I haven't had a poll on the blog for a while, so I thought I'd start a new one today. I was thinking about a film recently and I considered calling it "the best science fiction comedy ever". (Hint: it's on the list.) But then I thought, "How many science fiction comedies have there been?" and the answer is quite a few. I decided to choose ten and make it a polling question where you are allowed to vote for more than one. Instead of hunting down pictures from all ten movies, I instead have put this picture from Abbott and Costello Go To Mars, which counts as one of the first science fiction comedies, but to my mind, not in the running for one of the best.
Here's the list.
Sleeper (1973)
The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension (1984)
The Brother From Another Planet (1984)
Back to the Future (1985)
Spaceballs (1987)
Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure (1989)
Groundhog Day (1993)
Galaxy Quest (1999)
Idiocracy (2006)
Wall-E (2008)
After several helpful suggestions from readers, I narrowed the list down to ten. There were a couple of mentions of The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy, but I made an editorial decision not to include it because I think the TV and radio versions are superior to the film. When I mentioned Sleeper, my friend Jodi countered with Zelig, which I like very much, but I think it might fit better in comedy fantasy.
Several box office hits did not make the list, like Honey I Shrunk The Kids. I argued with myself whether Brazil should count, but I decided it wasn't quite sci-fi and it wasn't quite a comedy. I'm pretty sure someone is going to remind me of a film not on the list and I will do a forehead slap.
In any case, these are the ten choices. You can vote for more than one. Balloting will close next Sunday.
