Wednesday, April 1, 2009

Top 10 Funniest Film Cameos (Part 2)

5. Bob Saget - Half Baked

For much of the late 80's and early 90's, most people knew Bob Saget from Full House and America's Funniest Videos as a huge dork. Little did we all know that the joke was on us because over the years, we all realized that Mr. Tanner was as filthy as filthy gets. His dirty humor has been exposed more over the years with comedy specials and such, but for many, there was one shining moment when we all realized that Bob Saget is nothing like the father figure to DJ, Stephanie and Michelle. And that moment came in Half Baked. The scene takes place at a rehab center, where Dave Chappelle gets heckled for the fact that he's there for marijuana. Bob Saget comes in with a couple shocking lines.

4. Charlie Sheen - Ferris Bueller's Day Off

First of all, did you know Charlie Sheen was born Carlos Irwin Estevez? This movie is obviously a classic and I'm sure you are all familiar with the cameo made by Charlie Sheen in this one. It takes place at the police station when Ferris' mother is at the police station because of Ferris' sister. She sits next to a burnt-out looking Charlie Sheen, who proceeds to inquire about why she's there (Drugs?), what her deal with her brother is (Did you blow him away or something?) and after a couple scene changes, we find the two making out. Can you believe that Charlie Sheen made this cameo in the same year that Platoon was released?

3. Jack Black - Anchorman

There were a good number of cameos in this movie (Ben Stiller, Tim Robbins, Vince Vaughn, Luke Wilson), but none were as good as the one made by the one and only Jack Black. This man does not get enough credit for how funny he is. And don't get the wrong idea...I love dogs. In about 70 seconds, Jack Black manages to put out a good handful of memorable quotes as well as probably the most shocking moment of the movie when he punts Ron Burgundy's dog into the river.

2. Anthony Keidis and Flea - Multiple Movies

I had to group these together because these guys not only are members of one of the best bands out there, the Red Hot Chili Peppers, but they also are known for some pretty hilarious cameos in a few movies, both individually and collectively.

Starting with Anthony, you may remember he had a small role in the epic Point Break as a member of "The Surf Gang." Keanu was riding on the wrong waves and was met by Anthony and the other BAMF's at the shower for an ass-kicking. As you may remember, Keanu was an undercover cop with Gary Busey and they think this gang is responsible for the robberies, so they go in for the bust, end up shooting Anthony Keidis' foot, and find out they had the wrong suspects.

Moving on to the duo of Anthony and Flea, and connecting them to #4 on this list, Charlie Sheen, you may remember them from a movie called The Chase. The premise of this comedy-thriller is that Charlie Sheen takes a rich girl hostage for a car chase...that's pretty much it. Anthony and Flea play Will and Dale, a couple not-so-bright citizens who felt it was their duty to stop the car chase in their monster truck, but obviously fail in doing so.

And finally, the best cameo of the three belongs to Flea alone for his role as "Nihilist #2, Kieffer" in one of the best movies of all time, The Big Lebowski. He appears in a couple scenes, this one being the main one. By the way, I'd like to thank Kathryn for offering a bunch of old audio casette tapes back a while ago, one of which was just like the tape that the Dude is listening to in this scene, Songs of the Whale.



1. All Cameos in Happy Gilmore

These cameos individually could stand out on their own, but I figured it most appropriate to group them together since they're all in the same movie. Cameos are becoming a signature move for most comedies, especially with the Happy Madison and Judd Apatow groups since there are so many actors associated with each group. Often times, a cameo can become one of the best parts of the movie. In Happy Gilmore, there were multiple cameos that became the best parts of the movie.

I'll start with Kevin Nealon, the "psycho," who tries to give Happy (Adam Sandler) some holistic golfing advice. Interestingly, I noticed his name is "Gary Potter" in the movie, a year before the first Harry Potter book came out. I think J.K. Rowling was harnessing in some good energy.



Next, probably the best known cameo of the movie is with my hero, Bob Barker. This scene with Bob is also probably one of the funniest fight scenes.



Lastly, the best cameo of the movie is interestingly an uncredited role played by Ben Stiller. The handlebar mustache is a key ingredient in what makes the scenes with "Hal," the nursing home orderly, some of the best scenes of the movie. Unfortunately I couldn't find a quality video of my favorite scene so here's the audio:



What I did find was another good scene in quality video. Interestingly, once I sought out for videos of the Happy Gilmore cameos, Hulu had 10 clips, 3 of which contained these cameos. I think that's a testament to the fact that they're sitting at #1 on this list.



Please feel free to comment with your favorite cameos that I may have missed!



5 comments:

Mike said...

Man, you nailed these past two posts. I might argue about the rankings slightly, but overall I concur.

Ben Stiller cameos are generally awesome. I might have put all of his under a single rank. He was AMAZING in Tenacious D and the Pick of Destiny.

Actually, that's another good post for you -- actors that are great as cameos. I don't know if you'd call it a cameo... but... Bob Saget in "The Aristocrats" is hysterical as well.

Great list.

Dan said...

Love these posts - Kiedis and Flea are def my favorite cameos of all time. The only ones I would add to the list are Neil Patrick Harris in Harold and Kumar - not a great film per se but I thought it had some very good parts - his cameo is similar to Bob Saget's in trying to shed that "nice-guy" role. Also, I dont know if you can consider it a cameop but Tom Cruise in Tropic Thunder is AMAZING - he came very close to making me forget what a psycho he is with his scientology psychology poppycock.

Dan said...

Also - Henry Rollins as the Cop in the chase is friggin great. I need to watch the chase again - I think that movie is great solely because of the cameos - theres another post idea - Movies that would suck were it not for a special cameo appearance.

Kevin said...

I think these lists are the most popular posts...maybe I should just stick to lists from now on

Kevin said...

Speaking of, I'm working on another fun one