I’ve always liked it ever since I was a kid. This past Sunday’s Parade Magazine had a great segment called, ‘Stay Healthy…Spring Clean Your Brain!’ in which the executive director of the Global Council on Brain Heath said, “I’ve mad a conscious decision to turn off bad news and realize how lucky we are to be alive!”
The director of the Weill Cornell Medicine Women’s Brain Initiative said, “We could all really use an endorphin-releasing, stress-relieving big belly laugh as often as we can!” and then the article ends with, “Need Inspiration? go to Parade.com/laugh for 120 of the funniest movies of all time”.
So here it is, I am disappointed in myself because I haven’t seen most of these but I did watch the very first entry. I highly recommend it.
Turn off the news!
Looking for a Lifetime of Laughs? We’ve Got You Covered With The 120 Best Comedies of All Time
MOVIES
How can you tell if you’re watching one of the best comedies of all time? First off, they make you crack up every time you think of them: think the dinner party in Beetlejuice, the printer massacre in Office Space, Jack Lemmon celebrating his engagement in Some Like It Hot, Harpo Marx showing off his tattoos in Duck Soup. And they get funnier with every viewing: Marisa Tomei’s “hostile witness” testimony in My Cousin Vinny or Michael Palin announcing the name change of the Knights Who Say “Ni” in Monty Python and the Holy Grail.
With these major criteria in mind, we set out to determine the best comedy films of every decade for the past 100 years. We looked for films that are funny from beginning to end, even if the humor becomes increasingly warped (as in future classic Sorry to Bother You) or is interspersed with moments of pathos (like the British cult favorite Withnail and I). Strictly for simplicity’s sake, we limited the list to English-language films. And although some of these films hinge on jokes and plot points that wouldn’t work today, they’re funny enough to transcend their limitations and bring the laughs for generations of moviegoers.
Finally, there are a million wonderful movies that didn’t make the cut—and each one on the list can lead you down a rabbit hole toward more great screwball comedies, quirky mockumentaries or musical farces. Here, with links to streaming video, is Parade’s list of the 120 best comedies of all time. It’s-a very nice.
Best Comedies of the 1920s
Sherlock Jr. (1924)
Silent film legend Buster Keaton’s comedy is the shortest film on this list—but those 45 minutes showed the world how movies had their own, totally unique comic possibilities. Accused of a theft he didn’t commit, a lovelorn projectionist (Keaton) imagines himself into a mystery film as the heroic detective.
The Gold Rush (1925)
Charlie Chaplin’s “Little Tramp” seeks his fortune by joining the Klondike Gold Rush—only to face bears, avalanches and starvation—in this influential, ambitious and sometimes shockingly dark comedy. Among the silent movie’s iconic comic scenes are Chaplin’s dinner roll dance, and a Thanksgiving dinner scene in which he eats his own shoe.
Best Comedies of the 1930s
Animal Crackers (1930)
A caper about a stolen painting that unfolds during an upper-crust Long Island Party, this adaptation of the Marx Brothers’ 1928 Broadway show stars Groucho Marx as renowned explorer Captain Spaulding, who has a great story about shooting an elephant in his pajamas. Harpo’s silent role as “the Professor” has some cringey interactions with women that are played for laughs, but also executes some of his funniest visual gags.
City Lights (1931)
Charlie Chaplin’s greatest film shows the jaw-dropping range that made him a cinematic legend: he could turn a plate of spaghetti into an uproarious gag, then break your heart with a love story. In this silent romantic comedy, Chaplin’s “Little Tramp” character falls in love with a blind flower girl (Virginia Cherrill) who mistakenly believes him to be a rich man. The film’s final scene, in which the Tramp meets the girl for the first time since she has regained her sight, is unforgettable.
Duck Soup (1933)
The Marx brothers’ funniest movie (and that’s saying something) casts Groucho Marx in the role of incompetent national leader Rufus T. Firefly, Chico Marx and Harpo Marx as equally incompetent spies, and Margaret Dumont as the nation of Freedonia’s wealthy benefactor. The political-satire plot is mainly a clothesline on which to hang some of the most hilarious sketches and gags ever captured on film, including the iconic “mirror scene” (where the brothers pretend to be reflections of one another) and a slapstick street-vendor battle that will have anyone between the ages of two and 92 rolling in the aisles.
The Thin Man (1932)
No one has ever made marriage look like more fun than Nick and Nora Charles (William Powell and Myrna Loy), the gorgeous detective duo who specialize in strong cocktails, sparkling repartee and solving murders. Nick and Nora’s witty, flirty conversations, in both The Thin Man and its five sequels, are an experience to be treasured.
A Night at the Opera (1935)
The Marx Brothers bring their lovable anarchy to the classical-music world in a film that contains a whole lot of opera music, but also a few of their best bits, including Groucho and Chico’s contract negotiation and a legendary scene that crowds 15 people into a third-class cruise ship cabin.
My Man Godfrey (1936)
The quintessential Depression Era comedy tells the story of a bubble-headed heiress (Carole Lombard) and her kooky family, who hire a “forgotten man” (William Powell) off the streets as an act of charity. Lombard is hysterically funny in a film that, in typical Hollywood style, mercilessly skewers the rich while still making money the key to a happy ending.
Topper (1937)
A hard-partying but blissfully happy married couple (Cary Grant and Constance Bennett) crashes their car and dies at the start of Norman Z. McLeod’s supernatural screwball comedy. Unsure why they’ve become ghosts instead of ascending to heaven, George and Marion Kirby decide to do a good deed by giving a full-life makeover to their dowdy, depressed friend Cosmo Topper (Roland Young). Despite inspiring two sequels and multiple television adaptations, Topper has slipped through the cracks and is currently unavailable to legally stream or purchase. Watch it on YouTube while you can.
Bringing Up Baby (1938)
The epitome of the “screwball comedy” genre that emerged during the Depression, Howard Hawks’ delightful film stars Katherine Hepburn as a ditzy, free-spirited heiress, and Cary Grant as the uptight paleontologist who gets caught up in her whirlwind. Hepburn and Grant could play beautifully opposite anybody, but they’re especially wonderful together, turning every moment of leopard-chasing, cross-dressing and jail-breaking into delightful foreplay.
Best comedies of the 1940s
The Great Dictator (1940)
A daring satire of Adolf Hitler and a bold statement against fascism, Charlie Chaplin’s most controversial film has him playing both a Hitler-like dictator and the lookalike Jewish barber who’s mistaken for him. Watching Chaplin play the fool in the guise of modern history’s greatest monster—before the world fully understood the true horrors of the Third Reich—still feels subversive.
The Philadelphia Story (1940)
On the day before her wedding to a self-made man (John Howard), fiercely independent socialite Tracy Lord (Katharine Hepburn) has her life complicated by two other bachelors: a struggling writer sent to profile her for a tabloid (James Stewart) and her wealthy first husband (Cary Grant). This sophisticated, witty and compassionate comedy was originally written for Broadway with Hepburn in mind, and she is sensational—though it’s Stewart who carries off the funniest drunk scene in film history.
Ball of Fire (1941)
Thanks to the Criterion Channel, Howard Hawks’ witty and risqué spin on Snow White—starring Barbara Stanwyck as a nightclub singer who hides out from the mob at the home of seven bachelor professors (among them Gary Cooper), in exchange for teaching them slang words for their encyclopedia—is available to watch for the first time in years.
The Road to Morocco (1942)
The best of Bob Hope, Bing Crosby and Dorothy Lamour’s “Road pictures” has all the magic ingredients of the seven-film comedy franchise: witty banter, amusing tunes, exotic locales and fourth-wall-breaking gags that were years ahead of their time.
Arsenic and Old Lace (1944)
Cary Grant (an ex-acrobat and underrated physical comedian) does some of the best double-takes ever recorded in Frank Capra’s cartoonish black comedy, about a Brooklyn drama critic (Grant) who discovers on his wedding day that the lovely old aunts who raised him (Jean Adair and Josephine Hull) are serial murderers.
Best comedies of the 1950s
Singin’ in the Rain (1952)
MGM’s singing, dancing, Hollywood-spoofing crowd-pleaser is easily the best musical comedy Hollywood ever produced. It’s also among the funniest films of any genre, particularly when it comes to effervescent musical numbers like Donald O’ Connor’s “Make ‘Em Laugh” and Gene Kelly’s soaking-wet performance of the title song. Debbie Reynolds is a delightfully sassy ingenue, and Jean Hagen almost walks away with the film as a silent-movie star with a voice that could break glass.
The Band Wagon (1953)
Legendary song-and-dance man Fred Astaire brutally satirizes his own fading career in Vincente Minnelli’s musical gem, about a famed Hollywood hoofer (Astaire) who teams with a pair of New York playwrights (Oscar Levant and Nanette Fabray, themselves parodies of screenwriters Betty Comden and Adolph Green), a prima ballerina (Cyd Charisse) and an eccentric director (Jack Buchanan) to mount his Broadway comeback–with unexpected results.
Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1953)
Marilyn Monroe and Jane Russell are perfection in this cheeky musical comedy about two showgirls trying to find love aboard a cruise ship. As their signature songs explain, Lorelei (Monroe) is only interested in a suitor who can afford diamonds, while Dorothy (Russell) goes after the best-looking men…who may not be interested in women at all.
The Seven Year Itch (1955)
The premise is so sexist, it’s almost quaint: an ordinary guy (Tom Ewell) whose wife and kids are out of town for the summer is tempted to infidelity when a gorgeous, nameless blonde (Marilyn Monroe) moves into the apartment upstairs. But Monroe is so effervescently funny, and Ewell’s attempts at being a Casanova are so ridiculous, that it’s impossible not to laugh. Billy Wilder’s film is loaded with risqué-for-the-fifties double entendres, including that famous scene above a subway grate.
Auntie Mame (1958)
One of mid-century cinema’s most memorable characters, Mame Dennis (Rosalind Russell) is a free-spirited socialite in 1920s Greenwich Village, whose hard-partying life changes (but not too much) when she becomes the legal guardian of her young nephew Patrick. Russell lands each deadpan punchline and wears every outlandish costume like she was born in it, while the antics of Mame’s eccentric family (both biological and chosen) stay hilarious through every decade.
Some Like It Hot (1959)
A sex comedy that turns gender norms inside-out, Billy Wilder’s movie is about two 1920s musicians (legendary comedic actor Jack Lemmon and fifties sex symbol Tony Curtis) who become accidental witnesses to a speakeasy gang murder, then go into hiding by dressing in drag and joining an all-girl band. Things get even more complicated when they both fall for Sugar (Marilyn Monroe), an unlucky-in-love jazz singer who laments that she “always gets the fuzzy end of the lollipop.” The three stars are a dynamite trio, and keep you guessing right up until the film’s immortal last line.
Pillow Talk (1959)
The original trailer called it a “sparkling sexcapade,” which is still a pretty fantastic description of Michael Gordon’s flirty confection. In their first of many films together, Rock Hudson is a playboy songwriter who assumes multiple identities in order to seduce Doris Day’s uptight interior decorator.
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Best comedies of the 1960s
Bells are Ringing (1960)
Judy Holliday, a dazzling comedic genius who deserves to be better remembered, plays a role written especially for her in Vincente Minnelli’s stylish Broadway-musical adaptation. Playing a telephone operator who assumes different characters for different answering-service clients, including her unseen dream man (Dean Martin), Holliday delivers one dynamic song and killer impression after another.
A Shot in the Dark (1964)
In his sequel to his hit The Pink Panther, director Blake Edwards wisely turned the spotlight on a supporting character from the original film: Inspector Jacques Clouseau, the accident-prone detective played by the great Peter Sellers. Sellers went on to star in eight more Pink Panther comedies, but A Shot in the Dark remains the funniest, a master class in slapstick and physical comedy.
Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964)
“Gentlemen, you can’t fight in here! This is the War Room!” Stanley Kubrick’s dark Cold War comedy so expertly satirizes politics and the military that it has remained a timeless classic, with British comedy legend Peter Sellers playing no fewer than three memorable roles.
The Producers (1967)
Joyously vulgar and deranged, Mel Brooks’ debut feature opens with failed Broadway producer Max Bialystock (Zero Mostel) pimping himself to old ladies, and builds to a song-and-dance extravaganza called “Springtime for Hitler.” There’s no doubt that the film is significantly less shocking than it was in the 1960s (particularly after its edges were smoothed for the hit Broadway adaptation). It doesn’t matter because Mostel and Gene Wilder, who plays socially anxious accountant Leo Bloom, are one of the funniest duos in cinematic history. And the go-for-broke premise—Bialystock ropes Bloom into a financial scam, which will only work if they produce a Broadway show that’s so bad it closes after one performance—may be the masterstroke of Brooks’ incredible comedy career.
The Graduate (1967)
When a panicked Dustin Hoffman blurts out, “Mrs. Robinson, you’re trying to seduce me!” at an amused Ann Bancroft, it sparks one of the funniest, loneliest, and most memorable affairs in cinema history. Mike Nichols’ era-defining comedy is a poignant look at a young adult trying to find his footing in a previous generation’s world, but the punchlines (like this kiss, borrowed from Nichols and Elaine May’s legendary stage show) are timeless.
The Odd Couple (1968)
You want jokes? Playwright and screenwriter Neil Simon could craft a one-liner like no one else, and he never did it better than in this evergreen, perfectly cast comedy about two opposite personalities (Jack Lemmon as neurotic Felix Unger and Walter Matthau as laid-back slob Oscar Madison) who share a small New York City apartment.
Best comedies of the 1970s
Willy Wonka & The Chocolate Factory (1971)
Gene Wilder gives a transcendently weird performance as the title character of this children’s musical fantasia, a mysterious genius whose magical candy factory becomes a death trap for naughty children. Willy Wonka is a reason for a classic—wait. strike that. Reverse it.
Harold and Maude (1971)
Hal Ashby’s dark comedy begins and ends with death, but it’s all about embracing life—as embodied by Ruth Gordon’s straight-up delightful performance as a 79-year-old bohemian who teaches a young, depressed man (Bud Cort) how to fall in love.
What’s Up, Doc? (1972)
This fast-paced farce about four strangers who check into a hotel with identical plaid suitcases is Peter Bogdanovich’s tribute to the screwball comedies of the late 1930s (particularly Bringing Up Baby). It’s also a near-perfect film on its own terms, boasting Barbra Streisand’s funniest performance and a dizzying climactic chase through the streets of San Francisco.
Blazing Saddles (1974)
Mel Brooks released his two best film parodies in the same year, and it’s tough to choose the funnier one. Blazing Saddles sends up the whole genre of Hollywood Westerns, highlighting the implicit racism of the cowboy myth by putting a black sheriff (the wonderful Cleavon Little) in the lead role. Richard Pryor cowrote the screenplay, controversial then and now for its frequent use of the n-word in the name of comedy. But there’s no denying the film is subversive. And there’s brilliant humor for everyone here—whether you like witty social commentary, impressions (Madeline Kahn does a mean Marlene Dietrich) or extended fart jokes.
Young Frankenstein (1974)
Mel Brooks and star Gene Wilder collaborated on this straight-faced, black-and-white parody of classic horror movies, in which every cast member plays perfectly to type (Wilder as the mad scientist, Peter Boyle as the monster, Cloris Leachman as the housekeeper with all the secrets, Teri Garr as the ingenue, Marty Feldman as assistant Igor). No one who watches it will ever again pronounce “Frankenstein” without thinking twice—or be able to hear “Puttin’ On the Ritz” without laughing.
Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1975)
Every line of Monty Python’s preposterous Arthurian saga has been quoted to death for decades, and yet characters like the Knights Who Say “Ni,” the Rabbit of Caerbannog and Sir Robin the Not-Quite-So-Brave-As-Sir-Lancelot are as side-splittingly funny as they were in 1975. The comedy ensemble (composed of Graham Chapman, John Cleese, Terry Gilliam, Eric Idle, Terry Jones and Michael Palin) delivers 92 minutes of witty historical satire, over-the-top violence, surrealist scenarios and crass insults. There’s no better example of British humor’s highbrow-lowbrow appeal.
Annie Hall (1977)
A movie about the end of a relationship that takes us back to the beginning, Woody Allen’s comedy tracks the romance between awkward comedian Alvy Singer (Allen) and the flighty chanteuse of the title (Diane Keaton). The disputed facts of Allen’s personal life have sapped the enjoyment from many of his films, but Annie Hall still strikes a light-hearted chord, with its ruthlessly honest take on dating (“we all need the eggs”) and a truly wonderful Keaton performance.
The Jerk (1979)
It takes two comic geniuses (in this case, writer and star Steve Martin and director Carl Reiner) to invent a character as stupendously stupid as The Jerk’s Navin Johnson, a country boy who leaves home, joins the circus, gets rich, loses everything and still has no idea how any of it happened. The best bits of this hysterical, absurd comedy (“I don’t need anything!”, “I know we’ve only known each other for four weeks…”) were adapted directly from Martin’s standup routines.
The Muppet Movie (1979)
The vaudeville humor of the original Muppets was a throwback to an era of layered jokes that could be appreciated by audiences of all ages. Jim Henson’s comic sensibilities found their perfect vehicle in The Muppet Movie, a road-trip comedy that embraces every sight gag, celebrity cameo, running joke and musical punchline with contagious glee. By the end of the film, those puppets have earned Orson Welles’ standard rich-and-famous contract.
Monty Python’s Life of Brian (1979)
Monty Python’s ruthless Biblical satire tells the story of Brian, an ancient Judean who grows up in the same neighborhood as Jesus Christ and is mistaken for the Messiah. The very concept was so controversial that the film only received funding by the grace of the Pythons’ pal George Harrison. Decades later, Life of Brian remains shockingly funny, and reminds us to always look on the bright side of life.
Best comedies of the 1980s
Airplane! (1980)
A shamelessly silly spoof of airplane-disaster films, this entry in the Zucker, Abrahams and Zucker parody-comedy canon features comic actor Leslie Neilsen (playing the proverbial “doctor on board”) at his straight-faced best. Just don’t call him Shirley.
Nine to Five (1980)
Office workers Lily Tomlin, Jane Fonda and Dolly Parton turn against a sexist boss (Dabney Coleman) in a lightweight comedy that’s elevated by its four fantastic leads. The scene in which Parton’s beleaguered secretary fantasizes about being the harasser, instead of the harassed, is a highlight.
Tootsie (1982)
Just like his character, unemployable actor Michael Dorsey, Dustin Hoffman takes playing a woman very seriously—which is why he’s so much funnier as his actress alter ego Dorothy Michaels. Parts of Larry Gelbart’s script (which received an uncredited rewrite from comedy legend Elaine May) seem hopelessly retrograde, but it’s perceptive enough about misogyny, and has enough great jokes, to earn its classic status.
My Favorite Year (1982)
A love letter to the live television of the 1950s (particularly the sketch comedy series Your Show of Shows), this comedy stars Peter O’Toole as Alan Swann, an aging Hollywood star who’s still partying like it’s 1940. When Swann comes to New York City to appear on a live variety show, a young writer (Mark Linn-Baker) volunteers to help keep him in line—and gets a lot more than he bargained for.
National Lampoon’s Vacation (1983)
“When I was a boy, just about every summer we’d take a vacation,” says weary dad Clark Griswold (Chevy Chase), “and you know, in 18 years, we never had fun.” The first and best Vacation film celebrates the time-honored tradition of taking miserable family road trips that everyone will one day look back on with nostalgia.
This is Spinal Tap (1984)
Actor-musicians Christopher Guest, Michael McKean and Harry Shearer improvised most of their dialogue for Rob Reiner’s rock musical, which turned the mockumentary into a comedy form all its own. The comedy icons play the dim-witted members of an English heavy metal band with such earnestness that every stupid song and off-the-cuff joke just gets funnier and funnier.
Beverly Hills Cop (1984)
Peak-Hollywood Eddie Murphy is firing on all cylinders in this blockbuster action-comedy. Murphy plays Axel Foley, an inventive, impetuous Detroit detective who will stop at nothing (including a banana in the tailpipe) to find the man who murdered his friend in wealthy Beverly Hills.
Ghostbusters (1984)
When someone asks you if you’re a god, what do you say? Ghostbusters turned New York City into a supernatural sandbox that everyone still wants to play in (a fourth Ghostbusters feature is in production), but it’s Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd, Harold Ramis and Ernie Hudson’s perfectly-delivered jokes (“Cats and dogs living together, mass hysteria!”) that make the first film play like (who you gonna call?) gangbusters.
Top Secret! (1984)
No film genre is safe in this zany spoof of World War II spy movies, Elvis movies, surf movies, Hammer horror films and anything else that came into the minds of slapstick savants Zucker, Abrahams and Zucker. An American rock star (Val Kilmer in his film debut) joins an anti-German resistance movement and falls in love, but the plot matters less than the top-notch visual gags.
Clue (1985)
The rare film that has grown funnier with age, this star-studded murder-mystery spoof (inspired by the board game) was released in theaters with one of three randomly selected endings. Audiences hated it…until it arrived on home video and concluded with all three different endings, back-to-back, each funnier than the next. That triple-ending is the cherry on top of a film that’s full of great moments, including the very gif-able “flames” monologue improvised by Madeline Kahn.
Pee-wee’s Big Adventure (1985)
He’s an adult who acts like a child, dresses like a ventriloquist dummy and talks like a congested cartoon frog. Yet somehow Pee-wee Herman, the creation of comedian Paul Reubens, coalesced into an ageless pop-culture icon. In his film debut (which predated the children’s show Pee-wee’s Playhouse), Pee-Wee goes on a road trip to recover his beloved red bicycle. From the Rube Goldberg device that makes his breakfast to his “Tequila” dance at a biker bar, this is Pee-Wee at his campy, zany best.
Ferris Bueller’s Day Off (1986)
“Bueller? Bueller? Bueller?” Matthew Broderick is irresistible as the fearless, smooth-talking teen we all wished we were in high school, and Alan Ruck is a perfect counterpart as his neurotic best friend. Cameron Frye, this one’s for you.
Moonstruck (1987)
Romantic comedies are full of ingenious replies to “I love you,” but Cher slapping Nicolas Cage and shouting “Snap out of it!” may be the very best one. Norman Jewison’s unabashedly romantic film about couples in an Italian Brooklyn neighborhood is warm, funny and peak Cher.
The Princess Bride (1987)
“Anybody want a peanut?” Not a scene in William Goldman’s hybrid-genre fairytale (a fantasy-action-family-comedy-romance) goes by without a quotable joke, from “As you wish” to “Inconceivable!” to “Have fun storming the castle!” The whole ensemble is perfection, and the late Andre the Giant’s winning performance as Fezzik is a small cinematic miracle.
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Withnail & I (1987)
Two unemployed London actors, dissolute Withnail (Richard E. Grant) and his anxious, unnamed friend (Paul McGann), go to the country for a relaxing holiday and find their lives falling to pieces in this cult-classic dark comedy, set in 1969.
Hollywood Shuffle (1987)
Robert Townsend’s autobiographical satire, made on a shoestring budget, is a bold sendup of the ways in which African-American actors are pigeonholed in Hollywood. The Black Acting School sequence in particular is a classic.
Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988)
This Disney murder mystery’s extremely loony concept (pun intended) generates endless gags: in a world where classic cartoon characters live side-by-side with humans, mishaps and mixups are bound to ensue. (For example: if you order a drink on the rocks at a ‘toon bar, don’t expect ice.) The combination of animated slapstick and deadpan film-noir cliches makes for comedy gold, with the best lines going to Bob Hoskins’ tortured 1940s detective and Joanna Cassidy as the tough dame who loves him.
Dirty Rotten Scoundrels (1988)
Steve Martin and Michael Caine are on fire in this gleefully clever comedy about feuding con artists on the French Riviera. It’s good material, made great by director Frank Oz’s impeccable comic timing—even the way he frames shots is funny.
A Fish Called Wanda (1988)
British comedy great John Cleese and director Charles Crichton cowrote this dark crime comedy and gave the actors a chance to collaborate on their characters. As a result, Jamie Lee Curtis (playing American con artist Wanda, in England to assist with a jewel heist) and Kevin Kline (as Wanda’s partner-in-crime Otto, an idiot who fancies himself a genius) give the best comic performances of their careers, holding their own against Cleese and his Monty Python pal Michael Palin.
Beetlejuice (1988)
The haunted dinner scene alone (“Day-o!”) merits the inclusion of Tim Burton’s singular suburban-gothic comedy, about a newly-dead couple (Alec Baldwin and Geena Davis) who team up with a lewd, obnoxious demon (Michael Keaton) to scare away the new family (including Catherine O‘Hara and her death-obsessed stepdaughter Winona Ryder) who has moved into their home.
The Naked Gun: From the Files of Police Squad! (1988)
Playing thickheaded police sergeant Frank Drebin, Leslie Nielsen shoots off one ridiculous punchline after another–and the stupider they get, the funnier this schticky send-up of detective films becomes.
When Harry Met Sally (1989)
Nora Ephron’s script for this beloved film, about a friendship teetering for years on the edge of romance, represents the peak of romantic comedy writing–funny, insightful (“You’re right, you’re right, I know you’re right”), romantic and full of zingers (“Oh, but ‘baby fish mouth’ is sweeping the nation”). The film was a close collaboration between Ephron, director Rob Reiner and stars Billy Crystal and Meg Ryan; Crystal famously came up with the perfect line that capped the deli orgasm scene.
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Best comedies of the 1990s
Pretty Woman (1990)
What was originally scripted as a gritty drama about Los Angeles prostitutes became a modern-day fairy tale under the direction of Garry Marshall. Julia Roberts brings oodles of charm and her contagious laugh to the role of streetwalker Vivian Ward, who catches the eye of a wealthy, lonely businessman (Richard Gere). To leave Pretty Woman off the list would be a big mistake. Big. Huge.
Wayne’s World (1992)
Inspired by their super-popular SNL sketch about Wayne and Garth, two simple-minded musicians who host a public-access cable show from Wayne’s parents’ basement, Wayne’s World is an ideal showcase for the highbrow-lowbrow wit of Mike Myers (Wayne) and the creative lunacy of Dana Carvey (Garth). Their “Bohemian Rhapsody” singalong is one of the best comedy bits of the decade, but it’s the small jokes (“Hi. I’m in Delaware.”) that make the movie.
Sister Act (1992)
Whoopi Goldberg and Maggie Smith are a heavenly mismatch in this feel-good film, about a Reno lounge singer (Goldberg) who witnesses a mob hit and is forced to hide out in a convent, posing as a nun. As the disapproving Mother Superior, Smith can make you laugh with a twitch of her eyebrow; Goldberg, as always, is a comedy virtuoso; and every member of the supporting cast (the nuns played by Kathy Najimy and Mary Wickes, Bill Nunn’s police officer, Harvey Keitel as the mob-boss boyfriend) is a godsend.
My Cousin Vinny (1992)
Innocent New York teens Bill and Stan (the “two yutes”) are arrested for murder while road-tripping through Alabama, so they call the only lawyer they know: Bill’s cousin Vinny (Joe Pesci), a fast-talking Brooklynite who has never been to trial. Pesci is comedy dynamite, particularly in the trial scenes; Marisa Tomei, who won an Oscar for her performance as Vinny’s fed-up fiancée, is even better.
A League of Their Own (1992)
There’s no crying in baseball, but there’s plenty of laughter in director Penny Marshall’s fictionalized film about the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League, formed to fill in a gap in American spectator sports during World War II. Funny as it is to watch a group of housewives, taxi dancers (hi, Madonna) and farm girls learn to play ball, Marshall makes sure the joke is never on them (though it’s often on Tom Hanks as their flustered manager).
Groundhog Day (1993)
If Harold Ramis’s film doesn’t have the most brilliant comedy plot of all time, it’s certainly in the running: a rude, self-centered weatherman (Bill Murray) goes to sleep on Groundhog Day and finds himself repeating the exact same day over and over—until he figures out that the thing that needs changing, is him.
Mrs. Doubtfire (1993)
There are few things more entertaining than watching Robin Williams go to town on a joke, and the late comic genius found plenty of improv inspiration in the outlandish premise of Chris Columbus’s family film. Williams plays a voice actor who loses custody of his three kids to their much-more-competent mother (Sally Field), and decides to con his way back into their lives by impersonating a (female) housekeeper.
Addams Family Values (1993)
Few film sequels have improved as much on the original as Addams Family Values, a black comedy that stretches the surreal, campy humor of 1991’s The Addams Family as far as it will go. The whole original cast is a ghoulish delight, and Joan Cusack is terrific as a “black widow” trying to stake her claim on Uncle Fester (Christopher Lloyd). Christina Ricci, however, gets the best scene in the film, when Wednesday Addams enacts revenge on the spoiled rich kids and racist counselors at her summer camp.
Dave (1993)
By a bizarre set of circumstances, a lovely, totally normal guy named Dave (Kevin Kline) finds himself impersonating the President of the United States—and doing the job better than the actual politician he replaced. The scene where he brings in his accountant friend (Charles Grodin) to fix the national budget is equal parts comedy and wish-fulfillment.
Clerks (1994)
He wasn’t even supposed to be there today—but if Dante Hicks (Brian O’Halloran) hadn’t shown up to work an extra shift at a New Jersey Quick Stop, we wouldn’t have Kevin Smith’s seminal ‘90s comedy. In addition to bringing up the vital issue of independent contractors on the Death Star, Smith’s no-budget, nothing-really-happens indie introduced the world to the loitering antics of Jay and Silent Bob.
Dumb and Dumber (1994)
In the Farrelly brothers’ breakout slapstick comedy, Jim Carrey does that obnoxious, rubber-faced schtick that made him a star, and Jeff Daniels offers perfect counterpart as his equally idiotic and well-meaning friend. They go on a road trip to return a beautiful stranger’s suitcase and, well, the title says it all.
Clueless (1995)
Amy Heckerling borrowed the mixed-up-matchmaker plot of Jane Austen’s Emma for her spirited comedy about a Beverly Hills high school queen bee (Alicia Silverstone) who tries to do a good deed by making over a “tragically unhip” and “adorably clueless” new student (Brittany Murphy). Does her plan go smoothly? As if!
Friday (1995)
“Bye, Felisha.” Director F. Gary Gray made Chris Tucker a star with this comedy set in South Central Los Angeles, about two down-on-their-luck neighborhood friends—Craig, who just lost his job (Ice Cube), and Smokey, who just inhaled the pot he was supposed to sell (Tucker)—who need to collect $200 to pay off Smokey’s weed supplier by the end of the day.
Get Shorty (1995)
In this merciless satire of the movie business (based on an Elmore Leonard novel), Miami loan shark Chili Palmer (John Travolta) tries to pitch his life as a film—and learns that working for the mob is great practice for Hollywood. Danny DeVito is hysterical as the method actor Chili eyes to play him. Rene Russo’s performance as a jaded scream queen is director Barry Sonnenfeld’s secret weapon.
Toy Story (1995)
Every subsequent film in Pixar’s stellar Toy Story franchise wrings laughter and tears in equal measure, but the original is just flat-out funny. Tim Allen and Tom Hanks give two of the all-time great voice performances as Buzz Lightyear and Woody, toys fighting for the affections of their six-year-old owner—although Buzz doesn’t yet realize that he’s a toy.
The Birdcage (1996)
Robin Williams and Nathan Lane somehow amplify one another’s comic genius in Mike Nichols’ tune-filled, socially conscious farce, about a drag queen (Lane) and his choreographer husband (Williams) who pretend to be a straight couple so their son’s fiancée’s parents will approve of them.
Waiting for Guffman (1996)
Arguably the funniest of writer-director Christopher Guest’s ad-libbed mockumentaries, Waiting for Guffman introduces audiences to visionary-but-talentless community theater director Corky St. Clair (Guest) and the Blaine, Missouri residents who seek stardom in his shows. Catherine O’Hara and Fred Willard steal the movie as Ron and Sheila, married travel agents who take their acting hobby very seriously.
Fargo (1996)
Almost too dark to be called a comedy, but definitely too funny not to be, the Coen brothers’ Oscar-winning stars Frances McDormand as pregnant police chief Marge Gunderson, who investigates a gruesome homicide case with maximum Minnesota charm.
The Nutty Professor (1996)
Eddie Murphy swiped Jerry Lewis’s most celebrated role, and one-upped him by playing an additional five characters, in Tom Shadyac’s remake of the 1963 comedy. Murphy plays Sherman Klump, a sweet, obese science professor who invents a formula that temporarily gives him an ideal body, but also turns him into an aggressive egotist (the Hyde to his Jekyll). Murphy also plays the entire Klump family, whose dinner scene is a classic moment of ‘90s comedy.
Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery (1997)
Oh, behave. Screenwriter and comedian Mike Myers brings a full arsenal of catch phrases, dance moves and visual gags to the role of Austin Powers, the swinging sixties spy who is cryogenically unfrozen in the 1990s for this uproarious James Bond satire. Perhaps even more iconic is Myers’ performance as the villain Dr. Evil, inspired by both Bond nemesis Blofeld and SNL creator Lorne Michaels.
In & Out (1997)
It’s hard to say whether Kevin Kline or Joan Cusack gives the funniest performance in Frank Oz’s gently provocative comedy, about a beloved small-town English teacher (Kline) who is outed as gay in a former student’s Oscar acceptance speech–much to his own surprise, and to that of his fiancée (Cusack). The ensuing media frenzy (Tom Selleck plays a television reporter determined to get the scoop) inspires the whole town to contemplate sexual identity for the first time, with unexpected and delightful results.
The Big Lebowski (1998)
The Dude abides in the Coen brothers’ offbeat comedy about a White Russian-sipping slacker (Jeff Bridges) who is assaulted by thugs mistaking him for a millionaire of the same name, then enlists his bowling teammates (John Goodman and Steve Buscemi) to seek restitution for a rug that the thugs peed on. In fairness, it really tied the room together.
Rushmore (1998)
Bill Murray entered the great second act of his film career with Wes Anderson’s unique coming-of-age comedy, about a brilliant but peculiar teenager (Jason Schwartzman) who befriends the wealthy father of two of his private-school classmates (Murray), then becomes his rival for the affections of a teacher (Olivia Williams).
You’ve Got Mail (1998)
Writer-director Nora Ephron took an old story (the 1937 Hungarian play Parfumerie, which previously inspired the film The Shop Around the Corner and the Broadway musical She Loves Me) and gave it an inspired ‘90s twist with this funny, melancholy story of two rival bookstore owners (Meg Ryan and Tom Hanks) who fall in love over email without realizing that they know each other in real life.
Office Space (1999)
A touchstone for every American who has ever inhabited a cubicle or waited tables at a chain restaurant, Mike Judge’s cult-classic comedy about TPS reports, “flair,” a very bad printer and a very good stapler will make even a case of the Mondays feel better.
Election (1999)
A Midwest high school’s student-government elections take on outsize significance–launching the Beltway career of one ruthlessly competitive candidate (Reese Witherspoon) and ruining the life of a teacher (Matthew Broderick)–in Alexander Payne’s dark, increasingly relevant political satire.
South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut (1999)
South Park has been on the air for more than 20 seasons, and its broadly-directed satire can be hit-or-miss. But Trey Parker and Matt Stone’s feature-length animated musical is a slam dunk: a fantasy-adventure that’s part Les Mis parody, part war film, part critique of ‘90s media hysteria, and all highly inappropriate.
Best comedies of the 2000s
Best in Show (2000)
The world of competitive dog shows makes for perfect material in Christopher Guest’s howl-worthy mockumentary, featuring his usual crew of master improvisers. Director Guest plays a bloodhound owner whose hobby is reciting the names of nuts; Jennifer Coolidge is a trophy wife having an affair with her poodle trainer (Jane Lynch); and Parker Posey plays a neurotic dog mom who has a complete breakdown when her Weimaraner’s favorite toy goes missing.
Wet Hot American Summer (2001)
A parody of 1980s teen comedies that takes off into a surreal stratosphere all its own, David Wain’s cult classic features members of his ahead-of-the-curve comedy troupe The State (Michael Showalter, Ken Marino, Joe Lo Truglio) along rising superstars like Amy Poehler, Paul Rudd, Elizabeth Banks and Bradley Cooper.
Zoolander (2001)
Derek Zoolander’s career as the world’s greatest male model may have been fleeting, but Blue Steel is forever. Ben Stiller directed, cowrote and starred in this satire about a vapid but well-intentioned fashion icon (“How can we be expected to teach children to learn how to read if they can’t even fit inside the building?”) who gets caught up in an international assassination plot.
Legally Blonde (2001)
No one but Reese Witherspoon could have made an icon of Elle Woods, the bubbly, label-obsessed sorority president who sets her sights on Harvard Law School (and includes a bikini-clad video essay in her application). In most college films, she’d be the villain who gets taken down a peg; in this one, she’s the hilarious heroine, and you can’t help falling in love.
The Royal Tenenbaums (2001)
The next time someone tells you they can’t stand Gwyneth Paltrow, remind them how funny she is as chain-smoking, fur-coat-wearing Margot Tenenbaum in Wes Anderson’s candy-colored comedy. Paltrow, Ben Stiller and Luke Wilson play former child geniuses, now dysfunctional adults, who reunite when their absentee father (Gene Hackman) tells them he is terminally ill.
Elf (2003)
A modern holiday classic, Jon Favreau’s tale of a human (Will Ferrell) raised by North Pole elves, who travels to New York City to save his real father (James Caan) from Santa’s “naughty list,” features Ferrell’s most endearing, childlike performance–not to mention a terrific cameo from Peter Dinklage.
Bad Santa (2003)
Watching Terry Zwigoff’s filthy holiday comedy, about a booze-addled con man (Billy Bob Thornton) who poses as a department store Santa, you keep expecting it to go all mushy and true-meaning-of-Christmas-y. But it just gets darker, weirder and funnier, right up to the almost-heartwarming final shot.
School of Rock (2003)
What do you get when you combine Jack Black, indie auteur Richard Linklater, cringe-comedy writer Mike White and a bunch of adorable elementary-school musicians? Answer: a feel-good comedy with big laughs, a killer soundtrack, and enough juice to inspire both a Broadway musical and a spin-off TV series.
Mean Girls (2004)
Is there a single bad line in this Tina Fey-scripted high school comedy? From Amy “I’m a cool mom” Poehler to Gretchen Weiners’ “full of secrets” hair, from “I’m a mouse, duh!” to “You go, Glenn Coco!”, this feminist fish-out-of-water story is so good, it almost made “fetch” happen.
Shaun of the Dead (2004)
It doesn’t get any funnier than Edgar Wright’s demented zombie comedy, about two losers (Simon Pegg and Nick Frost) who find themselves defending their London neighborhood against an undead uprising, one eighties record at a time.
Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy (2004)
The golden age of local television news provides the backdrop for Adam McKay’s ludicrous battle-of-the-sexes comedy, with its endlessly quotable news-anchor characters played by Will Ferrell (“Stay classy, San Diego”), Paul Rudd (“My right one is Doctor Kenneth Noisewater”), Christina Applegate (“I said, your hair looks stupid”) and Steve Carell (“I love lamp”).
Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle (2004)
John Cho and Kal Penn break the stoner-comedy mold by playing high-achieving, high-IQ, high-as-a-kite friends who are determined to find a White Castle, even if they are forced to perform surgery, get attacked by a racoon and have their car stolen by Neil Patrick Harris along the way.
The 40 Year Old Virgin (2005)
Judd Apatow, the aughts’ major comedy influencer, made his feature directorial debut with this undeniably dirty but unfailingly good-natured romantic comedy. Co-screenwriter Steve Carell plays a sexually inexperienced introvert whose coworkers try to help him lose his V-card, guiding him through speed dates, pickup lines and (in a scene largely improvised by an in-pain Carell) chest-waxing.
Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan (2006)
When British satirist Sacha Baron Cohen unleashed his anti-Semitic, misogynistic character Borat on an unsuspecting U.S.A., he wanted to expose Americans’ own blind spots. But the fictional Kazakh journalist in the ill-fitting suit also made America laugh, do countless bad impressions (“My wife!”), and gape at this unscripted, prank-filled feature film, which probably couldn’t have been made at any other time in film history.
Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story (2007)
The Oscar-favorite biopic genre was long overdue for the kind of skewering it gets in Jake Kasdan’s comedy, which follows a fictional country-pop star (John C. Reilly) through the 50s, 60s and 70s, hitting every Hollywood-true-story cliche (surviving hardscrabble roots, instantaneously writing classic hits, getting introduced to drugs and hitting rock bottom) along the way.
Knocked Up (2007)
In Judd Apatow’s highly unconventional rom-com, up-and-coming television host Alison (Katherine Heigl) conceives during a one-night stand with unemployed stoner Ben (Seth Rogen) and decides to keep the baby. Worlds collide as Alison’s due date gets closer, leading up to an unforgettable delivery-room scene featuring doctor-turned-comedian Ken Jeong (in his film debut) as the obstetrician of every woman’s nightmares.
Superbad (2007)
Has there ever been a funnier fake-ID name than McLovin? This raunchy graduation-party comedy, inspired by screenwriters Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg’s senior-year antics in Vancouver, is full of laugh-out-loud gags about booze, sex, cops and teenage friendship. It also marks the film debut of one very funny Emma Stone.
Forgetting Sarah Marshall (2008)
It’s the vacation from hell: A composer (Jason Segel) goes to Hawaii to recover from a sudden breakup with his actress girlfriend Sarah Marshall (Kristen Bell)—star of television’s Crime Scene: Scene of the Crime–only to find that she’s staying next door with her new boyfriend, rock star Aldous Snow (Russell Brand). Hilarity, inappropriate yoga and puppet vampire musical numbers ensue.
Step Brothers (2008)
Will Ferrell and John C. Reilly become latter-day Stooges in this absurd comedy, playing spoiled, middle-aged man-children who go to war when their single parents (Mary Steenburgen and Richard Jenkins) get married. Supporting players Adam Scott and Kathryn Hahn nearly steal the film with their Guns N’ Roses family car singalong.
In Bruges (2008)
Writer-director Martin McDonagh’s pitch-black comedy-drama takes place in the gorgeous Belgian city of the title, where two Irish hitmen (Colin Farrell and Brendan Gleeson) await their fate after making a terrible error. For all of its harrowing themes, In Bruges has moments that are transcendently hilarious, including one of the funniest shoot-outs (between Farrell and Ralph Fiennes, as a London mob boss) ever filmed.
The Hangover (2009)
A group of friends wakes up the morning after a Vegas bachelor party with no groom, a missing tooth, a mystery baby, a tiger in the bathroom and no memories of the night before in the gleefully offensive comedy that put handsome Bradley Cooper and scene stealer Zach Galifianakis on the map.
Best comedies of the 2010s
Bridesmaids (2011)
It took the combined powers of Kristen Wiig, Maya Rudolph, Rose Byrne and Melissa McCarthy to crack the glass ceiling of R-rated comedies–but Bridesmaids was a sensation, proving that an ensemble of funny women could throw down, party hard and make poop jokes with the best of them.
Pitch Perfect (2012)
The joy and awkwardness of singing a capella (whether in the shower, during a riff-off or accompanied by a cup) gets the celebration it deserves in this girl-powered collegiate comedy.
What We Do in the Shadows (2014)
Four vampire roommates from different eras share a flat in New Zealand, where they fight over which humans to eat and whose turn it is to take out the trash, in Taika Waititi’s bloody hilarious mockumentary.
The Lego Movie (2014)
A happy-go-lucky LEGO everyman (Chris Pratt) doesn’t realize he’s living in a corporate dystopia until he’s recruited by a rebel alliance of Master Builders trying to reshape society. Writer-directors Phil Lord and Christopher Miller turn a feature-length toy ad into a hilarious fantasy-comedy that’s at once a takedown and celebration of our brand-obsessed culture, with a surprisingly emotional third act twist. (Another twist: the sequel is just as good.)
Spy (2015)
A sly feminist spin on James Bond that’s also uproariously funny, Paul Feig’s underrated comedy stars Melissa McCarthy as a longtime CIA agent who goes on her first undercover field mission: arming herself with high-tech gadgets, butting heads with a rival agent (Jason Statham), and taking down villains (including a priceless Rose Byrne, as the arms dealer who dresses like “a slutty dolphin trainer”).
Lady Bird (2017)
Full of perfectly-encapsulated teenage-girl moments, Greta Gerwig’s gentle coming-of-age comedy elicits a sigh of recognition along with every laugh–from Saoirse Ronan’s suburban teen wistfully declaring “I wish I could live through something” to a mother-daughter shopping trip that whiplashes between affection and hostility.
Girls Trip (2017)
The rare comedy that achieves a perfect balance between raunch and sweetness, Malcolm D. Lee’s film about once-close college friends reuniting for a New Orleans vacation features a sparkling ensemble (Queen Latifah, Jada Pinkett Smith, Regina Hall) and one of the decade’s best breakout performances from Tiffany Haddish (who made “grapefruit” a NSFW verb).
Sorry to Bother You (2018)
A subversive satire of corporate America, a damning critique of racist power structures, and a wild comic fantasy about a black man (Lakeith Stanfield) who rises to wealth and fame with the use of a “white voice” (David Cross), Boots Riley’s gonzo comedy-nightmare is one of the all-time great directorial debuts.
Dolemite is My Name (2019)
Rounding 60, Eddie Murphy proves he’s still got it with his irresistible performance as comedy legend, Blaxploitation star and rap pioneer Rudy Ray Moore. Director Craig Brewer’s 1970s-set biopic is a delightfully profane slice of pop-culture history that should have netted Murphy an Oscar nod.
Booksmart (2019)
Two high-achieving best friends (Beanie Feldstein and Kaitlyn Dever) decide to party hard for the first and last time before high school graduation, and have an epic night of revelations and misadventures (at one point, they accidentally take drugs and hallucinate that they’re Barbie dolls) in director Olivia Wilde’s raunchy and witty ode to female friendship.