Article: THE FUNNIEST MOVIES YOU'VE NEVER SEEN; What the world needs now is ... laughs. We got dozens of calls and e-mails after we asked readers to share their favorite seldom-seen comedies.(VARIETY)

Byline: Colin Covert; Staff Writer

Hard times call for big laughs. Lack of peace and prosperity has inspired some of our greatest comedy.

Is it coincidence that W.C. Fields and the Marx Brothers did their best work between the dawn of the Depression and the end of World War II? That Richard Pryor, George Carlin, Mel Brooks and Woody Allen hit their creative peaks in the era of Vietnam and Watergate? That Monty Python flowered when England faced IRA terrorism and economic gloom? That the safe, smug '80s begat Pauly Shore?

Stressed, endorphin-starved brains crave laughter, and we're certainly in need of tension relief right now. So to celebrate ...

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