Funny / It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World

• Every frame where Jimmy Durante as Smiler Grogan is on screen.
  • When Russell, Melville, Benjy, Ding, and Pike go down to the wreckage of Smiler's car, they are stunned to find the car empty and Smiler, alive but clearly badly injured, lying on the ground nearby. Evidently Melville's general medical training was a very long time ago...
    Melville: I'm not a doctor, but I have some medical experience, I'm a dentist... do you think you're hurt real bad?
    Grogan: [looks at the others in disbelief] Is he kidding!?
  • After revealing that he has buried $350,000 "under a big W" in Santa Rosita, Grogan appears to die, and Benjy doffs his cap out of respect... only for Grogan to suddenly jolt back to life, grab Melville, and address him as "Aunt Belle" while begging him to tell him "It don't make any difference!" When Melville is finally prevailed upon to agree that "it don't make any difference", Smiler literally kicks the bucket. Made funnier by Benjy's reaction.
  • The police arrive on the scene seconds later, and the five men agree not to say anything about the money, but they come close to blowing the secret:
    Police Officer: I said, did he say anything before he died?
    Pike: What about?
    Police Officer: What do you mean, what about?! Did he say anything or didn't he say anything?!
• Mrs. Marcus always feels compelled to speak up and argue fiercely, whatever the topic. Then it is pointed out that her son-in-law "is not that good a driver"... and she remains absolutely silent.
• Even for complete strangers, it only takes a few minutes to know Mrs. Marcus:
  • "We'll get no place if we continue listening to this old bag!" Ironically, she was offering the most sensible deal at the moment.
  • And in a minute: "Good luck and may the best man win! Except you, lady. May you just— drop DEAD!"
    Pike: All right, we all agree on that...
• While figuring whether the treasure should be divided into four or eight shares:
  Melville: Speaking for my wife and myself, we'd be just as happy...
  Dingy: Happy with two-eighths instead of a quarter? Awfully big of you.
• Russell mindlessly parroting his mother-in-law's words (by a habit acquired long ago, one might surmise):
  Mrs. Marcus: You're overlooking one little thing.
  Russell: Yeah, we're overlooking one little thing...
  Benjy: What little thing?
  Russell: Yeah, what little thing?
• Pike's changing facial expressions as he's listening to the sound of his cargo falling down.
• Pike's interactions with Meyer, all of them.
  Pike: "Somebody will stumble over the bicycle in the dark", huh? Well, when I'm finished with you, they'll be stumbling over YOU in the dark!
• Pike trashing the gas station. ALL OF IT.
  • "That's it, Irwin— we're gonna have to kill him!"
  • And the nearby police watching the whole thing in disbelief.
    "Holy jumping! They're going back for more!"
  • "My arm! You broke my arm!"
  • In a Deleted Scene after the whole thing is over, the police move in:
    Cop: Are you fellas alright?
    Ray: Now they show up! Where were you when we needed you?
    Irwin: Writing parking tickets, I suppose.
    Cop: (in disbelief) They're still alive!
• The Crumps' attempts to break out of the locked store room.
  • First the alarm fails to ring:
    Melville: The stupidest burglar in the world could come in and walk away with everything, and we can't even get out.
  • Monica lighting candles complete with church music for some peace while Melville silently drives a forklift into a nearby closet.
  • Melville gets the idea to weaken the door with a blowtorch, then attack it with a sledgehammer; he can't get the blowtorch to turn off, so he just sets it down. On his way back up the wooden stairs to the door, he accidentally knocks the blowtorch with the hammer,^note  This scene took 86 takes to get right. and within seconds, it has set fire to the stairs.
  • Culminating with Melville making one final attempt, destroying the badly burned staircase while he's standing on it:
    Melville: (after Monica digs him out of the rubble) Monica...now let's forget about the door, huh?
  • And then, after the fuse for the dynamite he is trying to use to blow a hole in the wall fizzles out, Melville goes to take a look, unaware that the sparks have set fire to multiple crates of fireworks:
    Monica: Melville, don't go in there! You'll be killed! You'll be blown to bits!
    Melville: Monica, for heaven's sake! I just want to take a look! Why do you always imagine I can't do things for myself? Don't you think I got any sense at all? Why can't you have a little confidence in me?
    (cue Fatal Fireworks)
    Melville: Sh! SHHHHHHH!
  • Finally, when they blow a hole in the wall with explosives and enter the adjacent crowded room through the wall:
    Melville: You see, the lock didn't work... The owners will pay for everything.
• Russell's voice and face when he's introducing his mother-in-law to Hawthorne speaks VOLUMES.
• When the characters have met up and are discussing how to split the money, we have this bit between Pike and Ding:
  Pike: It was under a big W. Say, what is a big W?
  Ding: If we find out, we'll send you a wire. (Benjy laughs)
• Russell and Hawthorne leave Emmeline and Mrs. Marcus behind and go off on their own. They proceed to set back British-American relations almost two centuries...
  • Hawthorne's "The Reason America Sucks" Speech (countering Russell trotting out the standard "America Won World War II" speech), especially the part about America's "preoccupation with bosoms". Hawthorne should talk after watching a few episodes of The Benny Hill Show...
  • Eventually, Hawthorne's car enters a tunnel... and the front right tire exits the other side before the car does.
  • Russell and Hawthorne's "fight". None of their punches connect — they either duck, or just fail on their own (the final shot of them before the intermission has them aim punches at each other only for their fists to collide halfway across). Fantastic.
    Hawthorne: You're not much good without that horrible mother-in-law of yours, are you? (Russell then Eye Pokes him)
  • Then this line after the Intermission:
    Hawthorne: Whatever the outcome of the day, I shall never forget that you hit me when I wasn't even looking!
    Russell (smiles proudly): Yeah.
• The climactic montage of catastrophe right before the intermission. All the set-ups come to a fantastic finish here:
  • The Crumps using extinguishers (each of them holding one in each hand) to try and put out the fire in the hardware store basement.
  • Meyer's car sinks into the "shallow" river. The musical sting as the boy waves goodbye to Meyer is the icing on the cake.
  • Russell and Hawthorne fail utterly in their attempts to beat the tar out of each other after Hawthorne's car overturns.
  • Mrs. Marcus wails to Emmeline and Pike that she is bleeding after her ride on the runaway tow truck.
  • Sylvester blubbers frantically as he speeds on his way to "save" his mother from unknown danger.
  • Benjy and Dingy scream in terror as their plane spins completely out of control and crashes through a Coca-Cola billboard.
  • A thoroughly miserable Culpeper holds two phone receivers next to each other as his daughter cries hysterically over one phone and his wife tries to talk her down by blaming Culpeper for everything over the other phone. Leading to one of Culpeper's subordinates coming in and innocently asking if there's anything wrong. Then Culpeper slowly turns to look at him.
  • ... and then a pleasant pause with some nice music while you're picking yourself off the floor.
• The Three Stooges' wordless five-second cameo as the firemen.^note  It reportedly drew the biggest laughs and applause of any scene in the film among test audiences.
• Everything about Tyler Fitzgerald and his interactions with Benjy and Dingy.
  Dingy: (on seeing snoring Fitzgerald) I think he's got a cold.
  Benjy: (on seeing grunting Fitzgerald) That's a head cold.
  Fitzgerald: (not being able to open his eyes due to hangover) Just a minute! I can't see! Something's happened to my eyes. I can't see!
  Benjy: Must be an eye cold.
  • Benjy and Dingy are trying to make up a decent story to explain to Fitzgerald why they need to take a plane immediately:
    Dingy: Our grandmother is dying and she's sent for us. She's in Rosita Beach. She's dying and we're up here. She'd like us with her when she goes.
    Benjy: Otherwise she won't go. [Dope Slap] Oh, uh, she'll go!
  • Fitzgerald's elaborate mechanism for drinking on board.
    Fitzgerald: Just press the button back there marked "booze". It's the only way to fly!^note  The slogan of Western Airlines, which Jim Backus recited regularly as the voice of their radio ads at the time.
    [Benjy nods with a "We're going to die, aren't we?" look on his face]
  • Fitzgerald is leaving the cockpit to prepare himself another cocktail and asking Benjy to take over:
    Dingy: But Benjy can't fly!
    Fitzgerald: Nonsense. Anybody can fly a plane. I'm making an Old Fashioned.
    Benjy: What if something happens?!
    Fitzgerald: What can happen to an Old Fashioned, all right?
    Dingy: I know you don't know what to do, so don't do nothing.
    Benjy: I won't do nothing!
    Fitzgerald: That boy's a natural-born flyer.
    (cue the plane making a swirl and Fitzgerald being knocked out)
• Benjy and Dingy in the airplane.
  Dingy: What's this coming?!
  Benjy: That's good, that's cement.
  • At another point as the plane careens wildly through the air.
    Benjy: Dingy, don't let this worry you; we're gonna get killed.
  • And the air-control tower trying to talk them down.
    Controller: Why don't we just shoot 'em down and be through with it?
  • When the air control tower tell them to stay calm, Dingy and Benjy become calm like they're told, but Dingy quickly snaps out of it in time to see Benjy with a goofy expression on his face serenely letting go of the controls.
    Dingy: (Dope Slaps Benjy) Not that calm, you idiot!
  • Dingy tries to snap Benjy out of his frozen fear state:
    Dingy: (Dope Slaps Benjy a few times) Benjy don't freeze! Benjy don't freeze!
    Benjy: (snaps out of it) You hit me!
  • The tower tells them that the person at the controls has to be the one on the radio, and Dingy tries to force the headset onto a noncooperative Benjy:
    Benjy: What, you want me to fly the plane and work the radio? What are you, the hostess?!
  • And shortly thereafter, when the control tower asks who's flying the plane:
    (Benjy gestures to himself)
    Dingy: What do you mean "Who's flying the plane"? Nobody's flying the plane!
    (Benjy scowls at Dingy)
  • After the return from the intermission, there's a brief recap of where everyone is. Dingy and Benjy's scene shows the plane rolling over and over, while the unconscious pilot gets thrown about in the background.
  • Colonel Wilberforce's long and slow introduction is probably meant to reassure Benjy and Dingy, but it actually makes things worse:
    Colonel Wilberforce: Men, this is Colonel Wilberforce speaking. These gentlemen here have asked me to take charge of this situation, so I immediately said that I'd be glad to take charge of it. Before I say anything else...
    Benjy: I don't think he's going to help us, Dingy!
  • And then Colonel Wilberforce's attempt to speak to them in Layman's Terms also backfires:
    Colonel Wilberforce: Now, the stick that you're holding, that is, I assume that... (Beat) Men, are you holding that stick? IS SOMEBODY HOLDING THAT STICK?! OVER!
    Benjy: What stick?! Oh, the wheel! I'm holding it.
    Dingy: We're both holding it!
  • Indeed, Colonel Wilberforce is prone to choosing exactly wrong words:
    Colonel Wilberforce's voice on the radio: Just one minute more, it'll be all over. (a flabbergasted look on Benjy and Dingy's faces) I mean, it'll all be over... I mean, courage, men!
  • Colonel Wilberforce at one point is trying to tell Ding and Benjy where the plane's brakes are, but he's tangled up in the microphone's wire which leads to him struggling with it and trying to get out his words:
    Colonel Wilberforce: Now—Now men, you've got to know about the brakes. I'm... I'm gonna tell you about the brakes in just one minute—Just hold on a minute—Just... Just... WHAT THE HELL'S WITH THIS WIRE, HERE?!
  • Finally, when they're landing:
    Dingy: Benjy! Here comes a restaurant! (all screaming)
• Russell, Hawthorne, and Mrs. Marcus are having a fight by the side of the road when Jack Benny drives by:
  Benny: Trouble? Anyone having any trouble?
  Mrs. Marcus: Yes! And we don't need any help from you!
  Benny: [offended] ...Well!
• Sylvester's girlfriend go-go dancing in a bikini, with a stone face that Buster Keaton would envy. They music they're dancing to pauses for a second, they both stop perfectly in sync, and continue once the song does, giving no acknowledgement to the ringing phone. Later, on Mrs. Marcus's third attempt at calling him they're finally dancing to soft, slow music and so are able to hear the phone. Sylvester just keeps dancing to the ringer.
  Sylvester: "You hear bells, baby?"
• Jerry Lewis driving over Culpeper's hat, after it got thrown out the window by accident.
• Don Knotts's cameo as an (of course) nervous driver, especially since he's paired with con-man Phil Silvers, who covers by pretending to be a secret agent ("Can you handle a gun?"^note  Doubly funny when one considers that Knotts was in the middle of his run as Barney Fife on The Andy Griffith Show, in which the character's incompetence with firearms is a Running Gag.).
• A wonderful quiet moment in all the noise - as they all frantically dig for the treasure, Benjy suddenly notices the unfamiliar Culpeper next to him. He stares fixedly, then Culpeper turns, stares back...and slowly breaks into a big friendly smile. Benjy slowly smiles back, then turns away with a big, goofy 'yeah, this is good' grin.
• Mrs. Marcus in stunned disbelief at how badly her call to Sylvester has backfired, before snapping out of it. "EXACTLY LIKE YOUR FATHER! A big, stupid, muscle-headed moron!"
• Russell and Hawthorne foil Mrs. Marcus' Victoria's Secret Compartment moment with the car keys by turning her upside down and shaking her.
• Pretty much any time Sylvester opens his mouth due to his different manner of speaking. Particularly his last line:
  Sylvester: You could've taken a fair share like the rest of us, but no...you had to... grab up the whole scene, baby.
  • Then there's the part where he catches up with Russell and Hawthorne, whom he believes mistreated (and possibly raped) his mother. It's basically a slapstick version of No-Holds-Barred Beatdown.
    Sylvester: Are you English?! Just answer me, ARE YOU ENGLISH?!?!
    Hawthorne: Well yes, as a matter of fact I am.
    Sylvester: (starts to hyperventilate with rage)
    Hawthorne: Why? Don't you like the English?
    Sylvester: AAAAHHHHHHHHHH!!! (tosses him from a low bridge)
  • And a minute later:
    Hawthorne: Have a care, that chap's run absolutely amok!
  • While he's chasing them:
    Sylvester: Boy, are you bugging me, man! It...I'm getting bugged here, woah man!
    Sylvester: I'm coming to save you, Momma! It's why you had me!
    Sylvester: (while ramming Russell and Hawthorne) I - SAID - STOP - THAT - CAR!
• Pike's growing enmity with Mrs. Marcus:
  Pike: Listen, anything you can say about your mother in law, you don't have to tell me! You know what I mean? It's like, if she were the star of a real crummy horror movie, I'd believe it!
  • Meanwhile, Mrs. Marcus is sitting in the car right in front of him giving him a dirty look.
• Melville Crump assuring his wife Monica that the plane from 1916 is perfectly safe. Then it bounces off the ground a couple times before taking off properly.
  • The pilot's wife crossing herself before takeoff. The look on their faces is priceless.
  • The sight of the cars beneath moving faster than their plane.
• Pretty much everything the two cab drivers say, especially the one played by a pre-Columbo Peter Falk. We're introduced to him yelling into a payphone. In addition to being a Deadpan Snarker, he's also got something of a Hair-Trigger Temper:
  Cabbie: The cops in this town are morons! Retarded! I'm dealing with moronic people! What, that fat Nazi give me a ticket?! I'll get arrested because of him?! (As the Crumps try to get his attention) CAN'T YOU SEE I'M TALKIN' ON THE PHONE, HUH?! GIVE ME TWO MINUTES! Now listen to me, Sy... (At this point he notices them covered in gunge and he immediately calms down to ask them why)
• The scene when everyone tries to figure out what the big W is. Especially Benjy.
• Pike finally discovering the big W - in a Delayed Reaction after running straight through the middle of it while chasing Meyer in a homicidal rage.
• "Who're they?!" "I don't know!" "Mama, this thing is like a convention!"
• Meyer's Rage Against the Heavens before driving into a river, interrupting his tirade to the kid to simply look up and shout "Why? WHY!?"
• Culpeper asks Billie Sue what she's doing in the bus station. Cue the irritable yet obvious response: "I'm waiting for the bus!" And then Culpeper holding one phone to the other (Billie Sue is on one phone, Ginger is on the other), yelling into one for Billie Sue to listen to what Ginger has to say.
  Culpeper: BILLIE SUE, LISTEN TO YOUR MOTHER!
• The whole final chase sequence, where the thirteen treasure hunters pile into two cabs to chase down Culpeper. Poor Pike keeps almost getting left behind. One of the best bits is when he runs after one of the cabs, grabs on to the open rear door and holds on for dear life as the cab swings around, before he manages to climb in.
• The miner 'convincing' Mr. Meyer to help him bring medicine to his wife:
  Miner: "LISTEN! Don't force me to get ROUGH!" (rips off the steering wheel).
  • And it's obvious he's trying to be reasonable, too.
  (Beat) Oh, I'm, uh... sorry about the car.
• Mrs. Marcus's "Eureka!" Moment: She, Russell, and Emmeline, are being given a ride by Col. Hawthorne. Everything is perfectly calm and quiet, then:
  Mrs. Marcus: SYLVESTER! (shoves Hawthorne, sending them careening off the road)
• As the money chasers tear along the desert highways, they run a migrant couple's truck off the road, causing it to shed most of its load as it bounces down a hillside. The husband (a cameo by Nick Stewart, best known as Lightnin' on The Amos 'n' Andy Show and the voice of Br'er Bear in "Song of the South") turns to his wife:
  Migrant: [completely straight-faced] I said it before and I'll say it again...I didn't wanna move to California.
• Culpeper's wife trying to have her daughter speak to Culpeper on the phone (while he's listening): "Don't be ridiculous. Whatever else he is, he is your father".
• The final fight over the money on the side of the building ends, as one may have anticipated, with the briefcase opening and spilling the precious money that nearly a dozen characters went to hell and back for all over the street. You can practically see the light in their eyes die as they release it was All for Nothing.
• The climactic sequence on the fire escape and the fire engine ladder provides some of the film's biggest laughs.
  • Monica, Emmeline, and Mrs. Marcus are told to stay behind as Russell, Melville, Dingy, Benjy, Pike, Meyer, Hawthorne, Sylvester, and the two cabbies chase Culpeper up the stairs of a condemned building and onto a fire escape overlooking a public park which is currently hosting a construction workers' union rally. The speaker at the rally is played by Joe E. Brown, who does what he does best when he sees the money-chasers on the fire escape.
    "Hey! Hey! HEEEEEEY!"
  • The fire escape starts to break off the side of the building under the combined weight of the eleven men as they fight over the suitcase, causing it to fall open and the entire $350,000 to flutter to the crowd below. The men can only watch in despair as the loot they've spent the entire film fighting over slips out of their grasp forever - while Mrs. Marcus starts whacking anybody in the crowd who tries to grab the money.
  • A fire engine pulls up, extending its ladder up to the collapsing fire escape - but no sooner has the fireman at the top of the ladder yelled "One at a time! Did you hear me? ONE AT A TIME!" than another bolt between the fire escape and the wall breaks off, causing the eleven men to scramble toward the ladder all at once, ignoring the fireman snarling "You'll see!"^note What? You thought The Aristocats was the only time Sterling Holloway raised his voice?before he climbs down again. Sure enough, they soon find they've traded a bad situation for an even worse one, as the ladder starts swinging out of control until the passengers are thrown to various fates...
    • First to be thrown off is Melville, who is launched through a window and into a stairwell in the condemned building. He tries to haul himself up onto a landing, then gives a groan of resignation and lets himself fall to ground level.
    • Next to be thrown off are the two cabbies; one of them (played by Peter Falk) lands on an ornamental bridge over a stream in the park, splitting it in half, while the other (played by Eddie "Rochester" Anderson) bounces off a trampoline and ends up in the lap of a statue of Abraham Lincoln.
    • Meyer is the next person to be pitched off the ladder, flying through a nearby apartment window and landing on a Murphy bed - which promptly folds up into the wall.
    • Culpeper, Russell, Pike, and Sylvester are dumped into the top of a palm tree, while Dingy, Benjy, and Hawthorne are dropped onto high voltage cables, getting repeated electric shocks as they bounce up and down on the wires until they finally fall into the park fountain. This is as much as the fire engine ladder can take, and it collapses to the ground.
    • As for the palm tree, it swings back and forth until each of the four men at the top are thrown loose: Pike lands in a vat full of construction waste; Russell, with a cry of "Emmeliiiine!", crashes through the roof of a covered construction walkway; Sylvester, with a yelp of "Mama!", lands on the refreshment table for the union rally, sliding along it and sending its contents flying; and finally Culpeper, still holding onto a palm frond, slides zipline-style into the window of a nearby pet store, where he is mobbed by a pack of dogs.
• As you can see, there are scads of them, but the Banana Peel example ends the film on a truly classic note. In the prison hospital, where the eleven men are all in full body casts, Culpeper has just finished grumbling that his life will be infinitely more miserable than that of the other thirteen money chasers thanks to his marriage collapsing, his estrangement from his daughter, the revocation of his pension, and the fact that the judge at their trial will delight in throwing the book at him and letting the others off lightly, and he can only hope that one day he finds a reason to laugh again; the others are utterly unsympathetic. Seconds later, the three women enter, and Mrs. Marcus is only a few words into yet another tirade when she slips on a banana peel thrown onto the floor by Benjy and lands flat on her back. Culpeper soon joins in the gales of laughter from the other men (Sylvester excluded).
• A behind-the-scenes example: Legendary Hollywood stuntman Carey Loftin, who was also the stunt supervisor for the movie, ended up scaring himself into not slacking off early in production. According to Loftin, he hadn't read the call sheet for an upcoming day of filming and was subsequently out late drinking when he was informed by no less than Stanley Kramer himself that he needed to be on set extremely early. Loftin then went home and made himself vomit to clear his stomach of any remaining booze before chugging buttermilk and getting to bed. He then showed up on set, hungover and nervous about what he might be expected to do stunt-wise, only to then be given the exceedingly menial task of being the one to kick Smiler Grogan's bucket and nothing else. Loftin was rather annoyed at Kramer for having him do such a benign "stunt" that he could have done blind drunk, but nevertheless he then made it a point of reading the call sheet every single day of production.

---