‘Airplane!’ is in my opinion the funniest movie of all time. ‘Vacation’ and ‘Young Frankenstein’ come pretty close, but ultimately the sheer brilliance of the Zucker brothers’ masterpiece edges out the other two. This past Friday night, I was watching Turner Classic Movies when I got caught up in a B-movie  called ‘Zero Hour!’. As the film progressed, I soon realized that ‘Airplane!’ was completely based upon it. Now I know what you’re thinking, how the hell can someone as devastatingly handsome and charming as Zeitgeisty be home on a Friday night…well, to quote the movie, ‘..that’s not important right now’. 

Anyway, I was having a great time by myself comparing the two flicks and discovered that huge chunks of the actual dialogue in ‘ZH’ were  used verbatim in the Zucker’s version. The thing that was so utterly genius about the Z-bros was the fact that they could see how unintentionally funny the original movie was. It’s just such a classic, over the top, 50s corn-fest and the little additions they made to it, are so subversive and hilarious. After I finished the film I took to the internets to find out more about the connection and learned that the Zuckers had bought the rights to ‘Zero Hour!’ and according to them just basically re-made it. Well, in doing so they created an entirely new genre and a classic that still holds up to this day.

For all you ‘Airplane!’ fans, check out this side by side comparison of the two films.