The 95 Best Comedy Movies Ever

How does one even approach making a list of the best comedies? Of all genres, this is the one that's the most difficult to pin down. First of all, comedy is entirely subjective — everyone's sense of humor is different. What works for one person will fall completely flat for another. Then, how do we account for comedy that has aged poorly, but has had a huge impact on the genre, influencing cinema for decades after its release?

Really, embarking on this whole undertaking is like opening up a can of worms. Nevertheless, we've resolved to give it a try. Consider this list a primer of the best comedies released over the course of cinematic history — with any luck, you'll find more than a few laughs in the films listed here!

One of the rare sequels that vastly surpasses the original, "Addams Family Values" is a delicious ode to the macabre. When a serial husband killer named Debbie (Joan Cusack) gets her hooks in the hapless Uncle Fester (Christopher Lloyd), the Addams children immediately see through her and are subjected to the worst possible torture as a result: summer camp. Wickedly funny throughout, "Addams Family Values" owes its classic status to Cusack's performance as the melodramatic, self-involved antagonist — her villain monologue, which comes complete with a slide show presentation, is one for the ages.

• Starring: Raul Julia, Anjelica Huston, Christopher Lloyd

• Director: Barry Sonnenfeld

• Year: 1993

• Runtime: 93 minutes

• Rating: PG-13

• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 77%

Back when the relationship between Will Ferrell and Adam McKay was firing on all cylinders, "Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy" gave birth to dozens of instantly quotable lines. Ron Burgundy (Ferrell) is the unquestioned king of 1970s San Diego news, but his supremacy is challenged when the network brings in a female co-anchor (Christina Applegate). Their rivalry leads to a hilarious fall from grace for Burgundy, as well as a wacky romance between the two leads. But Burgundy would be nothing without his news team, which is comprised of David Koechner, Paul Rudd, and Steve Carrell, all of whom make their mark on the film in endlessly entertaining ways.

• Starring: Will Ferrell, Christina Applegate, Paul Rudd

• Director: Adam McKay

• Year: 2004

• Runtime: 95 minutes

• Rating: PG-13

• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 66%

Although Cary Grant was primarily known for his romantic comedies throughout the '30s and '40s, romance takes a backseat in the pitch black "Arsenic and Old Lace." Just before he departs on his honeymoon, Mortimer Brewster (Grant) pays a visit to his kindly aunts, only to learn that they have been cheerfully murdering people and burying them under their floorboards. As a much-put-upon nephew whose aunts just don't seem to grasp the enormity of their actions, Grant plays one of the most legitimately hilarious straight men in comedy history.

• Starring: Cary Grant, Priscilla Lane, Peter Lorre

• Director: Frank Capra

• Year: 1944

• Runtime: 118 minutes

• Rating: NR

• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 83%

Released in the thick of the pandemic, "Barb and Star Go to Vista Del Mar" as a balm for the weary soul. Kristen Wiig and Annie Mumolo play a pair of Midwestern best friends who go on vacation to Florida, leaving their small hometown for the first time ever. Unfortunately, things don't go exactly as planned — as soon as they arrive at the Vista Del Mar resort, the two quickly become embroiled in a villainous plot to release a horde of lethal mosquitos. Aside from the two delightful lead performances, the film features a hilarious turn from Jamie Dornan, who is given a rare opportunity to display his surprising comedic prowess.

• Starring: Kristen Wiig, Annie Mumolo, Jamie Dornan

• Director: Josh Greenbaum

• Year: 2021

• Runtime: 106 minutes

• Rating: PG-13

• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 80%

A dynamite collaboration between director Hal Ashby and actor Peter Sellers, "Being There" satirizes both class and the world of politics. When a humble gardener (Sellers) is mistaken for an eccentric gentleman with courtly manners, he finds himself bemusedly hobnobbing with the country's elite. "Being There" would earn an Oscar nomination for Sellers, as well as a win for his costar Melvyn Douglas. Richard Combs of Sight & Sound referred to the film as "one of the boldest of commercial comedies, for the way it turns on passages of dead time, the dreadful pauses while other characters struggle to see the significance in each of Chance's cryptically meaningless remarks."

• Starring: Peter Sellers, Shirley MacLaine, Melvyn Douglas

• Director: Hal Ashby

• Year: 1979

• Runtime: 130 minutes

• Rating: PG

• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 95%

John Cusack was one of the go-to teen stars of the 1980s, but while many of his films were light-hearted romantic comedies, "Better Off Dead" taps into something much darker and more wickedly funny. Cusack stars as Lane Meyer, a high school student in a major depressive funk after his girlfriend dumps him for the captain of the ski team. As he copes, he befriends a French foreign exchange student who lives with his bizarre neighbors, drag races Korean immigrants who learned to speak English from watching Howard Cosell, and is chased by a very determined newspaper delivery boy. Filled with quirky, subversive humor, "Better Off Dead" has become a cult classic.

• Starring: John Cusack, Diane Franklin, Curtis Armstrong

• Director: Savage Steve Holland

• Year: 1985

• Runtime: 98 minutes

• Rating: PG

• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 77%

There's really no such thing as a bad Mel Brooks movie, but "Blazing Saddles" stands among his very best. Starring Cleavon Little as Bart, the first Black sheriff in the dusty western town of Rock Ridge, the parody skewers the Western genre and its inherent racism as Bart and his cowboy friend (Gene Wilder) team up to protect the town from local criminals. Roger Ebert called the film a "crazed grabbag of a movie that does everything to keep us laughing except hit us over the head with a rubber chicken."

• Starring: Gene Wilder, Madeline Kahn, Cleavon Little

• Director: Mel Brooks

• Year: 1974

• Runtime: 93 minutes

• Rating: R

• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 89%

When it comes to cinematic comedy duos, few have as much chemistry as former "Saturday Night Live" co-stars Kristin Wiig and Maya Rudolph. In "Bridesmaids," Wiig stars as Annie, a woman who feels threatened by the idea that her best friend Lillian is pulling away from her, especially as Lillian embraces a more grown-up life and prepares for her wedding. Believing that the seemingly perfect Helen (Rose Byrne) is taking her place, Annie acts out in ways that have wildly hilarious consequences. 

In addition to the charming lead performances, "Bridesmaids" proved that a comedy film starring an ensemble of women could not only be genuinely funny, but successful at the box office. It even garnered two Oscar nominations, including one for supporting actress for Melissa McCarthy.

• Starring: Kristin Wiig, Maya Rudolph, Rose Byrne

• Director: Paul Feig

• Year: 2011

• Runtime: 125 minutes

• Rating: R

• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 90%

With some of the biggest comedy stars of the late 1970s signing on for "Caddyshack," it was pretty much guaranteed to become a classic. The film follows the goings-on at a local country club, where teens and college students work as caddies for entitled golfers. "Caddyshack" lives and dies on the performances of its stars, especially Bill Murray as a groundskeeper locked in a battle with a rogue gopher and Rodney Dangerfield as a gregarious, loud-mouthed golfer. In the years since its release, it has become a comedy staple, and remains one of the most quotable films to come out of the 1980s.

• Starring: Chevy Chase, Bill Murray, Rodney Dangerfield

• Director: Harold Ramis

• Year: 1980

• Runtime: 98 minutes

• Rating: R

Rotten Tomatoes Score: 73%

A pitch-black satire based on the classic novel by Joseph Heller, "Catch-22" exemplifies the inherent absurdities of warfare. It stars Alan Arkin as a World War II pilot whose efforts to get sent home are stymied by the titular catch-22: a discharge order would require evidence of mental instability, but the mere act of requesting a transfer away from death and constant warfare is, if anything, proof of sanity. Of Mike Nichol's directorial efforts, Time said, "It is the book's cold rage that he has nurtured. In the jokes that matter, the film is as hard as a diamond, cold to the touch and brilliant to the eye. To Nichols, "Catch-22" is 'about dying'; to Arkin, it is 'about selfishness'; to audiences, it will be a memorable horror comedy of war, with the accent on horror."

• Starring: Alan Arkin, Martin Balsam, Bob Newhart

• Director: Mike Nichols

• Year: 1970

• Runtime: 121 minutes

• Rating: R

• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 80%

An ultra-low budget independent film reportedly made for under $30,000, "Clerks" single-handedly put director Kevin Smith on the map. Its premise is simple: The film revolves around two underachieving store clerks, Dante and Randal, and the long conversations they have at work to avoid dealing with the customers that plague their days. A major box office success, "Clerks" launched the View Askewniverse (the name given to Smith's films that take place in the same narrative universe) and introduced the now-famous characters of Jay and Silent Bob.

• Starring: Brian O'Halloran, Jeff Anderson, Jason Mewes

• Director: Kevin Smith

• Year: 1994

• Runtime: 91 minutes

• Rating: R

• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 90%

A modern take on Jane Austen's "Emma," "Clueless" stars Alicia Silverstone as Cher Horowitz, an entitled Beverly Hills teen determined to play matchmaker for the people in her life, even though her schemes often get her into trouble. Cher's most recent project is Tai (Brittany Murphy), a transfer student who she deems badly in need of a makeover. An icon of mid-1990s cinema, "Clueless" not only reflects the teen culture of the time, but successfully influenced it, with Cher's very specific speech patterns and slang effortlessly becoming part of the zeitgeist.

• Starring: Alicia Silverstone, Paul Rudd, Brittany Murphy

• Director: Amy Heckerling

• Year: 1995

• Runtime: 97 minutes

• Rating: PG-13

• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 81%

"Cooley High" is a coming-of-age story that serves as a counterpart to the more suburban nostalgia of George Lucas' "American Graffiti." It's Chicago in the 1960s, and two best friends are attempting to navigate their senior year, with frequently humorous but sometimes tragic consequences. When it was released in 1975, "Cooley High" stood in sharp contrast to the blaxploitation films that were popular at the time, and it has long been considered hugely influential on directors such as Spike Lee and John Singleton.

• Starring: Glynn Turman, Lawrence-Hilton Jacobs, Garrett Morris

• Director: Michael Schultz

• Year: 1975

• Runtime: 107 minutes

• Rating: PG

• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 85%

Perhaps one of the more divisive films on this list, "The Dead Don't Die" is nonetheless a genuinely hilarious zombie comedy. It tackles all of the genre's expected tropes, while also gleefully barreling into increasingly surreal territory as it entirely demolishes the fourth wall. 

In the film, a trio of small-town cops are caught unaware when zombies begin to attack, but things only get more dangerous and bizarre as the outbreak continues. With anarchic plot twists and disarmingly deadpan performances, "The Dead Don't Die" isn't quite like any other zombie comedy — whether that's a good thing or a bad thing is open to interpretation.

• Starring: Bill Murray, Tilda Swinton, Adam Driver

• Director: Jim Jarmusch

• Year: 2019

• Runtime: 103 minutes

• Rating: R

• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 54%

When Stalin dies in his sleep, his inner circle is less grief-stricken and more flummoxed. What are a group of yes men supposed to do when their leader isn't around anymore, forcing them to grapple with one another for scraps of influence in the midst of a major power vacuum? 

With the television shows "Veep" and "The Thick of It" under his belt, director Armando Iannucci built his career around political satire, and "The Death of Stalin" should feel familiar to fans of his unique brand of comedy. With a strong ensemble of supporting actors who are each (unlike their characters) willing to share the spotlight, "The Death of Stalin" is side-splittingly hilarious.

• Starring: Steve Buscemi, Jason Isaacs, Simon Russell Beale

• Director: Armando Iannucci

• Year: 2018

• Runtime: 107 minutes

• Rating: R

• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 95%

The Wayans brothers have a long history with parody, beginning with "I'm Gonna Git You Sucka," a 1988 film riffing on the blaxploitation genre. In "Don't Be a Menace to South Central While Drinking Your Juice in the Hood," they turn their comedic gaze to the Black coming-of-age films that came out in the early 1990s, including "Boyz N the Hood" and "Do the Right Thing." When Ashtray (Shawn Wayans) moves in with his father, he learns all about life in the hood — in the funniest way possible. Although it was not particularly well-received by critics at the time, it has since become a cult classic.

• Starring: Shawn Wayans, Marlon Wayans, Tracey Cherelle Jones

• Director: Paris Barclay

• Year: 1996

• Runtime: 88 minutes

• Rating: R

• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 30%

With "The Edge of Seventeen," director Kelly Fremon Craig ushers in a new era of high school comedies in which teenage girls are allowed to be as weird and horny as their male counterparts. Hailee Steinfeld stars as an awkward student whose world is rocked when she learns that her best (and only) friend has been secretly dating her brother. To make matters worse, she accidentally sends her crush a graphic message on social media about all the raunchy things she'd like to do to him in the backroom of the pet store where he works. A perfect mix of the funny and the heartfelt, "The Edge of Seventeen" is one of the best teen comedies in years.

• Starring: Hailee Steinfeld, Haley Lu Richardson, Woody Harrelson

• Director: Kelly Fremon Craig

• Year: 2016

• Runtime: 105 minutes

• Rating: R

• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 94%

Among the big three silent comedians (Charlie Chaplin, Buster Keaton, and Harold Lloyd), Lloyd was the most charming in a romantic comedy context. In "The Freshman," he tackles the 1920s trend of college-themed movies, playing an awkward first-year student who resolves to join the football team in a bid to win his crush's affections. All of Lloyd's performances are intensely physical, but "The Freshman" is particularly punishing, as he puts his body on the line to achieve a variety of pratfalls on the football field that holds up to this day.

• Starring: Harold Lloyd, Jobyna Ralston, James Anderson

• Director: Sam Taylor, Fred Newmeyer

• Year: 1925

• Runtime: 70 minutes

• Rating: NR

• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 94%

A note-perfect sendup of "Star Trek" (and more importantly, "Star Trek" fandom), "Galaxy Quest" stars Tim Allen as a washed-up '70s TV star who milks science fiction conventions for all their worth. The rest of the cast from his popular TV show can barely hide how much they loathe him as they're forced to rehash old grievances at every public appearance. Still, they have to work together when they're recruited to mediate between two alien races who have received old transmissions of their show and believe them to be real historical records. Funny, heartfelt, and exciting, "Galaxy Quest" is nearly perfect.

• Starring: Tim Allen, Sigourney Weaver, Alan Rickman

• Director: Dean Parisot

• Year: 1999

• Runtime: 104 minutes

• Rating: PG

• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 90%

In "Gentlemen Prefer Blondes," Marilyn Monroe and Jane Russell play two showgirls and best friends on a cruise. Lorelei (Monroe) is bubbly, obsessed with diamonds, and way smarter than she looks. Dorothy (Russell) would take a bullet for her friend, even when her social-climbing hijinks get in the way of her opportunity to ogle the entire U.S. men's Olympic team (in a musical number that is probably one of the most hilariously horny ever committed to celluloid). "Gentlemen" may be in the title, but the biggest joke of the film is that at no point does it seem that Lorelei or Dorothy particularly care what they prefer.

• Starring: Marilyn Monroe, Jane Russell, Charles Coburn

• Director: Howard Hawks

• Year: 1953

• Runtime: 91 minutes

• Rating: NR

• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 98%

When four friends decide to embark on an epic road trip to reconnect in "Girls Trip," things don't go exactly as planned. Their various misadventures see them get in scrapes with one another and accidentally hallucinate while drinking absinthe, but their wildly comedic journey only serves to bring them closer together. When speaking with the Hollywood Reporter, writer Tracy Oliver said that she wanted to show "Black women being carefree and having fun just like everybody else," adding, "I think we need to show all aspects of black lives. I love 'Moonlight,' I love 'Hidden Figures,' but I also want to see some people who are having fun and just showing female friends hanging out."

• Starring: Regina Hall, Queen Latifah, Jada Pinkett Smith

• Director: Malcolm D. Lee

• Year: 2017

• Runtime: 122 minutes

• Rating: R

• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 92%

"Groundhog Day" is proof that the wish of having all the time in the world is not all it's cracked up to be. When a grumpy weatherman (played by Bill Murray, of course) is sent to cover a fluff piece about Groundhog Day, he isn't exactly thrilled about the assignment. But things get considerably worse when he is forced to relive this single day thousands of times — to the point where he has memorized the actions of every single person in town and learned a host of new skills to pass the time. We've seen plenty of time loop movies since, but they all owe a debt of gratitude to the one that started them all.

• Starring: Bill Murray, Andie McDowell, Chris Elliot

• Director: Harold Ramis

• Year: 1993

• Runtime: 96 minutes

• Rating: PG

• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 97%

A withering anti-social response to John Hughes' view of teen life in America, "Heathers" stars Winona Ryder as Veronica, a girl who finds herself part of a vacuous clique that she quietly loathes but can't seem to extricate herself from. That is until J.D. (Christian Slayer) moves to town. His counterculture vibes are a breath of fresh air in monotonous suburbia. However, his rebellion quickly takes on a homicidal edge, and Veronica unwittingly becomes entangled in an accidental murder spree. With its pitch-black, subversive humor, "Heathers" is an open rejection of Ronald Reagan's 1980s Americana.

• Starring: Winona Ryder, Christian Slater, Shannen Doherty

• Director: Michael Lehmann

• Year: 1989

• Runtime: 102 minutes

• Rating: R

• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 93%

If there's a dearth of film roles available to Black men right now that don't fall into racial stereotypes, it was significantly worse in the 1980s. "Hollywood Shuffle" was written in response. Robert Townsend stars as Bobby Taylor, a young man who dreams of becoming an actor. His efforts to find success in Hollywood lead him to grapple with his conscience as he considers taking on poorly-written, racially insensitive roles. Taylor's concerns are presented as daydreams in which offensive Hollywood demands are exaggerated for comedic effect. One sequence depicts a school that teaches Black actors how to act "more Black" to meet the needs of a white production team. Bitingly witty and still relevant, "Hollywood Shuffle" is one of the best satires of the 1980s.

• Starring: Robert Townsend, Anne-Marie Johnson, Starletta DuPois

• Director: Robert Townsend

• Year: 1987

• Runtime: 80 minutes

• Rating: R

• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 85%

A frenetic adventure, "It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World" features a cadre of Hollywood stars in a race to lay claim to a hidden fortune. When a dying man reveals the location of a $350,000 stash, the unlikely witnesses to his deathbed confession are left to fight it out. It's at times an unwieldy comedy, clocking in at nearly three hours (something practically unheard of for the genre), but it hits far more often than it misses. Bosley Crowther of the New York Times described it simply, saying that "So many excellent actors and stunt men do so much in this film that it is beyond my space allowance to begin to credit them."

• Starring: Spencer Tracy, Edie Adams, Milton Berle

• Director: Stanley Kramer

• Year: 1963

• Runtime: 175 minutes

• Rating: G

• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 70%

Set during the Korean War (although providing obvious political commentary on the then-ongoing Vietnam War), "MASH" revolves around the doctors and nurses who serve on the front lines at a military hospital. Despite its serious subject matter, Robert Altman's unique directorial style helps it to succeed as an irreverent comedy. The film proved so popular that it was quickly spun off into a television series. The version of "MASH" that starred Alan Alda and ran for 11 seasons on CBS is perhaps the more famous of the two iterations, but the film stands on its own as a subversive black comedy.

• Starring: Donald Sutherland, Elliott Gould, Sally Kellerman

• Director: Robert Altman

• Year: 1970

• Runtime: 116 minutes

• Rating: R

• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 84%

Thanks to films like "Meet the Fockers," we're all familiar with Robert De Niro's comedic side, but when "Midnight Run" was released in 1988, he was primarily known as a serious film actor. His biggest hits up to that point had been "The Godfather Part II," "Taxi Driver," and "Raging Bull" — not exactly laugh riots. "Midnight Run" shows us a different side of the actor, allowing him to flip the script on his traditional tough-guy persona (here he plays a bounty hunter tasked with bringing in a mob accountant) and introduce a little levity to the proceedings. The result is overwhelmingly positive — Vincent Canby of the New York Times referred to De Niro and his costar Charles Grodin as "lunatic delights."

• Starring: Robert De Niro, Charles Grodin, Yaphet Kotto

• Director: Martin Brest

• Year: 1988

• Runtime: 122 minutes

• Rating: R

• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 94%

Cher and Nicolas Cage might not be an obvious on-screen duo, but as we see in "Moonstruck," they just sort of make sense together. They both have the same frenetic energy that makes them constantly engaging, even when they're wildly dysfunctional. In "Moonstruck," Loretta (Cher) is engaged to marry Johnny (Danny Aiello). When she accidentally falls in love with his hot-headed younger brother Donny (Cage), a baker with one hand and a propensity to fly off the handle, chaos ensues. "Moonstruck" is frequently loud, often aggressive, but always charming.

• Starring: Cher, Nicolas Cage, Danny Aiello

• Director: Norman Jewison

• Year: 1987

• Runtime: 101 minutes

• Rating: PG

• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 94%

Let's all take a moment to stand in awe of Joe Pesci's crowning achievement, "My Cousin Vinny." He has no business being so funny as Vinny, a New York lawyer who is way out of his depth when he travels to the deep South to defend a young relative (Ralph Macchio) who has been charged with murder. There's absolutely no reason why he should have such electric chemistry with Marisa Tomei (who won an Oscar for her performance), who plays his endlessly clever girlfriend, Mona Lisa. Somehow, he just does, and it all works. There's not a single line or gesture that isn't executed for maximum comedic effect in "My Cousin Vinny."

• Starring: Joe Pesci, Marisa Tomei, Ralph Macchio

• Director: Jonathan Lynn

• Year: 1992

• Runtime: 119 minutes

• Rating: R

• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 86%

A play on the classic "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde" story, Jerry Lewis reaches new comedic heights with "The Nutty Professor," a film he both directed and starred in. He plays a shy, submissive chemistry professor who can't even prevent his students from pushing him around. That all changes when he invents a serum that instantly transforms him into the ultra-suave (and kind of mean and misogynistic) Buddy Love. 

His alter ego is irresistibly charming and often speculated to be a ruthless parody of Lewis' frequent on-screen partner, Dean Martin. However, Lewis denied this. He claimed that Buddy Love was "actually a conglomeration of every unkind, nasty son of a b*tch I had seen all of my life. The man who says, 'Waitress, where the hell is my coffee?' ... the man who takes the cab in the rain from the lady who had her hand on the [door] handle."

• Starring: Jerry Lewis, Stella Stevens, Del Moore

• Director: Jerry Lewis

• Year: 1963

• Runtime: 107 minutes

• Rating: NR

• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 81%

An ode to the sheer pointlessness of office culture, "Office Space" speaks to everyone who has ever fantasized about quitting their day job. Ron Livingston stars as Peter, an office drone who quietly hates his life until his girlfriend convinces him to attend a hypnosis session. When the hypnotist suffers a fatal heart attack before waking him from his trance, Peter is stuck with a relaxed, devil-may-care attitude towards his job. Surprisingly, this makes his bosses respect him even more, perceiving him as a straight shooter. Full of great comedic moments (including the gangster-style execution of a perpetually malfunctioning printer), "Office Space" has grown in relevance since its release.

• Starring: Ron Livingston, Jennifer Aniston, David Herman

• Director: Mike Judge

• Year: 1999

• Runtime: 89 minutes

• Rating: R

• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 80%

In 1987 you could simply put Steve Martin and John Candy on-screen together, and it would be funny. The two play an unlikely duo in "Planes, Trains and Automobiles," the classic story of two very different men desperately trying to get home for the holidays. Straight-laced Neal Page (Martin) has had his flight rerouted at the last minute, putting his Thanksgiving plans with his wife and children in jeopardy. The last thing in the world he needs is to end up with the good-hearted but obnoxious Del Griffith (Candy) — but that's what happens. Despite their differences, they have to work together to make it back home for the holiday.

• Starring: Steve Martin, John Candy, Laila Robins

• Director: John Hughes

• Year: 1987

• Runtime: 92 minutes

• Rating: R

• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 92%

When Judy Benjamin's (Goldie Hawn) new husband dies suddenly while in the middle of sex, she decides to take her life in a different direction. Thanks to a fortuitous conversation with a military recruiter, the pampered, indoorsy woman joins the Army. That's the basic plot of "Private Benjamin." Judy is a fish out of water as she tries to make her way through boot camp. While "Private Benjamin" laughs with Judy, it restrains itself from laughing at her. Hawn is too unrelentingly charming to be the subject of mockery for long, and her journey ultimately leads her to self-discovery.

• Starring: Goldie Hawn, Eileen Brennan, Armand Assante

• Director: Howard Zieff

• Year: 1980

• Runtime: 109 minutes

• Rating: R

• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 82%

Whenever the Coen brothers are involved, you know two things for certain: There's going to be crime, and it's probably going to be hilarious. That's what we get in "Raising Arizona," an off-kilter romantic comedy that showcases Nicolas Cage and Holly Hunter at their absolute best. Cage is a petty criminal who can't stop getting arrested. Hunter is a police officer who falls in love with him in spite of herself. They marry, but when they are unable to conceive, they land upon a perfect solution: They'll kidnap one of the quintuplets that have been in the news recently. After all, with five babies, what are the odds that someone would notice one missing? This plan goes as poorly as you might expect, but it's a perfect disaster that makes an entertaining movie.

• Starring: Nicolas Cage, Holly Hunter, John Goodman

• Director: Joel Coen

• Year: 1987

• Runtime: 93 minutes

• Rating: PG-13

• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 92%

When deadbeat rocker Dewey (Jack Black) takes on a substitute teaching job in a desperate bid to earn enough money to keep his roommate off his back, he discovers a classroom full of elementary school students waiting to be transformed into a pint-sized rock band. Thus, the "School of Rock" is born. Jack Black was born for the role of a deeply dysfunctional mentor who offers a sense of chaos mixed with his genuine support for his students. "School of Rock" wouldn't be the outright classic that it is without its deep bench of young actors, all of whom are strong performers and preternaturally talented musicians.

• Starring: Jack Black, Joan Cusack, Mike White

• Director: Richard Linklater

• Year: 2003

• Runtime: 108 minutes

• Rating: PG-13

• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 92%

In this classic Buster Keaton silent film, the stone-faced comedian stars as a young projectionist who daydreams constantly about being a famous detective and wooing the woman of his dreams. "Sherlock Jr" features plenty of Keaton's trademark stunts and practical effects, including a notable fantasy sequence in which he is transported into the world of the film. The scenes keep changing around him so that one minute he's standing in a peaceful garden, the next in front of a speeding train. 

• Starring: Buster Keaton, Kathryn McGuire, Ward Crane

• Director: Buster Keaton

• Year: 1924

• Runtime: 48 minutes

• Rating: NR

• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 92%

You would be forgiven for considering "Singin' in the Rain" just a musical. After all, it is one of the very best of that genre. But as a parody of old Hollywood, especially in its depiction of silent film diva, Lina Lamont (Jean Hagen), it packs more humor into its runtime than many movies that are promoted as straight comedies. Lina, with her boorish behavior and comically screechy voice ill-suited for the transition to talkies, and perpetually quipping sidekick, Cosmo Brown (Donald O'Connor), provide plenty to laugh at in between musical numbers.

• Starring: Gene Kelly, Donald O'Connor, Debbie Reynolds

• Director: Stanley Donen, Gene Kelly

• Year: 1952

• Runtime: 102 minutes

• Rating: G

• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 100%

The third collaboration between director George Roy Hill and actor Paul Newman, "Slap Shot" is a quintessential sports comedy. Set in a Rust Belt factory town whose best days are far behind it, the film follows the exploits of a local hockey team that is willing to resort to desperate (and violent) measures to win. Newman stars as the team's goalie and coach, who encourages his team to play as dirty as they can — even by the standards of hockey, a sport that can be notoriously brutal. Although it received mixed reviews when it was first released, it has since grown to become a cult classic. Dan Epstein of Rolling Stone called it "the greatest sports flick of the 1970s."

• Starring: Paul Newman, Michael Ontkean, Lindsay Crouse

• Director: George Roy Hill

• Year: 1977

• Runtime: 123 minutes

• Rating: R

• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 83%

Change is never easy, especially if you're two emotionally-stunted men in your 40s who find yourselves sharing a room with your new stepbrother. In "Step Brothers," Will Ferrell and John C. Reilly play a hilariously hostile duo, wildly resentful of each other and the fact that their retiree parents have suddenly gotten married and changed the dynamics of their home lives. Packed full of brilliant one-liners and a surprising amount of heart, "Step Brothers" is a delightfully raucous comedy that allows both actors to truly let loose.

• Starring: Will Ferrell, John C. Reilly, Mary Steenburgen

• Director: Adam McKay

• Year: 2008

• Runtime: 95 minutes

• Rating: R

• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 55%

In Depression-era Los Angeles, John L. Sullivan (Joel McCrea) is a famous movie director who suddenly realizes how out of touch he is with the common man. On a whim, he decides to ride the rails as a transient. To his surprise, he finds himself ill-equipped to cope with the realities of life outside the bubble of glamorous Hollywood. The situation is made all the more difficult when he is knocked unconscious, loses his memory, and ends up working on a chain gang. "Sullivan's Travels" is packed full of wry humor and insightful social commentary.

• Starring: Joel McCrea, Veronica Lake, Robert Warwick

• Director: Preston Sturges

• Year: 1941

• Runtime: 91 minutes

• Rating: NR

• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 100%

It's a mark of a truly great comedy when some of its bits become engrained in popular culture. "This Is Spinal Tap" doesn't just have one or two truly great, endlessly quotable moments — it's filled with them. Of course, you have the amps that go up to 11 in case you need the music to be loud. You've got the iconic image of a comically small Stonehenge monument being lowered onto the stage with great ceremony. And there is the endless procession of drummers meeting untimely deaths. But "This Is Spinal Tap" is also peppered with delightful one-liners that you only catch on your third or even 10th viewing.

• Starring: Michael McKean, Christopher Guest, Harry Shearer

• Director: Rob Reiner

• Year: 1984

• Runtime: 82 minutes

• Rating: R

• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 95%

It's not the easiest thing in the world to make a comedy about Nazis, especially while World War II was still raging. However, famed director Ernst Lubitsch works his magic with "To Be or Not to Be" and somehow pulls it off. The film stars Carole Lombard and Jack Benny as the two leads in a Polish theatre troupe who get mixed up in a resistance plot and have to use all their acting skills to pull one over on the inept Nazis who have just invaded. The genius of "To Be or Not to Be" is in taking terror away from the Nazis and turning the ominous stormtroopers into incompetent bureaucrats who are too intimidated by their superiors to avoid being outwitted by the resourceful actors.

• Starring: Carole Lombard, Jack Benny, Robert Stack

• Director: Ernst Lubitsch

• Year: 1942

• Runtime: 109 minutes

• Rating: NR

• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 96%

What happens when two conniving old billionaires (Ralph Bellamy and Don Ameche) decide to perform their own private social experiments? "Trading Places" happens. To determine whether morality is born into a person through good breeding, or if education and socioeconomic advantages teach someone how to be decent, they use two very different men as guinea pigs. They take the wealthy Louis (Dan Aykroyd) and essentially drop him into the gutter, and they invite small-time grifter Billy Ray (Eddie Murphy) to join their stockbroking firm. And just like that, comedy ensues, as the pair eventually discover the source of the scheme and seek their revenge.

• Starring: Dan Aykroyd, Eddie Murphy, Jamie Lee Curtis

• Director: John Landis

• Year: 1983

• Runtime: 116 minutes

• Rating: R

• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 88%

Based on a recurring "Saturday Night Live" sketch featuring Mike Myers and Dana Carvey as the hosts of a public access television show, "Wayne's World" quickly took on a life of its own. Wayne (Myers) and Garth (Carvey) are rock enthusiasts who are perfectly content just sharing their love of music on their show and partying their nights away. One day, studio executive Benjamin Kane (Rob Lowe) shows up and tries to turn their beloved "Wayne's World" program into something it isn't. Together, they fight to save their show, famously headbanging to Queen's "Bohemian Rhapsody" along the way.

• Starring: Mike Myers, Dana Carvey, Tia Carrere

• Director: Penelope Spheeris

• Year: 1992

• Runtime: 95 minutes

• Rating: PG-13

• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 78%

Drawing heavily on screwball comedies from the 1930s and 1940s, "What's Up, Doc?" stars Ryan O'Neal as a musicologist who is unhappily married to his neurotic wife (played by the incomparable Madeline Kahn). While on a work trip to San Francisco, he meets the charming but unpredictable Judy (Barbra Streisand). Chaos ensues when they and two other guests at their hotel have the same luggage and find themselves accidentally absconding with one another's suitcases, leading to each desperately trying to track down their missing possessions. James Berardinelli of ReelViews gave special praise to director Peter Bogdonavich's contributions to the film, saying, "Only a director in complete control can fashion something so effortlessly chaotic."

• Starring: Barbra Streisand, Ryan O'Neal, Madeline Kahn

• Director: Peter Bogdonavich

• Year: 1972

• Runtime: 94 minutes

• Rating: G

• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 89%

Starring Richard. E Grant and Paul McCann as two struggling young actors, "Withnail and I" is a window into life in Britain in the early 1980s. With their flat in complete ruin and their careers more or less permanently stalled, they take a trip to the country that is not without its own problems. The film succeeds on the strength of the two lead performances (it's especially remarkable that this is Grant's feature film debut) and the intensely quotable dialogue that brings these two misfits to life.

• Starring: Richard E. Grant, Paul McGann, Richard Griffiths

• Director: Bruce Robinson

• Year: 1987

• Runtime: 102 minutes

• Rating: R

• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 94%

You know you've made it into the realm of literary classics when you get a bona fide movie parody of your seminal work — directed by Mel Brooks, no less. "Young Frankenstein" stars Gene Wilder as a descendant of the infamous Victor Frankenstein who is convinced he's just a normal, ordinary doctor, and has answered quite enough questions about his kooky, grave-robbing ancestor, thank you very much. While on a trip to the family castle, he becomes obsessed with reanimating a corpse — an accomplishment he achieves with hilariously mixed results, aided by a note-perfect Marty Feldman as the notorious lab assistant Igor.

• Starring: Gene Wilder, Marty Feldman, Peter Boyle

• Director: Mel Brooks

• Year: 1974

• Runtime: 105 minutes

• Rating: PG

• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 94%