Airplane!

Airplane! (titled Flying High! in Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Japan, and the Philippines) is a 1980 American satirical comedy film directed and written by David Zucker, Jim Abrahams, and Jerry Zucker and released by Paramount Pictures. It stars Robert Hays and Julie Hagerty and features Leslie Nielsen, Robert Stack, Lloyd Bridges, Peter Graves, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, and Lorna Patterson. The film is a parody of the disaster film genre, particularly the 1957 Paramount film Zero Hour!, which it follows fairly closely, with superficial changes. For example, Ted Striker was Ted Stryker in the older film. The film is known for its use of absurd and fast-paced slapstick comedy, including visual and verbal puns and gags.

Airplane! was a financial success, grossing over US$83 million in North America alone, against a budget of just $3.5 million. The film's creators received the Writers Guild of America Award for Best Adapted Comedy, and nominations for the Golden Globe Award for Best Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy and a BAFTA Award for Best Screenplay.

In the years since its release, Airplane!'s reputation has grown substantially. The film was voted the 10th-funniest American comedy on AFI's 100 Years... 100 Laughs list in 2000, and ranked sixth on Bravo's 100 Funniest Movies. In a major 2007 survey by Channel 4 in the United Kingdom, it was judged the second greatest comedy film of all time.

In 2008, Airplane! was selected by Empire magazine as one of The 500 Greatest Movies of All Time and in 2012 was voted No. 1 in The 50 Funniest Comedies Ever poll. In 2010 it was selected for preservation in the National Film Registry by the Library of Congress.

Several of the spoken lines, or gags, have become enduring puns in American culture.