Things That Make Me Laugh

Parker Posey remains underrated as a comic actress, her work in Christopher Guest's films perhaps the funniest examples. The first scene below is an alternate take from "Waiting For Guffman," which was cut, as it didn't fit the tone of the entire audition sequence. Still, Posey nails it, as anyone who's been in the theater can appreciate.



Then there's this brief bit from the end of "For Your Consideration," one of the weaker Guest efforts (though not as dull as "A Mighty Wind"). Posey's character just misses being nominated for an Academy Award, so she returns to the stage in a one woman show, "No Penis Intended." God, this takes me back to those Lower East Side performance spaces long ago. Posey clearly saw her share of that world as well. How I love intentionally bad acting. It's harder than it looks.



And here's one of the strangest film scenes you'll come across this week -- from Tony Richardson's "The Loved One" (1965). Rod Steiger is excellent as Mr. Joyboy, an embalmer at a mortuary where the woman he's trying to impress, Aimee, works as a cosmetician. This bit was written by Terry Southern, whose talent for finding humor in the perverse never ceases to amaze me.