The Woody Allen comedy classic has been voted as the funniest screenplay of all time by members of the Writers Guild of America in a countdown of the 101 funniest screenplay.
Allen’s 1977 comedy stars himself as the neurotic comedian Alvy Singer who falls in love with the ditsy yet refreshing Annie Hall, played by the delectable Diane Keaton (seen in a number of Allen’s films). Alvy spends the film reflecting on the demise of his relationship with Annie, chronicling the ups and the downs of the relationship and what resulting in Alvy being as neurotic as he is, including his Jewish guilt. The Annie Hall screenplay won the Oscar for thee Best Original Screenplay in 1977.
The screenplay was written by Woody Allen and Marshall Brickman, the writing team that also wrote ”Manhatten” and ”Sleeper”, both of which also featured in the list of 101 funniest screenplays that ”Annie Hall” topped. Brickman is also known for recently penning the 2014 film version of the musical ”Jersey Boys”. Allen has had a prolific writing career including ”Celebrity” and ”Husbands and Wives”. Allen had four further scripts in the countdown, ”Bananas”, ”Take the Money and Run”, ”Broadway Danny Rose” and ”Love and Death”.
The awards were announced at the Arclight Cinerama Dome and was the culmination of two hours of panels, discussions and clips in an event hosted by Rob Reiner. Other scripts in the top five include ”Some Like It Hot”, ”Groundhog Day”, ”Airplane!” and ”Tootsie”. ”Young Frankenstein”, ”Dr Strangelove”, ”Blazing Saddles”, ”Monty Python and the Holy Grail” and ”National Lampoons Animal House” make up the top ten. Ironically given the amplifier joke within the film, ”This Is Spinal Tap” came in at number 11.
Other screenplays in the countdown included Harold Ramis’ ”Animal House” with ”Ghostbusters” coming in at 14 and ”Caddyshack” coming in at 25. Two silent films featured which were Charlie Chaplin’s 1925 film ”The Gold Rush” which featured at number 94 and Buster Keaton’s 1926 film ”The General” which came in at number 56.
The most up to date film to be featured in the list was the Kristin Wigg and Annie Mumolo script for the 2011 film Bridesmaids which was voted at number 16. The 2009 screenplay for ”The Hangover” written by Jon Lucas and Scott Moore was voted in at number 30.
The full list of results can be found in the original Variety article.