Leslie Nielsen

Airplane! gives Nielsen’s authoritative doctor a world full of absurd situations and literal misunderstandings. He treats the dialogue with the seriousness expected in a disaster film, which makes the gap between manner and meaning the source of the laugh. Start with his exchanges aboard the aircraft and watch how little he acknowledges the joke. The later Naked Gun films develop the same principle through Frank Drebin: apparent professional confidence remains intact even when events make it indefensible.