Tree’s Top 6 Comedy Sequels: ‘The Hangover II’ Not Included

The other night I was watching TV when a commercial for Last Call with Carson Daly came on. His guest was director Todd Phillips who called his mediocre follow-up to The Hangover "The best comedy sequel ever made". This made me think about what films actually do belong on that list and this is what I came up with.

I get that a director has to be proud of his product but 'The Hangover II' is hardly the best comedy sequel ever made, it's not even the best comedy sequel made this year. When you try to think of really good comedy sequels, you probably end up drawing a blank (much like I did). That's because almost every comedy sequel sucks!

The problem is that they try to repackage all the same jokes and feed them back to you again. Unless we're talking spaghetti or goulash, leftovers are never as good as the freshly served meal it was to begin with. Comedy sequels always rely on the formula of their predecessor and always fail because of it. How many times can you see Jason Biggs put his junk in some kind of food or get caught with his pants down before it's not funny at all? The answer for me is once .

I did manage to come up with 6 good comedy sequels for this list and some were actually better than the originals, mostly because they are completely different than the films before it.

#6. 1993's Wayne's World 2
This SNL character based sequel didn't deviate from the formula of the first that much, but it also wasn't so similar that we didn't enjoy it. Just the fact that the movie made it to a second installment gave them some credibility to land a few decent actors that they probably couldn't have got for Wayne's 1. Spoofing films like 'The Doors'', "Jurassic Park", and bringing in a few outlandish new characters to help Wayne and Garth carry the comedic load didn't hurt either.

#5. 1989's Fletch Lives
I often get s--- when I mention that I like this movie because the original 'Fletch' is the one everybody loves. Honestly I like them both and watched the sequel first so maybe that's why I'm not offended. Chevy Chase was the man for a while in the 80's but his comedic draw wore thin after a decade of doing the same thing repeatedly. That didn't stop him from killing in films like this one, 'Caddyshack', and a movie we'll talk about later in the list.

#4. 2000's Next Friday
Initially I forgot about Friday's sequel and had to modify the list for this modern comedic classic. There is no doubt it was tough for Ice Cube to find someone that could take the place of Chris Tucker; Mike Epps ended up being the perfect replacement. Not only did his character Day-Day take Smokey's place, he made us forget all about him. I don't think the movie would've been as successful if Tucker had returned. His absence forced them to make a new movie out of the sequel and I ended up preferring this one to the original after a few viewings. 

#3. 1987's Beverly Hills Cop 2
Axel Foley is the man! I actually enjoyed this sequel more than I did the original. Watching early Eddie Murphy films like this make me wish he still did R comedies instead of voice-over work and kids movies.

#2. 2006's Clerks 2
It's tough for me to put this one second because I loved it so much, but it's clearly the right thing to do. Say what you will of Kevin Smith but the man knows how to make me laugh. Pillow Pants...Come on, how could you not love this movie? It was not as buzz-worthy as the original nor did it have as big of an impact, but it breaks the tradition of formulaic sequels. While there are some recurrences, Clerks 2 is it's own movie (and a damn funny one I might add).

#1. 1989's Christmas Vacation
Yet another film from the golden era of Chevy Chase which blew it's two predecessors out of the water. 'Christmas Vacation' is a true American classic and a must watch for me around the holidays. This movie wouldn't have been half as good if it weren't for Randy Quaid's crazy ass as Uncle Eddie. While he doesn't have as much screen time as Chase, he clearly steals the show. I still drop quotes from this movie all the time; whether it's "sh--ter's full" or "bend over, I'll show ya", this movie is filled with great one-liners.