Ben Walters

Comedy movies get no respect, no respect at all. Actually, that’s not entirely true: audiences love them, and a great comedy will get rewatched more than any stuffy drama. But when it comes to critical adoration and awards contention, more often than not, comedy gets the shaft. And that is totally bogus. After all, is there anything harder than getting a whole theater to erupt with laughter? Not just that, but comedy is also the least durable genre in all of cinema. What causes an audience to nearly hyperventilate in 2023 might be met with stony stares just a few years later, let alone a half-century. And so, those movies that have kept us cracking up for decades are truly special. To put together this list of the greatest movie comedies ever, we asked those who know just how difficult it is to make people laugh, such as comedians like Diane Morgan and Russell Howard, along with actors like John Boyega and Jodie Whittaker – plus a cadre of Time Out writers – about the movies that have made them LOL the hardest for longest. No matter what tickles your funny bone – silly or sophisticated, light or dark, surreal or broad – you’ll find it represented here.  Recommended: 🔥 The 100 best movies of all-time🥰 The greatest romantic comedies of all time🤯 33 great disaster movies😬 The best thriller films of all-time🌏 The best foreign films of all-time

The best comedies in the history of cinema achieve more than just making you laugh (although, granted, it’s not a great comedy if it barely makes you crack a smile). Classic romcoms like ‘Notting Hill’ have us yearning for true love while teen movies like ‘Mean Girls’ get us cringing at memories of being too dorky to join the cool gang at school (and ‘10 Things I Hate About You’ ticks both boxes). Then there are the political satires, like ‘The Death of Stalin’, which serve up uncomfortable truths alongside the funnies. And finally, when we need to get into the festive spirit, the Christmas film archives are crammed with titles that leave you giggling into your eggnog.  All of which makes choosing the 100 best comedies of all time a little tricky. To help us with the task, we enlisted the help of comedians (such as Russell Howard and Diane Morgan), actors (John Boyega and Jodie Whittaker, among others), directors and screenwriters (including Richard Curtis), as well as several Time Out writers. So the next time you need something to turn that frown upside down, you’ll know where to start. RECOMMENDED:  London and UK cinema listings, film reviews and exclusive interviews

El séptimo arte retoma temas de la comunidad LGBTTTI y crea historias en las que lesbianas, travestis y drag queens son protagonistas. Te decimos cuáles son, para nosotros, las mejores 50 películas LGBTTTI de la historia del cine. Recomendado: ¿Dónde y qué películas LGBT puedo ver en internet? y checa las 10 mejores películas gay en Netflix. 

The posters have been plastered around the London Underground for years – long enough for this show to become the most successful musical of all time – but nothing prepares you for the sheer impact of 'The Lion King's opening sequence. With the surge of 'Circle Of Life' reverberating through your chest, Julie Taymor's animal creations march on, species by species. Gazelles spring, birds swoop and an elephant and her child lumber through the stalls. It's a cacophonous cavalcade that genuinely stops you breathing. You'd think Noah's Ark had emptied onto the stage. For a global blockbuster, 'The Lion King's absolute theatricality is astonishing. Techniques from all over the world – African masks, Japanese Kabuki costumes, Malaysian shadow puppetry – are smashed together in an explosion of spectacle. It's perfect for a musical, allowing both distinct flavours and an eclectic carnival spirit. Admittedly, things deflate when it sacrifices this defiant originality for subservient approximation of the film. Timon and Pumba (Damian Baldet and Keith Bookman), though impressively like their screen counterparts, step into the savannah from a different dimension. The hyena-infested elephant's graveyard swaps menace for goofiness and the famous stampede scene, so delicately handled and moving in the film, is merely ticked off with a sigh of relief. The familiarity of the film is a root cause of the show's commercial success. But, ironically, 'The Lion King' can't afford such compromises. I

The posters have been plastered around the London Underground for years – long enough for this show to become the most successful musical of all time – but nothing prepares you for the sheer impact of 'The Lion King's opening sequence. With the surge of 'Circle Of Life' reverberating through your chest, Julie Taymor's animal creations march on, species by species. Gazelles spring, birds swoop and an elephant and her child lumber through the stalls. It's a cacophonous cavalcade that genuinely stops you breathing. You'd think Noah's Ark had emptied onto the stage. For a global blockbuster, 'The Lion King's absolute theatricality is astonishing. Techniques from all over the world – African masks, Japanese Kabuki costumes, Malaysian shadow puppetry – are smashed together in an explosion of spectacle. It's perfect for a musical, allowing both distinct flavours and an eclectic carnival spirit. Admittedly, things deflate when it sacrifices this defiant originality for subservient approximation of the film. Timon and Pumba (Damian Baldet and Keith Bookman), though impressively like their screen counterparts, step into the savannah from a different dimension. The hyena-infested elephant's graveyard swaps menace for goofiness and the famous stampede scene, so delicately handled and moving in the film, is merely ticked off with a sigh of relief. The familiarity of the film is a root cause of the show's commercial success. But, ironically, 'The Lion King' can't afford such compromises. I

You might remember that last September, the Royal Vauxhall Tavern became the UK’s first LGBTQ listed building. Yay! Except now there are renewed fears that the property developers who own the site are trying to flog it off and it might turn into a chain pub. Boo! But RVT Future, the campaign to defend the Tavern, has a plan to keep it safe, and you can help. Yay again! For the uninitiated, the RVT is thought to be the country’s oldest LGBTQ pub and performance venue. It has a history of queer culture and community dating back to the 1950s if not earlier. It was at the forefront of the 1960s drag boom, it’s where Lily Savage cut her teeth, and it’s been Duckie’s home since 1995. They shot some of the new Ab Fab movie there. And let’s not forget the time Freddie Mercury and Kenny Everett took Princess Di out on the lash there dragged up as a boy. The pub made history by becoming a Grade II-listed building last year – but that protects the fabric of the building, not its use. Eventually, RVT Future wants to bring it into community ownership but for now owners Immovate aren’t playing ball. So what’s RVT Future’s plan? They want Lambeth Council to give the Tavern a special status called ‘sui generis’ (‘its own thing’), which would designate it an LGBT performance space regardless of who owns it. To convince the council, they need evidence that the pub has been used for shows for at least ten years. And that’s where you come in! Have you been to a performance event at the Tavern? G