100 Funniest Movies

48. American Graffiti

This was a comedy? Ehhhhh... meh.

And like I said in the Paul Gleason thread: Spaceballs, anyone? I think there's one Mel Brooks movie on this list (Blazing Saddles). Ridiculous.

No Fletch really bugs me, but to have This Is: Spinal Tap sitting a full 26 spots below Best In Show, which for my money is the third-best Christopher Guest mockumentary, is absolutely criminal. Tap is a top-five comedy for me, on this point I will not argue.

I'm really amused you've got Eurotrip in your "what about?" list. I thought I was the only guy older than 22 years old who found that movie hilarious.

Did "all time" start only 40 years ago? Will trifles like Half Baked and Dodgeball still be remembered 40 years from now?

41. Austin Powers - I actually think this whole series is seriously underrated. Mini Me is one of the great characters of all time.

Mini-Me was from the sequel.

50. The Princess Bride - another one of the all time greats, should be much higher. Absolutely brilliant dialogue.

What do you mean? It's just a bunch of famous punch lines strung together.
:-)

No "Life of Brian" or "Meaning of Life"?

"Team America: World Police" should be far, far higher. It's satirical analysis is bang on.

You do realize that the only criterion they used in putting together this list was "how do we annoy the most people?"

Why else would they have the "Old School" dreck as high as 16? It's the only plausible answer.

No Marx Bros.? No "Long Trailer?" No "Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World?" No "Nasty Habits?" No "Annie Hall?" No "Take the Money and Run?" Eddie Murphy, but no Jerry Lewis?

Um, whoever made this list seems to have missed most of the 20th century, and a great deal, if not most, of the funniest movies ever made.

As I said on the Paul Gleason post: did they restrict themselves to the last 20 (30) years? But you say this is their list of the 100 funniest movies of ALL TIME???
The people who made the list must be only 30 years old.
What about Chaplin, the Marx brothers, the 3 Stooges, Abbott & Costello, Jerry Lewis, Crosby and Hope, Gable and Hepburn, and on and on.

A terrible list. As some one in the thread stated, it is like movies only started 40 years ago. Where is Duck Soup, His Girl Friday, Night at The Opera, Bad News Bears. Plus no Laurel and Hardy or Chaplin. I know comedy is subjective but wow, who voted for this list?

71. Roxanne - Much too low. Easily Steve Martin's funniest performance in a movie, there is no close second (and don't give me The Jerk, which is painfully unfunny).

Am I the only one who remembers Martin's "L.A. Story"? Granted, I haven't seen Roxanne, so I can't properly compare the two, but L.A. Story is one of my favorite comedies.

Harris: Ordinarily, I don't like to be around interesting people because it means I have to be interesting too.
Sara: Are you saying I'm interesting?
Harris: All I'm saying is that, when I'm around you, I find myself showing off, which is the idiot's version of being interesting.

Oh, I love LA Story too. That's actually my favorite Steve Martin performance of all time. For some reason, though, I tend not to classify it as a comedy as much as a love story. The other movie I loved him in was Grand Canyon. I don't find him funny when he's doing stupid funny, as in the Jerk. He's much more talented than that.

41 if them deserve to be on the list. But any list of comedy greats that includes "9 to 5" cannot possibly be taken seriously. Nor can any list that contains "The Big Lebowski."

Come on... have you even seen The Big Lebowski? It's genius! Don't F*#$ with the Jesus!

Sleeper? Young Frankenstein? And as other have noted, anyone of several Mark Brothers movies?

Duh, "...any one of several Marx Brothers movies?"

How about Buster Keaton's The General? Often imitated, never surpassed.

There should be a special award for Plan 9 from Outer Space,, the most unintentionally hilarious movie ever conceived.

Real Genius and Better Off Dead are easily in the top 50.

Personally, I'd put Real Genius in my top ten, but I'm weird. Better Off Dead I can see being left off, since it's fantastically uneven, but it's still far better than a lot of the crap on this list (Ace Ventura?). Plus, I can be instantly reduced to a fit of giggles by someone shouting "Two dollars!"

Speaking of which, I wonder if anyone's done a similar list for best comedy lines. My number one: John Candy's delivery of "We're in a truck!" in The Blues Brothers.

Okay, I'll say it: I don't get the whole Jack Black thing. He's not funny.

I can't say I've liked any of his movies, but the Tenacious D series that aired on HBO is hilarious.

0. When Harry Met Sally - way too low as well. The fake orgasm scene alone puts it among the all time greats.

See, I would call this the most over-rated "best scene in a romantic comedy EVER" scene ever. I'm sorry, but the Golden Girls were funnier than that.

I don't want to mince words, but Meg Ryan sucks. Even when she's being saucy and faking orgasms in kosher delis.

My jaw literally hit the floor when I saw "Ace Ventura: Pet Detective" at number NINE [!!!] on the list. What the hell were they thinking?

And I'll add a second voice to the choir: where the hell is "Monty Python: Life of Brian?"

Napoleon Dynamite at #14??? I don't understand the Napolean Dynamite phenomeon. My wife and I rented it after so many people raved about how funny it was, and spent the whole movie either scratching our heads or looking at our watches. Funnier than a Fish Called Wanda or M*A*S*H? Oh please.

Are you sure this is a list of funniest movies and not just a random list of movies that may or may not be comedies?

I feel unusually embarrassed at the snotty tone, but I doubt I've ever read a worst "best" list in my sheltered life. There are not twenty movies I would watch unless bored stiff and chancing upon them (e.g. CC's good-natured, rambling "Vacation," or taking a shot at "16 Candles" out of bored nostalgia).
Am I blind, or is there really no Chaplin at all (checking...[sigh]...no!), no W.C. Fields, no Buster Keaton, no Cary Grant, no Preston Sturgis, no Marx Brothers, no musical comedies, no goddam nothing that's been funny longer than fifty years. "Smiles of a Summer Night"? "Tampopo"? "Weekend"? "Clowns"? What the fu....! "Funny" evidently is only made in 'mer'ka, and even being in the mother tongue doesn't matter since "The Ladykillers" (UK-made, not the surprisingly bad Coen Bros. remake) and "Kind Hearts & Coronets" are missing.

This list and most of the comments have depressed me about as much as reading the pissiest Creationist objections to ToE ever have, and perhaps more.

Well, the bright side is that one hell of a lot of interesting people have one hell of a lot of good movies still to enjoy.

I've got to agree with Goddogit - this is the worst "best 100" list I've seen in any medium. Whoever compiled it has serious issues with the past and screwed up priorities. Almost all the really interesting comedies are in the middle third. It's also a bit schizophrenic. I mean, it seems to favour relatively low-brow stuff - look at the top 20, yet there's only one good Steve Martin film. Where's Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid or The Man With Two Brains. Similarly slapstick and farce gets more than a fair shake (Dodgeball, which I like a lot, does not deserve to be ahead of Best In Show), yet as numerous people have pointed out there's no Marx Brothers, no Chaplin, no Keaton, no Lloyd, no screwball comedy and no Some Like It Hot, which if I'm not mistaken the AFI called the best American comedy ever. What the hell is that about?

Finally, the list is depressingly Americo-centric. Where are the Ealing comedies? Withnail & I? Shaun of the Dead? And that's just Britain. At a bare minimum you'd have to include Delicatessen, Goodbye Lenin, a couple of Almodovar films from other countries.

Yep, a pretty shoddy list, with a definite lack of older films and British ones eg the previously mentioned "Ladykillers" & "Kind Hearts & Coronets".

How about the "The Mouse that Roared" or "The Early Bird"?

On the US side I'm surprised to see that "Arsenic & Old Lace" isn't there or "Ruthless People" for that matter.
A very bizarre list but then it's funny what makes you laugh and what doesn't.
The 1973 version of the "Three Musketeers" has me in fits but it's classified as an action film? Must be just me...

To people complaining about Americano-centrism: comedies are often very non-universal. If I were to compile MY list of Top 100 comedies, it would contain several Polish comedies totally obscure to foreign audience, like "Rejs", "Sami swoi", "How I started the Second World War", "MiÅ", etc. What would such a list be worth to an American not interested in Polish culture? Not much. Even if you include Ealing comedies, you switch from being Americano-centric to "just" Anglo-centric. Still way below the expectations of a continental European (what about Mr. Hulot? what about Louis de Funes comedies?).

That's a valid point, Roman, but some comedies do cross over to work in the anglophone world - I listed a few, and there are a lot more. Truffaut's films, for instance, are probably more highly regarded in the US than in France. Shoot the Pianist and Finally, Sunday! are both hilarious.

Furthermore, there's a lot of foreign films that I wouldn't exactly call comedies that are nonetheless extremely funny, such as Takeshi Kitano's Yakuza films, the sillier end of the martial arts spectrum (eg Shaolin Soccer) or Toto le Héro.

I didn't notice any Jarmusch on the list either. Ghost Dog and Mystery Train should
certainly be on there.

Ed's commentary was itself pretty funny, far funnier than many of the movies on the list. I would imagine that he would be a fan of physical comedy, given his unfettered suggestions that the makers of this list be merrily beaten and flogged with various implements for their short-sightedness -- an assessment with which I must concur.

The omission of "Oh Brother Where Art Thou" singlehandedly destroys any chance of this list being remotely complete. However, I understood what was happening once I got down to around number 45 or so -- there was a clear tend toward increasingly schizophrenic and ramshackle selections, and I understood that once I saw "Meet the Parents" as high as I did, I should not be surprised to find the decidedly less funny sequel, "Meet the Fockers," in the top quartile. And I did.

I personally think the original "Little Shop of Horrors" classifies as a grand comedy even if its makers did not intend it to be one, but then again I thought "The Toxic Avernger" was funny when I was a teenager, and my mind has probably only become ever more denatured since that time.

If they only put Lebowski at 31, they were hardly going to rate Oh Brother much. I love it and think it's much better than it's usually given credit for, but it's still nowhere near the genius of Lebowski.

Is it true that the only films included that were made before 1970 are Dr. Strangelove and The Pink Panther? (I'm giving the listmakers the benefit of the doubt, but they probably prefer the Steve Martin version of the Pink Panther, based on the rest of the list.) No Chaplin, Abbott & Costello, Bob Hope, Jerry Lewis, Alec Guinness, Cary Grant, Tracy & Hepburn, Lucille Ball, Laurel & Hardy, Buster Keaton, or Marx Brothers' comedy could make the list when faced with the daunting competition of Anchorman, Meet the Fockers, or Wedding Crashers? Kentucky Fried Movie? Half Baked? Puh-lease!

This is a horrible list.

I didn't notice any Jarmusch on the list either. Ghost Dog and Mystery Train should
certainly be on there.

Those are comedies??

Whoever made up the list has almost no feel or knowledge of movie comedy from before about 1960, or for some of the greats who got their starts early on. The Brits have been way undervalued, especially Alec Guinness. Then where are such classics as Mr. Roberts and The Odd Couple? Nothing with Danny Kaye? Nothing with Kate Hepburn and Spencer Tracy? What about Walter Matthau in Hopscotch? What about the whole zany cast of Bell, Book and Candle, which includes Tony Randall, Ernie Kovacs, Hermione Gingold and Elsa Lanchester?

I can do without Jerry Lewis, but leaving out the early greats, Chaplin, Laurel and Hardy, and Buster Keaton is criminal.

"but at least with Aykroyd, once he did Doctor Detroit, the studios got the clue that he couldn't carry a movie."

??? He carried Trading Places.

Gotta agree with the vote for Meaning of Life and Life of Brian--funny, smart, and wicked social commentary. I mean, a guy being crucified on Golgotha says "Things could be worse" and breaks out singing "Always look on the bright side of life"--what film ends on a funnier note than that?

And I'd choose Kidz in the Hall: Brain Candy over a lot of the films on the list.

I've got two words for you: "Midnight Run."

Not to mention "Big Trouble in Little China."

I didn't notice any Jarmusch on the list either. Ghost Dog and Mystery Train should
certainly be on there.

Those are comedies??

More like the foreign films I mentioned that aren't explicitly comedies but are very funny, and obviously not foreign.

Jon Rowe wrote:

He carried Trading Places.

Oh, I disagree. Trading Places was an ensemble movie with a terrific cast all the way around. Aykroyd was only one part of a very strong cast, which is when he works best. Put him in a movie where he has to carry the film and it bombs badly.

No:
"The God's Must be Crazy"?
"The Thin Man"?
"Arsenic and Old Lace"?

Bah.

Inconceivable (and unlike Wallace Shawn, I know what the word means).

This has been bugging me for a while now. I've seen Princess Bride a few times, and at risk of appearing to be humor/vocabulary-impaired, I don't understand when 'inconceivable' was incorrectly used by Vizzini. The line I'm thinking of is:

Vizzini: He didn't fall? Inconceivable!
Inigo: You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.

To Vizzini, it was 'inconceivable' ("unlikely or surprising as to have been thought impossible; unbelievable") that Wesley climbed the the Cliffs of Insanity or something like that without falling. How is Vizzini's use of the word 'inconceivable' incorrect, as opposed to just an exaggeration, like saying 'impossible'?

Dave L: uh, it's a joke.

Vizzini repeatedly uses the word "inconceivable" to mean "utterly impossible". And everything he describes as "inconceivable" actually happens.

Inigo Montoya floats the possibility that Vizzini is having a language difficulty, as a way of poking fun at this phenomenon.

As for Dan Aykroyd carrying a movie by himself, no, it's never happened. Doctor Detroit is a great example of his limitations when he works in isolation. He was at his best working with Belushi, but has also done good work with Bill Murray, Eddie Murphy, Tom Hanks, and as a minor player in a larger ensemble. He works very well as a straight man or as the nerdy guy in a larger group. Ed is right about this.

Actually, I think after Doctor Detroit bombed, nobody ever again tried to have him carry a film by himself. (Checks IMDB.) Yeah, that seems right.

For the record, A Mighty Wind was far superior to Best in Show. Best in Show was funnier, I admit.

But A Mighty Wind is really his masterpiece. It all came together perfectly, and hit exactly the right notes throughout.

He never carried a movie on his own, but he is better than Belushi in The Blues Brothers.

"You can't fight in here. This is the war room" from Dr. S

Funnier than all the inanity in the whole Police Academy series combined.

But I do think Animal House, Shrek and Blazing Saddles do belong in the top 10

The thing about Animal House and Caddyshack, undeniably two of the funniest movies ever, is that the plots barely exist. The same is true of The Blues Brothers. The movies were largely improvised and the plot just barely exists. That made for some of the funniest scenes ever filmed, but it also means they don't hold up very well to watch from start to finish. If moviemaking is storytelling, these movies are horrible. But you'll likely laugh more at them than at almost any other movies. That's why I particularly like films like A Fish Called Wanda, where there are not only lots of hilarious scenes, but the movie also has a flow to it that makes sense. It's not just rolling the cameras and letting funny people be funny, it's a real movie.

That's why "Jabberwocky" is higher on my personal favorites list than "Monty Python and the Holy Grail". There is a plot in "Jabberwocky".

JoeMax, you're not the only one who missed the humor in "Napoleon Dynamite." I can think of numerous non-comedies that were funnier.

Check http://imdb.com/chart/comedy for a defensible list of great comedies. It puts this one to absolute shame.

Warning: personal insult follows.

BTW, Roman W. really bores the s--- out of me on EVERY subject, and his brainless comments on Jim Jarmusch finally are on a something that I can claim to be reasonably knowledgable about. Roman, you're an idiot. And a bore. Every time about everything. Just scrolling past your posts annoys the p--- out of me!

Movies that should have been Top 10, but were not.

TEAM AMERICA - One of the funniest movies OF ALL TIME

Young Frankenstein - One of the funniest movies OF ALL TIME

The Man with Two Brains - One of the funniest movies OF ALL TIME

National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation - One of the funniest movies OF ALL TIME

Raising Arizona - One of the funniest movies OF ALL TIME

Water Boy - Adam Sandler's best hands down and One of the funniest movies OF ALL TIME

What I think they did with the list is order it as the BEST funny movies of all time (Sister Act?) but they did not order it in terms of funniness.

Where's Planes Trains and Automobiles?

Where's The Great Outdoors?

Where's Modern Problems?

Where's Fletch?

These types of lists always play by certain rules. First off, all of the movies must be new enough that people 35 and younger, the target demographic, has likely seen them. Their not as likely to tune in to watch about movies they've never heard of, let alone seen. Secondly, it must be actor driven. Bonus points for being considered a "breakout performance". Additionally it absolutely has to have 2 or 3 memorable one-liners. In truth, Charlie Chaplin could regurgitate on a napkin and it would make a better script than most of the movies listed here.

On my own blog, I commented that almost any Bugs Bunny short would be funnier than 50% of the stuff on this list.

Sorry Ed, but I think that Caddyshack was horrible.

Let me add a vote for Danny Kaye's brilliant The Court Jester. A true classic (with a young Angela Lansbury, rawr).

Wow, that IMDB list is pretty incredible. I might have to print it off and take it to the rental store. A lot of the top 20 I'm not familiar with, but the ones I am I absolutely love.

Am I the only human being on this planet who laughed at "What's Up Doc?"

[nuytsia] How about the "The Mouse that Roared" or "The Early Bird"?

On the US side I'm surprised to see that "Arsenic & Old Lace" isn't there or "Ruthless People" for that matter.
[/nuytsia]

So I'm not the only person to remember (and reqatch just a few weeks ago) "The Mouse that Roared"

As with "The Italian Job", the USA remakes of "Arsenic and Old Lace" and "The Lady-Killers" missed what it is that makes for essential Brit humor. Very few have made the transition, and those not movies but TV shows.

Ealing Studios, Pinewood Studios - lots of strong funny stuff back in the WWII and early post-WWII days, when we brits had the most character of all time.

"but at least with Aykroyd, once he did Doctor Detroit, the studios got the clue that he couldn't carry a movie."

??? He carried Trading Places.[/john roe] No, Jamie Lee Curtis did. Dan may have had the lead role,, but it was Jamie who brought in the perceptual twist that made the whole thing work. But lets not denigrate being a funny second string, that's an essential part of a funny with story (otherwise we're talking HBO specials, not movies). "Best Supporting ..." recognizes that.

[me]
"Young Frankenstein" - one of the very few movies had me falling off my seat, literally. I still laugh just thinking about it. "Blazing Saddles" also, but does not take muliple viewings as well. Too silly.

Catch-22 anywhere? No? Why not? Another seminal comedy.

What about Jimmy Stewart?

60's/70's were good years for comedies. Era-defining ones. "Whats new, Pussy-Cat?". "I Love You, Alice B. Toklas". "The Party". Hmmm. I see a Peter Sellers trend here.
[/me]

I love The Italian Job, but it's not really a comedy. It's a very silly caper movie.

I see others have already noted the lack of Some Like It Hot.

What about "The Great Race", or
"Those Magnificent Men in their Flying Machines"

or (more recently) "Wallace and Gromit:The Curse of the Were-Rabbit"?

Wathching Bravo's supposedly Top 100 Comedy Movies of All Time was the Number one Biggest Waste of All Time. Reader's Digest had a similar idea a while back and in my opinion, a much better list. Check it out.

http://www.rd.com/content/openContent.do?contentId=13866

What about Christmas Vacation or Parenthood?

These lists are interesting and infuriating. Check out AFI's top 100 funny movies list. They have Some Like it Hot at #1. I don't think that was on this list at all. They have Animal House at #36 and Caddyshack at #71. It's very different. Not necessarily better, but different. A lot more older movies on the list. Makes sense to me. There are a lot of very new movies on Bravos list. If a movie is still funny years later, then it is truly funny. I don't know if Napoleon Dynamite will seem as funny in 20 years. A movie should be re-evaluated (if remembered at all), at LEAST 5 years after release before getting on a list of any kind. I still laugh at Christmas Vacation and Parenthood as much now as I did when I first saw them years ago, and they're not even on the list. Timeless humor that everyone can relate to. Everyone has family members that remind them of people in these movies, and it's funny to see them torture someone other than you.

And, if you are going to put Jack Black on the list...it should be Orange County. Overall, a much funnier and smarter comedy than any of his others.

All the debate goes to show you how different peoples sense's of humor can be I guess. It's like politics. No point in arguing...but it's still fun.

What about Christmas Vacation or Parenthood?

These lists are interesting and infuriating. Check out AFI's top 100 funny movies list. They have Some Like it Hot at #1. I don't think that was on this list at all. They have Animal House at #36 and Caddyshack at #71. It's very different. Not necessarily better, but different. A lot more older movies on the list. Makes sense to me. There are a lot of very new movies on Bravos list. If a movie is still funny years later, then it is truly funny. I don't know if Napoleon Dynamite will seem as funny in 20 years. A movie should be re-evaluated (if remembered at all), at LEAST 5 years after release before getting on a list of any kind. I still laugh at Christmas Vacation and Parenthood as much now as I did when I first saw them years ago, and they're not even on the list. Timeless humor that everyone can relate to. Everyone has family members that remind them of people in these movies, and it's funny to see them torture someone other than you.

And, if you are going to put Jack Black on the list...it should be Orange County. Overall, a much funnier and smarter comedy than any of his others.

All the debate goes to show you how different peoples sense's of humor can be I guess. It's like politics. No point in arguing...but it's still fun.

What the heck happened to Porky's, Monty Python's The Holy Grail, Liar Liar, Once Bitten, Bruce Almighty, Stir Crazy, Waterboy, Super Troopers, Scary Movie 1, Committed, Smokey and the Bandit, and Friday? These aren't on the list at all!! It's a shame!! How can Napoleon Dynamite be funnier than Waterboy? How can Ace Ventura: Pet Detective be funnier than Liar Liar? You can put Animal House and Caddyshack in the top ten and not include Porky's?? HOW??? Most of the movies on this list may have some funny parts, but to keep you in stitches? I DON'T THINK SO!

I'm not saying he's a great actor-I'm not even saying he's a good actor but Norm MacDonald is the king of what I call blunt comedy and no movie epitomizes this kind of humor more than Bob Saget's 1998 classic "Dirty Work" about two guys that can't do anything right except play really good practical jokes on people so they start a revenge for hire business. The humor might be crude and tasteless but that's the whole point. I know this movie has a lot of fans but Norm always gets snubbed by the critics-even the POPULAR ones for God's sake! Even though Norm's follow-up "Screwed" really made you feel that you did indeed get screwed "Dirty Work" does definitely deserve high marks.

I WAS GONNA READ YOUR OPINIONS ON ALL THE MOVIES, BUT I COULDNT GET PAST #100, ANCHORMAN. YOU ARE RETARDED. SO I READ FURTHER. 4 WEDDINGS AND A FUNURAL?? SO NOW YOUR NOT ONLY RETARDED BUT YOU MAY BE GAY. FURTHER MORE YOU LIKE WEDDING CRASHERS BUT NOT ZOOLANDER?? SO YOU LIKE A COMEDY THAT IS BASED IN REALITY BUT IN NO WAY IS REALISTIC, BUT YOU DONT LIKE A MOVIE THAT IS OFF THE WALL WITH COUNTLESS ONE LINERS IN IT. ITS UPTGHT JERKOFFS LIKE YOU THAT MAKE MOVIES HORRIBLE THESE DAYS

You forgot "poopyhead". What a fucking idiot.

Ok no offense Ed Brayton! But your anaylsis of this list pretty much blows. Lets see where do I even begin.

First of all you find Adam Sandler, Will Ferrel, Ben Stiller, Jim Carey, and Jack Black not to be funny! Are you crazy!!!!

You don't even mention that Ferris Bueller is way low number 54 what the hell is up with that!

You cry out that Ace Ventura is even on the list? Another crazy statement.

It seems pretty clear you cant handle stupid comedies. Where they are doing stupid things. Yet you actually liked Harold and Kumar now that is shocking!

Overral you said some nice things but they were pretty much obivious things that anyone would point out. Its the stupidity statements that really blow my mind.