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I'm not a negative person, I swear. I realize that more than enough A-Lists I've written have dealt with the crippling disappointment that can come with watching movies, but I'm not negative. Having said that, let's walk once again into the world of crippling disappointment! Despite this week's topic, I am serious about that reality, the idea that certain comedies, recent and old, work very well the first time you see them, and it'd be best if you never saw them again.

I bring this up only because of this week's new comedy, Bruno. The star of Bruno is Sacha Baron Cohen, the chameleonic comedian who first became an internationally known figure with the 2006 raunch-fest known as Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazahkstan. For this column's purposes, let's just call it Borat. That film is incredibly funny, immensely offensive, crude, rude, lewd, and other adjectives that are frequently associated with the most R-rated of comedies. However, I dare you to watch the movie again and find it nearly as funny as you did the first time around. No, repeat viewings of Borat aren't as rewarding, simply because you know all too well that Borat's about to wrestle his best friend in the nude; the element of surprise is no longer there.

Other comedies in the last decade, partly because they're all about making you laugh, without any emotion or deep thought involved, are guilty of failing the second time around, even a certain comedy from the month of June, which is definitely showing up on this list. Either way, I'm chomping at the bit to see Bruno, a movie I expect to laugh at quite a lot, and probably never see again, if only to crystallize that initial viewing. Though this list encompasses the comedy genre, let's not forget that any genre of film can have its offenders.

Take, for instance, the Pirates of the Caribbean trilogy. Here's a series of movies that I—yes, this is true - really enjoy. I'm aware that the second and third films are, combined, an hour or so too long, the characters aren't as fascinating, and the plots are needlessly convoluted. I don't care; however, most people were disappointed with the second film, Dead Man's Chest, partly because the element of surprise was gone. When the first Pirates movie was released, no one expected it to be good, and no one expected Johnny Depp to become a bona fide movie star from being its outrageous lead. That surprise helped the first movie become so successful, but lead to bad word-of-mouth for the second.

Still, I find that comedies are the movies that most often weaken on repeat viewings. It's rare that a comedy, on TV or film, can work as well or better on repeat viewings (a special place is kept in my heart for the dearly departed Arrested Development, one of only a few TV series that improves even on the 100th viewing). Let's dust off the A-List and see which film comedies pale most on repeat viewings.

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