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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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50
Billy Crystal in 'When Harry Met Sally'
When Harry Met Sally (1989)
Dir Rob Reiner (Billy Crystal, Meg Ryan, Carrie Fisher)
‘Don’t fuck with Mister Zero.’
It’s a pity that all anyone remembers from Rob Reiner's and Nora Ephron’s ‘more Woody than Woody’ New York romcom gem is that fake-orgasm scene. Sure, it’s a great scene, and very bold for its time. But there’s so much else in the movie to love: those pitch-perfect performances (Bruno Kirby was never better), the gorgeous but unflashy photography and, of course, Ephron’s script, a masterpiece of construction offering wisdom and wit, shock and sweetness, forever sailing this close to mawkishness but always managing to pull back from the brink. Both Ephron and Reiner later sank into Hollywood slush, but they were always headed that way. And at least they left one perfect – and I do mean perfect – movie before they jumped. TH
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49
Woody Allen in 'Love and Death'
Love and Death (1975)
Dir Woody Allen (Woody Allen, Diane Keaton, Georges Adet)
‘I was walking through the woods, thinking about Christ. If he was a carpenter, I wondered what he charged for bookshelves.’
Can I get through this review without using the phrase ‘Early funny one’? Nope, failed already… Placed on a conventional, laughs-per-minute barometer, Woody Allen’s acerbic parody of flatulent Russian literature is probably his funniest film. He plays a weaselly nebbish (natch) called Boris, the bespectacled runt of the chest-beating Grushenko litter who is sent off to the Russian front to fight Napoleon, but doesn’t want to die before declaring his love for his childhood paramour, Sonja (a mad-eyed Diane Keaton). Boasting at least one solid-gold one-liner per scene, the genius of Allen’s film is the way he balances sincere philosophical enquiry into the nature of mortality and the ultimate frivolity of love with some Marx brothers-level slapstick mayhem. Everybody… ‘No, you’re Don Francisco’s sister!’ DJ
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48
Woody Allen and Diane Keaton in 'Play It Again Sam'
Play It Again Sam (1972)
Dir Herbert Ross (Woody Allen, Diane Keaton, Tony Roberts)
‘No, my parents never got divorced. Although I begged them to.’
Based on his stage play, this film sees Woody Allen play a neurotic, unlucky-in-love, socially maladjusted film critic who receives life lessons from the ghost of Humphrey Bogart. We’re prepared to forgive Mr Allen’s egregious maligning of film journalists and admit that, yes, this is indeed one of his best movies. Handing the directorial reins to Herbert Ross allowed Allen to deliver one of his funniest performances, and the movie’s clever integration of real life and fantasy anticipates the mature sophistication of films such as ‘The Purple Rose of Cairo’. EL
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47
Jack Lemmon in 'The Apartment'
The Apartment (1960)
Dir Billy Wilder (Jack Lemmon, Shirley MacLaine, Fred MacMurray)
‘That's the way it crumbles... cookie-wise.’
Anyone who thinks ‘Mad Men’ is an unnecessarily bleak and judgemental portrayal of ziggurat-obsessed ’60s New York business culture needs to check out ‘The Apartment’. This tale of a sad-sack exec who loans his flat to a series of philandering superiors is a far darker take on love, loss and lucre than HBO has yet managed. Jack Lemmon was never better, and Shirley MacLaine makes for the perfect foil as the used, abused and ultimately suicidal Miss Kubelik, one of the saddest heroines in American cinema. If none of this sounds especially chuckle-inducing, you’ve reckoned without a razor-sharp script from Billy Wilder and regular collaborator IAL Diamond, the team behind ‘Some Like It Hot’ the previous year. TH
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46
Bud Cort in 'Harold and Maude'
Harold and Maude (1971)
Dir Hal Ashby (Bud Cort, Ruth Gordon)
‘Harold, everyone has the right to make an ass out of themselves.’
Non-genre-specific movies such as ‘Harold and Maude’ have suffered on this list: is it really a comedy? Isn’t there a bit too much death, oppression and holocaust talk for that? But if it’s not a comedy, what is ‘Harold and Maude’? Therein, of course, lies its genius: it’s not anything, except real. And it’s not even that: any film in which a teenage boy commits fake suicide 15 times to shock his unshockable mother can’t really be treated as cinéma vérité. But the film’s feelings are real, its heart is real, and its intention – to reveal a world of non-judgemental freedom and happiness, if only you can let yourself go a little – is the most real of all. This is cinema to treat the soul – and laughter is only a part of that. TH
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45
Jennifer Aniston and Ron Livingston in 'Office Space'
Office Space (1999)
Dir Mike Judge (Ron Livingston, Jennifer Aniston, David Herman)
‘It’s not that I’m lazy, it’s that I just don’t care.’
Before ‘The Office’ was a glint in Ricky and Steve’s eyes, Mike Judge – the brains behind ‘Beavis and Butthead’ – offered this heartfelt cri de coeur on behalf of disaffected desk monkeys everywhere. Ron Livingston plays Pete Gibbons, a profoundly unmotivated corporate employee who winds up jacking it in for a get-rich-quick scheme. The plot is well enough handled but it’s the grating banality of day-to-day office life that really hits home, also expressed through the indignities heaped on Jennifer Aniston’s family-restaurant waitress and the mind-addling world of pain endured by Stephen Root’s mumbling Milton. BW
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44
Chevy Chase in 'National Lampoon's Vacation'
National Lampoon's Vacation (1983)
Dir Harold Ramis (Chevy Chase, Beverly D’Angelo, Randy Quaid)
‘I'm on a pilgrimage to see a moose! Praise Marty moose! Holy shit!’
While one could hardly describe Chevy Chase’s early screen presence as anything like conservative, he did always somehow lend his characters a level of dissipated authority. From Fletch’s unflappable urbanity to Ty Webb’s zen poise in ‘Caddyshack’ to his cocksure stewardship of TV’s ‘Saturday Night Live’, he always seemed in full control. Telling then, perhaps, that when he traded the life of a raffish outsider to become a put-upon suburban family man for ‘Vacation’, the resultant meltdown was both swift and spectacular. Director Harold Ramis and writer John Hughes put Chevy’s Clark Griswold through so many cosmically misaligned hoops in order to get his family to their chosen holiday destination that swollen deeps of bile and fury bubble over into some of the funniest and most memorably deranged rants in all of cinema: ‘This is no longer a vacation. It’s a quest. A quest for fun!’ ALD
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43
Dustin Hoffman in 'Tootsie'
Tootsie (1982)
Dir Sidney Pollack (Dustin Hoffman, Jessica Lange, Bill Murray)
‘I have a name. It's Dorothy. Not Tootsie or Toots or Sweetie or Honey or Doll.’ ‘Oh, Christ!’ ‘No, just Dorothy.’
Anyone surprised by Bill Murray’s mid-’90s rebirth as a ‘proper’ actor – rather than just a sarcy smart-mouth comic – clearly hadn’t seen ‘Tootsie’. Sure, this is Dustin Hoffman’s show – he’s the one in the dress, after all – but it’s Murray who sticks in the memory, the source of most of the film’s big laughs and a goodly portion of its soul. Looking back, the concept of a guy dressing up as a woman to get a better job is a vaguely uncomfortable one, and its approach to the question of feminism is badly outdated. But the performances still shine, the script still sparkles and director Sydney Pollack’s smooth ’80s style still charms. Now hang on while I fix my lippy. TH
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42
Cecil Parker, Herbert Lom and Alec Guinness in 'The Ladykillers'
The Ladykillers (1955)
Dir Alexander Mackendrick (Alec Guinness, Peter Sellers, Herbert Lom)
‘Professor, I must give you back your ten shillings. You see, the cabbie wouldn't take any money, because he said he was going into some other business.’
This was the great British swansong of both Ealing Studios and director Alexander Mackendrick. For those who haven’t seen it, it’s about a gang of ugly thugs and emollient thieves (led by Guinness’s fake professor) who delude a sweet, guileless old Victorian lady into renting her spare room pretending, naturally, to be classical musicians. Modern critics have – rightly – stressed the barely veiled horror, mordant cynicism and festering substratum lurking behind the innocent-seeming surfaces of American-born Mackendrick’s movies. And ‘The Ladykillers’ is certainly as black as soot: an hysterical movie in more senses than one – which, no doubt, helps it to deliver its series of mischievously satisfying knock-out punches. But its delights are not only satirical: its classical pleasures are plenty. From the inimitable cast to Jim Morahan’s superb art direction and Otto Heller’s luscious early Technicolor cinematography, Mackendrick orchestrates his syncopated instruments with the precision of a Boccherini 'String Quintet', allowing us to bask in the oh-so delectable schadenfreude of watching the meticulous unravelling of yet another of man’s best-laid plans. WH
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41
Walter Matthau as one half of 'The Odd Couple'
The Odd Couple (1968)
Dir Gene Saks (Walter Matthau, Jack Lemmon, Herb Edelman)
‘You're the only man in the world with clenched hair.’
Opened out yet reined in from Neil Simon’s original stage play, this greatest of buddy movies is a beautiful expression of Newton’s third law of classical mechanics: the mutual forces of action and reaction between two bodies are equal, opposite and collinear. The two bodies are sports writer Oscar, an irksome, egotistical slob who is a towering grouch (played with misanthropic self-enjoyment in a career-defining performance by Walter Matthau), and his equally annoying fellow writer and divorcé pal Felix (Jack Lemmon on top form), a man as insecure, neurotic and hypochondriacal as his friend is careless and heartlessly hearty. Oscar invites the suicidal Felix to share his flat and each quickly discovers what makes the other impossible to live with: a clear case of domestic histories repeating themselves, first as tragedy, second as farce. Director Gene Saks’s job was merely to bait his two sparring roosters and let them go. It’s a deeply unedifying spectacle – and still as funny as hell. WH
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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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