MovieChat Forums > Stardust Memories (1980) Discussion > Funniest scene.

Funniest scene.

posted 18 years ago by xxdisintegrationxx
17 replies | jump to latest

Is it just me, or is the scene with the aliens absolutely hysterical? I think it might be solely for the fact that the alien is Allen's voice, with that helium effect. I always crack up when he says "Oh, let me tell you, you're not the missionary type, you'd never last. And incidentally, you're also not Superman, you're a comedian. You wanna do mankind a real service? Tell funnier jokes." I find that incredibly funny for some reason, and I wanted to know if anyone else does. If not, what do you think is the funniest scene in the film?

[–] mark-daniels 18 years ago

that was very funny. but for me its the opening scene on the train, with those hideous looking people. Very existential - how revolting humans can be, how revolting we can be, how alienated we can be from ourselves, one another. but he makes his point in a very funny way...I just keep laughing about that scene.

[–] pmk_1986 18 years ago

Today I was thinking about the "film" in this where he loses control of his anger and it storms the country side, killing his mother and his ex-wife's alimony lawyer.

Also, just that image of Louise Lasser sitting at her seceretary's desk wearing a neck brace with a ribbon around it and getting all the dates mixed up.

Oh! Aaaand... The fan that says "Mr Bates! Can I have your autograph...... I was a caesarian."

The list is endless!

[–] mark-cooney 18 years ago

I enjoyed the various fans coming up to Woody throughout the film! LOL!

Also, the scene where he is trying to console an anxious Charlotte Rampling on the stage set and there are nuns dancing in the background! HILARIOUS!

[–] Squeeth2 9 years ago

I thought that it was expressionist rather than existential but I see what you mean. I thought that it was an ironic portrait of the human comedy.

Marlon, Claudia and Dimby the cats 1989-2005, 2007 and 2010.

[–] McGonigle 17 years ago

I agree about the aliens. Not only is that the funniest scene, it's the linchpin of the whole movie, the moment of insight that allows Sandy to go on as a comedian.

'The Sound of Music' twice an hour, and 'Jaws' 1, 2 and 3.

[–] decalt 17 years ago

I didn't liked this movie that much as other Woody Allen films, but it's hard to say about any of his films that is a bad one. For me, the most funny moment is when Woody says to those police officers that he carries a gun because his paranoid about nazis, because "i have family that had trouble with nazis".

[–] FilmFan-13 17 years ago

There are so many funny bits in this great film. I love the alien scene, since it also takes all the air out of the hostility directed against Woody for this assumedly angry diatribe of a film rejecting, if not mocking the notion of his "early, funny" films...It shows that he's not taking himself all that serioiusly, realizing that everyione needs to do whatever they can to make this a better place. In Woody's case, this means telling funnier jokes. Priceless.

[–] tremblaylm 17 years ago

Two scenes are hilarious :

1) The hasch brownie scene. I just love this kind of humour : Woody sarcastically saying "oh this must be some hasch brownie" and the woman's totally serious response, "no I brought the hasch on the side". I laughed out loud for a minute like a madman!

2) The woman-who-got-robbed-and-raped-and-didn't-even-resist scene. (Ok this isn't a funny subject, I know, but the way Allen treats it was funny as hell, especially the first time I saw it.)

[–] pmk_1986 17 years ago

Vivian Orkin: Oh, oh. Th-this is my friend Libby. She thinks you're a genius. Libby just did a definitive cinematic study of Gummo Marx. She did!

Dick Lobel: Interestingly, he's the one Marx brother that never made any movies.

[–] ShellOilJunior 17 years ago

Haha, yes the Gummo Marx joke was hilarious.

Also, the bit about him not knowing (and leaving blank) any of the 10 questions on his Existential Philosophy final and receiving and A+

Also,

Fan: I love all your movies! You have such a degenerate mind!
Sandy: Oh, thanks. I'll take that as a compliment.

[–] ddark13 16 years ago

One of the funniest scenes to me was when that large fan abruptly came upto him requesting an autograph and the only thing he says is:

"I was a cesarean."

[–] stephan-128 15 years ago

i love the dancing nuns in the background during that long take.

also like the scene with his sister and her husband on the bike with the bell, smoking a cigarette while exercising.

[–] twentymooseman 15 years ago

That was probably my favorite scene too. I found that the fact that the Aliens actually had taken any interest in his life was hilarious. my favorite part of that scene is at the end where even the alien says "I love your movies, especially the older funny ones."

[–] pacwarbuff 13 years ago

The woman-who-got-robbed-and-raped-and-didn't-even-resist scene. (Ok this isn't a funny subject, I know, but the way Allen treats it was funny as hell, especially the first time I saw it.)

I couldn't help but laugh out loud at that scene. The whole thing was treated in a nonchalant New Yorker way. LOL!

There's also the sister's husband who said he had two heart attacks before he got the exercise bike and another two afterwards.

I also like the throwaway line Sandy says to Dorrie: "The last time you cooked the kitchen looked like Hiroshima."

Consilio et prudentia

[–] profh-1 12 years ago

How does one set the kitchen on fire "EVERY NIGHT" anyway?

"I was a cesarian". WHAT????? (Head-scratching-inducing moment)

The "aggression" getting loose in the woods (set to the tune of Mussorgsky's "Night On Bald Mountain"-- PERFECT!!)

The aliens. Of course.

But, the one scene that, several viewings ago, made me almost fall out of my chair laughing so hard I had tears running down my face, it was so absurdly insanely funny... The woman whose husband drove her 200 miles so SHE could sleep with the movie director. "Yeah, he's a big fan of yours, it would be such a thrill for him to know that we made it." The last 2-3 times I've watched the film, it doesn't make me laugh... but at least once, it REALLY did. (Hmmm...)

[–] flasuss 12 years ago

The funniest thing was his existencialism class joke, though there were a lot of hilarious moments.

When you kill a man to defend an idea, you're not defending an idea. You're killing a man.

[–] Interlepos (1784) a year ago

The unhealthy husband using the bike had me rolling on the floor.

Of course the aliens sequence is a classic, and it's the fragment you most often see used from this film when they show clips from Woody's films, along with the opening train compartment sequence.