Funny People (Jamie Uys, 1977) [221-100; XviD]

For Candid Camera fans only!

Ferociously dated now, but when I saw it in a small french cinema in 1983 I rated it as the funniest thing I'd ever seen. I was literally crying with laughter at some of it. Some of the setups are lame beyond belief, but others are quite outstanding. Setting it in South Africa means that reactions are very different, and often hysterical. Likely to appeal only to people 40+ in age, who liked Candid Camera. Showed a DVD of it to my parents recently, and they loved it!

Best set-ups include: "Man" stuck inside a tiny postbox; 2 blokes trying to get a huge wardrobe through automatic doors (sounds awful, but is actually brilliant); cake assembly line (you'd have to see it); and a (now hugely non PC) ticking suitcase...
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Uys' other well-known movie was Funny People in 1978, which was a comedy in the same genre as Candid Camera in the U.S., putting unsuspecting people in embarrassing positions. These included a talking postbox, with the voice of a man claiming to be trapped inside, who asks a passer-by for help. When the passer-by returns with his friends, the 'talking' postbox is silent, and his friends accuse him of being drunk.


Aspect ratio is wrong; must be manually set to 2.21 : 1