The Funniest Movies of All Time: Top 20 Gut Busters
The epitomal slapstick comedy, Airplane! took shots at everything from race relations(remember Barbara Billingsley as the jive-talkin’ grandmother?) to Hare Krishna fight scenes in the airport terminal. A long, lost reminder of a time when cheap laughs were actually worth something.
Famous Quote: Joey, do you like movies about gladiators?
2. Spaceballs 1987
Mel Brooks’ Star Wars spoof remains one of the all-time classic comedies. With characters’ names like Princess Vespa, Barf, Dark Helmet and the wise, old Yogurt, Spaceballs is funny in its own outerworld existence, regardless of the Lucas trilogy it flames.
Famous Quote: I see your schwartz is as big as mine!
3. I’m Gonna Git You, Sucka! 1988
Before In Living Color, Everybody Hates Chris, and The Wayans Brothers, there was I’m Gonna Git You, Sucka!, a gut-busting mockery of the blaxploitation films of the seventies. A young Chris Rock, Damon Wayans, and Keenan Ivory Wayans leads a cast of who’s who of black Hollywood in this classic, cult comedy.
Famous Quote: Yes, we marched on the Federal building that day. Five hundred of us young brothers, full of outrage. They were hiring that day. The brothers came with outrage, they left with jobs. Oh yes, whitey is very tricky.
4. National Lampoon’s Animal House 1978
Never was failure so celebrated as in John Landis’ iconoclastic college comedy Animal House, launching the careers of John Belushi, Karen Black and Tim Matheson. Bonding through failure, a fraternity of social misfits wreck havoc on the institution of college after being dismantled by the evil Dean Wormer. Dead horses, drunken toga parties, and a performance by The O’Jays made Animal House a course study in funny.
Famous Quote: Over? Did you say “over”? Nothing is over until we decide it is! Was it over when the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor?
5. Young Frankenstein 1974
Dubbed “the scariest comedy of all time,” Mel Brooks’ version of the classic Mary Shelley tale takes liberties… to say the least. Upon inheriting his famous, late grandfather’s castle, a brilliant young neurosurgeon discovers a book containing information about a “reanimation experiment,” as well as some freakishly funny characters living within the castle grounds.
Famous Quote: You know, I’m a rather brilliant surgeon, perhaps I can help you with that hump.
6. The Naked Gun: From the Files of Police Squad! 1988
There was no better cop than Frank Drebin – if by “better” you mean relentlessly bumbling and funny. Leslie Nielson’s straight-faced portrayal of the outrageously outrageous police detective spawned two sequels and an indelible mark on the slapstick comedy genre. Honorable mentions go to great supporting comedic performances by Priscilla Presley, George Kennedy, O.J. Simpson, and… Robert Goulet?
Famous Quote: It’s the same old story. Boy finds girl, boy loses girl, girl finds boy, boy forgets girl, boy remembers girl, girls dies in a tragic blimp accident over the Orange Bowl on New Year’s Day.
7. Fast Times At Ridgemont High 1982
The epitomal teen comedy of all time, Fast Times at Ridgemont High not only helped launch the careers of Sean Penn, Phoebe Cates, Jennifer Jason Leigh, and Judge Reinhold, it did it while nearly breaking every rule and standard of mainstream comedy. Tackling sex, school, and drugs with unrelenting honesty, Cameron Crowe’s screenplay(along with Amy Heckerling’s direction) showed audiences that teenage comedy can be equally as appealing to adults.
Famous Quote: All I need are some tasty waves, a cool buzz, and I’m fine.
8. There’s Something About Mary 1998
The Farrelly Brothers hit another home run four years after hitting their first(see number 9) with There’s Something About Mary, a brilliantly-structured movie about a girl named Mary and the men who love her: a lonely shy-guy named Ted, a crooked private investigator feigning a heart-of-gold, Ted’s best friend, and… Brett Favre?
Famous Quote: Franks and beans! Franks and beans!
9. Dumb and Dumber1994
When Harry and Lloyd lose everything, they embark on a journey to find Lloyd’s love at first sight and make audiences laugh hysterically. Without question, the funniest in-search-of-lost-love-road-trip movie ever made, Dumb and Dumber introduced to the world a comedic actor named Jim Carrey and gave us the first glimpse at the wit and timing of the man who would be comedy’s king.
Famous Quote: Wanna hear the most annoying sound in the world?
10. Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb 1964
As hilarious as it is prophetic, Stanley Kubrick’s Strangelove delves into the madness of war, politics, paranoia, and nuclear armament, when a group of American government officials are led by an insane General into a paranoid nuclear attack. The madness, outrageousness, and impending doom are only heightened and hilarified by the uncommon reasoning of power-hungry authority figures who fail to see or reach the simple decisions to call off the attack.
Famous Quote: Gentlemen! You can’t fight in here, this is a War Room!
11. Blazing Saddles 1974
Gene Wilder’s version of the wild, wild west is wilder and funnier than anything the Duke could’ve ever imagined. When a black sheriff is sent in to clean up a corrupted town, he crosses paths with a myriad of outrageous characters, situations, and even a horse who needs some tough love. Infamous for its outrageous “campfire dinner” scene, Blazing Saddles also blazed the first trail for an openly satiric western-comedy.
Famous Quote: Badges? We don’t need no stinkin’ badges!
12. Ace Ventura: Pet Detective 1994
Ace Ventura is a one-man wrecking crew for pets, and in it, Jim Carrey is a one-man wrecking crew for laughs. Carrey’s Ventura became so popular after its release, it quickly spawned a sequel that – at the very least, deserves an honorable mention.
Famous Quote: I’m looking for Ray Finkle …and a clean pair of shorts.
13. Coming to America 1988
The chemistry between Eddie Murphy’s “Prince Akeem” and Arsenio Hall’s “Semmi” is only one part of the hilarious formula that made Coming to America laugh-out-loud funny. Murphy playing multiple parts, James Earl Jones as Akeem’s royal father, the brutal, bluntness of Akeem’s Brooklyn neighbors, and the comic relief of recurring, peripheral characters are other ingredients that helped make Coming to America one of the funniest movies of all time.
Famous Quote: Look, me and the McDonald’s people got this little misunderstanding. See, they’re McDonald’s. I’m McDowell’s. They got the Golden Arches, mine is the Golden Arcs. They got the Big Mac, I got the Big Mick. We both got two all-beef patties, special sauce, lettuce, cheese, pickles and onions, but their buns have sesame seeds. My buns have no seeds.
14. The Pink Panther 1963
Peter Sellers stars as the original, bumbling Inspector Clouseau, who’s comic ineptitude leads him on an all-out investigation to track down a jewel-thief who’s actually right under his nose. Throw in a kung-fu fighting assistant assigned to attack his employer and tons of dry wit and The Pink Panther became an instant comedy classic inspiring a sequel and a re-make.
Famous Quote: Any more behavior like this and I’ll have your stripes!
15. A Fish Called Wanda 1988
Kevin Kline won an Oscar for his portrayal of Otto, Wanda’s psychologically disturbed brother and one-fourth of the London crew out to commit armed robbery. But once the loot is in captivity, that’s when the real fun begins as each member turns and manipulates another in an attempt to double and triplecross each other for its sole possession.
Famous Quote: Don’t call me stupid!
16. Swingers 1996
Jon Favreau’s sometimes-poignant, sometimes-offensive, but-always-funny story of a group of L.A. wannabe’s helping one of their own overcome heartbreak became the standard for indie films making it big within the last decade. Shot on-location at many of their favorite locations, Swingers is a movie about locals, in their local scene, but with a universal message.
Famous Quote: You’re so money and you don’t even know it!
17. Some Like it Hot 1959
Tony Curtis, Jack Lemmon, and Marilyn Monroe star in this classic Hollywood comedy about two musicians who witness a mob murder and find their only escape to be disguising themselves as women in an all-girl band. Problems – and hijinks, ensue when one begins falling for another band member, and the other can’t keep an overzealous suitor from falling for him.
Famous Quote: Well… nobody’s perfect!
18. Clerks 1994
Kevin Smith’s non-stop barrage of witticisms and one-liners made Clerks the cult favorite that launched his career as one of Hollywood’s top screenwriters. Filled from beginning to end with the most vulgar language used in the most humorous way, Clerks spawned years of rip-off, copycat comedies that failed to achieve the comedic genius of the original, with its use of comedic dialogue over physical comedy.
Famous Quote: I’m not supposed to be here today!
19. CB4 1993
Chris Rock’s earliest starring film follows a mock rap group “CB4“(short for Cell Block 4) as they re-invent themselves for worldwide success. MC Gusto, Stab Master Arson, and Dead Mike take vulgarity to the next level, strictly for vulgarity’s sake and in hopes of selling more records. So low, it’s high.
Famous Quote: Don’t be wastin’ my electricity on that rap mess!
20. Heathers 1989
Daniel Waters’ dark comedy about teenage suicide was witty, deviously funny, and well ahead of its time. Starring a then-unknown Christian Slater and Winona Ryder, Heathers remains the often-overlooked benchmark in black comedy that fails to receive the credit it deserves.
Famous Quote: The extreme always seem to make an impression.
