Monday, November 29, 2010

Surely, You Can't Be Serious.

Comedian Leslie Nielsen died yesterday, which is a real bummer. Nielsen was an interesting actor, because he had a true two-act career. For the first 40 years he only played serious parts; it was only after Nielsen appeared in Airplane that people saw he could be very funny, and now no one under the age of 35 remembers him for anything but comedy. (As a tribute to that seemingly-forgotten serious side, this morning Roger Ebert posted Nielsen's screen test for Ben Hur on his blog).) Personally, I think his previous work was what made his performances in movie like Airplane and The Naked Gun series all that more funny. Serious people saying hilarious things with a serious tone is always going to be funny. Anyway, here is a montage of some of his funnier moments (the clip at the 5:55 mark might be my favorite).

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