1 | Airplane! (1980)

Airplane! isn’t for everyone, but it is for people who love wordplay (“Don’t call me Shirley" ring any bells?) and absurd comedy that builds on itself until you can’t not laugh. The film is a parody of a disaster movie in which a number of people on a plane get food poisoning, including the pilot. When “autopilot” is activated, it’s an inflatable doll named Otto. That’s the kinda humor we’re working with here.

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2 | Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy (2004)

A group of men working at a news station in the 1970s have to come to terms with a woman (Christina Applegate) coming on board as a new anchor. (Spoiler: This is not easy for them.) Will Ferrell stars as head anchor Ron Burgundy, a man with a taste for leather-bound books, scotch, and talking to his dog. His crew of misogynistic coworkers is rounded out by Steve Carell, Paul Rudd, and David Koechner.

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3 | Best in Show (2000)

Anyone who loves improv comedy will enjoy Best in Show, a mockumentary about an elite dog show and the eccentric trainers who participate. There’s Catherine O’Hara and Eugene Levy as a terrier-obsessed couple; Jennifer Coolidge as a poodle owner with a much older husband; writer/director Christopher Guest as a bloodhound lover who can name every nut; and so on. It’s weird and wonderful.

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4 | Big (1988)

It’s the movie in which Tom Hanks plays a little boy in a grown man’s body...and got an Oscar nomination for it. In Big, a 12-year-old’s wish of becoming an adult is granted, and he has to adjust to having a job, his own apartment, and a romantic relationship. Body-swap stories can be hard to pull off successfully, but this Penny Marshall coming-of-age comedy manages it.

Streaming on Disney+ and Hulu; Rent/Buy various services.

5 | Bridesmaids (2011)

Bridesmaids was a huge hit when it came out in 2011, and, unfortunately, was a huge part of the “Hey, women are funny” conversation. (Yes, women are, always have been, and always will be funny.) The film stars Kristen Wiig as a woman who ends up in a rivalry with her engaged best friend’s (Maya Rudolph) super wealthy new buddy (Rose Byrne). The wedding party also includes Melissa McCarthy (who scored an Oscar nomination and became a star), Wendi McLendon-Covey, and Ellie Kemper.

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6 | Clueless (1995)

Clueless is a retelling of Jane Austen’s Emma centered around a Los Angeles high school student named Cher (Alicia Silverstone) and her wealthy and stylish group of friends. The plot is generally the same and includes matchmaking gone wrong, an attempt to help a new arrival in town, and the realization that Cher’s own true love is right in front of her. But in this modern rom-com that added several slang phrases to the '90s lexicon, the jokes come a mile a minute.

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7 | Coming to America (1988)

Coming to America is Eddie Murphy’s take on one of the great tropes in comedy: donning a disguise to pretend to be someone else. The star plays a prince from a fictional African country who travels to Queens, New York with a friend (Arsenio Hall) to search for a wife after his parents try to force him into an arranged marriage. They end up trading a palace for a a small apartment and being waited on for working at a fast food joint; meanwhile, Prince Akeem talks his way around many lies as he falls in love with the smart and independent Lisa (Shari Headley).

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8 | Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964)

Even among other dark comedies, Dr. Strangelove, Stanley Kubrick's satire of the Cold War and the potential of nuclear apocalypse stands out as being particularly bleak. The classic stars Peter Sellers as the President of the United States, a British Royal Air Force officer, and Dr. Strangelove, a Nazi/nuclear war expert, himself. Sure, it's disturbing and still timely, but above all, it's funny.

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9 | Duck Soup (1933)

Taking things way back, we have the Marx Brothers film, Duck Soup, which is widely considered to be one of their best. The film is about two small fictional countries, Freedonia and Sylvania, going to war after Groucho Marx’s character becomes dictator of one of them. The plot, though, is only a backdrop for many hallmarks of the comedy team, including plenty of wordplay and pratfalls.

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10 | Dumb and Dumber (1994)

You already know what it’s about: two extremely dumb guys. Jim Carrey and Jeff Daniels star as Lloyd and Harry, best friends who accidentally become involved in a kidnapping scheme and experience a long string of coincidences that they’re too naive to understand. Dumb and Dumber is the first Farrelly Brothers movie and still the most beloved.

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11 | Everything Everywhere All at Once (2022)

It's not often that a movie as riotous as Everywhere Everywhere All at Once sweeps the Oscars, but that's exactly what happened with this multiversal romp from former music video directors, the Daniels. Michelle Yeoh stars as immigrant mother Evelyn, who faces her fraying relationships with husband Waymond (Ke Huy Quan) and daughter Joy (Stephanie Hsu) after she learns that that she can travel between an infinite number of realities. Featuring a universe where everyone has "hot dog fingers," one where they're just rocks, and a four-legged master chef named Racacoonie, this Best Picture winner is easily the most absurd—and moving—comedy of the last decade.

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12 | Ferris Bueller’s Day Off (1986)

Ferris Bueller teaches all of us to “stop and look around once in a while” in this film about a high school student who puts in a lot of effort to skip a day of school. Depending on your own level of anxiety, you’ll either be totally on board with Ferris’ (Matthew Broderick) trip around Chicago or feel a little more like his best friend Cameron (Alan Ruck), who is pulled along for the ride and almost too worried about getting caught to enjoy it.

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13 | Friday (1995)

Friday shows a day in the life of best friends, Smokey (Chris Tucker) and Craig (Ice Cube), as they encounter various people in their neighborhood while trying to pay $200 back to a drug dealer. You can thank Friday for kicking off F. Gary Gray’s feature directing career, for the phrase “Bye, Felicia,” and for advancing the stoner movie genre—with a lot of laughs.

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14 | Ghostbusters (1984)

“Who ya gonna call? Ghostbusters!” More specifically, three scientists (Harold Ramis, Bill Murray, Dan Ackroyd) who study ghosts and decide to start a “paranormal removal company." (Ernie Hudson and Annie Potts play their new hires.) The concept is out there, but it launched a franchise that Hollywood can't stop rebooting. And, yes, you’ll have that song in your head for the rest of the day.

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15 | Girls Trip (2017)

Four friends with very different personalities go on a trip together to reconnect and end up having wild experiences and learning about themselves. It’s the same recipe used by a lot of comedies, but it works especially well in Girls Trip, starring Queen Latifah, Tiffany Haddish, Jada Pinkett Smith, and Regina Hall as besties who head to New Orleans to bond. And party. And hook up with guys. And drink 200-year-old absinthe.

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16 | Groundhog Day (1993)

Murray and Ramis make their second appearance on this list of classic comedies with Groundhog Day, in which Murray’s weatherman character ends up living Feb. 2 over and over again and can’t figure out how to escape. Aside from being funny, it’s also one of the most claustrophobic comedies there is.

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17 | Kung Fu Hustle (2004)

Stephen Chow is the mastermind behind many hilarious movies, but his hit Kung Fu Hustle is the one to take a spot on this list. It’s about two guys (Chow, Lam Chi-chung) who want to join the “Axe Gang,” but while posing as members are surprised to find that some unlikely residents of their neighborhood are secretly kung fu masters. “Over-the-top” is too light of a term to describe the fight sequences that pop up throughout.

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18 | Mean Girls (2004)

Mean Girls is one of the most quotable movies ever and has been adapted into both a musical and an upcoming movie version of that musical. Writer Tina Fey packs so many jokes into this high school comedy about a new student named Cady (Lindsay Lohan), who becomes part of the popular girls’ clique at her new school in an effort to sabotage them from the inside. It’s endlessly rewatchable and funny every time.

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19 | Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1975)

When Monty Python and the Holy Grail was released in 1975, the Monty Python comedy troupe was already popular for their show Monty Python’s Flying Circus and first film, And Now For Something Completely Different. But it’s this parody of the Arthurian legend that has become their most iconic work. Armed with cheap costumes and even worse sword fighting skills, the British comedians set off for a fourth-wall breaking adventure into the Middle Ages.

Streaming on Netflix. Rent/Buy on various services.

20 | Game Night (2018)

A friendly game night goes awry when the host is kidnapped in this 2018 ensemble comedy co-directed by John Francis Daley and Jonathan Goldstein, the team also behind 2023's Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Amongst Thieves. Game Night stars Jason Bateman and Rachel McAdams as a board-game-obsessed married couple, Kyle Chandler playing against type as Bateman's character's reckless brother, and Jesse Plemons as their creepy neighbor, among other funny folks. Featuring some killer line readings (Plemons' "How could that be profitable for Frito Lay," among them), this is a movie that steadily grows on you over time.

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21 | The Princess Bride (1987)

A grandfather (Peter Falk) tells a bedtime story to his grandson (Fred Savage), but it’s not your average fairytale. Sure, The Princess Bride is about a princess (Robin Wright) and the man (Cary Elwes) who wants to rescue her, but it’s got a lot of other stuff going on too. That’s thanks in part to characters like Vizzini (Wallace Shawn) and Inigo Montoya (Mandy Patinkin), who the heroes encounter in their travels.

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22 | Shaun of the Dead (2004)

This surprisingly moving zombie movie parody was the first feature to come from co-writers Edgar Wright and Simon Pegg. It involves a group of regular Londoners trying to survive a zombie apocalypse, led by a usually unmotivated salesman named Shaun (Pegg). Zombies aren’t normally played for laughs, but this cleverly plays up tropes from the genre and includes plenty of Easter eggs for B movie fans.

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23 | Singin’ in the Rain (1952)

Singin’ in the Rain is thought of more as a classic musical than a comedy, but it really is hilarious. There’s even physical comedy built into the dance numbers. Set during Hollywood's transition from silent films to talkies, the Stanley Donen/Gene Kelly-directed movie revolves around Kelly's character Don Lockwood attempting to prove himself capable of doing more than mugging onscreen. The only trouble is that he's saddled with his frequent co-star Lina Lamont (Jean Hagen), whose screechy voice may mean the end of both of their careers. A young Debbie Reynolds plays the chorus girl who's chosen to dub Lina, while Donald O'Connor as Don's best pal Cosmo brings down the house with his big number, "Make 'Em Laugh."

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24 | Some Like It Hot (1959)

Some Like It Hot stars Jack Lemmon and Tony Curtis as two men who disguise themselves as women to join a traveling female band and avoid a bunch of gangsters, plus Marilyn Monroe as one of the musicians. As you can imagine, there’s a lot at stake as far as the men being found out and a lot of jokes centered around just that, especially when Curtis’ character takes on a second disguise as an oil tycoon. Monroe in particular shines as Sugar Kane, a ukulele player with a “thing about sax players” who's looking for a new life.

Stream on The Roku Channel, Hoopla, Tubi, Kanopy, and Pluto TV; Rent/Buy on various services.

25 | Superbad (2007)

Written by Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg and loosely based on their own experiences, Superbad follows two high school seniors, Seth (Jonah Hill) and Evan (Michael Cera) as they attempt to have one last big night in their hometown and hook up with their respective crushes, Becca (Martha MacIsaac) and Jules (Emma Stone). Unfortunately, they run into a number of issues along the way, including being chased down by two overzealous cops (Rogen and Bill Hader).

Stream on HBO Max, DIRECTV, TNT, TBS, and TruTV; Rent/Buy on various services.

26 | Trainwreck (2015)

Written by and starring Amy Schumer, Trainwreck is about a journalist who parties all the time and doesn’t believe in monogamy—until she starts dating a strait-laced sports doctor (Bill Hader) after she’s assigned to write a story about him. Of course, the relationship has its ups and downs as these two very different people form a bond, but the laughs also come from some unexpectedly hilarious co-stars, including basketball players LeBron James and Amar'e Stoudemire, and from an enthusiastic dance routine from Schumer herself.

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27 | This Is Spinal Tap (1984)

The tiny Stonehenge replica. The amp that goes up to 11. “Sex Farm.” We have This Is Spinal Tap to thank for all of it. The mockumentary from Rob Reiner follows a rock band called Spinal Tap (Christopher Guest, Michael McKean, Harry Shearer) as they go on tour and face more than their fair share of complications along the way.

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28 | Wayne’s World (1992)

The tagline is “You’ll laugh. You’ll cry. You’ll hurl.” And, well, hopefully only that first one is true. Based on a popular Saturday Night Live sketch, Wayne’s World stars Mike Myers and Dana Carvey as two metal-loving guys who host a public access TV show. The film was such a huge hit that Queen’s “Bohemian Rhapsody,” which is featured in the film, went back up to No. 2 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart 17 years after its release. And it also led to the inferior but still funny sequel, Wayne's World 2.

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29 | When Harry Met Sally... (1989)

When Harry Met Sally... is one of the most classic—if not the the ultimate—rom-coms of all time. Written by Nora Ephron and directed by Rob Reiner, the film follows Harry (Billy Crystal) and Sally (Meg Ryan) as two people who can hardly even get along at first, but fall in love with each other over their 12 years of knowing one another. From the wagon wheel coffee table to the overly complicated lunch orders, When Harry Met Sally... is packed with memorable moments.

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30 | Young Frankenstein (1974)

Closing out the list with another horror parody, Mel Brooks’Young Frankenstein is about the grandson of the famous Dr. Victor Frankenstein and his own experiments reanimating a corpse. The incomparable Gene Wilder stars as Frederick Frankenstein, while Peter Boyle plays the surprisingly musical Monster. With equally hilarious performances by Cloris Leachman, Teri Garr, and Marty Feldman, this wacky black-and-white movie somehow only improves with age.

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