You have probably had this debate with some of your friends: what is the funniest screenplay ever written? Well, today we finally have the answer. Okay…maybe not THE answer since “funny” means something different to everyone, but at least we know where members of the Writers Guild Association of America stand.
Woody Allen and Marshall Brickman’s Annie Hall was named the funniest screenplay by the members. This shouldn’t be too surprising considering everyone in the business loves Woody Allen, plus, the film did win the Best Original Screenplay Oscar at the 50th Academy Awards.
In total, Allen had seven scripts in the WGA’s 101 Funniest Screenplays. The six others were Sleeper (60), Bananas (69), Take the Money and Run (76), Love and Death (78), Manhattan (81) and Broadway Danny Rose (92).
As you can see below, the top 10 featured mainly classic films. The most recent film in the top 10 being the 1993 comedy Groundhog Day. But there were some recent comedies that made the list, including The Hangover (30), Meet the Parents (85), The 40-Year-Old Virgin (31), Bridesmaids (16) and Superbad (68).
The top 10 films are featured below. If you want to see the full list, click on this link.
- Annie Hall (Woody Allen and Marshall Brickman)
- Some Like It Hot (Billy Wilder & I.A. L. Diamond)
- Groundhog Day (Danny Rubin and Harold Ramis)
- Airplane! (James Abrahams & David Zucker & Jerry Zucker)
- Tootsie ( Larry Gelbart and Murray Schisgal)
- Young Frankenstein (Gene Wilder and Mel Brooks)
- Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb ( Stanley Kubrick and Peter George and Terry Southern)
- Blazing Saddles (Mel Brooks, Norman Steinberg, Andrew Bergman, Richard
Pryor, Alan Uger) - Monty Python and the Holy Grail (Graham Chapman, John Cleese, Terry Gilliam, Eric Idle,
Terry Jones, Michael Palin) - National Lampoon’s Animal House (Harold Ramis & Douglas Kenney & Chris Miller)
