The Thursday Three

Three Things That Are Guaranteed To Make Me Laugh. (Sometimes hysterically).

Would you agree that sometimes you really need a dependable belly laugh? The Film Geek has just finished trying to transfer my originally intended post for today from my mom's laptop to our computer and...no go. Consider me in prime "need to chuckle" territory and stay tuned for vacation sagas.

#1. I Love Lucy. I know, I know, but I just can't help it. I'm pretty sure I can recite, from memory, the dialogue from virtually every episode and they still make me laugh. Yes, you have to overlook the fact that Lucy Ricardo is a self-absorbed, childish, manipulative drama queen, and that she's certain to be more entertaining from a distance. Can you imagine having a friend or a spouse who behaves this way? Someone you have to deal with on a regular basis? Not me, but I'll watch it any chance I get.

I love physical comedy and snappy writing and this amply provides both. This show was such a ground breaker in so many ways, from the way it was shot to the whole sitcom format.

And fifty years later it's still hilarious.

#2. When Harry Met Sally. The first time I saw this film
(in the theater) I laughed so hard I cried. The scene pictured here,

the infamous "I'll have what she's having" scene, was the first time I remember being in an audience that virtually exploded with laughter. It was amazing then, and twenty years or so later it still makes me laugh out loud. The writing is so sharp and witty and the actors are, across the board, flawless. I have a serious soft spot in my heart for Nora Ephron and this film is perfect illustration of why. If she rewrote the phone book I'd buy a copy. I have WHMS on DVD and pull it out for big gloom occasions. It never fails.

#3. Bertie Wooster and Jeeves. Really anything by P.G. Wodehouse, but this particular book, The Code of the Woosters, makes me very grateful that even after three kids I have a good strong bladder. If I didn't it could be ugly. This is the kind of British period piece I love anyway, but nobody does it like Wodehouse.

Bertie is such a loveable horse's arse and Jeeves mercifully has brains enough for two, but it's the way this whole piece unfolds that cracks me up. That and the way it's written. Takes funny to a whole different level.

It's making me laugh just thinking about it. Almost as much as the fact that my kids go back to school in thirteen days.

Obviously this is an abbreviated list, because I love to laugh and could go on for days. But this is a good start at least. Okay, people...it's your turn. Let's hear 'em!