The Funniest Comedies Ever

Home Alone
      1990 | USA | Laughs: 3.1 (Broken Comedies) | imdb: 7.6
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I resisted watching this much-liked movie for over twenty years. (Please don't burn me for saying this, but I'm just not interested in kids.) After several people on the site recommended it, I finally buckled up to see if it would make me laugh. This was not a case of "wow, what have I been missing all this time". No, it was exactly what I had been expecting (for once)—a cute kid trying to defeat some not-particularly clever baddies. This is really a kid's movie. If you're into kids, then by all means, give it a shot. (Last viewed: August 2012)

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Four Lions
      2010 | U.K. | Laughs: 3.1 (Broken Comedies) | imdb: 7.3
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The adventures of four incompetent would-be theorists desperate to join Al-Qaeda and make their mark in London: a daring subject full of promise. But the promise stays unfulfilled. This could have been funny. Sadly, it isn't. I suspect the film gets its decent imdb rating on the sole strength of its risqué premise. The pace and drama stays on a level of a bad TV series—the kind of material you really don't want to watch any longer than ten minutes. I had to stop halfway. (Last viewed: August 2012)

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Secrets & Lies
      1996 | U.K. | Laughs: 3.0 (Light-Hearted) | imdb: 8.0
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A cute U.K. light-drama about an educated woman who sets out to meet her biological mother, who turns out to be far from her both socially and ethnically. If you can stand another lesson about transcending social and racial boundaries, this is a good pick. (Last viewed: July 2012)

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What Women Want
      2000 | USA | Laughs: 3.0 (Light-Hearted) | imdb: 6.4
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After an electric shock, a macho ad executive acquires the gift of hearing the thoughts of all the women he comes across. He goes through the predictable phases: horror at his predicament, glee in light of its potential benefits, reform from macho-man into sensitive guy, loss of the gift. Highly recommended if you're desperate to see a lot of Mel Gibson without a shirt and you really wish men would change. Otherwise, I wouldn't rush to the video store, but if someone wants to make you watch it, it's not a bad piece of entertainment. If only they had cast Paul Hogan—another Australian, not much seen outside of Crocodile Dundee. (Last viewed: July 2012)

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Kung Pow: Enter the Fist
      2002 | USA | Laughs: 1.0 (Just Awful) | imdb: 6.2
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In the tradition of Woody Allen's What's up Tigerlily, this film lays new dialogue over a B-movie, in this case a Hong Kong martial arts flick. New footage was added. The film must have been very funny to make, but it's certainly not funny to watch, unless perhaps you are a fan of underground "cult" movies. Do yourself a favor and watch Enter the Dragon instead. It's not a comedy (though it has quite a bit of humor), but it's an excellent film for the martial arts, the characters, the 1970s costumes and the social commentary. (Last viewed: July 2012)

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Coming to America
      1988 | USA | Laughs: 6.7 (Watch Once) | imdb: 7.0
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This Eddie Murphy film may not be a roarer, but it had a few good laughs and a delightful premise. It might even be devoid of profanity (though I cannot vouch for that). An African prince delays his arranged marriage for forty days and travels to New York with his valet in the hope of finding a bride he can truly love. Insisting to live in a run-down room in Queens so that no one will know his royal status, he takes a job cleaning up at a fast-food restaurant. Not only did I find pleasure in the fairy-tale plot and the actors' performances, I also enjoyed the extravagant decor of the palace in the African scenes—the studio must have thrown a bit of money at this. Well worth a watch, just don't expect your jaw to cramp from too much laughing. (Last viewed: July 2012)

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Porky's
      1982 | USA | Laughs: 5.6 (Watch Once) | imdb: 6.2
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Porky's is a movie about the obsession that lives in the underpants of male high-school seniors. It is probably the daddy of films such as American Pie, but I found it to be a lot funnier. I laughed quite a few times, partly by contagion, as the actors laugh a lot too. Although Porky's has a lot of graphic language, it doesn't feel excessive as in today's common swear-a-thons. Some of the scenes (as the one on the poster) are almost shocking in their audacity for the mainstream film medium. And yet it all feels natural, probably because it is. If you are allergic to adult themes, skip this. Otherwise, this piece of film history is well worth a watch. (Last viewed: July 2012)

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The Other Guys
      2010 | USA | Laughs: 5.4 (Watch Once) | imdb: 6.6
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Two cops from the C-list find themselves tackling a case that involves powerful and dangerous people. The film has occasional action scenes that I found loud, unnecessary and unpleasant. Apart from that, I enjoyed its offbeat humor and characters. For instance, one of the cops, who is portrayed as a nerdy, unattractive character, turns out to be living in a luxurious villa with a bombshell wife, who he keeps describing as plain. Will Ferrell (who is usually a tad too loud for my taste) shined as an accountant-cop, a role that kept him in check. His partner balanced him well. And it was a good surprise to see Steve Coogan from the British show I'm Alan Partridge. (Last viewed: July 2012)

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The Love Guru
      2008 | USA | Laughs: 5.0 (Watch Once) | imdb: 3.8
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This Mike Myers film is one of those comedies that starts very poorly but gradually improves—the opposite of Weekend at Bernie's. Perhaps the awful start explains the record-low IMDB rating (3.8 last time I checked). I got up after twenty minutes to grab a cup of tea, unsure of whether to persevere, and thought to myself, "this is the movie you make when you want to waste your public capital and tell the world you no longer want to make movies". But by the end, I felt that the writers had done a really good job researching the world of spiritual teachers, though not a great one at making us laugh. Largely, the Love Guru is an excuse for another extravagant character for Mike Myers to play, and he does a good job not relying on many tricks I never want to see again because of overuse, such as his peculiar way of raising his eyebrows. This is no Austin Powers in the laughter department (though it is almost as crass), but if you've had a passing acquaintance with the "guru business", you may appreciate many of the film's elements. (Last viewed: July 2012)

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Weekend at Bernie's
      1989 | USA | Laughs: 4.5 (Broken Comedies) | imdb: 6.4
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This is one of those movies that starts out really well but runs out of steam before the halfway point is reached. Two grunts in a New York company's accounting department discover a large error. When they tell the boss, he invites them for a weekend at his house in the Hamptons—with sinister motives, having embezzled the missing funds. Sadly for him, he gets a lethal injection courtesy of his mafia boss before the young accountants arrive. To enjoy the weekend, they keep up the pretense that Bernie is alive. I really liked the beginning, and probably laughed, but the weekend itself was a grueling session of "more of the same". Too bad. (Last viewed: July 2012)

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Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby
      2006 | USA | Laughs: 5.1 (Broken Comedies) | imdb: 6.6
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This review is in two parts: the day I gave up, and the day I persevered. Part 1. Will Ferrell is often too loud for my taste, and in this movie he breaks all records. He plays a star race car driver. I hung on for as long as I could because of the Southern accents, but after 23 minutes of ear-busting chaos (and not a single laugh), I had to give up. Firmly in the unwatchable category. Part 2. After reading some glowing reviews, I gave it another shot. It turns out I had stopped at the low point of the movie (the bar scene). After that, the story twists, and the characters become more attaching. Perhaps worth watching once if you can handle loud acting. (Last viewed: July 2012)

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Big Stan
      2007 | USA | Laughs: 8.4 (Laugh and Smile) | imdb: 6.2
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Convicted of fraud, a wealthy scammer trains in the martial arts to prepare for his time in jail, where he becomes "Big Stan". If you can tolerate a moderate dose of adult themes, this movie will be a welcome surprise, not least because it reinvents the dynamics of situations often seen in movies, such as life in prison. The cast is excellent. The lead actor (Rob Schneider), who directed the movie, comes highly recommended via 50 First Dates, where he was the brilliant Ula. (Last viewed: June 2012)

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My Blue Heaven
      1990 | USA | Laughs: 4.8 (Broken Comedies) | imdb: 6.3
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A New York mobster (Steve Martin) lands in a California town where he must live under the FBI's protection until he appears as a witness at a mob trial. In his new community, our mobster is a round peg in a square hole, and gives lots of work to the assistant district attorney and to the FBI agent charged with his protection. I laughed once and smiled a lot, but overall the rewards are too low to bother watching this instantly forgettable movie. (Last viewed: June 2012)

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Moonstruck
      1987 | USA | Laughs: 3.0 (Light-Hearted) | imdb: 7.1
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Sure, this romantic flick is instantly forgettable. Yet it's a touch more watchable that the average, thanks to a decent plot and decent acting which nearly overcome the boring backdrop—yet another intimate window into an Italian-American family. Enough of that already! I was pleasantly surprised to find Nicholas Cage in one of his better roles, which made me realize that he should have stayed in the 1980s. (So should I, for that matter.) But don't get your hopes up too high, this is no Birdy or Wild at Heart. (Last viewed: June 2012)

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Johnny English Reborn
      2011 | USA | Laughs: 7.8 (Laugh and Smile) | imdb: 6.3
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This is one of the rare occasions when the sequel far surpasses the original—easy to do when the original was the atrocious Johnny English. Roy Atkinson is back as a comic James Bond, a role that suits him well. This time there's enough of a script, and the movie made me laugh a few times. In creating the main character, the writers found a fine balance between hero and anti-hero. Johnny English is sometimes succesful on his own merits, and that makes the movie much more enjoyable than parodies where the "hero" is a complete goof. (Last viewed: May 2012)

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Cedar Rapids
      2011 | USA | Laughs: 3.0 (Light-Hearted) | imdb: 6.2
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A naive insurance salesman who has never left his hometown finds himself having to swim with the sharks at a conference in the big smoke—Cedar Rapids, Iowa. This movie is more of a light-hearted take on middle-class working life in middle America than a "proper comedy" in the laugh-out-loud sense. It did not really make us laugh, but we enjoyed it. (Last viewed: May 2012)

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Idiocracy
      2006 | USA | Laughs: 7.0 (Watch Once) | imdb: 6.6
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Humanity is getting dumber by the day, the opening sequence proposes. A "average man" who takes part in an experiment expects to be frozen for one year. When he wakes up 500 years later, he turns out to be the smartest man alive. The so-called "morons" of the future are frighteningly reminiscent of our contemporaries, of course, so this very funny film may have more of the documentary than of science fiction. (Last viewed: April 2012)

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Rocketman
      1997 | USA | Laughs: 5.2 (Watch Once) | imdb: 5.9
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The humor in this movie about an oddball astronaut is mostly on the ten-year-old level, and it's a relaxing watch if you're not expecting more. One gag made me laugh hard enough to feel my abs. Save this for a day when you're not in the mood to hear a lot of foul language. It made me curious to watch more Disney movies. (Last viewed: April 2012)

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The Hangover Part II
      2011 | USA | Laughs: 4.7 (Broken Comedies) | imdb: 6.4
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It's hard to like a movie when you don't find any of the characters likable. I didn't love the first Hangover to start with. Perhaps it's age, but I don't relate to any of the activities depicted in the movie. But if you're a party animal, maybe you'll enjoy this. (Last viewed: April 2012)

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Walk Like A Man
      1987 | USA | Laughs: 3.1 (Broken Comedies) | imdb: 4.8
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Raised by wolves, Bobo is found and returned back to society, to the worry of his brother who had started spending his inheritance. A well-intentioned movie that will make you smile and might make you laugh once or twice but just doesn't have enough to keep you going—unless you are between the ages of five and eight. (Last viewed: April 2012)

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Three Fugitives
      1989 | USA | Laughs: 2.9 (Just Awful) | imdb: 6.2
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A terrible remake of the decent 1986 French comedy The Fugitives for North-American audiences—by the original director, Francis Veber, who has committed the best (The Dinner Game) and worst of comedies. On the very day of his release from a five-year jail term, a hardened bank robber (Nick Nolte) gets taken hostage by an inept amateur. Nick Nolte is a poor replacement for Gérard Depardieu, but at least he has a presence… Whereas in comparison to Pierre Richard (a wonderful "clown"), the amateur robber is a big zero. (Last viewed: April 2012)

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Grown Ups
      2010 | USA | Laughs: 2.7 (Just Awful) | imdb: 5.9
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I like Adam Sandler, but this movie is an exercise in self-indulgence—and utter garbage. We're usually pretty generous about watching movies that don't start well (some take a while to develop) but we found this one unwatchable and stopped after 26 minutes. It felt like watching four friends hanging out and cracking mediocre jokes. I'm sure you can find three people to do that with (and actually laugh in the process): you don't need Adam Sandler and his buddies. (Last viewed: April 2012)

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The Hudsucker Proxy
      1994 | USA | Laughs: N/A (Light-Hearted) | imdb: 7.2
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A good film, just not one that makes you laugh out loud. As often, the Cohen brothers have created a cartoonish world, one that I found visually engaging, though not so pleasant on the ear as several of the characters speak in phoney accents at twice the normal speed. It's New York in the 1950s, and a recent graduate from a small college gets an instant promotion from the mailroom to president of a large corporation, a scheme devised by the board to temporarily drive the stock down to later repurchase it cheaply. Unfortulately for the board members, the presumed dunce invents the hula-hoop. (Last viewed: April 2012)

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Couples Retreat
      2009 | USA | Laughs: N/A (Light-Hearted) | imdb: 5.5
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Four couples spend a week in an exotic resort for couple therapy. It felt like watching a lot of therapy, which is uncommon in the movies. A good film from that standpoint, just not a particularly funny one. (Last viewed: April 2012)

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A Fish Called Wanda
      1988 | U.K. | Laughs: 8.7 (Laugh and Smile) | imdb: 7.5
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Two robbers scheme to discover where their now imprisoned leader has hidden the diamonds. This film is a timeless classic, and not just for fans of John Cleese (the barister): all four lead actors shine on their own, as do some of the supporting cast. You might remember Wanda as a laugh-a-minute movie, but you may find yourself cringing as much as laughing, not least because of the sadistic brand of humor that animates the relationship between Wanda's "brother" Otto and stammer-afflicted Ken. Unlike many comedies, this film has an engaging plot with plenty of dramatic tension. In 1997, its winning foursome was reunited in Fierce Creatures, which deserves to be watched at least once. (Last viewed: April 2012)

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Fierce Creatures
      1997 | U.K. | Laughs: 6.8 (Watch Once) | imdb: 6.4
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Nine years after A Fish Called Wanda, the same four lead actors were reunited in this John Cleese movie. It's not a sequel—the plot has to do with the staff of a zoo defending their animals after a media moghul acquires their employer. If you need to compare the film to Wanda, you won't be happy: individually, each of the main characters is less than its 1988 counterpart, apart perhaps from John Cleese, who might be even better as a zookeeper than he was as a barrister. The plot is cute rather than twisted, the humor is straight rather than sadistic. Nevertheless, it's a good effort by a great crew, and if you forget comparisons for a while, you are sure to enjoy the movie and to laugh more than once. (Last viewed: April 2012)

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The Invention of Lying
      2009 | U.K. | Laughs: 4.3 (Broken Comedies) | imdb: 6.4
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I'm not part of the sizable population of viewers who hate Ricky Gervais, so I was prepared to laugh as this movie had a good premise: in a world where everyone always tells the truth, one man discovers lying. Sadly, the execution was poor. For instance, the truth-tellers in Ricky's world feel compelled to blurt out things such as "I hate this job" or "you look awful" without prompting when they meet strangers, which borders on the pathological, and is certainly not the same as not lying. The movie would have worked better if the characters kept their mouths shut a lot more, speaking when asked, like "normal people". From that basis, there was a lot of room for comical situations. Skip unless you're a huge fan of Ricky's. (Last viewed: April 2012)

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Kids in the Hall: Brain Candy
      1996 | Canada | Laughs: 8.8 (Laugh and Smile) | imdb: 6.9
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This movie by the Canadian comedy group "Kids in the Hall" was made two years after the end of their TV show. It's one of these rare cases when the movie is even better than the show. The plot: against the advice of its scientists, a pharmaceutical company rushes a "happy drug" to market before properly testing it. For sheer quirkiness this movie belongs on the same shelf as Python movies, but it's much, much funnier. Don't miss it. (Last viewed: April 2012)

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Orange County
      2002 | USA | Laughs: 6.5 (Watch Once) | imdb: 6.2
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When his college counselor sends in the wrong transcript, the straight-A class president of a preppy Orange County high school gets turned down by Stanford University. As he tries to reclaim what is rightfully his, it seems to him that neither his drama-loving mom nor his authoritarian dad, surfer buddies, sweet girlfriend and stoner brother really want him to get in. For a movie involving high-school characters, this one is refereshingly low on vulgarity but features a cute story and good laughs. (Last viewed: March 2012)

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The Man with Two Brains
      1983 | USA | Laughs: 6.3 (Watch Once) | imdb: 6.4
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This movie has one foot in the "watch once" category, the other in the "don't bother". The main reason I placed it on the "watch once" page is that it is the first movie I've seen where Steve Martin manages to make me laugh a few times. Martin plays a brilliant brain surgeon who grieves for his ex-wife and falls prey to an alluring gold-digger (Kathleen Turner). Despite the alarming title, Martin is neither annoyingly goofy (in fact there is no man with two brains in this film), nor does he draw on the hopelessly "white square American male" humor niche I also associate him with. Save this for a time when you are hung-over. (Last viewed: March 2012)

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