The Hangover: Why Alan Is The Movie's Funniest Character (& 5 Alternatives)
One of the greatest raunchy comedies ever made, The Hangover far exceeded Warner Bros.’ wildest expectations when it became the highest-grossing R-rated comedy in U.S. box office history with a worldwide haul of more than $400 million. It was praised by critics and went on to win the Golden Globe Award for Best Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy.
Alan Garner, the missing groom’s brother-in-law-to-be played by Zach Galifianakis, is arguably the funniest character in the movie. It was hardly surprising when he took the spotlight in the sequels. But The Hangover has a lot of hilarious characters to offer.
10 Alan Is The Funniest: Zach Galifianakis Steals Every Scene
Zach Galifianakis’ breakout performance in The Hangover made him one of the biggest stars in comedy overnight. Before landing the role of Alan, Galifianakis was known only by niche comedy followers for his oddball alternative standup routines.
That all changed after The Hangover hit theaters. Like Melissa McCarthy’s Oscar-nominated turn in Bridesmaids, Galifianakis made himself a bankable movie star with a supporting role by stealing every scene he was in.
9 Alternative: Dr. Valsh
Dr. Valsh only appears in one scene in The Hangover, when the guys go down to the hospital to see if Doug is there, but he leaves a lasting impression. He’s played by Veep’s Matt Walsh, a frequent collaborator of Todd Phillips’.
Walsh brought a hilariously deadpan quality to his line deliveries. After Dr. Valsh tells the guys they were talking about the Best Little Chapel, Phil asks where it is and the doctor dryly says, “It’s on the corner of ‘get a map’ and ‘f*ck off.’”
8 Alan Is The Funniest: The Rest Of The Cast Are The Straight Men To His Antics
Out of the central quartet in The Hangover, Alan is the only one who isn’t an everyman to some degree. Phil, Stu, and Doug are more or less regular guys looking forward to a party weekend in Vegas.
Alan unexpectedly tagging along with them makes all three of them straight men to his wacky antics. This interaction with Stu is a prime example: “You are literally too stupid to insult.” “Thank you.”
7 Alternative: Phil
While Zach Galifianakis is the funniest cast member in The Hangover, Bradley Cooper is the traditional leading man who anchors the movie. Phil is a schoolteacher who steals his students’ money to gamble away in Vegas.
He’s hysterically immature. When one of his students tries to ask him a question outside school, he says, “It’s the weekend, Budnick. I don’t know you. You do not exist.”
6 Alan Is The Funniest: His Idiocy Is Astounding
From Homer Simpson to Frank Drebin, idiocy is a common trait of comedy characters, because stupidity will always be funny.
In The Hangover, Alan’s stupidity is truly astounding. For example, when they check into Caesars Palace, Alan asks if the real Julius Caesar used to live there.
5 Alternative: Jade
One of the wilder antics that the guys get up to on the night they all forget is marrying a stripper. Stu finds out that he met a dancer named Jade in a strip club and when her shift was over, they went to a wedding chapel and got married — and then she left her baby with them.
Heather Graham plays the part brilliantly. The role was initially offered to Lindsay Lohan, but she turned it down.
4 Alan Is The Funniest: He’s The Outsider
While Phil, Stu, and Doug are lifelong besties, Alan only knows Doug from being his fiancée’s brother and he’s never met Phil or Stu before they all embark on a road trip to Vegas.
This makes Alan the outsider of the group, which makes him painfully relatable and also opens him up to more gags as all of his awkward interactions are his first impressions on his new friends.
3 Alternative: Stu
As a mild-mannered dentist stuck in a toxic relationship, Stu is the character who goes the most against his own nature — or what he thinks is his nature — when the gang’s night out in Vegas gets a lot wilder than any of them expected.
He marries a stripper and pulls out one of his own teeth. This set a precedent for Stu to do increasingly outrageous things in the sequels, like getting a Mike Tyson tattoo on his face.
2 Alan Is The Funniest: He’s The Movie’s Wildcard
Alan is The Hangover’s wildcard. Whenever the movie wants to surprise the audience or keep things fresh, it can just use Alan. He always makes dull exposition scenes hilarious by bringing up something like the legality of masturbating on an airplane.
The movie’s big twist reveals that Alan roofied his new friends so that they’d have a great night. As the wildcard of the story, Alan is naturally the funniest part of the ensemble.
1 Alternative: Mr. Chow
A very close second for the title of funniest character in The Hangover is Leslie Chow, played by Ken Jeong, who was so memorable in his brief scenes in this movie that he got equal footing with the main cast in the sequels.
Mr. Chow is a ruthless gangster, but Jeong plays him with an unabashed campness and a ton of memorable lines: “Toodle-oo, motherf**kers!”
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