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100 best comedy movies
The 100 best comedy movies, picked by experts from across film, TV and comedy
Explore the full list of 100 films
Read our contributors' top tens
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The experts have spoken
From Dan Aykroyd to Edgar Wright, browse through the film lists submitted by over 200 contributor...
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100 Best British Films
The 100 best British films as chosen by a panel of 150 film industry experts, including directors Sam Mendes, Mike Leigh, Ken Loach and Wes Anderson.
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Time Out's 50 greatest animated films
Time Out ushers in the help of master animator Terry Gilliam to run down 50 of the greatest animated features of all time.
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50 Essential comic-book Movies, with Edgar Wright
Strap on your utility belt, starch up your cape, pull your underpants over your trousers and prepare to fly faster than a speeding bullet with Time Out's superheroic countdown.
By Tom Huddleston, David Jenkins, Adam Lee Davies, Derek Adams, Edward Lawrenson, Wally Hammond, Ben Walters, Gabriel Tate and Phil Harrison. Explore the individual top tens of every contributor.
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15
Cleavon Little and Gene Wilder in 'Blazing Saddles'
Blazing Saddles (1974)
Dir Mel Brooks (Gene Wilder, Cleavon Little, Slim Pickens)
‘What's a dazzling urbanite like you doing in a rustic setting like this?’
Mel Brooks was on a roll in the late-’60s and ’70s with a string of intermittently hilarious spoofs, from ‘The Producers’ to ‘Silent Movie’. In between, in 1974, he wrote and helmed this mostly very funny western send-up starring regular Gene Wilder. It’s a typically bizarre close-to-the-bone scenario: with a view to procuring their land, a local swindler tries to shock the residents into leaving by organising the employment of a new sheriff. It looks like his ruse might work when a clean-cut black man rides in to take the job… Brooks doesn’t shy away from the race issue; in fact, he charges straight in with a sarcastic and very amusing sideswipe at bigotry and ignorance. There are so many cracking scenes to savour, but for me the most memorable sequence by far is that unique, sprawling ending when the whole cast of hundreds spills over into the movie lot. Brilliant. DA
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14
Peter Sellers in 'Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb'
Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964)
Dir Stanley Kubrick (Peter Sellers, George C Scott, Sterling Hayden)
‘I can no longer sit back and allow Communist infiltration, Communist indoctrination, Communist subversion and the international Communist conspiracy to sap and impurify all of our precious bodily fluids.’
It takes some kind of genius to make a comedy out of a thermonuclear holocaust – and arch pessimist and master filmmaker Stanley Kubrick was that very genius. Originally intent on a serious treatment (based on Peter George’s book ‘Red Alert’), Kubrick abandoned the attempt because most of his ideas for it ‘were so ludicrous’. The black comedy that resulted – detailing the terminal implications of a mad, lone general’s decision to push the nuclear button – was arguably Kubrick’s greatest achievement, offering towering work from scriptwriter Terry Southern, the multi-role-playing Peter Sellers, designer Ken Adam and little-known cinematographer Gilbert Taylor, among others.
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Kubrick once said, 'Most of the humour in "Strangelove" arises from the depiction of everyday human behaviour in a nightmarish situation,' but his film certainly impugned the masters of war and named the guilty. Strangelove himself, in film critic Jonathan Rosenbaum’s peerless summary, was ‘a savage extrapolation of a then-obscure Henry Kissinger conflated with Wernher von Braun and Dr Mabuse to suggest a flawed, spastic machine with Nazi reflexes that ultimately turns on itself’. Shit! Some guys will conflate anything to get a laugh! WH -
13
Jeff Bridges in 'The Big Lebowski'
The Big Lebowski (1998)
Dirs Joel Coen, Ethan Coen (Jeff Bridges, John Goodman, Julianne Moore)
‘Nice marmot.’
Just when ‘Fargo’ had people thinking maybe the Coens weren’t so freaky after all, along came this wilfully bamboozling film-noir pastiche. Following a regrettable episode of urination, a burned-out ’60s radical known as The Dude (Jeff Bridges) finds himself miscast as a private investigator looking into… well, it doesn’t really matter, but it takes him on a tour of LA’s various strata of weirdo pretension while reinforcing the pleasures of the simple things like bowling and friendship. Amazing dialogue, brilliant performances and an irreverent affection for Hollywood history add up to one hilarious movie – not to mention the inspiration for an ever-burgeoning cult fandom that borders on religious devotion. The Dude abides. BW
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12
Sacha Baron Cohen in 'Borat...'
Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan (2006)
Dir Larry Charles (Sacha Baron Cohen, Ken Davitian)
‘She had golden hairs, teeth as white as pearls, and the asshole of a seven-year-old.’
It takes a lot of front to keep a straight face while winding up gullible members of the public, but Sacha Baron Cohen is a past master. What this wince-inducing odyssey across America lacks in dramatic nous, it more than makes up for in hilarious, cringe-worthy, base humour. Travelling under the guise of an unsophisticated radio host from Kazakhstan, Cohen trawls the byways of the USA, inveigling himself into the welcoming arms of locals before shocking them with an outrageous arsenal of faked Kazakh cultural mores. Although a damn fine comedy at heart, the film also serves as a sobering reminder of the level of sexism and anti-semitism that still seem to be very much a part of some sectors of the American community. 'Borat' is reactionary comedy in the real sense. And fucking funny it is, too. DA
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11
Trey Parker voices Kim Jong Il in 'Team America: World Police'
Team America: World Police (2004)
Dirs Trey Parker, Matt Stone (Trey Parker, Matt Stone, Kristen Miller)
‘I've got five terrorists going south-east on Bakalakadaka Street!’
If there’s one single area in which musical theatre beats the movies, it’s in prize-giving. ‘South Park’ creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone cleaned up at the 2011 Tony awards for their Broadway show ‘The Book of Mormon’, yet their 2004 puppet opus ‘Team America’ reaped how many Oscars? Sure, it’s a hate-fuelled, take-no-prisoners, liberal-baiting, America-bashing, borderline racist satire of everything Hollywood holds dear. Not to mention it's complete with vicious, near-libellous sideswipes at everyone from Michael Moore to Alec Baldwin and more swearing than a Teamsters meeting. But you’d think a group of open-minded, forward-thinking creative types like the Academy could have seen past all that. No? TH
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Comments
Elf deserves to be there despite whatever the comments say - it is the funniest Christmas movie I have ever seen. Why isn't Coming to America in the top 10? Why isn't Office Space in the top 10? This is Spinal Tap is NOT FUNNY. There were way too many Woody Allen movies and where is Superbad? Galaxy Quest - are you serious? Movies 100 - 91 were not funny. How can you have a movie that is not funny at number one? Are you at all serious?
Down with the naysayers, This is Spinal Tap at No. 1 - need I say more
Egregious omissions:
"Death at a Funeral" had me in apoplectics more than 90% of these films.
"The In-Laws" (original with Peter Falk) and "Blazing Saddles" are also superior to many of these picks.
I do agree with "Top Secret" and "Galaxy Quest".
Spinal Tap at number one? Above Life Of Brian?
Nah mate, nah.
Spinal Tap is one of the most overated THINGS ever, let alone comedies.
Spinal Crap more like....
the list is made by a moron who are the the morons who are supposed to be these experts
This list sucks. I don't think that top 10 movies r really top ten.. I give you 2 out of 10. The point 2 is for your hardwork to make this list not for the movies you add. It's ridiculous.
Wow...most best of lists are awful but this is among the worst Ive seen :(
Shows how subjective a genre comedy is...well any genre to be honest, because I have watched Spinal Tap twice now, and I still think it's not really very funny at all... maybe it's something about the rock n roll attitude thing, but apart from a few very funny moments I thought it was a pretty limp, flat experience. Each to their own...but I would personally have Duck Soup well above Spinal Tap -- it's 50 years younger and about 4 times as funny.
Placing The Pink Panther Strikes Again (1976) at place 95 makes this list a joke!!
sorry
Travis Bickle's list is a helluva lot better than yours. Were the people who made this list list born in 1990?
Missing in action:
Bringing Up Baby
Our Man Godfrey
The Awful Truth
The Palm Beach Story
The Lady Eve
Ninotchka
Love Me Tonight
It Happened One Night
Modern Times
The Gold Rush
City Lights
Our Hospitality
National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation
Christmas Story
MASH
Moonstruck
My Favorite Year
The Twelve Chairs
A Shot In The Dark
The Lavender Hill Mob
Mon Oncle
Paper Moon
The Graduate
Election
Sideways
Honeymoon In Vegas
Ruthless People
Clueless
Thank You For Smoking
The Cooler
Welcome To The Dollhouse
Something's Gotta Give
As Good As It Gets
Jerry McGuire
Porkies (Just kidding!)
This list is complete b.s. These guys have a chubby for Woody Allen... No 'dazed and confused',happy Gilmore, but no billy Madison? Dont think I saw one John Hughes film... HorsePoop
ok why so much woody allen films? and furthermore where is beetlejuice, brother, where art thou?, in bruge, grosse point blanke and to a lesser extent the exorcist.
This list is absolutely terrible. Napoleon Dynamite was entertaining but should NOT be in the top 100
How much did Woody Allen pay you to take so many spots with his outdated unfunny films?
Factor in the omission of Spaceballs, Idiocracy, Super Troopers, Beverly Hills Cop, PCU and Out Cold and this list is pretentious pointlessness.
Anybody who thinks Will Ferrell is funny ought not to be allowed out of The Home for the Bewildered.
I only had time to look at the top 10, and was astonished that the two laugh-out-loud funniest films ever were not there: Bringing Up Baby and His Girl Friday, both directed by Howard Hawks and starring Cary Grant. I assume they are lower down the list, but not in the top 10?!!!
its a mad mad mad mad world
the private war of harry frigg
the tiger makes out
THislist is very imcomplete! and the expert used to make that list are from most of them old generation 40 to up...years old, so as we can most of the movies selected are oldies...or unknown at all....There are a lot great cool comedy missing on it....like super heroes parodies or SC-FI parodies are totaly absent that clearly show partiality in jugment....
Napoleon Dynamite is on this list, thus rendering it invalid. Move along.
The downside of the internet is that even someone who ranks Borat and Team America above The Big Lebowski is allowed to publish their "thoughts" to a wide audience.
The Big Lebowski should be number 1, one of the greatest (and funniest) films of all time. Good list though, Spinal Tap had a monumental influence, a deserving candidate for the top spot :)
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I like the choices on this list, for sure, and althought I think some should've been higher than others, I think its a decent list, except for the following:
1) Glaring omission of two Pink Panther jewels: "The Return of the Pink Panther" and, especially, "A Shot in the Dark", both of which are funnier than the original film itself, and as funny as "The Pink Panther Strikes Again" (really happy to see this one included, I must note). "A Shot in the Dark:", especially, showcases, along wtih to "Dr. Strangelove", Peter Sellers's complete comedic forte as a perfomer, and in contrast to Kubrick's opus, while portraying only one role. Just genius.
2) The placing of "Spinal Tap" as number One. Why not "Life of Brian"?
3) Baseketball?! Really? The film is free-loading bunch of BS. Its painfully unfunny, steretypical scatology at its best. Its not only nowhere near Team America or South Park, but its nowhere near the top 500 - no, I did mean five hundred.
4) Glarring omission of M*A*S*H? One of the greatest, bravest anti-war satires of all time is not here - but Baseketball is?
5) Glarring omission of "Spaceballs", aka Mel Brooks's Final Laugh. Why? Maybe it didn't have Gene Wilder in it... Although it should've!!
6) Not-as-glarring omission of "Beverly Hills Cop" and "48 Hrs". Eddie Murphy's shining in them. i can understand not having them, but still missed anyhow.
Otherwise, not a bad list. But the omissions are just glaring - did I mention that? :-D
I hate the number one choice,that doesn`t mean i hate the film but number 1,come on! Also no MASH,no Lost in America,no What About Bob? no Bringing Up Baby?
Not as atrocious as the recent 100 songs list but still a very poor list. And any 100 greatest comedy films list that doesn't include Clueless is not to be taken seriously. And where is Happiness, Love Me Tonight, Singin' in the Rain, The Man Who Came to Dinner, and Welcome to the Dollhouse? A joke.
Team America is much funnier than Ghostbusters.. Anchorman, also, definitely top 10 IF YOU HAVE SMOKED AN INCREDIBLE AMOUNT OF CRACK COCAINE.
Ghostbusters is the best action/comedy to ever grace the silver screen. It is a work of comedic art, true genius, and should be in the top 5 of this list, if not top 3. That is all.
Baseketball?
REALLY?!
Any semblance of respectability goes out of the window with that dross there.
And this is coming from someone who absolutely loves South Park, Team America & The Book of Mormon!
The Annie Hall quote is not actually Woody Allen's, and he mentions that in the film.
The snubbing of the better side of Apatow Productions in this list is disgraceful.
A mockumentary? Really? I hate bloated, self-aggrandizing deadpan bs. Comedies are supposed to be funny.
List is rubbish. It includes Elf, Dodgeball, GalaxyQuest, etc, but leaves out many others far more deserving such as Idiocracy.
Fantastic that Monty Python is in the top 10 twice. Fantastic. I'm a little sad that StepBrothers isn't on the list, though (unless I missed it?).
This was rather awkward way to try to see if my movie is in there but I love the movie "Real Genius" with a teenage Val Kilmer.
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