Airplane!

This may be the only movie I’ve ever seen that should have been preceded by a warning: THE PHRASE “DIE LAUGHING” MAY BE TAKEN LITERALLY HERE. WATCH AT YOUR OWN RISK. The first time I saw it I really felt I was in danger of death from laughter. It’s not so much that any particular joke was lethal, it was the combination, the sheer balls-out willingness to do anything, no matter how corny, ridiculous, sophomoric, to get a laugh. Remember, this was the first, the granddaddy of all the movie genre spoofs and send-ups that followed. We’d never seen anything like it before. The sheer stroke of genius was having all those stiff movie heroes like Lloyd Bridges and Peter Graves and Robert Stack gleefully and with totally straight faces lampooning their screen images. Graves as Captain Oveur: “You ever been in a cockpit before?” Joey: “No sir, I’ve never been up in a plane before.” Captain Oveur: “You ever seen a grown man naked?” Or when the inflatable autopilot takes over, and Elaine gives him a blowjob. There are hundreds of classic lines and situations, you probably have your own favorites … unless, that is, you are cursed with good taste, and didn’t find this movie funny at all.