The 35 Best Comedy Films of All Time – Harper's BAZAAR

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Because it’s always time for a good laugh.
Choosing the funniest movies to have ever graced a screen is a personal, subjective, and quite honestly arbitrary task, but it’s also one we’re gleefully taking on. Because at the end of the day, no matter one’s preference in cinematic humor—be it slapstick, deadpan, raunch, pitch black, situational, satirical, the list goes on—a laugh is a laugh. And laughter, as they say, is, well, you know.
Here, we’re offering a smorgasbord of comedic fare, ranging from those lowbrow cult classics everyone can quote to the more elevated riots whose wit, commentary, and wise cracks just get better with subsequent viewings. Hopefully, your favorites are represented, but if not, keep checking back, as we’ll be sure to update our list as more originals become viewing essentials and viral newbies assume their rightful spots in forever fandom.
The banter, quips, and quick wits volleying back and forth between the leads in Howard Hawks’s 1940 film no doubt set this classic atop the primo fast-talking, screwball comedies akin to the ’30s and ’40s. Starring Carey Grant and Rosalind Russell as Walter and Hildy, the story bounces around a Chicago newsroom with Walter persuading his ex-wife, Hildy, to scoop one last story with him before she gets remarried. Antics, action, and an affable romance story are in store.
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Another stellar screwball comedy courtesy of Old Hollywood, It Happened One Night is also one of the genre’s earliest road trip comedies. Riding shotgun with Clark Gable and Claudette Colbert, this Frank Capra classic cleaned up at the 1935 Oscars, winning the Big Five categories (the first film to do so). And it’s easy to see why: Spoiled rich girl and cynical news chaser fall in love between pit stops from Florida to New York. It’s simple yet elevated with buoyant dialogue and electric chemistry—a winning formula.
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As its title implies, there is much ado about nothing in Kenneth Branagh’s ode to Shakespeare, and yet the genius comedy of errors is everything. Equipped with an all-star cast, including Emma Thompson, Denzel Washington, and Keanu Reeves, the story explores the ripple effects of one of life’s inconvenient truths: rumors. And might we offer a shout-out to one of the Bard’s silliest characters ever created: Dogberry, the bumbling “self-satisfied night constable” brilliantly embodied by Michael Keaton.
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Filmmakers whose slapstick took flight with 1980’s Airplane!, Jim Abrahams and brothers David and Jerry Zucker (a.k.a. ZAZ) left their mark on the decades bookmarking the turn of the century. From Airplane!, a goofy good time at 30,000 feet starring Leslie Neilson, and the Naked Guns to BASEketball and the Scary Movies, the triumvirate manage to offend, impress, and soil britches all while becoming a national treasure recognized by Library of Congress’s National Film Registry.
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Tim Burton’s gateway horror classic about a recently deceased couple trying to scare away the eccentric family inhabiting their home is packed with laughs. And it keeps getting funnier every single time we see it. Not only do we have the perfectly pitched Catherine O’Hara leading dinner guests and possessed shrimp through a round of the Banana Boat song, but we have a brilliant Michael Keaton outdoing himself with every single scene-stealing appearance he makes as the titular bioexorcist.
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In the ’90s, the comedy genre saw a seismic shift in its side-splitting landscape with the emergence of a certain over-the-top, zany comic by the name of Jim Carrey. He had Ace Ventura, Fletcher Reede, the Cable Guy, but more beloved than all is Lloyd Christmas—for us, anyway. Paired with comedy Farrelly gold behind the camera and Jeff Daniels’s equally dim-witted sidekick in front of it, Dumb and Dumber became the lowbrow comedy everyone from the playground to the country club was quoting.
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Inspired by some of the best teen comedies of the ’80s and ’90s—those that helped shape a generation, like Say Anything and The Breakfast Club—Olivia Wilde also tapped into Training Day and The Big Lebowski for her directorial debut. That said, Booksmart is entirely its own female-dominated animal. Tweaked for modern audiences and injected with representation that doesn’t feel forced, the buddy comedy stars Kaitlyn Devers and Beanie Feldstein as a pair of always-do-wells trying to ne’er-do-well the night before they graduate.
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Behold, the breakout role that put Tiffany Haddish on speed dial in Hollywood. Girls Trip, also starring Jada Pinkett Smith, Regina Hall, and Queen Latifah, launched the comedian’s career, and after one screening of the boisterous comedy about a group of best friends who get wild at an annual festival in New Orleans, it’s easy to see why. She’s pee-your-pants hilarious. Of course, Haddish isn’t the only draw. The script, direction, and production all worked in harmony to make Girls Trip the first Black-made movie to break $100 million at the box office.
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Kevin Kwan’s glitzy nuptials novel got the big-screen treatment in 2018, and, believe it or not, the Jon M. Chu–helmed film marked the very first time an all-Asian American cast headlined a mainstream Hollywood romantic comedy. Led by Henry Golding and Constance Wu, who play a couple heading to Singapore for a wedding, this crowd-pleaser is brimming with surprises befitting of the genre, as well as so many solid one-liners and endless displays of gorgeous designer lewks.
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Marcel the Shell’s Jenny Slate steps behind the mic for a little stand-up as Donna, a 20-something self-deprecating comic who gets dumped by her boyfriend and then impregnated by a one-night stand, all in time for Valentine’s Day. But unlike the unplanned-pregnancy comedies of the previous decade (see: Juno, Knocked Up, Saved!), this 2014 Sundance favorite from Gillian Robespierre offers an authentic, warm-hearted abortion story that finds the funny in life’s curveballs.
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Yorgos Lanthimos has found a muse in Emma Stone; she’s starred in three of his latest film projects—one of which is this pitch-black period comedy that shares the spotlight with the stunning Rachel Weisz and the extraordinary Olivia Colman. Story-wise, the former two battle for the affection of Colman’s mercurial Queen Anne. It’s a film that was inspired by the real-life rivalry among the queen’s ladies in waiting, and it went on to earn 10 Oscar noms, with Colman snagging one for Best Actress.
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In an unofficial answer to the male-stacked Superbads and Hangovers of the industry, Kristen Wiig and Annie Mumolo gave women the floor to split all the sides with Bridesmaids, their co-written raunch comedy that shattered the “chick flick” mold and even made a run for two Oscars in 2012. Starring Wiig and a slew of funny ladies, including Melissa McCarthy who was responsible for one of those nods, the film bucks tradition, thrusts female friendship to the forefront, and gets its happily ever after.
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Eddie Murphy is comedic royalty, literally and figuratively, in this ’90s cult classic. He stars as Prince Akeem, an African bachelor who leaves his culture and country behind for Queens, New York, on a quest to find a bride he actually loves and isn’t just arranged to marry. There, he and his half-brother, Semmi, played by Arsenio Hall, navigate the urban jungle and all its inhabitants—many of whom, by the way, are played by Murphy in costume.
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Spanish filmmaker Pedro Almodóvar has a résumé filled with decades of provocative, critically acclaimed features. One of his most revered works, this black comedy managed to transcend borders, earning a nomination at the 1989 Oscars and solidifying the director as one of Spain’s most gifted storytellers. Here, chaos ensues after a woman threatens to kill herself with sleeping-pill-laced gazpacho.
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Bridesmaids writers Kristen Wiig and Annie Mumolo reunite for this female-friendship gem infused with magical realism and even a few musical dance numbers. Jamie Dornan rounds out the threesome at the center of their narrative, which requires a little stretching of the imagination: Nebraska natives Barb and Star are headed for the coast, where the residents of Vista Del Mar are in danger of being wiped off the planet by a horde of genetically modified mosquitoes unleashed by a recluse named Dr. Lady.
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Writer-director Rian Johnson does the near impossible with Knives Out, a dark comedy-slash-murder mystery about the death of a family patriarch: He created a movie we never wanted to end. Luckily, the follow-up, titled Glass Onion, isn’t too far off. Until then, get reacquainted with Harlan Thromby (Christopher Plummer) and his greedy family, Harlan’s seemingly innocent caretaker (Ana de Armas), and the gentleman sleuth detective (Daniel Craig) called on to solve the whodunit.
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Denise Richards and Kirsten Dunst lead a cast of hilarious women, including Amy Adams and Brittany Murphy, in this incredibly inappropriate yet undeniably hilarious laugh riot written by Lona Williams. About a small-town Minnesota pageant and the unexplained murders swirling around it, Williams’s satire tackles issues like guns, politics, and materialism, all while tapping into the vacuous nature of the rhinestone-studded spectacle that is an American beauty pageant.
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Top-shelf stoner fare from F. Gary Gray starring Ice Cube and Chris Tucker, Friday is a good time any day of the week. As Craig and Smokey, respectively, the pair spend a random Friday in South Central Los Angeles dodging bullies, ogling neighbors, and blowin’ smoke. But it’s the dialogue, courtesy of Cube and DJ Pooh (“Bye, Felisha”), and Tucker’s introduction (“And you know this, man!”) that have really carried the film’s legacy.
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The Twitter-verse is full of entertaining fodder. But rarely does the material catch the attention of Hollywood. With Zola, however, one user’s 148-tweet thread not only got the big-screen treatment, but it snagged director Janicza Bravo and screenwriter Jeremy O. Harris, with Taylour Paige in the leading role. Based on A’Ziah King’s raucous real-life jaunt to the neon-lit underbelly of Florida for one bonkers weekend, Zola is a revolutionary take on female sexuality, agency, and empowerment.
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Adapting the teen comedy for today’s climate of social unrest, Carey Williams injects his cult classic in the making with not just themes of racism, but actual racism. Bold and unflinching, the film starts just as any hijinks comedy does—three college students gear up for a night of epic partying—but that’s where the similarities end. For RJ, Kunle, and Carlos, a night of living it up evolves into a surreal nightmare when they find a drunk, semiconscious white girl in their dorm room.
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Taika Waititi’s mockumentary-style feature isn’t the first to tango with the subgenre, and it obviously won’t be the last. But it is certainly one of the very best to operate outside the concept of cinematic walls. Capitalizing on the resurgence of the bloodsucking undead, Waititi flips the script. Rather than romance or thrills, he and co-writer/director Jemaine Clement offer a peek into the mundane lives of everyday vampires just trying to make a living in the modern world. And the result is genius.
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After Frances Ha, Mistress America, and Greenberg, Noah Baumbach’s screen muse, Greta Gerwig, stepped behind the camera to deliver a little novel humor of her own. With Saoirse Ronan in the driver’s seat and a supporting cast featuring Timothée Chalamet, Lucas Hedges, and Beanie Feldstein, Gerwig took her quietly revolutionary directorial debut all the way to the Oscars—with five nods. The story itself is simple: Teen fights with mom about everything. But the narrative’s subtext, exploring the mother-daughter relationship, is something much more deeply heartwarming and -breaking all at once.
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LaKeith Stanfield, Tessa Thompson, and Omari Hardwick team up for a gonzo comedy directed by musician-activist-producer Boots Riley. Breaking down Riley’s comment on white privilege into a few short sentences here would be doing his satire and your virgin viewing experience a dishonor. So just know that you’re in for quite the adventure led by a telemarketer (Stanfield) who learns the key to instant success.
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Will Ferrell has many a movie that would fit the bill here, but as Lars Erickssong, a man-child whose dream is to win Eurovision with the perfect song, his comedic chops are on peak fire. Rachel McAdams costars as Sigrit Ericksdóttir, an Icelandic beauty with a stellar Speorg note to match, and she gives good comedy as well. But the best part of this sonic comedy gem? Its all-inclusive cast featuring real-life winners and contestants of previous contests. So much heart. So much soul.
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Winona Ryder and Christian Slater team up for a pitch-black comedy that neutralizes the power dynamics of high school by straight up offing Westerburg High’s elite. Ryder plays Veronica Sawyer, a reluctant member of a toxic popular girl group who are all named Heather. Finally snapping, Veronica and her boyfriend, J.D. (Slater), kill the queen bee, make it look like a suicide, and then repeat the cycle. Dark, yes. But also very funny. See: “Fuck me gently with a chainsaw.”
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It doesn’t get more diverse than the animal kingdom: a fact the writers of Zootopia knew all too well as they crafted their hilarious screenplay imbued with symbolism and subtext. Social themes of gender and race, inequalities and prejudices, diversity and inclusion are all at play beneath the adorable story of a bunny cop who joins forces with a cunning fox to uncover a massive conspiracy. And can we just take a second to shout-out the three-toed sloths who work at the Department of Mammal Vehicles? Brilliant.
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Amy Heckerling understood the assignment when she reimagined the Jane Austen classic Emma for a teen audience in the ’90s. Swapping Regency-era spencers and pelisses for the button-front minis and plaid-patterned co-ords essential to the decade, Heckerling then updated her dialogue with vernacular befitting of the affluent social class at the center of her narrative. Genius, clever, and forever quotable, this campus comedy just keeps getting better with age.
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Comedy and tragedy collide in Bong Joon-ho’s exceptional parable that cleaned up at the 2020 Oscars. In what could technically also be designated a thriller, the director has gifted us with a grifter tale that explores desire, classism, and capitalism, with a cast of South Korea’s who’s who at the helm. Following the remarkable schemes of the Kim family, a poverty-stricken crew who will do anything for economic security, including encroaching on the wealthy Park family, the film meanders through its tightly wound narrative with dark and deeply funny social satire.
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With every film Sean Baker (The Florida Project, Prince of Broadway, Red Rocket) puts out, he breaks new ground. And Tangerine is no different. Starring two trans actors, Kitana ‘Kiki’ Rodriguez and Mya Taylor, as trans sex workers hunting down a cheating pimp in Los Angeles on Christmas Eve, this microbudget indie gem that was shot on an iPhone 5S defies the odds at every turn. Rowdy, vengeful, and funny as hell, Tangerine is loaded with razor-sharp, sometimes improvised dialogue that gives its leads the stage to make us all cry laughing.
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Acquiring a taste for Wes Anderson’s signature deadpan isn’t easy. But if you watch his work enough, you’ll find yourself craving more of the director’s whimsical melancholy. Because he has a way of sublimating hefty themes—grief, regret, loneliness—into lilting fare, heavy dramas become endearing comedies. Take for instance The Royal Tenenbaums, a somber yet playful film about a dysfunctional family finding the well-hidden redeeming qualities in their estranged father (one who says things like, “I’m very sorry for your loss. Your mother was a terribly attractive woman”). It’s deep, it’s profound, and still it’s laugh-out-loud funny.
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A representational triumph for the House of Mouse, Moana was conceived with special care and attention paid to the greater Polynesian culture, while also committed to rewriting the Disney princess trope. Moana Waialiki, of Motunui, is strong, empowered, and ready to smash any obstacle thrown her way, be it a self-centered demigod, savage coconut pirate, or giant sparkly crab. The whole thing is full of eye-pleasing visuals, Lin-Manuel Miranda tunes, and hilarity suitable for all ages.
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A super-green release (it hit streaming literally this year), Fire Island is a game-changing romantic comedy. Queer, Asian, and hella hilarious, the celebratory romp was written by its star, Joel Kim Booster, and directed by indie auteur Andrew Ahn (Spa Night, Driveways). About a group of friends who let loose on that stretch of sand off the shores of Long Island, New York, where vacationers are invited to fly their rainbow flags freely, Fire Island is the joyous summer balm the world needs right now.
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We cannot say enough good things about Haifaa Al-Mansour’s Wadjda. It’s funny, it’s heartwarming, and just like it’s feisty little protagonist, it’s trailblazing. Wadjda is an 11-year-old Saudi kid, who more than anything wants money to buy a bike. Of course, “Girls don’t ride bikes” and other gender stereotypes are at play here, all of which again mirror the production, as Al-Mansour’s debut film is the first by a Saudi woman and also the first to be filmed in Saudi Arabia.
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When the munchies start panging, Harold (John Cho) and Kumar (Kal Penn) hit the road to satisfy their weed-induced cravings. But that’s easier said than done. Embarking on a nightlong odyssey through the margins of New Jersey, the pair encounter a rolling Neil Patrick Harris, a wild raccoon, and even an escaped cheetah. Sure, it may sound similar to the high-frat-boy fare that’s monopolizing the subgenre, but take a deeper puff, and you’ll see the care that went into crafting this elevated stoner comedy.
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Over the course of three Vacation movies, we really get to know the Griswolds: their quirks, their dysfunction, their clumsy well-intentioned ways. Of course, the every-family kick off their hijinks in this 1983 gem from director Harold Ramis and writer John Hughes. Piled in to the “old family truckster,” the foursome hits the road, heading cross-country to the Wally World theme park, making every non-essential pit stop along the way, and solidifying itself a fixture in Americana comedy with every watch.
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