Great Movies
Film critic Mark Caro is currently hosting a series at Chicago's Music Box Theatre that takes a look at the viability of certain classic comedies. "Is It Still Funny?" kicked off last week with a screening of "National Lampoon's Animal House," to which audiences gave it a 4.46 on Caro's scale: Five is "Hilarious—even funnier than I anticipated," while one is "Ugh—how did anyone ever laugh at this?"
Caro's program looks at top examples from various styles of film comedy. Tonight at 7pm, Caro will be presenting Mel Brooks' 1974 parody classic "Blazing Saddles," a picture with racial humor (among other gags) that may or may not have aged well into 2016. The following week, on April 26, he'll screen the Marx Brothers' slapstick masterpiece "Duck Soup." The series concludes with the series' most modern pick so far, the Farrelly brothers' gross-out romantic comedy "There's Something About Mary."
In an email statement, Caro shared his motivation for curating this series. "I've wanted to do this for years because I've always been fascinated with how time affects comedy, and it's so hard to recapture those magical moments when you're in a dark room laughing hysterically with strangers. Watching a comedy at home is never the same." He added, "Revisiting classic funny movies amid comedy fans in a great old theater is a lot more fun, and then we all get to talk about it afterward. That's movie geek heaven to me."
"Is It Still Funny?" screens every Tuesday night at 7:00pm. General admission tickets are $12, and tickets for Music Box members are $10.
Tickets for April 19's presentation of "Blazing Saddles" can be purchased here
Tickets for April 26's presentation of "Duck Soup" can be purchased here
Tickets for May 3's presentation of "There's Something About Mary" can be purchased here
More information about the "Is It Still Funny?" series can be found here
