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5. Comedian (2002)
By IFC
on 06/25/2009
Plenty of trailers on this list advertise movies without showing any clips from them. But even spots comprised of entirely new footage made specifically for the trailer usually include the stars or creators of the film being advertising and at least some mention of what the movie's about. Until a title card ten seconds before the end of the teaser that reads "A Film About Comedy With Jerry Seinfeld," there's literally no indication of what "Comedian" is about (or, for that matter, an appearance by Jerry Seinfeld). The 90-second teaser features one of those gravel-throated voiceover guys (the legendary Hal Douglas, second only to the late Don LaFontaine in recognizability) throwing out trailerese chestnuts like "In a world!" or "One man!" until he's fired by his exasperated producer.
It's an atypical approach for a trailer, but a fairly typical representation of Seinfeld's approach to advertising, as evidenced in his many American Express commercials where he pokes fun at the accepted-but-bizarre tropes of marketing (Christian Charles, Seinfeld's collaborator on his AmEx campaign, directed and co-wrote the "Comedian" teaser). Even without its star, the trailer works because it's so totally infused with his didja-ever-notice-that comedic worldview; you can almost hear Seinfeld in the editing room going, "What's the deal with that guy who does the voices in trailers? 'When your life is no longer your own?' What the hell does that mean?" And consider this: since this "Comedian" trailer premiered, how often have you heard the phrase "In a world..." in a trailer? --Matt Singer
I guess you guys haven't seen the trailer for The Hughes Bros.'s Dead Presidents, huh? What about Forest Gump? I think those are the 2 greatest of all time. Gump is better than the movie. And Dead Prez is the best ever.
Oh... what about the SW Ep 1 teaser? Maybe you should call this the best film trailers on YouTube! LOL. Dead Prez is probably too hard for you to locate.
I think The Dark Knight, Iron Man, and 300 should be included!
Clerks? No love for the Clerks trailer? Sigh.
Honorable mention for the Grindhouse fake trailers? "Don't" was brilliant.
Great list, by the way. Thanks for including 'Man Who Wasn't There'
Seriously? We have to click 50 times just to get the damn list? No thanks.
Like clicking 50 times is soooo hard, right? But you guys forgot about There Will Be Blood!!
50 PAGES?!!! Get back to work researching how to post an article. No Digg for you.
50 PAGES?!!! Get back to work researching how to post an article. No Digg for you.
GREAT article and flawless pick for #1. I actually did a lil piece on that trailer at our own movie blog, so I'm elated to see as your top pick. Yay trailers!