That was a pretty dumb gag.
You've seen Guy Standeven in something because the man was in everything.

Did Richard Lester actually think that was funny?
Yeah, Yeah. Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha. Yeah.

They were funny, just felt misplaced.
Maybe too many in a row?

It's just absurd though! Completely ridiculous. I watched the DC and it's far superior. Lester was taking the Michael and being disrespectful. Donner didn't include all that in his cut which makes for a far better movie as the scene is serious not a laugh. It just ridicules the whole thing.

What's changed is comic book fans are terrified of being embarrassed by their heroes, so everything must be broody and frowny.
"Starscream cookies are more than meets the icing!" Nostalgia Critic

I found them funny. Just because they're silly and absurd doesn't mean it can't net you a few laughs. Also, the movie is from 1980. That's 33 years back. Call me crazy, but I think comedy has changed since then.
In my opinion, it's gotten worse.
My name is Reek It rhymes with sneak.

You all bashing the movie just because of a few funny scenes that weren't funny to you guys?
I agree, I don't understand why people overreact to that so much. They're just a couple of scenes, they hardly dominate the movie. There has always been an audience for physical comedy (not just children but adults too).
"Starscream cookies are more than meets the icing!" Nostalgia Critic

You all bashing the movie just because of a few funny scenes that weren't funny to you guys?

Dick Lester went overboard with the gags during the tornado scene, like the guy on roller skates. Almost as funny as Richard Pryor falling off a skyscraper with a pink tablecloth. Sarcasm!!

Lester improvised all the silly incidents during the tornado scene, like the guy on the skates and the husband and wife's wig flying off. Too much of that beep showed up in Superman III, and that was part of the problem.

It actually wasn't.
That silly scene felt very different from the tone established up to that point.
However, give me silliness any day over the complete absence of any humor or soul in Man of Steel.

To each their own. I roll my eyes each time I see those scenes. I felt all the "gags" in questions to be very lame and brings down the fight with the 3 Kryptonian villains.

That gets knocked over and continues to talk as if nothing happened. Did Richard Lester actually think that was funny?
Not every superhero movie has to be utterly pofaced.
I was four when I first watched Superman 1 & 2 and loved the humour in them - Especially the phonebox scenes.
Richard Lester's humour sensebilities may not be as classic as The Marx Brothers or as witty as Woody Allen, but he's more like a Blake Edwards or Stanley Kramer. Big, broad, silly jokes - And it's perfectly suited to a series of silly superhero movies like Superman.
Calvin Candie: You sir are a sore loser
Dr. King Schultz:And you are an abysmal winner

What do you expect when you let a 4 year old direct a major motion picture?
Death to shakeycam directors!

Yes, Richard Lester actually did think that was funny. In fact, in the 1982 featurette "The Making of Superman II", Lester himself says, with considerable glee:
There's a whole a sequence where the villans blow - use their "super breath" to create a kind of tornado that sweeps people down the streets. Once you know how to do that specific effect with one stuntman, it's very easy to ad-lib, and in fact in a period of three nights we ad-libbed that whole sequence. And it wasn't something that had to be written out in advance and therefore, for me, it was a delight, it was a joy to be able to go up and invent gags on the spot.
(If you get a chance to watch the documentary, you'll find this quote near the end, around the 44:40 mark.)

Yes, the scenes are ridiculous, but as a kid I must say it helped me to feel less traumatized during all those scenes of destruction. And I recall the audience bursting out into laughter when that dude's wig blows off, and when the KFC(?) lady says "You forgot your chaaaaange!"
"Come on, Skip. It's go-go, not cry-cry!"

You can tell by the opening scenes of slapstick mayhem in Superman iii that Lester obviously loved that stuff and did think it was funny.

You have all the sense of humor of an onion.
You're gonna talk about anyone's sense of humor, when you find
that
funny?

The phone scene was amusing for it's absurdity. You have all the sense of humor of an onion.
"Spock is the shiz-nit!"

It's funny if you guys have a great sense of humor.Which obviously you don't.
You consider finding that scene funny, having a "great sense of humor"? You sound like a regular riot!

It's funny if you guys have a great sense of humor.Which obviously you don't.
You want to play the game, you'd better know the rules, love.
-Harry Callahan

Some New Yorkers are like that.
None of us are like that!

Some New Yorkers are like that.

I know, I have that copy on DVD. If only he had been able to finish his version in the first place!