February 4th, 2021 | Updated on June 28th, 2022
We have select 50 funniest comedy movies of all time which include classics like Hot Fuzz, The Graduate, and The Gold Rush.
1. Mean Girls
Lindsay Lohan stars as Cady Heron, a 16 year old homeschooled girl who not only makes the mistake of falling for Aaron Samuels (Jonathan Bennett), the ex-boyfriend of queenbee Regina George (Rachel McAdams), but also unintentionally joins The Plastics, led by Regina herself.
2. Pulp Fiction
Jules Winnfield (Samuel L. Jackson) and Vincent Vega (John Travolta) are two hit men who are out to retrieve a suitcase stolen from their employer, mob boss Marsellus Wallace (Ving Rhames). Wallace has also asked Vincent to take his wife Mia (Uma Thurman) out a few days later when Wallace himself will be out of town.
3. Hot Fuzz
Top London cop, PC Nicholas Angel is good. Too good. And to stop the rest of his team looking bad, he is reassigned to the quiet town of Sandford. He is paired with Danny Butterman, who endlessly questions him on the action lifestyle.
4. The Graduate
Benjamin Braddock returns home to California after successfully completing college. He gets a hero’s welcome from his parents but Ben isn’t quite sure what to do with the rest of his life. He is soon seduced by Mrs. Robinson, the wife of his father’s partner, who methodically pursues the inexperienced young man.
5. Local Hero
Oil billionaire Happer sends Mac to a remote Scottish village to secure the property rights for an oil refinery they want to build. Mac teams up with Danny and starts the negotiations, the locals are keen to get their hands on the ‘Silver Dollar’ and can’t believe their luck.
6. The Philadelphia Story
Philadelphia socialites Tracy Lord and C.K. Dexter Haven married impulsively, with their marriage and subsequent divorce being equally passionate. They broke up when Dexter’s drinking became excessive, it a mechanism to cope with Tracy’s unforgiving manner to the imperfect, imperfections which Dexter admits he readily has.
7. Harold and Maude
Young adult Harold Chasen, solitary and friendless by choice, is obsessed with death, this fascination manifesting itself in he staging his own fake suicides, driving a hearse and attending funerals, even of people he doesn’t know, all to the chagrin of his exasperated wealthy mother with whom he lives
8. Booksmart
On the eve of their high school graduation, two academic superstars and best friends realize they should have worked less and played more. Determined not to fall short of their peers, the girls try to cram four years of fun into one night.
9. There’s Something About Mary
Ted was a geek in high school, who was going to go to the prom with one of the most popular girls in school, Mary. The prom date never happened, because Ted had a very unusual accident.
10. The Gold Rush
A lone prospector ventures into Alaska looking for gold. He gets mixed up with some burly characters and falls in love with the beautiful Georgia. He tries to win her heart with his singular charm
11. The Mask
Timid bank clerk, Stanley Ipkiss (Jim Carrey). Unfortunately, he’s too gentle, and is unable to handle confrontations. After one of the worst days, he finds a mask which depicts Loki, the Norse god of mischief. When he puts it on, he becomes his inner, self: a cartoon wild man.
12. Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping
When his new album fails to sell records, pop and rap superstar conner4real (Andy Samberg) goes into a major tailspin and watches his celebrity high life begin to collapse. He’ll try anything to bounce back, anything except reuniting with his old rap group The Style Boyz.
13. School of Rock
After being kicked out of his rock band, guitarist Dewey Finn faces a mountain of debts and depression. He shares an apartment with an old band member, Ned Schneebly, who is now a substitute teacher.
14. Waiting for Guffman
The residents of Blaine, Missouri – the self-proclaimed home of the first UFO landing in the United States (Blaine residents beg to differ with Roswell’s claims) and stool capital of the world – are excited about the town’s upcoming sesquicentennial celebrations, which will have as its centerpiece the original musical production, “Red, White and Blaine.
15. The Big Sick
Pakistan-born comedian Kumail Nanjiani and grad student Emily Gardner fall in love but struggle as their cultures clash. When Emily contracts a mysterious illness, Kumail finds himself forced to face her feisty parents, his family’s expectations, and his true feelings.
16.Sullivan’s Travels
Sullivan is a successful, spoiled, and naive director of fluff films, with a heart-o-gold, who decides he wants to make a film about the troubles of the downtrodden poor
17. Old School
Mitch, Frank and Beanie are disillusioned with their personal lives beginning when Mitch’s nymphomanic girlfriend, Heidi, cheats on him, then former party animal Frank gets married, but unwilling to let go of his wild life, and Beanie is a family man seeking to reclaim his wild and crazy youth.
18. Slap Shot
Located in the US Rust Belt, Charlestown is home of the hapless Chiefs, a losing Federal League hockey team whose games are poorly attended. To make money, the team’s unknown owner makes its manager, Joe McGrath, do cheesy publicity much to the players’ chagrin.
19. The Return of the Pink Panther
That famous jewel, The Pink Panther, has once again been stolen and Inspector Jacque Clouseau (Peter Sellers) is called in to catch the thief. The Inspector is convinced that “The Phantom” has returned and utilizes all of his resources, himself and his oriental manservant, to reveal the true identity of “The Phantom”.
20. The Great Dictator
20 years after the end of WWI, in which the nation of Tomainia was on the losing side, Adenoid Hynkel has risen to power as the ruthless dictator of the country. He believes in a pure Aryan state and the decimation of the Jews. This situation is unknown to a simple Jewish Tomainian barber who has been hospitalized since a WWI battle.
21. As Good As It Gets
New York City. Melvin Udall, a cranky, bigoted, obsessive-compulsive writer, finds his life turned upside down when neighboring gay artist Simon is hospitalized and his dog is entrusted to Melvin. In addition, Carol, the only waitress who will tolerate him, must leave work to care for her sick son, making it impossible for Melvin to eat breakfast.
22. Ace Ventura, Pet Detective
To be a Pet Detective, you have to understand both the criminals and animals. Ace Ventura goes even further… He behaves like a criminal animal. When a football team’s mascot (a dolphin) is stolen just before the Superbowl, Ace Ventura is put on the case
23. The Royal Tenenbaums
Three grown prodigies, all with a unique genius of some kind, and their mother are staying at the family household. Their father, Royal had left them long ago, and comes back to make things right with his family.
24. Kingpin
Roy Munson was raised to be the best bowler in the world (trained early on by his father). But a fellow bowler, Ernie McCracken and a misunderstanding with some rough punks, leaves poor Roy with the loss of his bowling hand! Not to let this get him down, he gets a prosthetic hand and becomes a travelling sales man.
25. Best in Show
At the prestigious Mayflower Dog Show, a “documentary film crew” captures the excitement and tension displayed by the eccentric participants in the outrageously hilarious satire Best In Show.
26. The Cable Guy
Steven Kovak has been kicked out of his apartment by his girlfriend. Steven has a new apartment, and decides to slip the cable guy (Chip) $50 for free cable. Steven then fakes an interest in Chip’s line of work. However Chip takes this to heart trying to become Steven’s best bud.
27. Top Secret!
This time Zucker and Abrahams are spoofing, most notably, Elvis films and WWII spy movies. Val Kilmer stars as Nick Rivers, a handsome American 50s-style rock and roll singer. While performing in East Germany, he falls in love with a beautiful heroine and becomes involved with the French Resistance.
28. The Death of Stalin
In early-1953 Moscow, under the Great Terror’s heavy cloak of state paranoia, the ever-watchful Soviet leader, Joseph Stalin, collapses, unexpectedly, of a brain haemorrhage. As a result, when someone discovers his body the following morning, a frenetic surge of raw panic starts spreading like a virus amongst the senior members of the Council of Ministers, as they scramble to maintain order, weed out the competition, and, ultimately, take power.
29. Take the Money and Run
This film is presented as a documentary on the life of an incompetent, petty criminal called Virgil Starkwell. It describes the early childhood and youth of Virgil, his failure at a musical career, and his obsession with bank robberies.
30. Pee-Wee’s Big Adventure
The cartoonish and childish character Pee-wee Herman goes on a big adventure for the first time ever when his beloved shiny new bicycle is stolen by his nemesis Francis Buxton, a fellow man-child and neighborhood rich “kid.
31. Heaven Can Wait
Joe Pendleton is a football quarterback preparing to lead his team to the Superbowl when he is almost killed in an accident. An overanxious angel plucks him to heaven only to discover that he was not ready to die, and that his body has been cremated.
31. GoodFellas
Henry Hill might be a small time gangster, who may have taken part in a robbery with Jimmy Conway and Tommy De Vito, two other gangsters who might have set their sights a bit higher.
32. Wayne’s World
Wayne is still living at home. He has a world class collection of name tags from jobs he’s tried, but he does have his own public access TV show. A local station decides to hire him and his sidekick, Garth, to do their show professionally and Wayne & Garth find that it is no longer the same.
33. A Fish Called Wanda
In London, Georges Thomason (Tom Georgeson), his seductive American girlfriend Wanda Gershwitz (Jamie Lee Curtis), and their associate Ken Pile (Sir Michael Palin) are planning their latest crime, a diamond heist that should net them thirteen million pounds sterling.
34. Midnight Run
Bounty hunter Jack Walsh (Robert De Niro) is sent to find and return bail jumper and former Mafia accountant, Jonathan “The Duke” Mardukas (Charles Grodin). The FBI has had no success in locating The Duke, so when Jack finds him in next to no time, they are a little embarrassed.
35. Clueless
Her external demeanor at first seems superficial, but rather it hides her wit, charm, and intelligence which help her to deal with relationships, friends, family, school, and the all-important teenage social life.
36. Arsenic and Old Lace
Mortimer Brewster is a newspaperman and author known for his diatribes against marriage. We watch him being married at city hall in the opening scene. Now all that is required is a quick trip home to tell Mortimer’s two maiden aunts.
37. Mrs Doubtfire
Eccentric actor Daniel Hillard is an amusing and caring father. But after a disastrous birthday party for his son, Chris, his wife, Miranda, draws the line and files a divorce. He can see their three children only once a week which doesn’t sit well with him.
38. It Happened One Night
Ellie Andrews has just tied the knot with society aviator King Westley when she is whisked away to her father’s yacht and out of King’s clutches. Ellie jumps ship and eventually winds up on a bus headed back to her husband.
39. Toy Story
. But, what do the toys do when Andy is not with them, they come to life. Woody believes that his life (as a toy) is good. However, he must worry about Andy’s family moving, and what Woody does not know is about Andy’s birthday party.
40. The Man With Two Brains
Recently widowed Doctor Michael Hfuhruhurr, the world’s greatest neurosurgeon, injures Dolores Benedict in a car accident. He operates on her and saves her life using a technique of his own invention: cranial screw-top brain entry. As Benedict recovers, Hfuhruhurr falls in love with her and they are soon married. However, Benedict is only interested in Hfuhruhurr’s money and Hfuhruhurr still yearns for his previous wife.
41. Bedazzled
Stanley Moon (Dudley Moore) is a short order cook, infatuated with Margaret (Eleanor Bron), the statuesque waitress who works at Wimpy Bar with him. Despondent, he prepares to end it all when he meets George Spiggott, a.k.a. the Devil (Peter Cook).
42. The Odd Couple
The two of them are like chalk and cheese – Oscar is fun-loving, gregarious and slovenly, Felix is a shy, stay-at-home, obsessive-compulsive neat-freak. Being around Oscar brightens Felix up, but he quickly starts to irritate Oscar.
43. Sons of the Desert
So that he and Stan can sneak away to Chicago and attend the annual “Sons of the Desert” lodge convention, Ollie pretends to be sick, and gets a doctor (who turns out to be a veterinarian) to prescribe a long ocean voyage to Hawaii.
44. Napoleon Dynamite
Preston, Idaho’s most curious resident, Napoleon Dynamite, lives with his grandma and his 32-year-old brother (who cruises chat rooms for ladies) and works to help his best friend, Pedro, snatch the Student Body President title from mean teen Summer Wheatley.
45. Elf
Buddy was a baby in an orphanage who stowed away in Santa’s sack and ended up at the North Pole. Later, as an adult human who happened to be raised by elves, Santa allows him to go to New York City to find his birth father, Walter Hobbs.
46. Dirty Rotten Scoundrels
Wealthy native Brit Lawrence Jamieson, living in Beaumont-sur-Mer on the French Riviera, earns most of his money through big cons on wealthy unsuspecting women. With the help of his associates, corrupt Police Inspector Andre, who provides him most of his intel, and his butler Arthur, he pulls scams such as pretending to be a foreign deposed Prince who needs money to finance a secret war to liberate his people.
47. Blazing Saddles
The Ultimate Western Spoof. A town where everyone seems to be named Johnson is in the way of the railroad. In order to grab their land, Hedley Lemar (Harvey Korman), a politically connected nasty person, sends in his henchmen to make the town unlivable.
48. Tootsie
Michael Dorsey is an unemployed actor with an impossible reputation. In order to find work and fund his friend’s play he dresses as a woman, Dorothy Michaels, and lands the part in a daytime drama.
49. Duck Soup
The country of Freedonia is in the middle of a financial crisis and on the brink of revolution. In order to gain a bail-out from the wealthy Mrs Teasdale, the government appoints Rufus T Firefly as its president.
50. This Is Spinal Tap
In 1982, the legendary English heavy metal band Spinal Tap attempt an American comeback tour accompanied by a fan who is also a film-maker. The resulting documentary, interspersed with powerful performances of Tap’s pivotal music and profound lyrics, candidly follows a rock group heading towards crisis, culminating in the infamous affair of the eighteen-inch-high Stonehenge stage prop.
