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98 Best Comedy Movies Of All Time Ranked
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98 BEST COMEDY MOVIES OF ALL TIME RANKED

Columbia Pictures/YouTube
By Brian Boone/Updated: May 11, 2022 12:04 pm EDT

It's a universal experience and one of the best and most physically and
psychologically necessary things in life — to laugh, that is. And that's why
comedies are so important. 

One of the core and most popular genres of film, comedy has been a consistently
popular movie format since the birth of the cinema. And all kinds of comedic
subgenres have developed over the years, like the road trip comedy,
fish-out-of-water comedy, horror comedy, the rom-com, and more. Some of the
greatest movies ever produced were seemingly designed to be great works of art
second and invitations to the audience to let loose and laugh first. Here then
are the 98 movies, stretching back to Hollywood's early years and all the way up
to the near-present, that are not only hilarious but are also fantastic films.
In no particular order, these are the best comedy movies ever made.


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Updated on May 11, 2022: The world of comedy never stops, and the laughs just
keep on coming. As new funny flicks hit theater screens and streaming services,
we'll be keeping an eye out for any future classics and hidden gems. Check back
periodically to see if any new comedies make our list of the all-time best.




98. MAJOR LEAGUE

Paramount Pictures

At the time that "Major League" hit theaters, the Cleveland Indians were the
perpetually losing laughingstock of the baseball world. It was unthinkable that
they could ever be a champion, even in fiction. And so, when former Las Vegas
dancer Rachel Phelps inherits the team from her wealthy, deceased husband, she
zeroes in on a contract clause that says she can move the team to sunny Miami if
attendance falters. To do so would mean the team would have to finish dead last,
so she hires someone she thinks is a bad manager and a bunch of unruly,
untalented players — a motley crew of has-beens and never-will-bes. But when the
ballplayers learn of their owner's nasty plan, they're inspired to play hard and
win, and they just keep winning, thanks in big part to the pitching theatrics of
Ricky "Wild Thing" Vaughn.



 * Starring: Charlie Sheen, Tom Berenger, Corbin Bernsen
 * Director: David S. Ward
 * Year: 1989
 * Runtime: 107 minutes
 * Rating: R
 * Rotten Tomatoes Score: 83%




97. SCHOOL OF ROCK

Paramount Pictures/YouTube

Jack Black presents himself as a swaggering rock idol, both in public and as
half of the comical, acoustic-metal band Tenacious D. That makes the role of
Dewey Finn — a broke, wannabe musician turned private school teacher — the one
he was destined to play. Dewey totally doesn't care about his new gig (in fact,
he's impersonating his best friend — an actual teacher) until he learns his
students are all pretty gifted musically. He then decides to form and front an
all-kid rock group and enter them in a Battle of the Bands contest in order to
defeat and show up No Vacancy, his old group that threw him out. It's a journey
of redemption for Dewey, one of building self-confidence for the kids, and of
course, lots of pint-size rocking out and Jack Black belting out tunes like a
'70s arena rocker.



 * Starring: Jack Black, Joan Cusack, Mike White
 * Director: Richard Linklater
 * Year: 2003
 * Runtime: 108 minutes
 * Rating: PG-13
 * Rotten Tomatoes Score: 92%







96. 9 TO 5

20th Century Fox

By the early 1980s, women had made great strides into the American corporate
workforce, but they were still treated with disdain and disrespect by old-school
chauvinists. In the surprisingly light-hearted working-woman revenge comedy "9
to 5," three administrative assistants can no longer take the sneering, leering,
groping, and unprofessionalism from their bosses, and they conspire to make
their violent fantasies come true — kidnapping him, roughing him up, and
uncovering his embezzlement scheme. Things get wildly out of hand, but the
ordeal ultimately becomes inspiring and somehow good for the careers of the
three instigators.



 * Starring: Jane Fonda, Lily Tomlin, Dolly Parton
 * Director: Colin Higgins
 * Year: 1980
 * Runtime: 110 minutes
 * Rating: PG
 * Rotten Tomatoes Score: 93%




95. WALK HARD: THE DEWEY COX STORY

Sony Pictures/YouTube

After a slew of heavy-handed musician biopics like "Ray" and "Walk the Line"
grabbed a ton of Oscars in the early 2000s, the way-too-serious sub-genre needed
to get taken down a peg. "Walk Hard" viciously parodies all those movies to tell
the story of fictional rock star Dewey Cox. He becomes the biggest and most
important musician in the world but not before ridiculously suffering the
pitfalls of a rock star biopic protagonist. He's haunted by accidentally cutting
his brother in half as a boy (with his father constantly telling him "the wrong
son died"), he's cursed to live without a sense of smell, and he tears up a
bathroom simply because he's going through an explicitly stated dark period. All
the while, through his Bob Dylan, Brian Wilson, and Glen Campbell phases, John
C. Reilly plays it straight as a naive innocent torn asunder by fame and art.



 * Starring: John C. Reilly, Jenna Fischer, Kristen Wiig
 * Director: Jake Kasdan
 * Year: 2007
 * Runtime: 96 minutes
 * Rating: R
 * Rotten Tomatoes Score: 74%




94. POOTIE TANG

Paramount Pictures

"Pootie Tang" utterly baffled critics, but it's dazzling in its high-wire walk
of a commitment to its ambitious premise. Based on a character from HBO's "The
Chris Rock Show," "Pootie Tang" consists mostly of a film-within-a-film called
"Sine Your Pitty on the Runny Kine," reflecting the bold and unflinchingly
nonsensical speech patterns of the main character. That would be Pootie Tang,
the coolest man to ever walk the Earth. After his father is mortally wounded by
a gorilla at the steel mill, he gives his son, Pootie, his supposedly magical
belt, which he uses to defeat doers of big evil and small sins. He becomes a pop
star, celebrity, and through his kid-focused public service announcements, makes
the nation full of bright and healthy people. Dick Lecter, CEO of industrial
giant LecterCorp, wants to put a stop to Pootie Tang's good deeds because it's
losing him money. All the while, Pootie never utters a single understandable
word.



 * Starring: Lance Crouther, Chris Rock, J.B. Smoove
 * Director: Louis C.K.
 * Year: 2001
 * Runtime: 81 minutes
 * Rating: PG-13
 * Rotten Tomatoes Score: 27%




93. A FISH CALLED WANDA

MGM

Comedies don't usually garner much attention from the Academy Awards, but the
witty, unpredictable, classy "A Fish Called Wanda" did, winning a statuette for
actor Kevin Kline and nominations for its director and screenplay, co-written by
co-star John Cleese of Monty Python. The presence of that famous sketch troupe
is all over the movie. For example, Monty Python member Michael Palin co-stars
as a British gangster's incompetent, fish-loving, stammering assistant, who gets
the farcical nonsense going when he hires American criminals Wanda and Otto to
help in a big diamond heist. It all goes wrong, and then everybody attempts,
poorly, to double-cross each other or eliminate witnesses.



 * Starring: John Cleese, Jamie Lee Curtis, Kevin Kline
 * Director: Charles Crichton and John Cleese
 * Year: 1988
 * Runtime: 107 minutes
 * Rating: R
 * Rotten Tomatoes Score: 95%




92. GIRLS TRIP

Universal Pictures/YouTube

Four women have managed to stay friends since college despite disparate life
paths. Ryan is an Oprah-esque lifestyle guru, Sasha runs a failing gossip blog,
Lisa is a nurse and single mother who doesn't get out much, and Dina is
hot-tempered party fiend who can't keep a job for long. Before they can drift
apart any further, the "Flossy Posse" decides to embark on a mini-vacation
together, or rather a "Girls Trip," attending the Essence Music Festival in New
Orleans, where Ryan is the keynote attraction. Some traumatic news draws the
group closer together, and New Orleans' many opportunities to get wild are too
good of an opportunity to pass up — and the source of a lot of comic hijinks.



 * Starring: Jada Pinkett Smith, Queen Latifah, Tiffany Haddish
 * Director: Malcolm D. Lee
 * Year: 2017
 * Runtime: 122 minutes
 * Rating: R
 * Rotten Tomatoes Score: 91%




91. THE BIG LEBOWSKI

Gramercy Pictures

"The Big Lebowski" is one of the most vaunted cult classics and stoner comedies
of all time, but it's also a movie about heists, rich people, bowling, and
artists. Ultra-chill Jeff "the Dude" Lebowski is content to just hang around his
L.A. apartment drinking White Russians and then join his friends Walter and
Donnie for some bowling. Then some kidnappers get him confused with a
millionaire named Jeff Lebowski, and he has to deliver a ransom to the weird
criminals who kidnapped that other Lebowski's wife ... and maybe get back the
area rug they stole because it "really tied the room together." The Dude's
hostile and overconfident bowling pal Donnie devises a scheme by which they
could keep that money, but that doesn't go right either. An artist and a
bowling-themed dream sequence also impact the Dude, resulting in a truly crazy
comedy, but that's just, like, our opinion, man.



 * Starring: Jeff Bridges, John Goodman, Julianne Moore
 * Directors: Joel Coen and Ethan Coen
 * Year: 1998
 * Runtime: 117 minutes
 * Rating: R
 * Rotten Tomatoes Score: 83%




90. STIR CRAZY

Columbia Pictures/YouTube

The unlikely comedy team of Richard Pryor and Gene Wilder represented two of the
best comic voices of the '70s joining forces — the former a caustic,
revolutionary, deeply charismatic stand-up comedian and the latter the subtle
and wily star of "Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory" and "Blazing Saddles."
Of the four films they made together, the blockbuster hit "Stir Crazy" is the
best, a wacky farce set in an unlikely place: prison. Jobless New York theater
people and best friends Harry (Pryor) and Skip (Wilder) head west and wind up
working for an Arizona bank, dressed in woodpecker costumes for a publicity bit.
And through a series of unlikely twists, they wind up imprisoned for robbing
that very bank. At that point, the plot shifts to how they'll get out of prison
in the best way possible — succeeding in the prison rodeo.


 * Starring: Richard Pryor, Gene Wilder, Greg Stanford Brown
 * Director: Sidney Poitier
 * Year: 1980
 * Runtime: 111 minutes
 * Rating: R
 * Rotten Tomatoes Score: 67%




89. THEY CAME TOGETHER

Lionsgate/YouTube

A decade after making the camp movie turned collection of chaotic absurdities
that is "Wet Hot American Summer," the writers of that film — and a lot of its
cast — reconvened to send up the strict and artificial tropes of fluffy romantic
comedies. Amy Poehler and Paul Rudd, as
will-they-or-won't-they-of-course-they-will couple Molly and Joel hate each
other at first but come to fall in love, even though she's free-spirited and
whimsical and runs an adorable candy story where everything is free, and he
works for Candy Systems and Research, which aims to put Molly out of business.
Like "Wet Hot American Summer," the silliness is open and presented as
faux-seriously as possible, like when Joel engages in a repetitive drinking game
of "you can say that again" and "tell me about it" for so long that it stops
being funny and then gets funny again.



 * Starring: Amy Poehler, Paul Rudd, Bill Hader
 * Director: David Wain
 * Year: 2014
 * Runtime: 83 minutes
 * Rating: R
 * Rotten Tomatoes Score: 69%




88. SISTER ACT

Buena Vista Pictures

This crowd-pleasing comedy from the early '90s has something for everyone — the
Mafia, broad comedy, the woman who played Professor McGonagall in "Harry Potter"
portraying a nun (that's Maggie Smith), show-stopping gospel-style musical
performances, and of course, Whoopi Goldberg as a phony woman of God. Goldberg
stars as Deloris, stuck in a dead-end job as a Reno nightclub singer and engaged
in an affair with a local mob boss. After she witnesses a gang hit, she seeks
out the police's help in hiding her, and she finds a very concealing place: a
convent. Deloris fakes her nun credentials and gets a job turning around the
convent's terrible choir, and she does such a good job that she gets a lot of
attention from the outside world — so much that it could expose her whereabouts.



 * Starring: Whoopi Goldberg, Kathy Najimy, Harvey Keitel
 * Director: Emile Ardolino
 * Year: 1992
 * Runtime: 100 minutes
 * Rating: PG
 * Rotten Tomatoes Score: 74%




87. MEAN GIRLS

Paramount Pictures/YouTube

In the '80s, teen movies were of the John Hughes variety, all sensitive and
empathetic. In the '90s, they were about cool and popular kids. In the 2000s,
with "Mean Girls," films about teenagers suddenly became as funny, complicated,
and nasty as making one's way through high school. Former child star Lindsay
Lohan transitioned into adult roles in this witty, satirical teen movie classic
(written by "SNL" and "30 Rock" veteran Tina Fey) playing Cady, a naive student
who grew up in rural Africa and who attends her first formal learning
institution — a large, clique-driven American high school. She falls in with the
hilariously cruel and self-absorbed popular crew, the A-Team, and after becoming
just as awful and vapid as her mentor, Regina George, she endeavors to take down
her frenemy — and the entire toxic social structure — from the inside.


 * Starring: Lindsay Lohan, Rachel McAdams, Tina Fey
 * Director: Mark Waters
 * Year: 2004
 * Runtime: 97 minutes
 * Rating: PG-13
 * Rotten Tomatoes Score: 84%




86. STRIPES

Columbia Pictures

In "Stripes," Bill Murray hit on the persona that would propel him through many
movies and make him a star — the wisecracking, mischievous, smartest guy in the
room. Murray plays John Winger and Harold Ramis plays his best friend, Russell,
two lazy guys whose lives are going nowhere fast who decide to enlist in the
Army. At the very least, it'll be a break from the ordinary, and basic training
will get them in shape. Problems first ensue when John can't stop mouthing off
to his drill sergeant, and they get worse when their whole platoon gets sent on
a faraway mission well before they're ready, and then their commanding officers
get stuck behind enemy lines. It's up to the group of barely trained, barely
competent recruits, led by John and Russell, to get their superiors to safety.



 * Starring: Bill Murray, Harold Ramis, John Candy
 * Director: Ivan Reitman
 * Year: 1981
 * Runtime: 105 minutes
 * Rating: R
 * Rotten Tomatoes Score: 88%




85. GALAXY QUEST

DreamWorks/YouTube

"Galaxy Quest" is a science fiction comedy with an appealing and novel concept.
Reduced to appearing at low-rent sci-fi conventions for shrinking crowds of
hardcore fans, the cast members of an influential but canceled "Star Trek"-like
series called "Galaxy Quest" feel like failures and losers, hopelessly typecast
and unable to get any fulfilling acting work. They find the redemption they need
— or at least something to do — when representatives of an alien race approach
them and beg for their help in defeating an interstellar warlord threatening
life on their planet. The reason they've been picked? "Galaxy Quest" episodes
have traveled through space and reached the aliens, and they think they're
real-life astronauts and planet defenders.



 * Starring: Tim Allen, Sigourney Weaver, Alan Rickman
 * Director: Dean Parisot
 * Year: 1999
 * Runtime: 104 minutes
 * Rating: PG
 * Rotten Tomatoes Score: 90%




84. BEING JOHN MALKOVICH

USA Films

Only the brain of Charlie Kaufman ("Adaptation," "Eternal Sunshine of the
Spotless Mind") could have conceived of "Being John Malkovich" — a dark,
surreal, mind-bending psychological comedy that takes the ancient art of
puppetry to absurd, unthought of heights while commenting about the toxicity of
celebrity. In order to make some much-needed money, avant-garde street puppeteer
Craig takes an office job in a New York building with curiously low ceilings,
and it's here he discovers a magical portal that allows all who enter to occupy
the brain of intense character actor John Malkovich for 15 minutes. It only gets
weirder from there.



 * Starring: John Cusack, Cameron Diaz, John Malkovich
 * Director: Spike Jonze
 * Year: 1999
 * Runtime: 112 minutes
 * Rating: R
 * Rotten Tomatoes Score: 94%




83. WHEN HARRY MET SALLY...

Columbia Pictures

As it checks in on the evolving relationship between two New Yorkers — cocky
Harry and complicated Sally — over the span of more than a decade, "When Harry
Met Sally..." explores its stated thesis: Can a heterosexual man and a woman be
friends without sex or romance ever rearing their heads? Because this is an
archetypal romantic comedy, the answer is no because Harry and Sally go from
hating each other to best friends consoling one another after breakups to not
being able to live without each other.



 * Starring: Billy Crystal, Meg Ryan, Carrie Fisher
 * Director: Rob Reiner
 * Year: 1989
 * Runtime: 95 minutes
 * Rating: R
 * Rotten Tomatoes Score: 91%




82. RAISING ARIZONA

20th Century Fox

This hard-to-pigeonhole 1987 comedy showed that rising indie (in production and
approach) filmmakers Joel and Ethan Coen could make funny movies as well as they
could dramas — but with their own unique spin. Nicolas Cage plays H.I., a
small-time repeat offender living in Arizona who hits it off with the booking
officer, Ed, so well that they marry. Unfortunately, they're unable to naturally
conceive the child they so desperately want, but a solution manifests itself. A
sleazy local furniture tycoon and his wife welcome quintuplets, so H.I. kidnaps
one of them. It's the most serious crime he's ever committed and one he's likely
to pay for too, what with the bounty-hunting "Lone Biker of the Apocalypse" hot
on his tail.



 * Starring: Nicolas Cage, Holly Hunter, John Goodman
 * Director: Joel Coen and Ethan Coen
 * Year: 1987
 * Runtime: 93 minutes
 * Rating: PG-13
 * Rotten Tomatoes Score: 91%




81. HOUSE PARTY

New Line Cinema/YouTube

In comedy movies with high stakes — like pulling off some seemingly impossible
feat in a short period of time — there's an urgency that leads to palpable comic
tension ... which pays off and releases when carefully laid plans slowly fall
apart (but satisfyingly right themselves by the end of the movie). This is the
wild and engaging trajectory of "House Party," a low-key film about the rage of
the year. Rappers Kid n' Play portray teenage versions of themselves, and when
Play throws a party, Kid endeavors to sneak out, as he's been grounded by his
humorously overbearing father after fighting at school. Many other plot lines
converge at the party, including Kid's bullies making a return appearance, a
mysteriously broken toilet, Kid n' Play trying to romance their crushes, and the
amusingly precise and awkward DJ Bilal, portrayed by comic Martin Lawrence in a
breakout, scene-stealing role.


 * Starring: Christopher Reid, Christopher Martin, Martin Lawrence
 * Director: Reginald Hudlin
 * Year: 1990
 * Runtime: 100 minutes
 * Rating: R
 * Rotten Tomatoes Score: 93%




80. BEETLEJUICE

Warner Bros.

Everything is fine and dandy for young New England couple Adam and Barbara at
the beginning of "Beetlejuice," one of the first features by innovative,
horror-comedy master Tim Burton. Then one day, they crash their car into a river
and walk home, except things aren't quite right. In fact, they're actually dead
— ghosts haunting their own home. So when a couple of intolerable yuppies buy
their stately house, the spectral couple seek out the help of the ghost realm,
particularly the charismatic, menacing, shape-shifting, joke-cracking monster
Beetlejuice to scare the new tenants away. But that Beetlejuice, he goes a
little too far, and then Adam and Barbara have to save the buyers from his
clutches because they're particularly fond of their misunderstood teenage goth
daughter who just totally gets them, as they're ghosts.



 * Starring: Michael Keaton, Winona Ryder, Alec Baldwin
 * Director: Tim Burton
 * Year: 1988
 * Runtime: 92 minutes
 * Rating: PG
 * Rotten Tomatoes Score: 85%




79. HAROLD AND KUMAR GO TO WHITE CASTLE

New Line Cinema/YouTube

There's one particular comedy sub-genre that took hold in the late 20th century
that remains a crowd-pleaser: the stoner comedy. The laughs come quickly and
often in movies where the main characters are categorically heavy-eyed,
slow-moving, and inebriated. "Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle" goes all in
on the form pioneered in the '70s by Cheech and Chong, with John Cho and Kal
Penn's characters getting so deep into a marijuana haze that they get "the
munchies" and only the onion-soaked tiny burgers of a certain fast food joint
will do. It's supposed to be a simple trip, but it turns into an epic, surreal,
and even hallucinatory road movie involving an obnoxious Neil Patrick Harris,
creepy truck drivers, and other unpredictable diversions.


 * Starring: John Cho, Kal Penn, Neil Patrick Harris
 * Director: Danny Leiner
 * Year: 2004
 * Runtime: 88 minutes
 * Rating: R
 * Rotten Tomatoes Score: 74%




78. THE BLUES BROTHERS

Larry Hulst/Getty Images

"The Blues Brothers" is the first "Saturday Night Live" spinoff movie, built
around characters played by John Belushi and Dan Aykroyd — two stone-faced white
men in matching suits, hats, and sunglasses, singing faithful, respectful covers
of old soul and R&B standards. That straightforward and corny routine expanded
into a movie with an anti-establishment attitude and the mischievous spirit of
"SNL," setting the tone for '80s mainstream comedy films. As for the plot, Jake
Blues (Belushi) gets out of prison and reunites with brother, Elwood Blues
(Aykroyd), and they go about reuniting their band to raise money to save the
orphanage where they grew up. With many enemies in pursuit (and lots of car
crashes along the way), the Blues Brothers reconnect with absolute legends,
including Ray Charles and Aretha Franklin.



 * Starring: John Belushi, Dan Aykroyd, John Candy
 * Director: John Landis
 * Year: 1980
 * Runtime: 133 minutes
 * Rating: R
 * Rotten Tomatoes Score: 73%




77. PALM SPRINGS

Hulu

Sure, the idea of a character caught in a time loop, living the same day
endlessly until they learn some kind of mysterious lesson, has been done before,
most notably in "Groundhog Day." But "Palm Springs" turns the concept into a
sci-fi rom-com and wonders if a life lived without consequences, such as it is
for Nyles — stuck at a destination wedding for who knows how long — is even
worth living at all. The situation improves somewhat when he meets Sarah, the
sister of the bride, and he falls in love with her after engaging in hundreds of
wacky and reckless adventures after he accidentally draws her into the time
loop. However, Sarah isn't content to just accept the situation, and she'll be
the one who dedicates herself to the risky pursuit of breaking free of their
time prison.



 * Starring: Andy Samberg, Cristin Milioti, J.K. Simmons
 * Director: Max Barbakow
 * Year: 2020
 * Runtime: 90 minutes
 * Rating: R
 * Rotten Tomatoes Score: 95%




76. DIRTY ROTTEN SCOUNDRELS

Orion Pictures/YouTube

It's a conman contest in the picturesque French Riviera. In this clever,
elegant, twisty comedy, upper-crust Englishman Lawrence Jamieson makes a nice
living bilking wealthy female vacationers out of huge sums of money by
pretending to be a deposed prince. His path crosses with that of small-time
American swindler Freddy Benson, who seemingly scores just a few bucks at a time
but who Jamieson is convinced is "the Jackal," a mysterious scammer making their
way through Europe. Jamieson and Freddy clash, then make a deal: Whoever can
juice a shared mark out of $50,000 will get the Riviera as their territory,
while the other has to leave the resort area. Their target? Newly arrived
American klutz and soap company heir Janet Colgate ... who might not be as naive
as she seems.



 * Starring: Steve Martin, Michael Caine, Glenne Headly
 * Director: Frank Oz
 * Year: 1988
 * Runtime: 110 minutes
 * Rating: PG
 * Rotten Tomatoes Score: 88%




75. SAUSAGE PARTY

Sony Pictures/YouTube

"Sausage Party" is like "Toy Story" but with CGI sentient food in a grocery
store instead of a child's playthings. It's also extremely crude, jaw-droppingly
sexually graphic, and existential. It centers on a hot dog named Frank who
desperately wants to couple up with a bun named Brenda, but he also wants to
leave the supermarket with a human and enter "The Great Beyond." But then a jar
of honey mustard is returned to the store and exposes the truth about the
assumed food heaven — it's not real because humans just eat and kill all the
food they purchase. It's up to Frank and Brenda to wake up their fellow talking
food to their true, dark destiny — or at least get everyone to accept their fate
and engage in an end-of-the-world bacchanal of pleasure.



 * Starring: Seth Rogen, Kristen Wiig, Michael Cera
 * Directors: Greg Tiernan and Conrad Vernon
 * Year: 2016
 * Runtime: 89 minutes
 * Rating: R
 * Rotten Tomatoes Score: 82%




74. FRIDAY

New Line Cinema

A few years after Ice Cube wrote and recorded the rap classic "It Was a Good
Day," in which everything goes right in his rough Los Angeles neighborhood for
once, the musician co-wrote and starred in "Friday," an alternate take on the
one-day-in-the-neighborhood formula. Only this time, a lot goes terribly wrong
but in a funny way. Ice Cube plays 20-something Craig, and as his
marijuana-loving best friend Smokey keeps reminding him, it's Friday and he
doesn't have a lot to do on account of how he got fired from his job on
Thursday. But there are a lot of fires to put out for Craig, like Smokey's angry
drug dealer who wants the money he's owed or else, a fearsome neighborhood
bully, and a jilted ex-girlfriend.



 * Starring: Ice Cube, Chris Tucker, Nia Long
 * Director: F. Gary Gray
 * Year: 1995
 * Runtime: 91 minutes
 * Rating: R
 * Rotten Tomatoes Score: 78%




73. UHF

Orion Pictures

The comedy stylings of "Weird Al" Yankovic were just too big and silly to be
confined to song parodies. And so in 1989, after becoming a household name with
Michael Jackson parodies like "Eat It" and "Fat," he co-wrote and starred in his
first feature film, a rollicking and silly lark about George Newman, a guy who
takes over his uncle's low-rent, little-watched UHF station. George is a
daydreamer and prone to flights of fancy, both in his own head and with his
media outlet, so "UHF" is pretty much an excuse for elaborate dream sequences
and strange TV show parodies, including "Conan the Librarian," "Uncle Nutsy's
Clubhouse," and "Wheel of Fish."



 * Starring: "Weird Al" Yankovic, Victoria Jackson, Kevin McCarthy
 * Director: Jay Levey
 * Year: 97 minutes
 * Runtime: 97 minutes
 * Rating: PG-13
 * Rotten Tomatoes Score: 61%




72. SUPER TROOPERS

Fox Searchlight

Never before — and not to this degree since — had police officers been portrayed
on-screen as wacky, degenerate goofballs who don't take their duties to protect
and to serve remotely seriously. The Broken Lizard troupe made and starred in
"Super Troopers," a comedy about Vermont state troopers who drive around all
day, relentlessly messing with young miscreants, pranking each other, engaging
in syrup-chugging contests, and arguing over who has the best mustache. This
idyllic bubble of self-absorption is shattered when the troopers' station faces
closure and they have to bust a drug smuggling operation. Ignore the bad Rotten
Tomatoes Score because this cult classic is an absolute gem.



 * Starring: Jay Chandrasekhar, Kevin Heffernan, Brian Cox
 * Director: Jay Chandrasekhar
 * Year: 2001
 * Runtime: 103 minutes
 * Rating: R
 * Rotten Tomatoes Score: 35%




71. SOME LIKE IT HOT

United Archives/Getty Images

Depression-adjacent America, two broke guys dressing as women, and a Chicago
gangland murder doesn't sound like the most appealing comedy for present-day
audiences, but "Some Like It Hot" remains a highly regarded classic, topping the
American Film Institute's top comedies list more than 50 years after its
release. 



After jazz musicians and best friends Jerry and Joe witness a Mob-affiliated
bootlegger carry out a murder, they've got to get out of town and go on the lam,
taking jobs with a Miami resort's in-house band. The one sticking point is that
it's an all-female band, so Jerry and Joe put on wigs, makeup, and dresses and
become "Daphne" and "Josephine." Once ensconced in the band, they've now got to
effectively pretend to be women while Joe falls hard for the group's singer,
Sugar Kane Kowalczyk, and Jerry must deal with Osgood, an amorous new suitor.


 * Starring: Marilyn Monroe, Jack Lemmon, Tony Curtis
 * Director: Billy Wilder
 * Year: 1959
 * Runtime: 120 minutes
 * Rating: NR
 * Rotten Tomatoes Score: 95%




70. CADDYSHACK

Warner Bros./YouTube

"Caddyshack" is loose on plot but big on laughs. There's a through line
involving a golf tournament for country club caddies to win a life-changing
amount of the money, but the meandering script only occasionally pursues that.
Befitting its cast of "Saturday Night Live" veterans, sitcom performers, and
stand-ups, "Caddyshack" plays like a series of related sketches and character
pieces that revolve around a golf course. There's Ted Knight from "The Mary
Tyler Moore" show as an apoplectic judge who just wants to golf in peace, Rodney
Dangerfield as an obnoxious rich guy prone to partying on the greens, Chevy
Chase as a smug and womanizing golf pro, and Bill Murray as a deranged
groundskeeper waging war with mischievous gopher.


 * Starring: Chevy Chase, Bill Murray, Rodney Dangerfield
 * Director: Harold Ramis
 * Year: 1980
 * Runtime: 98 minutes
 * Rating: R
 * Rotten Tomatoes Score: 73%




69. LEGALLY BLONDE

MGM

Released in 2001, "Legally Blonde" pushed back on the '90s notion that cynicism
equated intelligence and upbeat was synonymous with stupid. This is a feel-good,
inspiring, fish-out-of-water, don't-judge-a-book-by-its-cover kind of comedy.
Elle Woods (in a star-making performance by Reese Witherspoon) is by all
appearances a stereotypical airhead sorority girl. But when her smug boyfriend
dumps her when he gets into Harvard Law School, she endeavors to go there too,
quipping in confident defiance, "What, like it's hard?" She injects some
happiness into the staid and stuffy law school, and in the process, she finds
her calling.



 * Starring: Reese Witherspoon, Luke Wilson, Selma Blair
 * Director: Robert Luketic
 * Year: 2001
 * Runtime: 96 minutes
 * Rating: PG-13
 * Rotten Tomatoes Score: 70%




68. COMING TO AMERICA

Paramount Pictures

The day-to-day quirks of American life don't seem like quirks to Americans
who've lived in the U.S. their entire lives. But the ins and outs of America
seem positively random, weird, and hilarious when viewed through the eyes of a
curious, appreciative, and celebratory character who's never visited the country
before — like Prince Akeem, the successor to the throne of Zamunda. Rather than
marry the bride selected for him by his parents, he travels to New York in hopes
of meeting his one true love. Keeping his identity secret, he gets a low-paying
job at a McDonald's clone and falls hard for the boss's daughter. Akeem reels as
he experiences America and Americans close-up — many of whom are played very
broadly by Eddie Murphy and under many layers of makeup.



 * Starring: Eddie Murphy, Arsenio Hall, John Amos
 * Director: John Landis
 * Year: 1988
 * Runtime: 116 minutes
 * Rating: R
 * Rotten Tomatoes Score: 72%




67. WITHNAIL AND I

HandMade Films

This beloved, British cult classic heralded the arrival of widely hailed
character actor Richard E. Grant, who plays the vivacious Withnail, alongside
Paul McGann as the co-protagonist known only as "I." It's 1969, and the two
share a squalid apartment in London, the perfect place to hang out, drink,
smoke, and do drugs. When they need a respite from the drudgery of life, they
head to the English countryside, to the cottage of Withnail's Uncle Monty, a
leering creep who makes "I" very uncomfortable, almost as uncomfortable as
country folk make Withnail.



 * Starring: Richard E. Grant, Paul McGann, Richard Griffiths
 * Director: Bruce Robinson
 * Year: 1987
 * Runtime: 102 minutes
 * Rating: R
 * Rotten Tomatoes Score: 94%




66. ED WOOD

Buena Vista Pictures

Biopics don't always have to be serious, sedate affairs that gaze in loving awe
at their subjects. They can also be very funny, should the life of the profiled
figure warrant it. And Tim Burton was completely justified in presenting "Ed
Wood" as a comedy — a stylish, beautifully shot film that looks like it came
from the middle of the 20th century, when most of the film takes place — but a
comedy nonetheless. Ed Wood was a filmmaker who didn't have a lot of skill or
talent but made up for it in enthusiasm and delusion. And Burton's biopic takes
a long look at Wood's production of "Plan 9 from Outer Space," widely regarded
as the worst movie of all time for its bad acting and inept directing which the
titular filmmaker ebulliently considered "perfect!"



 * Starring: Johnny Depp, Martin Landau, Sarah Jessica Parker
 * Director: Tim Burton
 * Year: 1994
 * Runtime: 124 minutes
 * Rating: R
 * Rotten Tomatoes Score: 92%




65. DUMB AND DUMBER

New Line Cinema

Harry and Lloyd are probably the two dumbest guys in Rhode Island, and they're
the last people who should come into possession of a bag of ransom money
intended for some violent criminals. And so, they set out to deliver it to the
woman who Lloyd thinks left it behind by accident, Mary Swanson, his dream
woman. They drive their mobile dog grooming van (dressed up to look like a dog)
all the way to Colorado and engage in some silly misadventures along the way,
like sharing the most annoying sound in the world, destroying a toilet, and
accidentally feeding rat poison to a hitman.



 * Starring: Jim Carrey, Jeff Daniels, Lauren Holly
 * Directors: Peter Farrelly and Bobby Farrelly
 * Year: 1994
 * Runtime: 105 minutes
 * Rating: PG-13
 * Rotten Tomatoes Score: 68%




64. NATIONAL LAMPOON'S ANIMAL HOUSE

Universal Pictures/YouTube

Produced under the eye of the aggressively button-pushing and sometimes filthy
humor magazine "National Lampoon," "Animal House" established some new cinematic
concepts, such as a the wild, R-rated college comedy and the "snobs vs. slobs"
concept that would pop up in comic films throughout the '80s. It's set in the
early 1960s on the campus of Faber College, where the Delta Tau Chi fraternity
house is so libidinous and booze-soaked that it will admit almost anyone willing
to help them throw legendary parties and play elaborate campus pranks. This
earns them the ire of the dean, Vernon Wormer, who puts the frat on "double
secret probation" and enlists a snooty rich kid fraternity to help eliminate
Delta House ... which won't go down without an outrageous fight.



 * Starring: Tim Matheson, Peter Riegert, John Belushi
 * Director: John Landis
 * Year: 1978
 * Runtime: 109 minutes
 * Rating: R
 * Rotten Tomatoes Score: 90%




63. DAZED AND CONFUSED

Gramercy Pictures

Set in 1976, "Dazed and Confused" takes place within 24 hours, following a group
of students in Austin, Texas, as they celebrate after the last day of school. A
large ensemble comedy, the film follows reluctant football star Randall "Pink"
Floyd as he debates whether or not to sign an anti-drug pledge while cruising
around town, drinking and smoking marijuana with his friends. There's also the
plight of Mitch, a freshman who takes his hazing (in the form of paddling) like
a champ and gets to hang out with the cool kids at the pool hall and the Moon
Tower party. Meanwhile, there's 20-something Wooderson creeping around, hitting
on high school girls, including nerdy Cynthia, who's driving around aimlessly
with fellow edgy outcasts Tony and Mike. It's the greatest night of all their
lives, but they don't really know that yet.



 * Starring: Jason London, Wiley Wiggins, Matthew McConaughey
 * Director: Richard Linklater
 * Year: 1993
 * Runtime: 103 minutes
 * Rating: R
 * Rotten Tomatoes Score: 92%




62. THE NAKED GUN: FROM THE FILES OF POLICE SQUAD!

Paramount Pictures

After the creative and commercial success of "Airplane!" the ZAZ team trained
their parody and joke-a-second skills on the detective genre, devising the
breathtakingly silly cop show spoof "Police Squad!" Quickly canceled, they
revived it six years later as a movie franchise with the first of three "The
Naked Gun" movies. Leslie Nielsen portrays Det. Frank Drebin, the world's worst
detective who believes he's the best, as he stops (just barely, somehow) an
assassination attempt on Queen Elizabeth II.



 * Starring: Leslie Nielsen, Priscilla Presley, George Kennedy
 * Director: David Zucker
 * Year: 1988
 * Runtime: 85 minutes
 * Rating: PG-13
 * Rotten Tomatoes Score: 88%




61. THE MUPPET MOVIE

Associated Film Distribution/YouTube

At the end of the 1970s, after the world had fallen in love with Jim Henson's
anarchic and endearing Muppets via "The Muppet Show," the troupe of lifelike
felt-and-rod characters got a big-screen origin story. "The Muppet Movie"
perfectly consolidates and distills the Muppets' unique and family-friendly
brand of transgressive, hippie-flavored comedy in the form of a musical
spectacular that's also provocatively meta. It's the story of the Muppets
(Kermit, Fozzie, Gonzo, Miss Piggy, Animal, and all the rest), with our heroes
aware that they're in a movie about themselves, frequently breaking the fourth
wall and interacting with special celebrity guest stars as they meet each other
and head to Hollywood.



 * Starring: Jim Henson, Frank Oz, Jerry Nelson
 * Director: James Frawley
 * Year: 1979
 * Runtime: 94 minutes
 * Rating: G
 * Rotten Tomatoes Score: 88%




60. WAITING FOR GUFFMAN

Sony Pictures Classics

The fictional, sleepy town of Blaine, Missouri, is about to celebrate its 150th
anniversary, and it falls to local theatrical director Corky St. Clair to put on
an original musical about the town's history. In this comic mockumentary, his
delusions of grandeur are infectious to his cast of humble and goofy
townspeople, including a disinterested Dairy Queen cashier, an extremely
cross-eyed dentist, and married travel agents who loom large in the tiny world
of local theater. Their enthusiasm for Corky's terrible production gets out of
hand after the director lets loose a rumor that the titular Guffman, a Broadway
producer, might turn up to see the show and whisk the actors away to New York.



 * Starring: Christopher Guest, Fred Willard, Parker Posey
 * Director: Christopher Guest
 * Year: 1996
 * Runtime: 84 minutes
 * Rating: R
 * Rotten Tomatoes Score: 91%




59. ELECTION

Paramount Pictures/YouTube

Based on novelist Tom Perrotta's comic, fictionalized take on the 1992
presidential election — where one establishment guy, one likable and relatable
figure, and one unpredictable outsider all ran for office — "Election" tells the
story of a Midwestern high school's student body government campaign, along with
providing a look at the scandalous untold lives of some unethical teachers. 



Overachieving, hard-nosed go-getter Tracy Flick works harder than anyone and
probably deserves to be president, but student government advisor Mr. McAllister
loathes her to the point where he encourages nice, dumb, popular jock Paul to
run as a spoiler. Then Paul's sister, an anarchist malcontent, decides to enter
the race too, all while Tracy is engaged in an affair with a teacher and Mr.
McAllister tries to cheat on his wife.


 * Starring: Matthew Broderick, Reese Witherspoon, Chris Klein
 * Director: Alexander Payne
 * Year: 1999
 * Runtime: 103 minutes
 * Rating: R
 * Rotten Tomatoes Score: 92%




58. SPACEBALLS

MGM/YouTube

With "Spaceballs," writer-director-actor Mel Brooks took his career-long quest
to satirize every popular movie genre to science fiction. There's a fairly
original plot about President Skroob of planet Spaceball stealing the fresh air
from the innocent planet Druidia and that world's Princess Vespa running away
from her wedding to the cruel Prince Valium, but all that's little more than a
vehicle with which to skewer the otherwise sacred original "Star Wars" trilogy.
There are funny, withering corollaries familiar Lucasfilm icons, such as the
fussy droid Dot Matrix (voiced by Joan Rivers), hairy dog creature Barf (who
pilots a flying Winnebago), and the evil Dark Helmet, who can't breathe in that
giant, imposing piece of headgear. Brooks himself makes a cameo as the Yoda-like
Yogurt, delivering an impassioned, meta plea about the importance of branding
and merchandising "Spaceballs" in the style of "Star Wars."



 * Starring: Bill Pullman, Rick Moranis, John Candy
 * Director: Mel Brooks
 * Year: 1987
 * Runtime: 92 minutes
 * Rating: PG
 * Rotten Tomatoes Score: 56%




57. ZOOLANDER

Paramount Pictures

Born out of sketches that writer-director-star Ben Stiller made for VH1,
"Zoolander" takes place in an early 21st-century world where male models are a
really big deal. Professional pretty person Derek Zoolander is so famous and
popular — for his "looks" that all comically appear to be exactly the same —
that he's influential. And so, he's recruited to help thwart a fashion
industry-backed assassination of the Malaysian prime minister, who wants to cut
down on sweatshop labor practices. Unfortunately, Derek Zoolander is also the
dumbest person on Earth, possibly even more stupid than his rival turned
friend/cohort in action, Hansel.



 * Starring: Ben Stiller, Owen Wilson, Christine Taylor
 * Director: Ben Stiller
 * Year: 2001
 * Runtime: 89 minutes
 * Rating: PG-13
 * Rotten Tomatoes Score: 63%




56. IDIOCRACY

20th Century Fox

"Idiocracy" is a very smart movie about very dumb people. Army librarian Joe
Bauers is so average that he's declared the most average man in the military,
and he's picked for a strange experiment in which he'll be cryonically frozen
for a short period (alongside a sex worker named Rita). The Armed Forces forgets
about the experiment, and Joe and Rita thaw out in the year 2505 to a changed
world in which humanity has devolved into a shockingly stupid race where
everyone's only focused on immediate pleasures. The once average Joe is by
default the smartest man on Earth, and the government forces him to solve a
catastrophic food shortage — it would seem farmers are giving crops not water
but Brawndo, the "thirst mutilator" because it's "got electrolytes." When Joe
doesn't immediately succeed, he'll have to fight for his life in a demolition
derby.


 * Starring: Luke Wilson, Maya Rudolph, Dax Shepard
 * Director: Mike Judge
 * Year: 2006
 * Runtime: 84 minutes
 * Rating: R
 * Rotten Tomatoes Score: 74%




55. PEE-WEE'S BIG ADVENTURE

Warner Bros.

This bizarro, arch, candy-colored road trip movie served as a debut party for
idiosyncratic future A-list filmmaker Tim Burton, as well as an introduction to
the general public for Pee-wee Herman, the high-voiced, suit-wearing, living
cartoon of an overgrown boy played in a popular Los Angeles stage show by
comedian Paul Reubens. Pee-wee's big adventure begins when his whimsical life of
gadgets and magic tricks is upended ater his amazing bicycle is stolen. He hits
the road in search of it and learns a lot about the bewildering real world along
the way, as well as befriending a criminal, searching for the basement of the
Alamo, and experiencing a close encounter with a ghost trucker.



 * Starring: Paul Reubens, Elizabeth Daily, Mark Holton
 * Director: Tim Burton
 * Year: 1986
 * Runtime: 90 minutes
 * Rating: PG
 * Rotten Tomatoes Score: 87%




54. DUCK SOUP

United Archives/Getty Images

The Marx Brothers had a formula, but it was a novel one for its time, and it
sure did delight and entertain audiences. They were a four-man comedy team, each
with a recognizable and singular persona. Zeppo plays it straight, Chico speaks
in an exaggerated Italian accent, Harpo honked a horn instead of speaking, and
Groucho — in his mustache and glasses — raised his eyebrows as he delivered
astute and witty quips. In their films, the Marx Brothers teamed up to take down
uptight institutions and stick it to the stuffed shirts, injecting madness and
cleverness to create some spectacular screen comedy that's still emulated nearly
a century later. In "Duck Soup," one the Marx Brothers' best, Groucho plays
Rufus T. Firefly, newly appointed president of the bankrupt nation of Freedonia,
who goes to war with neighbor Sylvania in order to win the favors (and fortune)
of a rich woman. It's a brilliant satire of politics and war, and the film's
"mirror" gag is still copied today.



 * Starring: Groucho Marx, Harpo Marx, Chico Marx
 * Director: Leo McCarey
 * Year: 1933
 * Runtime: 70 minutes
 * Rating: NR
 * Rotten Tomatoes Score: 91%




53. BARB AND STAR GO TO VISTA DEL MAR

Lionsgate/YouTube

It's not often that Hollywood makes a buddy comedy about two middle-aged
Midwestern women, nor any movie as proudly, breathtakingly silly as "Barb and
Star Go to Vista Del Mar." Kristen Wiig and Annie Mumolo, who wrote the
Oscar-nominated "Bridesmaids" together, penned the script for this film and star
as the leads — two long-time, naive, and very square best friends, who, after
losing their jobs, embark on an adventurous road trip to a tropical resort
called Del Mar, which caters to people of a certain age. This plot would be
plenty for most comedies, along with the many ridiculous musical numbers and an
entire airplane ride spent discussing the theoretically perfect woman named
Trish, but adding to the madness, a supervillain (Wiig again) and her odd group
of minions are plotting to destroy Del Mar as revenge for some long ago
childhood slight.


 * Starring: Kristen Wiig, Annie Mumolo, Jamie Dornan
 * Director: Josh Greenbaum
 * Year: 2021
 * Runtime: 106 minutes
 * Rating: PG-13
 * Rotten Tomatoes Score: 80%




52. THE LOBSTER

Sony/YouTube

"The Lobster" is a romantic comedy set in a vaguely futuristic dystopia (or
maybe it's a bizarre utopia) where the world looks mostly the same but where
strict government directives on the love lives of its citizens and mythological
phenomena are just a part of life. Authorities are so driven to pair up citizens
into couples that those who remain single for too long are sent to live at a
resort where they're given 45 days to find a mate with a matching physical
characteristic or deformity. If they don't, they're turned into animals. Rather
than submit to all that, a man named David heads into the woods and joins a
militant singles group but falls in love, ironically, with a dangerous "loner."



 * Starring: Colin Farrell, Rachel Weisz, Olivia Colman
 * Director: Yorgos Lanthimos
 * Year: 2015
 * Runtime: 119 minutes
 * Rating: R
 * Rotten Tomatoes Score: 87%




51. THE LEGO MOVIE

Warner Bros./YouTube

Rarely is a movie made for children comically ambitious enough to be genuinely
funny to a general audience, including adults who've seen hundreds of movies and
have every comedy trope memorized. "The LEGO Movie" is that cinematic unicorn
(or Unikitty, if we're going to invoke one of the film's most imaginative
characters). In this CGI film that looks like stop-motion animation
where everything is made out of LEGO, a regular guy named Emmet Brickowski
discovers he's "special" and the one person who can save the Lego realm from
Lord Business' nefarious plot. Emmet isn't quite smart or cynical enough to be
up to the challenge, but he's got the help of a motley crew of allies, including
the rebellious and self-named Wyldstyle, a particularly mopey Batman, and pretty
much every other pop culture character ever turned into a LEGO figurine.



 * Starring: Chris Pratt, Elizabeth Banks, Will Arnett
 * Directors: Christopher Miller and Phil Lord
 * Year: 2014
 * Runtime: 95 minutes
 * Rating: PG
 * Rotten Tomatoes Score: 96%




50. THE GOLD RUSH

United Artists

Charlie Chaplin virtually created the idea of screen comedy, writing, directing,
and starring as the overwhelmed, beset-by-hard-luck "Little Tramp" character in
scores of internationally popular films in the 1910s, 1920s, and 1930s — all in
black and white and all silent. Such was ability to tell a story, hold the
audience's attention, and be creatively and excruciatingly funny, all without
saying a word. In "The Gold Rush," Chaplin portrays the Little Tramp as a
prospector in Alaska in the Klondike Rush of the late 1890s. In due time, he
gets caught in a blizzard and stuck in a rickety cabin with a wanted man. They
slowly go mad from boredom and starvation, but the Little Tramp somehow survives
the cabin's spectacular collapse, all while keeping us chuckling with his shoe
supper and charming roll dance.



 * Starring: Charlie Chaplin, Mack Swain, Tom Murray
 * Director: Charlie Chaplin
 * Year: 1925
 * Runtime: 82 minutes
 * Rating: NR
 * Rotten Tomatoes Score: 100%




49. MONTY PYTHON'S LIFE OF BRIAN

United Archives/Getty Images

The great and influential English sketch comedy troupe Monty Python went and
made a grand, old-fashioned Biblical epic, but they did it their way. "Life of
Brian" concerns an imagined character, Brian, who's born near Jesus Christ in
another manger on the first Christmas. His life parallels and intersects with
his more famous birthday buddy on many occasions, and then Brian joins an
anti-Roman revolutionary group. After his attempt at some Roman-bashing graffiti
goes awry, he's a wanted man, and he faces the same violent death as Christ. He
may not have the Almighty on his side, but he does get a chance to sing the
optimistic "Always Look on the Bride Sight of Life" while facing certain doom.



 * Starring: Graham Chapman, John Cleese, Michael Palin
 * Director: Terry Jones
 * Year: 1979
 * Runtime: 93 minutes
 * Rating: R
 * Rotten Tomatoes Score: 95%




48. BEVERLY HILLS COP

Paramount Pictures/YouTube

With "Beverly Hills Cops," a monster hit of an action comedy, Eddie Murphy
transferred the charm and exceptional comic timing that had made him a sensation
on "Saturday Night Live" to the big screen. In this fish-out-of-water mystery
(with a consistent through line of jokes, riffing, and wisecracking), Murphy
portrays Axel Foley, a Detroit police officer way out of his jurisdiction and
comfort zone when he hunts for a murderer in a snooty Los Angeles enclave. When
he's not butting heads with the uptight cops in the Beverly Hills Police
Department, he's amusingly experiencing culture shock over what he perceives to
be the oddities of California life. The audience comes to identify with and root
for Axel Foley as he navigates '80s materialism, all while Murphy trots out
every bit of his screen persona that made him a superstar.


 * Starring: Eddie Murphy, Judge Reinhold, Ronny Cox
 * Director: Martin Brest
 * Year: 1984
 * Runtime: 105 minutes
 * Rating: R
 * Rotten Tomatoes Score: 83%




47. TOOTSIE

Columbia Pictures/YouTube

"Tootsie" is held up as an example in film schools of how a comedy ought to be
written. It's a classic tale of mistaken identity, one almost Shakespearean, in
which the audience knows what's up and can feel superior to the characters for
not knowing what's truly going on. Dustin Hoffman plays Michael, a serious New
York actor so picky about his roles that he can't manage to find much work.
After a disastrous audition for soap opera, Michael disguises himself as
"Dorothy Michaels," a rookie Southern actress, and she gets the role on the
daytime drama. Then things get out of hand when Dorothy proves popular with
producers, and Michael falls in love with a female co-star.



 * Starring: Dustin Hoffman, Jessica Lange, Bill Murray
 * Director: Sydney Pollack
 * Year: 1982
 * Runtime: 111 minutes
 * Rating: PG
 * Rotten Tomatoes Score: 90%




46. THE 40-YEAR-OLD VIRGIN

Universal Pictures/YouTube

"The 40-Year-Old Virgin" combines heartfelt emotion with wild and suggestive
comedy, establishing writer-director Judd Apatow's approach as the definitive
one of 2000s movie comedy. Steve Carell plays Andy, a painfully shy middle-aged
guy who's never known the touch of a woman. When his macho co-workers find out,
they set out on an '80s sex comedy-style quest to remedy the situation for Andy,
giving him all kinds of crude and sexist advice that puts him in several painful
and painfully funny situations. Meanwhile, he just might take care of things
himself, as he's also slowly pursuing a true and delicate romance with a single
mother.



 * Starring: Steve Carell, Catherine Keener, Paul Rudd
 * Director: Judd Apatow
 * Year: 2005
 * Runtime: 116 minutes
 * Rating: R
 * Rotten Tomatoes Score: 85%




45. BILLY MADISON

Universal Pictures/YouTube

Setting the tone, style, and "SNL" veteran-heavy casting for the films that
would come to define Adam Sandler's career, "Billy Madison" is a silly movie
with an engaging if completely unrealistic premise. Sandler portrays Billy, a
guy in his 20s who lazes around the pool of his family's mansion getting drunk
all day with his friends. He's set to inherit his retiring father's company, but
he's thwarted by a calculating executive who hates him and wants the firm for
himself after the baddie discovers that Billy never finished school. In order to
prove that he's a mature, educated man, Billy goes back to school — starting
with kindergarten. He does every grade in two weeks, and it's actually kind of
hard for Billy because he's amusingly immature and not very smart. (Plus, seeing
a grown man squeeze into a child-size desk is objectively hilarious.)


 * Starring: Adam Sandler, Darren McGavin, Bridgette Wilson-Sampras
 * Director: Tamra Davis
 * Year: 1995
 * Runtime: 89 minutes
 * Rating: PG-13
 * Rotten Tomatoes Score: 42%




44. WET HOT AMERICAN SUMMER

USA Films/YouTube

A few years after the end of their seminal MTV sketch comedy series, members of
the State comedy troupe reunited (along with Paul Rudd, Bradley Cooper, Amy
Poehler, Janeane Garofalo, and David Hyde Pierce) to make a 2000s entry in the
long-forgotten genre of early '80s summer camp movies. Set in 1981 on the last
full day of summer at Camp Firewood in Maine, the ensemble comedy with many
interwoven stories didn't thrill critics upon its initial release but became a
cult classic over the years because it slowly, deftly, and absolutely descends
into chaos and ridiculousness. Camp love triangles don't seem so important once
Skylab falls from outer space, the unhinged camp cook performs a romantic act on
a refrigerator, a can of vegetables starts talking, and a tacky Borscht Belt
comedian rocks the camp talent show.



 * Starring: Janeane Garofalo, Michael Showalter, Paul Rudd
 * Director: David Wain
 * Year: 2001
 * Runtime: 97 minutes
 * Rating: R
 * Rotten Tomatoes Score: 38%




43. THE GENERAL

United Archives/Getty Images

Silent movies don't tend to age well, but the inventive, physical comedy-fueled
films of Buster Keaton have. The actor and filmmaker — with his expressive
hangdog face — played put-upon guys thrust into situations they wanted no part
of, a perfect recipe for laughs and one that set the stage for the hilarious
stunts that kept Keaton's characters teetering between elegance and
humiliation. 



And in "The General," Keaton portrays a Civil War era railroad engineer in the
South named Johnny Gray. After his fiancée is mistakenly kidnapped by Union
troops who steal a train, he's off to get her back, in hot pursuit of the
soldiers via many uncooperative forms of transport. If you've always wanted a
funnier, quieter version of "Mad Max: Fury Road," this stunt-driven chase film
might be the flick for you.


 * Starring: Buster Keaton, Marion Mack, Glen Cavender
 * Directors: Clyde Bruckman and Buster Keaton
 * Year: 1926
 * Runtime: 83 minutes
 * Rating: NR
 * Rotten Tomatoes Score: 93%




42. THE PRODUCERS

United Archives/Getty Images

Spoof master Mel Brooks made his feature filmmaking debut with this sharp
entertainment business satire, and it won him an Academy Award for
screenwriting. Max Bialystock is a formerly successful Broadway producer who now
gets by offering lovemaking services to old women in exchange for investments in
future productions he'll never actually get off the ground. When his very
nervous and easily panicked accountant, Leo Bloom, finds some massive flaws in
his books, the duo realizes that they can actually earn way more money off of a
play that bombs than one that strikes it big. And so, they set out to make a
guaranteed disaster, choosing a glitzy, pro-Nazi musical called "Springtime for
Hitler." Do they pull off the scam and get rich quick? Not exactly.



 * Starring: Zero Mostel, Gene Wilder, Dick Shawn
 * Director: Mel Brooks
 * Year: 1967
 * Runtime: 88 minutes
 * Rating: PG
 * Rotten Tomatoes Score: 90%




41. ELF

New Line Cinema

It's obvious to everyone but Buddy that he's not a natural-born North Pole
Christmas elf — he's 6 feet tall and is terrible at making toys, for example.
Upon learning the news that he's adopted, he leaves the friendly confines of
Santa's workshop to seek out the biological father he's never met, a grumpy,
cynical New York book publisher named Walter Hobbes, who, shockingly, is on "the
Naughty List." Rather than let the city corrupt him, however, Buddy brings
wide-eyed Christmas cheer to everyone he meets, from Walter and his family to a
charming department store elf named Jovie. (And yes, of course Buddy saves
Christmas in the end.)



 * Starring: Will Ferrell, Zooey Deschanel, James Caan
 * Director: Jon Favreau
 * Year: 2003
 * Runtime: 97 minutes
 * Rating: PG
 * Rotten Tomatoes Score: 85%




40. GROSSE POINTE BLANK

Buena Vista Pictures

Some of the best comedies start with a familiar and relatable premise, and then,
after attracting an audience, they tweak and escalate the story, thereby
delighting everyone watching. For example, "Grosse Pointe Blank" sends up the
awkward, almost universally American experience of the high school reunion and
the anxiety over returning home to account for yourself and your actions since
graduation. Martin Blank heads back to his suburban Detroit hometown for his
10-year reunion, intending to reconnect with Debbie, the extra-cool
love-of-his-life he stood up on prom night. He's also now working as one of the
world's top contract killers, but it's a career he feels increasingly bad about,
especially as he avoids an aggressive fellow hitman who wants to unionize and
won't take no for an answer.



 * Starring: John Cusack, Minnie Driver, Dan Aykroyd
 * Director: George Armitage
 * Year: 1997
 * Runtime: 107 minutes
 * Rating: R
 * Rotten Tomatoes Score: 81%




39. JACKASS: THE MOVIE

Paramount Pictures/YouTube

This isn't a scripted comedy, and it's not really a documentary either.
"Jackass: The Movie" is the big-screen version of the hit MTV stunt-and-prank
series, free from the strict content restraints of cable TV. The "Jackass" crew,
a close-knit bunch of guys who love to razz and physically harm themselves and
each other, come across as a sweet and loving bunch as they stage set pieces
that are too wild, profane, or elaborate for television. These guys suffer for
their art too. The 50 or so sequences include administering electronic shocks,
entering a rental car in a demolition derby, crashing golf carts, tightrope
walking over an alligator pit, and using a display toilet in a hardware store.



 * Starring: Johnny Knoxville, Chris Pontius, Steve-O
 * Director: Jeff Tremaine
 * Year: 2002
 * Runtime: 84 minutes
 * Rating: R
 * Rotten Tomatoes Score: 49%




38. HAROLD AND MAUDE

United Archives/Getty Images

"Harold and Maude" is a cult classic that helped establish the language of both
independent filmmaking and dark comedies. After surviving a chemical explosion,
young Harold is obsessed with death, going to funerals and staging elaborate
death tableaus of himself just for fun (and to annoy his wealthy mother). But
then he meets Maude, a free-spirited 79-year-old who gets a kick out of doing
whatever she feels like and pushing people's buttons, and her hobbies include
stealing cars and attending funerals. Maude helps Harold appreciate the joys of
living while Harold helps Maude cope with the looming end of her life.



 * Starring: Bud Cort, Ruth Gordon, Vivian Pickles
 * Director: Hal Ashby
 * Year: 1971
 * Runtime: 91 minutes
 * Rating: PG
 * Rotten Tomatoes Score: 84%




37. TALLADEGA NIGHTS: THE BALLAD OF RICKY BOBBY

Sony Pictures/YouTube

All Ricky Bobby ever wanted to do was go fast. Inspired by his reckless father
who disappeared after telling him, "If you're not first, you're last," he grows
up to be a champion NASCAR driver, alongside his best friend, Cal Naughton Jr.
He's a smug, arrogant, and proudly mediocre individual ... until some racetrack
mishaps leave him ruined. First, he embarrasses himself praying to every deity
he can think of while running around the track, mistakenly believing he's on
fire. And then he's soundly beaten by a tricky European Formula One driver,
causing him to lose his status, sponsors, and wife. His long trip back will
teach Ricky Bobby some much needed humility.



 * Starring: Will Ferrell, John C. Reilly, Sacha Baron Cohen
 * Director: Adam McKay
 * Year: 2006
 * Runtime: 110 minutes
 * Rating: PG-13
 * Rotten Tomatoes Score: 71%




36. THERE'S SOMETHING ABOUT MARY

20th Century Fox/YouTube

There is indeed something about Mary, as the title of this gross-out rom-com
from the Farrelly brothers and the film's recurring troubadour imply. Mary is
unpretentious, legitimately kind, and blessed with movie star-level good looks —
a combination that overwhelms most every man she's met in her adult life,
driving them to acts of criminality and self-destruction. But "There's Something
About Mary" is really the story of Ted, Mary's ill-fated prom date from years
earlier who still harbors an intense crush. Audiences will howl with laughter
while simultaneously cringing as one graphically awful, painful, and
embarrassing thing after another happens to Ted during his patient pursuit of
Mary.



 * Starring: Ben Stiller, Cameron Diaz, Matt Dillon
 * Director: Peter Farrelly and Bobby Farrelly
 * Year: 1998
 * Runtime: 118 minutes
 * Rating: R
 * Rotten Tomatoes Score: 83%




35. SHAUN OF THE DEAD

Universal Pictures

Not counting their much-loved, short-lived British slacker comedy "Spaced,"
"Shaun of the Dead" was the first of many collaborations between filmmaker Edgar
Wright and actors Simon Pegg and Nick Frost. In this brilliant horror comedy,
Pegg portrays Shaun, a London electronics store worker going nowhere fast. In
fact, he's recently been dumped by his girlfriend. He's so wrapped up in his own
misery that it takes him an extremely long time to notice that his city is in
the midst of a zombie apocalypse. But when he finally does, Shaun quickly
springs to action, wielding a cricket bat, and with the assistance of his
equally underachieving roommate Ed, he sets out to protect himself, his ex, and
his mother.



 * Starring: Simon Pegg, Nick Frost, Kate Ashfield
 * Director: Edgar Wright
 * Year: 2004
 * Runtime: 97 minutes
 * Rating: R
 * Rotten Tomatoes Score: 92%




34. BRINGING UP BABY

United Archives/Getty Images

It's perhaps the definitive screwball comedy of Hollywood's golden Age. And it
stars two of the classiest and most respected actors of all time — Cary Grant
and Katharine Hepburn — acting silly and competing for screen time with an
animal, no less. In this wacky, whip-smart black-and-white caper, nerdy
paleontologist David Huxley has to impress a high-society lady so she'll give
his museum a massive donation. All he has to do is endure a day with her niece,
Susan, an unpredictable free spirit who complicates things with her affections
and introducing rogue dinosaur bones and a hungry leopard into the mix.



 * Starring: Katharine Hepburn, Cary Grant, Charles Ruggles
 * Director: Howard Hawks
 * Year: 1938
 * Runtime: 102 minutes
 * Rating: NR
 * Rotten Tomatoes Score: 94%




33. THE PRINCESS BRIDE

20th Century Fox

Based on William Goldman's wry fairy tale novel, this gentle, family-enticing
classic purports to be just "the good parts" of a longer, epic mythology set in
the ancient kingdoms of Guilder and Florin, written by the mysterious S.
Morgenstern. At least, that's what the Grandfather tells the sick Grandson as he
reads from the book, which comes to life for the viewer. At its heart, it's the
story of the true love between Princess Buttercup and a farmhand named Westley,
kept apart by strange, fairy tale-type circumstances. At various points, Westley
dies, gets revived, and becomes a famous pirate while both contend with "Rodents
of Unusual Size" and a trio of kidnappers turned allies in the foiling of a
sinister royal plot. There's the brainy Vizzini, the super strong Fezzik, and
the swordsman Inigo Montoya, breathily seeking to avenge the death of his
father.



 * Starring: Robin Wright, Cary Elwes, Mandy Patinkin
 * Director: Rob Reiner
 * Year: 1987
 * Runtime: 98 minutes
 * Rating: PG
 * Rotten Tomatoes Score: 97%




32. O BROTHER, WHERE ART THOU?

Buena Vista Pictures

This epic frivolity from quirky filmmakers Joel and Ethan Cohen is an adaptation
of Homer's Ancient Greek epic poem "The Odyssey," except it's set in the
American South during the Great Depression. Plus, it's about a smooth-talking
criminal instead of a mighty warrior, and it's funny. Both the poem and "O
Brother, Where Art Thou?" do, however, feature enemies in pursuit, seductive
sirens, and a cyclops. As for the plot, after busting out of a chain gang, three
convicts, led by the charming Ulysses Everett McGill, trek across the
countryside and encounter danger in order to find long-hidden stolen wealth and
then hoof it to freedom.



 * Starring: George Clooney, John Turturro, Tim Blake Nelson
 * Directors: Joel Coen and Ethan Coen
 * Year: 2000
 * Runtime: 106 minutes
 * Rating: PG-13
 * Rotten Tomatoes Score: 78%




31. DEADPOOL

20th Century Fox

"Deadpool" is a film that asks, "What if that wickedly funny friend who makes
hilarious wisecracks all throughout the viewing of a movie was the main
character and narrator of that very film?" Well, that film would be fantastic.



Here, Ryan Reynolds – so charmingly, self-deprecatingly funny in many other
movies, as well as off-screen — plays Wade Wilson, a low-rent mercenary who
can't stop saying funny stuff, even after he's diagnosed with cancer and forced
into an experimental treatment that turns him into a deformed superhero with
instant healing abilities. Seriously, the dude is still cracking jokes even as
he goes after the bad guys who left him with Freddy Krueger skin and kidnapped
the love of his life.

 * Starring: Ryan Reynolds, Morena Baccarin, T.J. Miller
 * Director: Tim Miller
 * Year: 2016
 * Runtime: 108 minutes
 * Rating: R
 * Rotten Tomatoes Score: 85%




30. ARSENIC AND OLD LACE

Warner Bros.

Cary Grant specialized in playing charming, debonair rogues, and in "Arsenic and
Old Lace," he plays a character who monetized the handsome bachelor lifestyle,
portraying Mortimer Brewster, an author of books urging the end of marriage
altogether. He finally decides to settle down, however, after the winsome,
All-American lady next door, Elaine wins his heart, and they decide to get
married on Halloween. That's an omen of bad things to come, and so, the film
suggests, was his idea to embrace family life. Not long after announcing their
engagement, Mortimer discovers that his brother, uncle, and odd aunts are all
secret, unrepentant murderers.



 * Starring: Cary Grant, Priscilla Lane, Raymond Massey
 * Director: Frank Capra
 * Year: 1943
 * Runtime: 118 minutes
 * Rating: NR
 * Rotten Tomatoes Score: 81%




29. GHOSTBUSTERS

Columbia Pictures/YouTube

There was no bigger movie in 1984 than "Ghostbusters," a high-concept
supernatural action comedy with a cast full of "Saturday Night Live" and "SCTV"
veterans. Kicked out of their prestigious university jobs for pursuing fringe
scientific work about the paranormal, scientists Venkman, Stantz, and Spengler
hear about New York City's spate of hauntings and go into business, renting out
an old firehouse and calling themselves the Ghostbusters. When they discover a
portal to another dimension that rains spirits, demonic possessions, and pure
evil upon the city, it's up to the dismissed ghost hunters to become heroes.



 * Starring: Dan Aykroyd, Bill Murray, Harold Ramis
 * Director: Ivan Reitman
 * Year: 1984
 * Runtime: 107 minutes
 * Rating: PG
 * Rotten Tomatoes Score: 97%




28. AUSTIN POWERS: INTERNATIONAL MAN OF MYSTERY

New Line Cinema/YouTube

In this affectionate parody of brightly colored, very British spy movies from
the '60s, Mike Myers stars as Austin Powers, an operative with very bad teeth
and a guy who treats women like objects, calling them "baby" and asking if they
want to "shag." And yet, in that era, Austin Powers could be a hero and sex
symbol in spite of all that (or even because of it). He's in for a culture shock
when he's unfrozen in the unfamiliar, strange, and politically correct '90s in
order to defeat Dr. Evil (also played by Mike Myers), a Bond-esque villain bent
on world domination (and reconnecting with his lab-created son, Scott Evil).



 * Starring: Mike Myers, Elizabeth Hurley, Robert Wagner
 * Director: Jay Roach
 * Year: 1997
 * Runtime: 89 minutes
 * Rating: PG-13
 * Rotten Tomatoes Score: 73%




27. PLANES, TRAINS, AND AUTOMOBILES

Paramount Pictures

There aren't too many Thanksgiving movies, but even if there were, "Planes,
Trains, and Automobiles" would stand above them all because it's about the
lengths people will go to get home in time for the holiday, along with the
soul-crushing frustrations they'll bear. In this road trip comedy, the brief
journey from New York to Chicago will seemingly never end for uptight ad man
Neal and gregarious, overbearing shower curtain salesman Del. This odd couple
wind up taking the trip together, through canceled flights, car fires,
intimately shared motel rooms, cramped buses, and a robbery.



 * Starring: Steve Martin, John Candy, Laila Robins
 * Director: John Hughes
 * Year: 1987
 * Runtime: 92 minutes
 * Rating: R
 * Rotten Tomatoes Score: 92%




26. SOUTH PARK: BIGGER, LONGER, AND UNCUT

Paramount Pictures/YouTube

The big-screen version of the satirical, animated series isn't just an
extra-long episode — it's an ambitious and sweeping war epic, rife with romance,
the supernatural, and a great number of musical sequences. But because this is
"South Park," the whole thing is unbelievably profane and provocative. After
Stan, Kyle, Cartman, and Kenny go see the Canadian comedians Terrance and
Phillip's movie and start swearing more than usual, Kyle's crusading mother
blames Canada. Her actions lead to a bloody conflict with the nation, and
meanwhile, Stan gets involved in defending Terrance and Philip because he thinks
the girl he likes will like him back if he gets political, while Kenny dies,
goes to Hell, and helps Satan leave his abusive partner, Saddam Hussein.



 * Starring: Trey Parker, Matt Stone, Mary Kay Bergman
 * Director: Trey Parker
 * Year: 1999
 * Runtime: 80 minutes
 * Rating: R
 * Rotten Tomatoes Score: 80%




25. NATIONAL LAMPOON'S CHRISTMAS VACATION

Warner Bros.

If you thought the Griswold family had to deal with some disasters in "National
Lampoon's Vacation," you ain't seen nothing until you've seen "Christmas
Vacation." Few other holiday movies before or since have addressed the familiar
stress, work, familial pressure, and annoyances that come with trying to get
everything done and perfect by December 25th. Clark Griswold endeavors to have
the perfect family Christmas — and to announce the building of a backyard
swimming pool. Here's hoping his relatives don't burn the house down in a number
of ways first and that he actually gets that bonus check from his cruel boss.



 * Starring: Chevy Chase, Beverly D'Angelo, Randy Quaid
 * Director: Jeremiah S. Chechik
 * Year: 1989
 * Runtime: 97 minutes
 * Rating: PG-13
 * Rotten Tomatoes Score: 67%




24. OFFICE SPACE

20th Century Fox

Previously best known for "Beavis and Butt-head" and "King of the Hill,"
writer-director Mike Judge soon turned his attention to taking down corporate
culture, cubicle life, and even the idea of work in general in "Office Space."
Here, the action centers on Peter, a dissatisfied and despondent office worker
who just can't focus or stifle his hatred of his passive-aggressively demanding
boss, so much so that he agrees to his girlfriend's suggestion to receive
therapeutic hypnosis. Tragically, the hypnotist dies mid-session, leaving Peter
in a blissful state in which he doesn't care about anything but his own
happiness, causing him to say and do whatever he feels at work. His newfound
emotional freedom also helps him launch a digital accounting scam with
co-workers Samir and the unfortunately named Michael Bolton.



 * Starring: Ron Livingston, Jennifer Aniston, Gary Cole
 * Director: Mike Judge
 * Year: 1999
 * Runtime: 89 minutes
 * Rating: R
 * Rotten Tomatoes Score: 80%




23. BOWFINGER

Universal Pictures

"Bowfinger" is a very funny movie about how movies get made — or rather how they
could get made if the dream and desire to make them is strong enough, even
amongst wannabe filmmakers who lack the talent, money, and connections to do so.
After guiding a troupe of hack actors through some very low-budget productions,
Bobby Bowfinger falsely claims to have cast big-time movie star Kit Ramsey in
his latest project, an action flick called "Chubby Rain." He's done no such
thing, however. Instead, he follows and secretly films Ramsey's actions (and
reactions to his actors doing line readings). For close-up shots, Bowfinger
enlists a nerdy Kit Ramsey lookalike — the opposite of the brash and paranoid
A-lister. And yes, Eddie Murphy plays both parts.



 * Starring: Steve Martin, Eddie Murphy, Heather Graham
 * Director: Frank Oz
 * Year: 1999
 * Runtime: 97 minutes
 * Rating: PG-13
 * Rotten Tomatoes Score: 81%




22. NAPOLEON DYNAMITE

Business Wire/Getty Images

"Napoleon Dynamite" is about a high school outcast, but it's not the
conventional teenage comedy. Set in a tiny, rural Idaho town, the title
character lives life on his own terms, fancying himself a champion and idol,
forever annoyed with classmates and family members who want him to just act
normally. He's too busy developing his karate skills, learning to disco dance,
dangling action figures out of bus windows, shopping in thrift stores with his
almost comatose friend Pedro, and drawing ligers (that's a mix of a lion and a
tiger) to care what other people think.



 * Starring: Jon Heder, Efren Ramirez, Jon Gries
 * Director: Jared Hess
 * Year: 2004
 * Runtime: 86 minutes
 * Rating: PG
 * Rotten Tomatoes Score: 72%




21. AIRPLANE!

Paramount Pictures

Filmmakers David Zucker, Jim Abrahams, and Jerry Zucker made a comic version of
the 1957 B-movie "Zero Hour" that also served as a parody of 1970s disaster
movies, particularly the "Airport" franchise. In doing so, ZAZ created a
blueprint for a whole new style of film — the rapid-fire comedy, with a joke
coming every few seconds or less, along with quickly passing sight gags. In
"Airplane!" pilot Ted Striker can't get over a failed military mission or his
old girlfriend, flight attendant Elaine, and he follows her onto a long-haul
flight. But then disaster strikes — nearly everyone on board gets food
poisoning, and Ted has to step in to fly the plane in place of the confusingly
named Captain Oveur, all while assisted by stony Dr. Rumack who gets the
punchline in the film's definitive exchange:



Ted: Surely, you can't be serious.

Dr. Rumack: I am serious. And don't call me Shirley.


 * Starring: Robert Hays, Julie Haggerty, Leslie Nielsen
 * Director: Jim Abrahams, David Zucker, Jerry Zucker
 * Year: 1980
 * Runtime: 88 minutes
 * Rating: PG
 * Rotten Tomatoes Score: 97%




20. BRIDESMAIDS

Universal Pictures/YouTube

Hailed as revolutionary upon its release, "Bridesmaids" was a bro comedy with
over-the-top characters and bawdy bodily humor scenes, but unlike the usual fare
of that nature, it had a cast made up almost entirely of women. Kristen Wiig
(who co-wrote the script and earned an Oscar nomination for it) stars as Annie,
a woman approaching 40 who feels like her life has stagnated after her business
fails, her self-centered casual hookup won't commit, and her roommates kick her
out. The only bright spot? Planning the wedding of her best friend, Lillian.
However, she's soon feuding with Lillian's other best friend, a pretentious snob
who upstages her at every turn. When Annie does get a chance to break free, it
goes poorly, like when food poisoning from her bridesmaids lunch turns into the
destruction of a gown shop's restroom.



 * Starring: Kristen Wiig, Maya Rudolph, Rose Byrne
 * Director: Paul Feig
 * Year: 2011
 * Runtime: 125 minutes
 * Rating: R
 * Rotten Tomatoes Score: 90%




19. YOUNG FRANKENSTEIN

20th Century Fox

In this unofficial comic sequel and send-up of James Whale's classic
"Frankenstein" movies of the 1930s, Gene Wilder plays the fidgety Dr. Frederick
Frankenstein — pronounced "FRAHNK-en-steen" — as he's trying to distance himself
from his notorious grandfather, Dr. Victor Frankenstein, the unsavory,
grave-robbing scientist who reanimated a terrifying corpse a few years back.
When he inherits the original Frankenstein's estate, he repeats the sins of the
grandfather, dead-set on making life out of death himself, and winding up with a
much different monster — one who's afraid of fire but who also can also perform
"Puttin' on the Ritz."



 * Starring: Gene Wilder, Marty Feldman, Peter Boyle
 * Director: Mel Brooks
 * Year: 1974
 * Runtime: PG
 * Rating: 105 minutes
 * Rotten Tomatoes Score: 94%




18. FERRIS BUELLER'S DAY OFF

Paramount Pictures

"Life moves pretty fast," privileged teenager Ferris Bueller directly tells the
audience of his movie, imploring us to seize the day and live each moment like
it were the last. And he certainly feels like the end is nigh, as adulthood and
all its responsibilities loom in the near future. So, he decides to take a day
away from it all, roping in his shy best friend, Cameron, and cool girlfriend,
Sloane, to join him in a day of hijinks in downtown Chicago. After using his
state-of-the-art computer and props to convince his parents and school he's
sick, Ferris leads the gang into a meal at a fancy restaurant, a Cubs game, an
art museum, and singing a Beatles song on a parade float. He's a righteous dude,
as everyone at his school agrees.



 * Starring: Matthew Broderick, Alan Ruck, Mia Sara
 * Director: John Hughes
 * Year: 1986
 * Runtime: 103 minutes
 * Rating: PG-13
 * Rotten Tomatoes Score: 80%




17. WHAT WE DO IN THE SHADOWS

Paramount Pictures/YouTube

Before the TV show about centuries-old vampires living on Staten Island, there
was the film about vampires grappling with life (and each other) in modern-day
Wellington, New Zealand. In this mockumentary, three vampires of classical
appearance (plus the monstrous, ancient Petyr) share an apartment filled with
old objects and caked blood. Romantic Viago is still on the lookout for the true
love he lost track of decades prior, former warlord Vladislav is driven mad by
the thought of an ex-lover, and Deacon is young and cocky. When they're not
flying through the air, hanging out at sparsely populated nightclubs, and
drinking blood, these vampires are bickering with each other or avoiding a clan
of annoying werewolves.



 * Starring: Jemaine Clement, Taika Waititi, Jonny Brugh
 * Director: Taika Waititi
 * Year: 2014
 * Runtime: 86 minutes
 * Rating: R
 * Rotten Tomatoes Score: 96%




16. RUSHMORE

Buena Vista Pictures/YouTube

Despite running dozens of disparate, successful extracurricular clubs,
scholarship student Max Fisher just doesn't fit in at the prestigious Rushmore
Academy. It's a respite for him, as he's embarrassed by his barber father and
nurses a broken heart caused by the death of his mother. He's in danger of
flunking out — too many clubs means no time to get his grades out of the gutter
— but he redoubles his efforts to stay when he develops an intense crush on new
teacher Rosemary, who sees a little bit of her exceptional, deceased husband in
Max. She loves fish, so he builds an aquarium on school grounds with the money
from depressed, divorcing industrialist Herman Blume, a kindred spirit turned
mortal enemy when he makes a move on Rosemary. Somehow, the drama all leads up
to an ultra-violent play about the Vietnam War staged by the Max Fisher Players.



 * Starring: Jason Schwartzman, Bill Murray, Olivia Williams
 * Director: Wes Anderson
 * Year: 1998
 * Runtime: 93 minutes
 * Rating: R
 * Rotten Tomatoes Score: 90%




15. BACK TO THE FUTURE

Universal

There's always going to be some kind of a generation gap between adults and
their teenage children, but "Back to the Future" found an audacious, original,
and wildly scientific way to get parents and kids to understand each other by
making them all 17 at the same time. In 1985, Marty McFly spends his time
avoiding his geeky and defeated parents, George and Lorraine, and hangs out with
Doc Brown, a neighborhood mad scientist. One night, he shows Marty the time
machine he's built in a DeLorean, and before he knows it, Marty's been sent 30
years back in time. Complicating matters even more, he's forced to play
matchmaker for his future parents — lest he never exist. That's going to prove
difficult, as George is a creep and Lorraine totally has the hots for Marty, who
she doesn't know is actually her son from the future.



 * Starring: Michael J. Fox, Christopher Lloyd, Lea Thompson
 * Director: Robert Zemeckis
 * Year: 1985
 * Runtime: 116 minutes
 * Rating: PG
 * Rotten Tomatoes Score: 96%




14. FLETCH

Universal Pictures/YouTube

When he ruled the comedy world in the 1980s, Chevy Chase was at his best when he
played smarmy guys who thought they were one step ahead of everybody else. He
perfected the persona with "Fletch," playing Irwin M. "Fletch" Fletcher, a
versatile, quick-thinking investigative reporter who acts more like a shrewd
private eye than a writer researching a story. He's offered a big sum of money
to kill a man, but a little bit of digging shows that the situation is far more
complicated and dangerous than Fletch thought, sending him looking for answers
and into hiding. Along the way, we're treated to a series of ridiculous fake
names and assumed identities that he gets away with because Fletch can talk his
way into or out of anything. At one point, a friend asks Fletch if "everything
is a joke to him." And yes, it kind of is.



 * Starring: Chevy Chase, Joe Don Baker, Dana Wheeler-Nicholson
 * Director: Michael Ritchie
 * Year: 1985
 * Runtime: 98 minutes
 * Rating: PG
 * Rotten Tomatoes Score: 77%




13. TRADING PLACES

Paramount Pictures/YouTube

Coming out of the classic "mean rich guys vs. the scrappy underdog" school of
comedy is "Trading Places," the story of a switcheroo gone awry that proves
detrimental to its nasty instigators. Brothers and high-powered investors
Randolph and Mortimer Duke engage in a cynical and friendly $1 bet — whether or
not they can pick somebody off the street and turn his life around, all while
ruining somebody else's. Their unwitting subjects are grifter Billy Ray
Valentine and privileged inventor Louis Winthrope III — the Dukes' own nephew.
Through some machinations, they instantly build up Billy Ray and destroy Louis
... until our heroes get wind of the bet and conspire to manipulate the stock
market and financially ruin the Dukes.



 * Starring: Eddie Murphy, Dan Aykroyd, Jamie Lee Curtis
 * Director: John Landis
 * Year: 1983
 * Runtime: 116 minutes
 * Rating: R
 * Rotten Tomatoes Score: 88%




12. BILL AND TED'S EXCELLENT ADVENTURE

Orion Pictures/YouTube

Southern California teenagers Bill and Ted are as close as best friends can be,
probably because they're very much alike. They're not very smart, they talk like
surfers, and they're obsessed with their own theoretically heavy metal band,
Wyld Stallyns. They can't actually play their instruments, but a bigger problem
could affect their fated future as rock stars. If they fail history, Ted's dad
will send him to military school. Fortunately, that's when future man Rufus
takes a phone booth back in time to let Bill and Ted know they're worshipped as
saviors and metal masters in the decades to come. Better still, they're free to
use that time-travel technology to bring real historical figures — Joan of Arc,
Socrates, Abraham Lincoln — back to their high school as their history project.
Excellent!



 * Starring: Keanu Reeves, Alex Winter, George Carlin
 * Director: Stephen Herek
 * Year: 1989
 * Runtime: 90 minutes
 * Rating: PG
 * Rotten Tomatoes Score: 81%




11. BEST IN SHOW

Warner Bros.

"Best in Show" feels like one of those documentaries that are all over streaming
services, depicting the lives of quirky characters who are part of a
little-known subculture and whose stories converge in a big event. However, this
is a comic, semi-improvised, semi-scripted mockumentary, populated by richly
developed and fascinating characters preparing to compete with their pets in a
national dog show. For example, Harlan Pepper loves and resembles his hound dog,
and married couple Gerry and Cookie Fleck are into terriers. But Fred Willard is
the real MVP here as a shockingly uninformed but curious dog show commentator
who blurts out whatever pops into his head.


 * Starring: Eugene Levy, Catherine O'Hara, Fred Willard
 * Director: Christopher Guest
 * Year: 2000
 * Runtime: 90 minutes
 * Rating: PG-13
 * Rotten Tomatoes Score: 93%




10. BLAZING SADDLES

United Archives/Getty Images

Mel Brooks, the king of the full-length movie spoof who filled his movies with
unbridled silliness, satirized 20th-century American race relations with
"Blazing Saddles," the funniest Western ever made. A greedy developer named
Hedley Lamarr (quick to not let others anachronistically confuse him with movie
star Hedy Lamarr) wants to build a railroad through the town of Rock Ridge, and
with the help of the governor, he plans on driving everyone out. How? By
appointing the Old West's first Black sheriff, the smart and clever Bart.
However, the plan backfires when Bart wins over the incredibly racist town and
fights back against the baddies, enlisting the help of the Waco Kid, once the
fastest gun around. Of course, this is also a Mel Brooks movie so there's less
cerebral stuff, such as the "cowboys eating beans by the campfire" scene —
probably the longest and most famous fart scene in film history.



 * Starring: Cleavon Little, Gene Wilder, Harvey Korman
 * Director: Mel Brooks
 * Year: 1974
 * Runtime: 93 minutes
 * Rating: R
 * Rotten Tomatoes Score: 88%




9. DR. STRANGELOVE OR: HOW I LEARNED TO STOP WORRYING AND LOVE THE BOMB

Columbia Pictures/YouTube

Released a few years after the almost catastrophic Cuban Missile Crisis, "Dr.
Strangelove" didn't help to assuage mass anxiety about nuclear war between the
U.S. and the Soviet Union ... but at least it was funny, treating the idea of
high-stakes gamesmanship as an absurd farce. Convinced that the Russian
Communists are trying to infect the "precious bodily fluids" of innocent
Americans, deranged Air Force General Jack Ripper orders atomic-armed jets to
bomb the Soviet Union. Back in the U.S., a war room of elite but ineffectual
officials convenes, desperate to somehow stop what looks to be the end of the
world. Dedicated comic actor (and "The Pink Panther" star) Peter Sellers plays
three roles: a British military captain, President Merkin Muffley, and Dr.
Strangelove, a supposedly former Nazi advising the U.S. government.


 * Starring: Peter Sellers, George C. Scott, Sterling Hayden
 * Director: Stanley Kubrick
 * Year: 1964
 * Runtime: 93 minutes
 * Rating: PG
 * Rotten Tomatoes Score: 98%




8. NATIONAL LAMPOON'S VACATION

Warner Bros./YouTube

Viewers of a certain age might see a lot of their own fathers in Clark Griswold,
a busy Chicago man who works hard, is a little too sure of himself, and who just
wants to road trip across the U.S. with his family and take them to the
legendary Wally World amusement park in California. This vacation is anything as
Clark and company suffer numerous indignities, tragedies, and disasters along
the way, including a relative who dies en route, a major car accident,
urine-soaked sandwiches, and police intervention.



 * Starring: Chevy Chase, Beverly D'Angelo, Randy Quaid
 * Director: Harold Ramis
 * Year: 1983
 * Runtime: 98 minutes
 * Rating: R
 * Rotten Tomatoes Score: 93%




7. WAYNE'S WORLD

Paramount Pictures

"Wayne's World" was such a popular sketch on "Saturday Night Live" that
Hollywood wanted to expand the world of metalhead Chicago cable access hosts
Wayne Campbell and Garth Algar into a film. The resulting movie isn't a rehash
but an innovative, ironic, exciting, and wildly unpredictable comedy. Amidst a
story about a sleazy TV producer trying to steal and ruin Wayne's show (and also
lure away his rock star girlfriend), Wayne and Garth frequently break the fourth
wall, talking to the audience and even giving the film a new ending because the
one they're stuck with is a total bummer. "Wayne's World" is really all about
those great bits, like the memorable moment where rock legend Alice Cooper
delivers a lecture about the history of Milwaukee.



 * Starring: Mike Myers, Dana Carvey, Rob Lowe
 * Director: Penelope Spheeris
 * Year: 1992
 * Runtime: 95 minutes
 * Rating: PG-13
 * Rotten Tomatoes Score: 78%




6. ANCHORMAN: THE LEGEND OF RON BURGUNDY

DreamWorks/YouTube

In the 1970s, when media options were slim, local TV news anchors could
apparently be celebrities and treated like trusted, merciful gods. At least they
were according to "Anchorman," which tells the story of the undoing of Ron
Burgundy, ruler of San Diego's popular Channel 4 news team, as he comes to grips
with his woefully sexist and self-absorbed ways when he's forced to share the
nightly news with feminist journalist Veronica Corningstone (with whom he's also
desperately smitten). "Anchorman" is more than just a satire of gender politics
where a buffoon is the butt of the jokes — there are many scenes of Ron and his
news team goofing off, getting in violent fights with other local news
personalities, and breaking out into random love songs from the 1970s.



 * Starring: Will Ferrell, Christina Applegate, Paul Rudd
 * Director: Adam McKay
 * Year: 2004
 * Runtime: 95 minutes
 * Rating: PG-13
 * Rotten Tomatoes Score: 66%




5. THIS IS SPINAL TAP

Embassy Pictures

What if some filmmaker made a documentary about a band well past its most
successful days, when all of the embarrassments and mistakes they suffer could
be caught on tape? That's the premise of "This is Spinal Tap," a comic
mockumentary about a once great British heavy metal band that no longer sits
atop the music world. For one, their label found the cover of their new album
"Smell the Glove" so profane they released it in a plain black sleeve, and it's
all downhill from there, as the band gets lost in arenas, resorts to playing
amusement park amphitheaters, and deals with a succession of spontaneously dying
drummers.



 * Starring: Michael McKean, Christopher Guest, Harry Shearer
 * Director: Rob Reiner
 * Year: 1984
 * Runtime: 82 minutes
 * Rating: R
 * Rotten Tomatoes Score: 95%




4. BORAT: CULTURAL LEARNINGS OF AMERICA FOR MAKE BENEFIT GLORIOUS NATION OF
KAZAKHSTAN

20th Century Fox

On his 2000s TV series "Da Ali G Show," British comedian Sacha Baron Cohen so
disappeared into characters — including boorish, sexist, anti-Semitic Kazakh
journalist Borat — that it disarmed his real-life interview subjects and got
them to open up to a person they didn't know was fictional. In 2006, Cohen took
the show on the road, literally, playing a character in what's sort of a
documentary, embarking on a road trip across the United States and interacting
with real people who don't always come off very well. Beyond getting individuals
to say awful things because they think they're among friends, the whole trip
becomes "very nice" for Borat when he becomes obsessed with Pamela Anderson and
will stop at nothing to marry her.



 * Starring: Sacha Baron Cohen, Ken Davitian, Luenell
 * Director: Larry Charles
 * Year: 2006
 * Runtime: 84 minutes
 * Rating: R
 * Rotten Tomatoes Score: 91%




3. GROUNDHOG DAY

Columbia Pictures

There would be no "Palm Springs," "Happy Death Day," or other
caught-in-a-repeating-time-loop movies without the original stab at the idea:
"Groundhog Day." Bill Murray plays Phil Connors, a jaded and shallow TV
weatherman who resents having to travel to the Groundhog Day capital of
Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania, to cover whether or not the official groundhog sees
his shadow or not. He's rude to his producer, Rita, not to mention pretty much
everyone else he encounters, from townsfolk to an old, long-winded acquaintance.
Then something magically and utterly unexplainable happens: Phil keeps re-living
Groundhog Day, in the exact same circumstances, over and over. He does it
probably thousands of times, unable to break out even with death. It would seem
that he's going to have to fix something about himself and his awful ways if he
ever wants the date to change.



 * Starring: Bill Murray, Andie McDowell, Chris Elliott
 * Director: Harold Ramis
 * Year: 1993
 * Runtime: 96 minutes
 * Rating: PG
 * Rotten Tomatoes Score: 96%




2. THE JERK

Universal Pictures

Navin Johnson isn't a jerk in the sense that he's mean; he's a jerk in that he's
a naive rube, mystified by and uninformed as to how the world works. And that's
the point of "The Jerk," one man's comical journey of self-discovery and amazing
personal and professional success, most of which comes from a combination of
accidents, being in the right place at the right time, and an endearing
child-like enthusiasm. Navin (played by white actor and co-writer Steve Martin)
leaves his rural home after learning he was adopted into his large
African-American family, so as to find his "special purpose." It's a journey
that will include working at a carnival, living in a gas station, and becoming a
wildly wealthy inventor, only to lose it all with nothing to his name but a
thermos.



 * Starring: Steve Martin, Bernadette Peters, Mabel King
 * Director: Carl Reiner
 * Year: 1979
 * Runtime: 93 minutes
 * Rating: R
 * Rotten Tomatoes Score: 83%




1. MONTY PYTHON AND THE HOLY GRAIL

EMI Films

On its sketch show "Flying Circus," Monty Python ridiculed all aspects of
English life, particularly what it meant to be English. So it's ironic that the
most enduring and popular film adaptation of Arthurian legend is "Monty Python
and the Holy Grail," a film that celebrates England's enduring collection of
myths and legends about a brave and true medieval ruler by thoroughly and
completely making fun of it. 



"Holy Grail," ostensibly about a quest to obtain Christ's Last Supper goblet, is
made by a sketch troupe, and as a result, we're treated to one hilarious set
piece and self-contained vignette after another, from two castle guards
wondering how many swallows could carry the coconuts King Arthur's squire uses
to mimic the sound of horse hooves (in lieu of an actual horse) to a duel with
the indefatigable Black Knight (who won't stop fighting even after Arthur hacks
off all his limbs) to killer bunnies and a group of knights who scream, "Ni!"


 * Starring: Graham Chapman, John Cleese, Eric Idle
 * Directors: Terry Gilliam and Terry Jones
 * Year: 1975
 * Runtime: 90 minutes
 * Rating: PG
 * Rotten Tomatoes Score: 97%



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