Jerry Zucker

With his brother David and pal Jim Abrahams, David Zucker helped invent a new kind of comedy that's still with us today. Oh, and Jerry also did Ghost.

Airplane! (1980) -- Directed with David Zucker and Jerry Zucker. The fact that we still think this is funny even though no one much remembers it as a parody of Airport says something. One of the most important comedy films ever made, creating a new sub-genre (most of the followers badly done) of comedy. Of course, it also (along with The Naked Gun) made sure Leslie Neilson would never get a serious job again, but oh well. (See Ken Finkleman for the sequel, Airplane II: The Sequel.)

Ghost (1990) -- I suppose to distinguish himself from his brother David and partner Jim Abrahams, Jerry made this more-serious movie. My memory of it is kind of fuzzy, but basically I remember a kind of sappy romantic story with a decent-enough ghost plot and stupid Whoopie. Maybe I'll watch it again one day and re-evaluate it, but don't hold your breath.

Scary Movie 3 (2003) -- Directed with David Zucker. Scary Movie 2 went horribly wrong, so it was a relief to hear the Zucker brothers would take a crack at the next two sequels. By now their version of parody that they invented in the 80s is kind of old, even sweet, so it doesn't have any of the bite that the first Scary Movie had. But it doesn't just suck like the second one either. For the most part it's pretty funny, though I'll be damned if I can actually remember what any of the jokes were. Of course Leslie Neilson had to show up (someone give him a serious role again, please). (See Keenen Ivory Wayans for the predecessor, Scary Movie 2. See David Zucker for the sequel, Scary Movie 4.)