I can think of two times that I've laughed hard enough at a theater to have to gasp for breath.. They are: The scene in Spinal Tap where Nigel Tufnel can't figure out how to make a sandwich with miniature bread. And the Terrance & Philip musical number "Shut your **** face, uncle ****" in South Park. Yours?
Like you, the very first time I saw Spinal Tap counts as one of the funniest things I've ever experienced. I saw it as a sneak preview, sponsored by the local rock station KY-102. The station had given tickets to their listeners, and as far as I could tell most of them thought they were seeing a documentary about a vaguely familiar rock band, and I seemed to be the only person there who knew that it was a comedy. Which made it ten times funnier. So much so that when they were discussing the fate of the various drummers, I had to leave the auditorium and go into the lobby to be able to resume breathing. I swear, I literally fell from my seat into the aisle. I have at least a dozen other experiences but something about laughing that hard makes it difficult to form a memory of what exactly I was laughing at - my brain is too busy being amused to actually do its job of remembering.
There's Something About Mary. I can't remember all of the gut laugh moments, but I recall never having laughed so hard at a film, and so often. So many gags in that movie! I saw it with a friend or two the first time around then convinced a group of probably 10 I worked with to go see it with me again. We all had a ball!
I can't remember if it's my hardest laugh, but the biggest laugh from the whole theatre I've heard was probably Mr. Creosote. (edited to remove the spoiler)
I was 13 and visiting London when Monty Python And The Holy Grail came out. By the end of the opening credits I had tears streaming down my face, and it kept up for the rest of the film. Absolute catharsis. I'll never laugh as hard at a movie again, because I'll never be 13 again.
That's a laugh that comes in large part from shock. You can't believe what you're seeing and that makes it even better. The nude wrestling scene in Borat got me in the same way.
Oh man, I just had a decent laugh...had forgotten about the piggyback rides. We got a bleeder! The crying at the end. The pizza delivery guy. Matt Dillon's teeth. Jonathan Richmond. And on and on. I should watch that again sometime soon.
Borat, and then also Pineapple Express - free ticket date nite with my wife on that one. And just remembered - What We Do In The Shadows!
South Park movie There's Something About Mary Anchorman Those 3 brought me to tears the first time I saw them. The whole 400-people theater was laughing so hard that if a joke wasn't visual, you'd miss it from all the laughter covering up the sound.
probably ... there's something about mary. i have a 'special needs' brother .... so that added a totally unexpected element to my belly laughs ... i found it hilariously therapeutic LMAO
Great thread idea in these times!! About a tie for me...Vacation when I was a teen...my stomach was killing me! And then later in life, Dumb and Dumber. I just couldn’t believe how ridiculous that movie was, In the best way, and that someone could think of all that!
I am going to have to watch Something About Mary. I know I saw at least part of it and couldn’t make it through. But I always hear how hysterical it is, and the humor is up my alley, so I don’t know how I missed it.
The Farelly brothers are very hit or miss. But Something About Mary and Dumb and Dumber extremely funny movies.
I went to see it after all the hype... while the rest of the audience were literally rolling in the aisles with laughter, I sat there stony-faced, laughing not once... a thoroughly disgusting, unpleasant, and distasteful movie that opened the doors wide to the current vulgarity that passes for wit these days in Hollyweird, alas... Where's Groucho (and the great Margaret Dumont) when you need them...?
Trainwreck isn’t a very good movie overall, but the sex scene where John Cena attempts to talk dirty nearly killed me.
