include links to the other Top 10s they appear on here. Click on the title to see the original post.

10. Nurse Betty (2000)

On the surface, Neil LaBute’s black comedy is about a sweet little soap-opera-obsessed waitress from a diner in Kansas (Renée Zellweger) who travels to Los Angeles to meet her favorite actor (Greg Kinnear). What actually happens, though, is that the innocent Betty goes into shock, entering a psychological fugue state after watching her drug-dealing, cheating husband (Aaron Eckhart) get scalped(!) by two hitmen (Chris Rock and Morgan Freeman). These killers chase Betty—who has broken from reality so hard that she thinks she’s actually a part of the fictional soap opera—as she drives west to find Kinnear’s fictional doctor. Soon everybody starts playing by her rules, as Betty sucks Kinnear’s actor character into her reality and he thinks she’s a struggling method actor. In uniquely bizarre climactic scene, he gambles on her never-breaking-character routine and puts her on live TV. Lost you yet? While this is all happening, Freeman falls in love with his prey, and two bumbling cops rush cross-country to try and protect her. Like “Observe and Report,” “Nurse Betty” switches its tone on a dime and is a juggling act that doesn’t always work. Like “Observe and Report,” it’s also alternately ugly and charming—an absurd look at identity and societal roles where everyone falls under the spell of an ordinary woman who radiates goodness and purity.

9. Putney Swope (1969)

Directed by Robert Downey Sr. (yes, it’s his Dad), this spotty but inspired black-and-white B-movie was a sensation when it came out but is somehow nearly forgotten today. A black man named Putney Swope (Arnold Johnson, voice dubbed uncomfortably by Downey himself) becomes the head of an otherwise all-white New York ad agency after all the other executives vote for him to be the new boss thinking that no one else will. Re-dubbed “Truth and Soul, Inc.”, Swope hires militant blacks and gets to work making outrageous attack-style anti-consumerist ads right away. His new motto for Truth and Soul is: “Rockin’ the boat’s a drag. You gotta sink the boat!” He refuses to make commercials for cigarettes, war toys, and liquor, instead making ludicrously shocking commercials (in color even) like the interracial duet for Face-Off Acne Cream (“Pimples are simple”) and the ad for Dinkleberry Frozen Chicken Pot Pies (“Miss Redneck, N.J. is a social worker and her favorite hobby is emasculation”). Not enough for ya? There’s an Abraham Lincoln dartboard in the boardroom and the President of the United States is played by a pot-smoking German midget. This low-budget curiosity is all over the place, but every moment thumbs its nose at conventional society.

8. They Live (1988)

Since I’ve already covered Terry Gilliam’s brilliant and disturbing dystopian future in “Brazil” on my Top 10 Movies That Prove the Future Will Suck list, I’ve decided to shine the spotlight on that film’s looser, shaggier stepchild. John Carpenter’s “They Live” takes place in an America in economic crisis (sound familiar?) and when unemployed construction worker Nada (pro wrestler “Rowdy” Roddy Piper) puts on a pair of sunglasses, he is the only one who can see that all the bankers and politicians in power are actually aliens with metallic skull faces. Laughing yet? You will be. Nada also notices subliminal messages on billboards that read “OBEY” and “CONSUME,” while our currency reads “THIS IS YOUR GOD.” Carpenter’s movie falls too often into action/thriller cliché, but its central theme—that upper-class greed is taking over the world like an alien invasion—is even more relevant today than it was in 1988. Add in some hilarious dialogue (“I’m here to chew bubblegum and kick ass, and I’m all out of bubblegum!”) and a seemingly neverending fight scene over a refusal to put on the special sunglasses, and you’ve got an erratic but nevertheless subversive comedy classic. Oh yeah, and—a remake is in the works. Hurm.

7. Pink Flamingos (1972)

Trying to summarize the plot of this filthy little film in one paragraph is futile, so let’s just say it involves a couple who kidnap and impregnate young women to sell their babies to lesbians, which, in turn, finances an elementary school heroin trade. The film’s tagline is truth in advertising: “An exercise in poor taste.” Despite being filmed for only $10,000, “Pink Flamingos” immediately launched its star (drag queen extraordinaire Divine) and its director (John Waters) into the collective consciousness of film fans across the globe. Waters narrates the film in—what had to have been a last minute attempt to make some kind of sense out of it—an annoying shout that matches the film’s campy tone and exaggerated “acting” style. It’s not a good film by any normal standards, but who can apply a value-driven checklist to a movie that revels in its lack of technical know-how, happy as a pig in shit? You can’t. What even the most jaded film fan will find, however, are a large number of “huh?”moments that are kind of liberating. How else would I be able to describe a movie where a mother gives her son oral sex and enthusiastically eats dog feces as “fun”?

6. Citizen Ruth (1996)

What’s funnier than abortion? Well, almost everything, but that didn’t stop writer/director Alexander Payne from making this subversive comedy starring Laura Dern as a paint-huffing pregnant woman who finds herself in the middle of a raging political debate. This comedy could have been a dismal wreck. After Dern pukes on the hood of his car, a policeman actually says to his partner about her: “I’ll drive her by the pound on the way to the station and get her spayed.” The question you have to ask through all of this, though, is who’s crazier—the cash-strapped, pregnant drug user (who’s had and lost four children already) or the zealots on either side of the pro-life/pro-choice debate? Payne skewers both in equal measure and his screenplay (co-authored with Jim Taylor) manages to say some bleakly funny things that a drama about the same subject would never be able to approach. One particularly inspired bit of casting comes in the form of Burt Reynolds as a pious, over-the-top televangelist. Like “Dr. Strangelove” parodied the military-industrial complex, “Citizen Ruth” mercilessly lampoons the abortion debate and Ruth becomes a political tool for extremists on both sides.

5. M*A*S*H (1970)

Although it is set in Korea, Robert Altman’s anti-establishment comedy was actually a not-so-thinly veiled and pointed attack on the then-raging Vietnam War. Donald Sutherland and Elliott Gould are two military surgeons struggling to maintain their sanity through boozing, sex, and an utter contempt for authority in this cultural watershed movie. Altman’s almost complete disregard for Ring Larder Jr.’s script and his improvisatory style of shooting scared not only the studio, but also the film’s stars. “Donald and Elliott went in about a quarter of the way through the picture and tried to have me fired because they said I was going to ruin their careers,” Altman said. Struggles with the studio finally ceased after a wildly successful preview screening and the movie went on to gross $80 million and signal a new era of filmmaking in Hollywood. Not everyone agrees it’s a classic, though, as one of our user-contributed Top 10 lists had this film at #3 of the Most Overrated Movies.

4. Heathers (1989)

Question: When is teen suicide funny? Answer: When it actually turns out to be murder! What? Yeah, you read that correctly.  In addition, “Heathers” plays it all for laughs. This hilarious and shocking movie is still the nastiest and most bizarre of all teen comedies even after 20 years. Winona Ryder and Christian Slater are a high school Bonnie and Clyde making their way through the popular clique. Armed with a battery of surreal dream sequences, its own biting vocabulary (“Well, f*ck me gently with a chainsaw.”), and a sympathetic Ryder who manically expunges her demons and explores her conscience in her diary (giving us her outrage and sympathy), “Heathers” gave every teenaged outsider a screaming voice of discontent and a healthy amount of violent wish fulfillment at the same time. It’s really too bad that director Michael Lehmann (“Hudson Hawk,” “40 Days and 40 Nights,” “My Giant”) and writer Daniel Waters (“Batman Returns,” “Happy Campers,” “Sex and Death 101”) haven’t even come close to the dizzying highs of their first movie project.

3. The Great Dictator (1940)

Charlie Chaplin’s “Monsieur Verdoux” was certainly subversive in that Chaplin broke from his Tramp character completely and portrayed a cold-blooded serial killer, but it was this movie that took on Adolf Hitler and the entire Nazi movement before America was even at war with them. This was also Chaplin’s first feature-length “talkie,” and it saw him taking the dual role of a tyrannical dictator named Adenoid Hynkel (guess who?) and a lowly barber. Chaplin portrays Hynkel and his followers as stupid bullies and arrogant buffoons, including one famous scene that has the dictator dancing with a globe to a Wagner overture. The movie was a great success and became Chaplin’s highest-grossing film ever. As more details of Nazi war atrocities were made public, however, Chaplin admitted that had he known the extent of their crimes, he wouldn’t have been able to portray the stormtroopers in the movie in such a slapstick manner. The final scene, where the barber delivers a message of hope in disguise as the dictator (and many in the audience felt Chaplin himself was making the plea), may seem a little schmaltzy now, but in the context of World War II, it definitely resonated with audiences.

2. Monty Python’s Life of Brian (1979)

I don’t think this will be on the Heartland list of Truly Moving Pictures anytime soon, but what better way to engage with the absurdities of the Bible than with a side-splitting satire of the New Testament? Before the idea had even been hatched really, Monty Python troupe member Eric Idle offhandedly remarked to the press that their next film (following the hugely successful “Monty Python and the Holy Grail”) would be titled “Jesus Christ: Lust for Glory.” That sparked the idea of Brian—a man (Graham Chapman) who is mistaken for the Messiah, tries to evade worshippers and enemies alike, and is eventually crucified to the tune of a catchy little ditty called “Always Look on the Bright Side of Life.” The movie mercilessly criticizes those pesky antithetical side effects of organized religion, and even director Terry Jones admits that the movie is “heretical.” However, he also believes that “it’s not blasphemous.” Even though most of the pointed satire is delivered through the story of the decidedly non-Messianic Brian (thereby avoiding blasphemy - kind of a technicality), the rampant fanaticism and hypocrisy that the Pythons poke fun at is universal.

1. Starship Troopers (1997)

This is the most subversive comedy ever made because it’s possible—if you close your eyes to its overtly fascist ideology and all the Nazi-like military dress—to think that “Starship Troopers” is simply a dumb action movie with bad acting and giant bugs. In fact, director Paul Verhoeven’s film is subversive  in more ways than one.

It also deserves the top spot here because the movie purposely does something that few films actually do on purpose: It subverts the entire message of the Robert Heinlein sci-fi novel on which it’s based. Ouch.

The book—which envisions a society where the government only gives the right to vote to youths who fulfill their “terms of service,” which was usually in the military—was criticized as fascist when it was published in 1959. Verhoeven keeps Heinlein’s ideas intact, but pokes fun at them mercilessly throughout the movie with hilarious mini-propaganda films (one featuring soldiers giving guns to little kids), tons of Nazi iconography, and cruel military training that includes public flogging and “friendly” fire.

Moreover, he uses an enthusiastic young cast and has them act as if they just stepped out of the latest “Saved by the Bell” episode. They begin the war a bunch of idealized lemmings and come out changed by the horrors of war. It’s never explicitly said who started the war (though the humans are the ones invading the “bug” planets), but to anyone in military service, it doesn’t matter. Graphic depictions of said actors getting ripped in half by giant bugs underscore the consequences of a jingoistic worldview. You may be thinking, “Wait one minute—this was supposed to be a list of comedies!” “Starship Troopers” is a comedy. From the cheesy, naïve dialogue and acting (again, this was on purpose, to achieve an effect) to the laugh-out-loud absurdity of the Federation’s slanted news shorts (Fox News, anyone?), “Starship Troopers” is the funniest movie to have such scary foresight into what would become post-9/11 extreme patriotism. Plus, you get to see Neil Patrick Harris mature into Joseph Mengele. How is that not funny?

I Twittered/Facebooked yesterday while I was writing this list and got tons of great suggestions. Here’s a sampling to get the comments started:

@TreyHock: It’s a Wonderful Life is basically a treatise for communism wrapped in a christmas movie. Pretty awesome.
@ToServeMan: Does THEY LIVE qualify as a comedy?
@worleygirl: One fave is the much overlooked Parents, from ‘89. Bonus: the kid in it looks just like Ron Hayes. http://bit.ly/1LuNrr
@danielc: An old roommate of mine had a soft spot for Cry-Baby. I’d say Election is up there. (I would too, but I didn’t want to put two Alexander Payne movies on the list and I’d already included “Citizen Ruth.”—Eric)
@ManMadeMoon (or Duncan Jones, director of the upcoming film “Moon,” starring Sam Rockwell) retweeted @jpgardner’s suggestions: Robert Altman’s MASH to @SceneStealrEric for subversive comedies. Also, The Graduate, Catch 22 & Dr. Strangelove
@softreeds: Tapeheads.
@BeckIreland: And the original of The Out-of-Towners and Fun With Dick and Jane
@kcklo63: I think every Michael Moore movie fits into that category. Super Size Me? Born on the Fourth of July? 9 1/2 Weeks?
@dumbwhore: Brazil or Office Space. can’t decide

Sorcha Father Ted
Tim M. Neighbors
Tim V. heathers, hudsucker proxy, high school high, they live
Laura Oh. Okay. Monty Python’s Life of Brian, Brazil, Dead Alive, Dawn of the Dead (1978), The Big Lebowski
Sara Dr. Strangelove of course. I also second Life of Brian and Brazil. Harold and Maude, Desperate Living (since John Waters was mentioned), Series 7.
Dustin the dudesons.
Richard Hot Rod. Definitely Hot Rod.
Scott Bunuel movies like The Milky Way, Viridiana, or even Discreet Charm. Oh, don’t get me started!
Colin “Josie and the Pussycats,” now and forever.
Brad nurse betty, citizen ruth
Adam M. I vote Man Bites Dog or Tromeo and Juliet
Adam S. hank and mike. its very funny, and subversive, and even from canada.
Jeremy putney swope!

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