Lovefilm, a European film subscription service with two million members, says its research has found that the 1980 movie Airplane! produces three laughs per minute, making it, by the company’s accounting, the funniest movie of our time. Lovefilm’s members are based in the UK, Germany, Sweden, Denmark and Norway. The company created a list of ten comedies collected from the votes of those members. Airplane! then beat out nine other films including The Hangover and Monty Python’s Life of Brian as measured by laugh counts among a Lovefilm member audience. Airplane! has previously been recognized by the U.S. Library of Congress. But according to Lovefilm, by the measure of actual votes in its survey, Airplane! lost out.
From the list of ten, the majority of members actually voted Life of Brian as “funniest.” However, “our research shows that for laughs a minute the hilarious aircraft-based satire of Airplane! beats the Monty Python epic hands-down,” Lovefilm’s Helen Cowley told Telegraph.co.uk. In late December, 2010, Airplane! was selected along with movies that included The Exorcist, The Empire Strikes Back and The Pink Panther to be preserved by the Library of Congress. The Library each year chooses 25 films to be included in the National Film Registry.The films are counted as national treasures for their cultural or historical importance. “I am serious … and don’t call me Shirley.”
