Log in to My Time Out for your personalised guide to what's on in London. It's fast, easy and FREE!
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
-
The experts have spoken
From Dan Aykroyd to Edgar Wright, browse through the film lists submitted by over 200 contributor...
Discover more Time Out film lists
-
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.
-
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.
-
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.
-
40
Short, Martin and Chase in '¡Three Amigos!'
¡Three Amigos! (1986)
Dir John Landis (Steve Martin, Chevy Chase, Martin Short)
‘Would you say that I had a plethora of piñatas?’
A surprisingly high rank for a film most aficionados would – perhaps rightly – regard as a lesser Steve Martin/Chevy Chase vehicle, as the titular trio of old-Hollywood movie stars head to Mexico and end up involved in real-life banditry. The appeal of ‘¡Three Amigos!’ is in its no-nonsense, old-school charm, never breaking a sweat or sparking a laugh riot, but providing cosy, consistent entertainment and a fistful of truly memorable sequences: the ‘My Little Buttercup’ bar singalong, the villainous El Guapo’s birthday party, and of course satirical songsmith Randy Newman as an entirely inexplicable singing bush. TH
Rent this DVD on Lovefilm -
39
Christopher Guest (centre) directs and stars in 'Waiting for Guffman'
Waiting for Guffman (1997)
Dir Christopher Guest (Christopher Guest, Eugene Levy, Catherine O’Hara)
‘People say, “You must have been the class clown.” And I say, “No, I wasn’t. But I sat next to the class clown and I studied him.”’
As axeman Nigel Tufnel, Christopher Guest was part of the timeless success of ‘This Is Spinal Tap’. But he also picked up the filmmaking baton, going on to direct masterworks of situational improv such as ‘Best in Show’, ‘For Your Consideration’ and this movie. The superb cast play members of a small-town, amateur-dramatic society pinning their hopes on a visit from a big-shot critic, though what he’ll make of the pageant ‘Red, White and Blaine’ is regrettably clear to everyone else. Often painful, sometimes moving, frequently hilarious, it’s an oddball delight and a tribute to self-deluding ambition everywhere. BW
Rent this DVD on Lovefilm -
38
Jon Heder in 'Napoleon Dynamite'
Napoleon Dynamite (2004)
Dir Jared Hess (Jon Heder, Jon Gries, Efren Ramirez)
‘Nunchaku skills, bow-hunting skills, computer hacking skills... Girls only want boyfriends who have great skills.’
Sometimes it takes a while. Despite pulling down some sweet, sweet change upon release, there were many who maintained that this folk-art foray into high-school outsiderdom invited the audience to laugh at the majestic idiocy of Napoleon’s goon squad of retro-awkward, summer-luvvin’ princelings rather than with them. The film’s enduring and – even for those not initially won over – revelatory appeal may suggest that its supporters were right all along and/or the rest of us were late in realising that Napoleon might represent some shrink-wrapped form of our weakest, sweetest, truest selves that we dare never expose. Either way, it will be a real school bully who doesn’t moisten an eye or get their deadpan groove on when our hero busts out his wildly empathetic last-reel disco moves. That, or you’re a freakin’ idiot! ALD
Rent this DVD on Lovefilm -
37
Abrahams/Zucker/Zucker direct 'Top Secret!'
Top Secret! (1984)
Dirs Jim Abrahams, David Zucker, Jerry Zucker (Val Kilmer, Omar Sharif, Billy J Mitchell)
'I know a little German. He's sitting over there.'
The Zuckers and Abrahams team went pun crazy for this follow-up to 'Airplane!'. Where the earlier film parodies the disaster movie to hilarious effect, 'Top Secret!' plays merry hell with the World War II espionage genre and Elvis movies and features, of all things, a moderately successful deadpan performance by Val Kilmer. If you thought 'Airplane!' was absurd, this one's off the scale. As a consequence, it's full of memorable moments, from the underwater bar fight to Kilmer's look of bemusement as the station leaves his train. While not as consistently funny as 'Airplane!', 'Top Secret!' is still a worthy entrant into the pantheon of comedy classics. DA
Rent this DVD on Lovefilm -
36
Alec Guinness in 'Kind Hearts and Coronets'
Kind Hearts and Coronets (1949)
Dir Robert Hamer (Dennis Price, Alec Guinness, Valerie Hobson)
‘It is so difficult to make a neat job of killing people with whom one is not on friendly terms.’
Anyone who thinks of Ealing Studios' output as a gay parade of buns and bobbies needs to revisit ‘Kind Hearts and Coronets’. For here, indeed, is the black heart of British comedy, the sickest, sweetest, most deliciously poisonous confection ever offered to our delicate cinema-going public. A tale of murder most foul – and most deserving – ‘Kind Hearts…’ isn’t just a tale of bad people bumping one another off, it’s a rapier blade to the heart of the British establishment, as Dennis Price’s disillusioned middle-class ‘little man’ sets about slaughtering his way to the ducal title of D’Ascoigne. The revolution may not have started here – the post-war Labour government was already well into setting up the welfare state – but it must have felt like a strident call to arms, nonetheless. TH
Rent this DVD on Lovefilm -
35
Owen Wilson and Ben Stiller in 'Zoolander'
Zoolander (2001)
Dir Ben Stiller (Ben Stiller, Owen Wilson, Will Ferrell)
‘Have you ever wondered if there was more to life, other than being really, really, ridiculously good looking?’
Did someone say fish in a barrel? Sure, the world of high fashion isn’t exactly a challenging subject for satire but Ben Stiller’s tale of international intrigue, haute couture and ludicrous pretension has such great gags, committed performances and cod sincerity that it’s hard not to guffaw. Stiller’s Zoolander is a supermodel on the slide, threatened by up-and-comer Owen Wilson, exploited by grasping designer Will Ferrell and constrained by his gargantuan stupidity, source of most of the big laughs. But he’s also insecure, well-meaning and basically quite sweet, which makes his story all the more amiable. BW
Rent this DVD on Lovefilm -
34
Mike Myers in 'Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery'
Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery (1997)
Dir Jay Roach (Mike Myers, Elizabeth Hurley and Michael York)
‘Finally, we come to my number two man. His name? Number Two.’
It may have spawned a rash of increasingly prosaic and mechanically lewd squeakquels, but the first 'Austin Powers' movie remains the ‘Moby Dick’ of Day-Glo knockabout spy-movie spoofs. Finding a big second wave after the success of ‘Wayne's World’ in the early ’90s, Canada’s favourite rubber-faced writer-performer Mike Myers excelled in the dual roles of dentally challenged, psychedelic, trim-magnet Powers and his sardonic, Blofeldian nemesis, Dr Evil. Though the torrent of swingin’ ’60s references and Powers’ catchphrase-heavy spiel now feel a little slight, there’s still an embarrassment of bizarre, leftfield comic riches in there to savour. Dr Evil’s description of his formative years is a cinematic monologue for the ages: ‘My childhood was typical... Summers in Rangoon, luge lessons. In the spring we’d make meat helmets. When I was insolent, I was placed in a burlap bag and beaten with reeds... Pretty standard, really.’ DJ
Rent this DVD on Lovefilm -
33
Peter Capaldi and Chris Addison in 'In the Loop'
In the Loop (2009)
Dir Armando Iannucci (Peter Capaldi, Tom Hollander, James Gandolfini)
'I don't want to have to read you the riot act, but I am going to have to read you some extracts from the riot act.'
Scabrous and smart, Armando Iannucci's political satire is the sort of film that bears repeated viewing, if only to catch the jokes you laughed through last time round. It opens out the action from the sitcom source by sending mad-eyed spin doctor Malcolm Tucker (Peter Capaldi), hapless government minster Simon Foster (Tom Hollander) and their cohorts to the States, where they flip and flop for our entertainment, groping towards a coherent policy over an imminent war. The vulgarity is tumultuous, the wit pointed and the performances impeccably judged. This is proof that transferring a great sitcom to the big screen need not be difficult. Or even difficult, difficult, lemon difficult. GT
Rent this DVD on Lovefilm -
32
Kathleen Turner and Steve Martin in 'The Man With Two Brains'
The Man with Two Brains (1983)
Dir Carl Reiner (Steve Martin, Kathleen Turner, David Warner)
‘Into the mud, scum queen!’
The early Steve Martin movies catch comedy at a crossroads: on the surface they’re old-school slapstick romps complete with dubious innuendo, pratfalls and happy-ever-after endings, a short step from Abbott and Costello and The Three Stooges. But they also manage to incorporate the best of everything new that was happening in comedy at the time: the sight-gag overload of ‘Airplane!’, the sexual uncertainty and romanticism of Woody Allen, the confrontational boldness of the new stand-ups and the thoroughbred surrealism of Martin’s own live act. ‘The Man with Two Brains’ may not be as wildly inventive as ‘The Jerk’, but it’s still a magnificently enjoyable and intelligent comedy. And Kathleen Turner is just slinky as hell. TH
Rent this DVD on Lovefilm -
31
Wallace Shawn and Robin Wright in 'The Princess Bride'
The Princess Bride (1987)
Dir Rob Reiner (Cary Elwes, Robin Wright, Mandy Patinkin)
‘Hello. My name is Inigo Montoya. You killed my father. Prepare to die.’
Strange to think that after all the Oscar plaudits and box-office ker-ching! that came with his scripts for both ‘Butch Cassidy’ and ‘All the President’s Men’, genre-expanding author William Goldman’s 1973 fantasy novel should take the best part of 15 years to grace the multiplexes. It was well worth the wait. Sweetly romantic, tirelessly quotable and light as a feather, Reiner’s adaptation doesn’t attempt to reinvent the wheel, but rather mines humour from filling in the backstories of its stock characters with jumbled neuroses and bizarre quirks. So we have the hissable villain with insoluble middle-management delegation issues, the mercenary overburdened by a crippling childhood trauma and a dashing hero who isn’t exactly the sharpest sword in the armoury all trading some of the craftiest zingers ever penned. ALD
Rent this DVD on Lovefilm
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 :)
Dear sir/madam,
I'm pleased to inform you that I'm having few scripts for humorous video clips by using a new character called Sri Lankan Mr. Bean, just similar to Rowan Atkinson. And here I've used my own scripts which was written by me. Sure, whole world will be get laughed once they go through this. I'm having a idea on producing this videos. I'm looking for a video sponsor or a media sponsor. If you're interested contact me on my e-mail........
agskag@yahoo.com
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.
Time Out guides and magazines
Useful links
Things to do in London
- London restaurants
- London events
- London theatre
- London bars and pubs
- London clubs
- Film listings
- London tickets and offers
- Alternative London
- London museums
- London music
- London art
- London shopping
- London Olympics
- Gay and lesbian London
- London cabaret
- London comedy
- London for kids
- Books and poetry
- Dance in London
- Festivals
- London hotels
- Classical music in London
London by area
- Brixton guide
- Borough guide
- Bermondsey guide
- City of London guide
- Dalston guide
- Mayfair guide
- Camden guide
- Clapham guide
- Covent Garden guide
- Greenwich guide
- Stoke Newington guide
- Hammersmith guide
- Hampstead guide
- Highgate guide
- Holborn guide
- King's Cross guide
- Islington guide
- West End guide
- Hackney guide
- Marylebone guide
- London Bridge guide
- Little Venice guide
- Richmond guide
- Shoreditch guide
- Soho guide
- South Bank guide
- Wimbledon guide
- Notting Hill guide
Time Out Worldwide
Get the latest news from Time Out
Share your thoughts