13 Best Film Comedy Teams
by SweetHotAngel | created - 17 Dec 2010 | updated - 17 Dec 2010 | PublicThey not only made us laugh, but we'll never forget them. I'm listing these in reverse order. So as the number gets higher we get closer to the number one comedy team of all time.
1. Kid 'N Play
Soundtrack | Point Blank
Kid 'N Play is known for Point Blank (2019), House Party (1990) and Class Act (1992).
They almost were great and seemed they were going to bring back the old style comedy team of the classic period but with Hip Hop. But then styles changed and they had to go separate ways to keep careers. But they did bequeath us Martin Lawrence.
2. The Ritz Brothers
Actor | The Three Musketeers
The three fellows had a hard act to follow when they tried to fill the huge movie clown shoes of the The Marx Brothers in the late 1930's and they did falter somewhat in their attempt. Nevertheless, the talented trio The Ritz Brothers (comprised of Al Ritz, Jimmy Ritz and Harry Ritz) were troupers ...
Back in the day these look a like zany brothers were a riot. They now are more a curiosity, but still very funny.
3. Tim Conway
Actor | The Carol Burnett Show
Funny man Tim Conway was born on December 15th, 1933 in Willoughby, Ohio, to Sophia (Murgoiu) and Daniel Conway, a pony groomer. He was a fraternity man at Bowling Green State University, served in the army, and started his career working for a radio station.
Conway got into comedy when he started ...
and Don Knotts.
They teamed up by chance in the Apple Dumpling Gang and the comedy chemistry between these two former side kicks led to some funny team up films in the 70s and 80s.
4. Huntz Hall
Actor | Dead End
The 14th of 16 children born to an air conditioning repairman, Henry Richard Hall (he got the name "Huntz" from a brother who said his large nose made him look German) was anything but the tough street kid he played in the East Side Kids/Bowery Boys films. He made his stage debut at the age of 1 in...
and Leo Gorcey with all the Dead End Kids AKA Bowery Boys.
They began as the extras in a serious play about trouble youth on Broadway, ended up playing the same kind of gangs in Hollywood and slowly morphed into the stars of the films as they turned into comedies. Finally it was mainly Huntz and Leo and they took control and went from the semi serious Dead End Kids to the light hearted Bowery Boys. They may be obscure today, but they were the king of B comedies once upon a time.
5. Sidney James
Actor | Carry on Cleo
The star of the Carry On series of films, Sid James originally came to prominence as sidekick to the ground breaking British comedy actor Tony Hancock, on both radio and then television. Born in Johannesburg, South Africa and named Solomon Joel Cohen, James arrived in England in 1946, second wife ...
and the rest of the Carry On Gang.
Before these British Comedies turned into soft porn in the 70s they were some of the campiest and corniest slapstick parodies ever. The troupe kept changing but the notables besides Sid were, Kenneth Connor, Charles Hawtry, Kenneth Williams, Jim Dale, Hattie Jacques and Joan Sims.
6. Cheech & Chong
Soundtrack | Nice Dreams
Cheech & Chong is known for Nice Dreams (1981), Born in East L.A. (1987) and Beavis and Butt-Head (1993).
The modern stoner comedy got its start as one of the bits done by this comedy duo on stage, which was so funny it became a series of recordings and then films before the two had to break up in order to do different types of comedy.
7. Graham Chapman
Writer | Monty Python and the Holy Grail
Graham Chapman was born on January 8, 1941 in Leicester, England while a German air raid was in progress. Graham's father was a chief police inspector and probably inspired the constables Graham often portrayed later in comedy sketches. Graham studied medicine in college and earned an M.D., but he ...
and the rest of Monty Python
The hilarious, weird and very English humor group went from TV shows to make some of the strangest, non linear, break the fourth wall, funny moves ever.
8. Dean Martin
Soundtrack | The Dean Martin Show
Martin was born Dino Paul Crocetti in Steubenville, Ohio, to Gaetano Alfonso "Guy" Crocetti, an Italian immigrant and barber, and his Ohio-born wife, Angela (Barra) Crocetti. He spoke only Italian until age five. Martin came up the hard way, with such jobs as a boxer ("Kid Crochet"), a steel mill ...
and Jerry Lewis.
These guys were a wonder. They didn't seem like they should work together and when they did it turned out to be magic. Dino was never as likable as when he was Jerry's long suffering older brother. Jerry was never as funny as when he had romantic Dino to play against. It was a sad day when they broke up, even though it meant they would go on to be the biggest star ever and the other one got to do movies the French liked and host a telethon every year.
9. Stan Laurel
Actor | Saps at Sea
Stan Laurel came from a theatrical family, his father was an actor and theatre manager, and he made his stage debut at the age of 16 at Pickard's Museum, Glasgow. He traveled with Fred Karno's vaudeville company to the United States in 1910 and again in 1913. While with that company he was Charles ...
and Oliver Hardy.
The funniest guys ever without sound and then, surprise, they were funnier when we could listen to them too! Stan was sweet and sad. Ollie was blustery and frustrated and goofy. Together they were a laugh a minute.
10. Bud Abbott
Actor | Hold That Ghost
Long acknowledged as one of the best "straight men" in the business, Bud Abbott was born William Alexander Abbott in Reading, Pennsylvania to Rae (Fisher) and Harry Abbott, who had both worked for the Barnum and Bailey Circus. When Bud was three his family moved to Asbury Park, New Jersey, which he...
and Lou Costello.
Bud and Lou took the funniest moments of vaudeville and turned them into their own unique material and preserved them forever for us in films with thin plots but hilarious bits. Decades later some fans still memorize their bits. Who's on First? Slowly I turned.
11. Bob Hope
Actor | The Ghost Breakers
Comedian Bob Hope was born Leslie Townes Hope in Eltham, London, England, the fifth of seven sons of Avis (Townes), light opera singer, and William Henry Hope, a stonemason from Weston-super-Mare, Somerset. His maternal grandmother was Welsh. Hope moved to Bristol before emigrating with his parents...
and Bing Crosby,
We're off on the road to laughter. This unlikely pair, a comic who could sing and a singer who was funny, traded barbs and lines like Ferengi trying to make a deal with the audience. Behind all the rivalry and gut wrenching jokes was a mutual admiration that emphasized the team in comedy team. Hope and Crosby liked working together so much they couldn't help showing up in each other's film just to show face.
12. The Three Stooges
Actor | It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World
The Three Stooges is known for It's a Mad Mad Mad Mad World (1963), Start Cheering (1938) and Violent Is the Word for Curly (1938).
Well, actually they were six of them and almost a seventh. Moe was the mean one who ran things. Larry was the weird one who inspired Stimpy. Curly was the baby faced one who thought he was smarter than Moe and wasn't. Shemp was the shaggy one who related to a different world than every one else. Joe was the Stooge that really wasn't. Curly Joe was the last one and he was a softer, fatter, sweeter kind of Curly. Harry was the one that never was one, but he was the prof when they went into orbit and the motorists whose car popped corn. These are the guys who never made it into features and only did shorts, until the two funniest of the team died and their career ended only to be resurrected by TV replaying their shorts. Then with Curly Joe they had a feature movie career. Nyuck, nyuck, nyuck. I oughta...
13. The Marx Brothers
Actor | Duck Soup
The zaniest of all madcap comedy teams were the Marx Brothers, namely Groucho (aka Julius Henry), Chico (aka Leonard), and Harpo (aka Adolph). There were also Zeppo (aka Herbert) -- who featured in their early comedies as a straight man and later became a theatrical agent -- and Gummo (aka Milton),...
Who else would be the number one of the top 13 comedy teams?
They were stars in Vaudeville before Laurel and Hardy made a silent film. They were stars on Broadway when the Ritz and the Stooges were trying to get going. They were the biggest box office draw in Hollywood in the early 30s. Everyone else on the list imitated them and even those not on the list like the Beatles, Animaniacs, Penn & Teller, SNL, Laugh In, the Smothers Brothers, the State, Mad TV and In Living Color follow in their footsteps. They were zany, anarchist, dangerous, sexy and a threat to everything normal. Hollywood tried to squeeze them into conventional musical comedies, but the anarchy broke out and thank God it did. A Marx Brothers film is medicine for the soul and good for the bones. The things we think are important aren't really as important as seeing how unimportant they really are and laughing at those of us, including ourselves, who think they are important. Plus, did you know you can play the piano like a gun?
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