Five For Friday, Vol. 11: Funny Movie Edition

When there's a need for laughter around JP World Headquarters, here are five movies that never fail to do the trick. JP's five favorite comedies.

1. Monty Python and the Holy Grail - Such clever British humor. It's smart and dumb at the same time and the set pieces are legend: The Black Knight ("It's just a flesh wound!"), Castle Anthrax ("It's too perilous."), the taunting French ("Your mother was a hamster and your father smelt of elderberries!"), Camelot ("We're knights of the round table/We dance when 'er we're able"), the rabbit ("Death awaits you all with big, pointy teeth.")
2. Raising Arizona - The movie that introduced me to the offbeat genius of the movie-making Coen brothers. A tour de force by Nicholas Cage as the not-so-bright H.I., who steals a baby for his wife. Possibly the best chase sequence of all time. ("Boy, you got a panty on your head.")...then there's Nathan Arizona, owner of Unpainted Arizona...(No LEADS?!!...That's you're whole danged raison de'tre (pardon the bad French spelling) ain't it...tracking down them microbes left by criminals and commies!")
3. This is Spinal Tap - Mockumentary of the spoof hard rock band. Marks Rob Reiner's directorial debut. Having been in a band while in college, so many of the references hit close to home. Fortunately, our drummer never spontaneously combusted. ("There's a fine line between stupid and clever.") Turn it up to 11.
4. Airplane - Wonderful spoof of the disaster movies of the 1970s, right down to the all-star cast uttering overly serious lines that make you crack up...or maybe they weren't so serious... ("Surely you can't be serious.".... "I am serious, and please don't call me Shirley.")...("Looks like I picked the wrong week to stop sniffing glue.")
5. National Lampoon's Vacation - Chevy Chase is loading up the family truckster and taking the Griswold family on a pilgrammage to see a moose...that's Mighty Moose. But not before we stop off to see the cousins. ("I've french kissed."///"Everybody's done that."///"But my dad says I'm the best.") And a young, hot Christie Brinkley. Man oh man.

Honorable Mentions (Too many to mention them all):
A Fish Called Wanda
Planes, Trains and Automobiles
Animal House
Fast Times at Ridgemont High
The Jerk
Ghostbusters
There's Something About Mary
Christmas Vacation
Young Frankenstein