As it is four months since the last one I’d been thinking that maybe it was time for another selection in my occasional series of Friday Funnies, and John Holton has given me the perfect reason in this week’s Writer’s Workshop. One of his prompts is to “write a list of movies that always make you smile.” A list? I can do better than that: it will be much more fun to play some clips from movies that do that for me, so get the popcorn ready and settle down for today’s feature.

I started to make a list, all of which are in my iTunes movie library, and quickly realised that I had far too many for one post, so maybe I’ll do another set some time. Here is what made the cut this time, starting with a puppet show. Team America: World Police is a send up of all of those ‘fighting force saving the world’ movies and tv shows, and it is an absolute hoot. This clip is age-restricted so you’ll have to watch it from the link to YouTube, but it is worth it – one of the funniest things I’ve ever seen:

Apparently that had the same effect on the puppeteers, who were laughing so much they had a really difficult time completing the scene. One of the best sex scenes ever in a movie, in my view.

When I was a teenager the must watch tv show was Monty Python’s Flying Circus. If you hadn’t watched the show, you were isolated from conversation at school next day. It was broadcast late on a Sunday evening, which made for some pretty dopey kids starting their school week in less than peak condition. After tv they branched out into movies, and this is a scene from the one that is still my favourite of them, Monty Python And The Holy Grail. History in the retelling:

And in keeping with the meme a line I have always remembered from that is “I fart in your general direction” – surely one of the best insults ever. It might have applied to this next one, too – it isn’t exactly in the best possible taste but it reduced me to helpless tears of laughter the first time I saw it, and it is still funny fifty years later:

The first time I saw Blazing Saddles was on tv a couple of years after it first came out. It was a Saturday evening, and my wife and I had been for dinner at her parents’ home. My father-in-law and I watched the movie, and were both in hysterics at that scene, so much so that the ladies came into the room to check that we were ok. Neither of us could speak!

I’ve given you what I think is one of the best sex scenes ever in a movie, so how about one of the best weddings to go with it:

That was, of course, from Four Weddings And A Funeral, with Mr Bean playing the part of the hapless vicar taking a wedding service for the first time. He survived, just. The happy couple were played by David Haig and Sophie Thompson, younger sister of Emma.

I’m really spoiled for choice for my next clip. there have been many movies involving Inspector Clouseau and The Pink Panther, but despite my admiration for Steve Martin I don’t think anyone played the role better than Peter Sellers. Here is some evidence to support my view:

Peter Sellers played the role of Inspector Jacques Clouseau in six movies, though one was released after his death using scenes, mostly outtakes, that he had previously recorded for the other five. This is from the fourth of his appearances, in The Pink Panther Strikes Again, which came out in December 1976. I had been a huge fan of his since his Goon Show days, and still believe him to have been a comedy genius.

One of the funniest movies I’ve ever scene is Airplane, which was a parody of the disaster movies popular at the time (it came out in 1980). Rather than going for just one scene I’m playing you a compilation piece:

I think you can see from those why I like Airplane so much: it is one to which I still return occasionally now, usually seeing something I hadn’t spotted before, as the art of watching it is to look at what is going on in the background.

I’ll leave you with another of my favourites. Although I’m closing with it this was actually the opening sequence of the movie:

That was, of course, from Wayne’s World, another movie that bears an occasional revisit. Since I first saw it I’ve never been able to listen to Bohemian Rhapsody without thinking of this scene. I hope it does that for you, too, if it hadn’t already.

It’s dull, drizzly day here today, with a temperature of just 3C at present, and these have cheered me up a lot. With a bit of luck they’ll have done the same for you, too. See you again on Sunday for a tune or two 😊