“Dying is easy, comedy is difficult…”
At least that is what a man named Edmund Gwenn seemed to think. (He did play Santa Claus in the original Miracle on 34th street and Santa wouldn’t lie.)

I think that Edmund was on to something with this statement. It is easy enough to construct a Nicholas Sparks-esque drama which results in a significant increase in Kleenex’s profit margins due to all of the girls needing tissue to weep into at the end of the film.
You throw a girl and a boy together in a scene, make them love each other, hate each other and then love each other again – let the sobbing ensue.
Comedy, on the other hand, takes a bit more skill. Whereas many people will find the same thing to be sad, dramatic or emotional, fewer people will find the same thing funny. Therefore, creating a successful comedy that attracts wide audiences can be more challenging than creating a workable diet plan for Kirstie Alley.
I have therefore come up with a list of older, classic comedies you may not have seen that have succeeded in this challenge.
1. Blazing Saddles: Racism, crudeness, sexism, alcoholism and violence. Sounds like a description of the latest tabloid headlines. However, it is also a description of one of my favourite comedies of all time.
This movie is about an African American man who gets appointed to the mayor’s position in an old western town in the late 1800s.
A mockery of the ridiculous nature of racism at the time, the movie plays on the idiocy of authority when compared to intelligence of the underdog.
2. Airplane: I know, I know, you are thinking “Surely, you can’t be serious in recommending a movie based on an airplane crashing to the ground.” Well, yes, I am serious… and don’t call me Shirley.
OK, maybe you weren’t thinking that. But that doesn’t make the line any less funny. The key to the comedy in this movie is the stark seriousness in the delivery of otherwise completely absurd lines. Add in Leslie Nielsen, inconveniently timed food poisoning and a convoluted love story, and you have a recipe for comedic success.
3. Tootsie: There is something about a movie in which a guy dresses in drag and pretends to be a woman that is almost always consistently funny. This movie is the previous generation’s Mrs. Doubtfire. Dustin Hoffman plays the title role. In an example of character acting gone overboard, Hoffman is an out-of-work actor whose only role comes in the form of an  woman on a soap opera. The only bad thing about this movie is the realization that Hoffman can walk better in heels than I can.
4. This is Spinal Tap: This is an Office-like mockumentary type of a film that follows a made up rock band through their day-to-day lives as they deal with the pressures of success.
How they achieve this success is a mystery as the members of the band are so dimwitted that it is amazing they even find their way out of their bedrooms in the morning.
However, this is where the humour in the movie lies. This film was so popular when it was released that the then make-believe band actually became a real band and went on tour.  Good music combined with the sheer idiocy of the four men in the band truly makes this film worth watching.
5. Monty Python’s Life of Brian: Monty Python has never been known for its ability to use discretion in its skits (Every Sperm is Sacred anyone?), and The Life of Brian is no exception.
This movie actually caused more stir and controversy across the nation than when Brad and Jennifer became Brad and Angelina. A parallel of the life of Christ as experienced by a man named Brian, the movie is definitely not without its risky content.
But it’s a Monty Python movie – expecting them to be reserved in their comedy is like expecting Sarah Palin to become president: it just won’t happen. 
So if you feel like your funny bone is going through a dry spell, try tickling it with one of these classics – after all, according to the great Charlie Chaplin, “a day without laughter is a day wasted.”