Punchline

1988
R
2h 8m

IMDb RATING

5.9/10

9.4K

YOUR RATING

Tom Hanks and Sally Field in Punchline (1988)

Play trailer2:10

2 Videos

56 Photos

Comedy Drama Romance

A medical-school dropout and a homemaker/mom try to make it as stand-up comedians. They become friends and help each other out at a New York City comedy club.A medical-school dropout and a homemaker/mom try to make it as stand-up comedians. They become friends and help each other out at a New York City comedy club.A medical-school dropout and a homemaker/mom try to make it as stand-up comedians. They become friends and help each other out at a New York City comedy club.

See production info at IMDbPro

IMDb RATING

5.9/10

9.4K

YOUR RATING

See production info at IMDbPro

Awards
- 1 win

Videos2

Trailer 2:10

Punchline

Clip 2:48

Punchline: A Really Big Fan

Clip 2:48

Punchline: A Really Big Fan

Photos56

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Storyline

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Did you know

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Trivia
About two months before the film started principal photography, Tom Hanks wrote and performed a five-minute stand-up comedy routine at the Los Angeles Comedy Store in California. Hanks once said of this: "It was pure flop sweat time, an embarrassment. That material lasted 1 minute 40 seconds, and it had no theme".

Goofs
When Steven and Lilah are riding the #7 subway, the Manhattan terminus of the line is shown as Lexington Avenue. The actual terminus should be 42nd Street/Times Square.

Quotes
Steven: We are all God's animated cartoons.

Connections
Featured in Siskel & Ebert: Punchline/Heartbreak Hotel/Memories of Me/Bird/Kansas (1988)

Soundtracks
Remember Tonight and Smile
Words and Music by Michael Pollock
[Played leading into the end credits]

User reviews43

Review

Featured review

8/10

not surprisingly misunderstood

A reviewer once complained that "Punchline" commits an unforgivable sin by being an unfunny movie about stand up comics. For anyone who agrees, try looking "irony" up in the dictionary - it's an element that's occasionally used outside of the literary world.

The film's deliberately awkward and painful scenes illustrate the point, "Lady, nothing is a joke to me. That's why I'm in comedy. And that's why you're not."

The same reviewer made the hilarious claim that comics never tell jokes out of compulsion or denial, but simply because "they love making other people laugh." newsflash: creative and hysterical people are often highly dysfunctional! :D thank you goodnight!