List of The Top 100 Funniest Comedies of All Time

Comedy is a little bit like pornography. If it does its job, it doesn’t matter how “good” it really is. So critics sometimes have trouble with motion picture comedies, because little things like story and character development don’t really matter if the film just makes you guffaw.

That’s why, when putting together CraveOnline’s list of The Top 50 Funniest Comedies of All Time, we didn’t ask our critics to pick the “best” comedies of all time. We asked them to pick the funniest comedies of all time that make them laugh the most. That’s why some so-called “classic” comedies don’t rank as high on the list as some of the goofiest films ever produced. But that doesn’t mean the classiest comedies on record didn’t make a decent showing.

We asked our film critics – William Bibbiani and Witney Seibold (CraveOnline and The B-Movies Podcast), Brian Formo (Collider), Alonso Duralde (The Wrap) and Dave White (Linoleum Knife) – to come up with a ranked list of their picks for the top 50 Funniest Comedies of All Time. Their #1 votes got 50 points, their #50 points got 1 point, and so on in between. We then tabulated the votes and let each critic chime in about 10 of their favorite comedies that cracked the Top 50, and we also listed their 50 runners up below.

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The results may surprise you. Famous comedians like Jim Carrey and Eddie Murphy are absent from the Top 50, and beloved filmmakers like Charles Chaplin and Frank Capra had to settle for runner-up status as well. Bill Murray emerges the victor here, with four films in the Top 50 (#6, #7, #26 and #28), followed by Cary Grant, Gene Wilder, John Cleese and Michael Palin with three films a piece.

Mel Brooks is the only director with three films in the Top 50 (#3, #14, #22), with Buster Keaton, Preston Sturges, Howard Hawks, Adam McKay, Terry Jones, The Coen Bros. and the comedy team of Zucker-Abrahams-Zucker following close behind with two Top 50 films each. The funniest year on record was 1988, with four films in the Top 50 (#19, #30, #32, #36) with 1967, 1984 and 1999 trailing with three films each. The 1980s were the funniest decade by far, with 12 films cracking the Top 50.

CraveOnline heartily recommends every single one of these movies, since we are (obviously) declaring them the funniest comedies of all time. But laughter is subjective. If our critics left the funniest movie you’ve ever seen off of the list, let us know in the comments below. Spread the laughter, folks. That’s all we’re trying to do by honoring the following, hilarious films.

The Top 50 Funniest Comedies of All Time:

 The Top 100 Funniest Comedies of All Time “Runners Up”:

51. Design for Living (dir. Ernst Lubitsch, 1933)

52. The Naked Gun: From the Files of Police Squad! (dir. David Zucker, 1988)

53. Monsieur Verdoux (dir. Charles Chaplin, 1947)

54. Spaceballs (dir. Mel Brooks, 1987)

55. ¡Three Amigos! (dir. John Landis, 1986)

56. Army of Darkness (dir. Sam Raimi, 1992)

57. Ghost World (dir. Terry Zwigoff, 2001)

58. Bridesmaids (dir. Paul Feig, 2011)

59. Superbad (dir. Greg Mottola, 2007)

60. Without You I’m Nothing (dir. John Boskovich, 1990)

61. Ball of Fire (dir. Howard Hawks, 1941)

62. It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World (dir. Stanley Kramer, 1963)

63. Noises Off… (dir. Peter Bogdanovich, 1992)

64. Clueless (dir. Amy Heckerling, 1995)

65. A Shot in the Dark (dir. Blake Edwards, 1964)

66. Mr. Hulot’s Holiday (dir. Jacques Tati, 1953)

67. Super Troopers (dir. Jay Chandrasekhar, 2001)

68. Zelig (dir. Woody Allen, 1983)

69. Real Genius (dir. Martha Coolidge, 1985)

70. Singin’ in the Rain (dirs. Stanely Donen & Gene Kelly, 1952)

71. Little Murders (dir. Alan Arkin, 1971)

72. Harold and Maude (dir. Hal Ashby, 1971)

73. Sullivan’s Travels (dir. Preston Sturges, 1941)

74. My Blue Heaven (dir. Herbert Ross, 1990)

75. Ninotchka (dir. Ernst Lubitsch, 1939)

76. Pee-wee’s Big Adventure (dir. Tim Burton, 1985)

77. Pineapple Express (dir. David Gordon Green, 2008)

78. The Thin Man (dir. W.S. Van Dyke, 1934)

79. A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum (dir. Richard Lester, 1966)

80. Pootie Tang (dir. Louis C.K., 2001)

81. Victor Victoria (dir. Blake Edwards, 1982)

82. It Happened One Night (dir. Frank Capera, 1934)

83. Safety Last (dirs. Fred Neymeyer & Sam Taylor, 1923)

84. Arthur (dir. Steve Gordon, 1981)

85. Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (dir. Howard Hawks, 1953)

86. A Town Called Panic (dirs. Stéphane Aubier & Vincent Patar, 2009)

87. The House of Yes (dir. Mark Waters, 1997)

88. The Cable Guy (dir. Ben Stiller, 1996)

89. My Man Godfrey (dir. Gregory La Cava, 1936)

90. What About Bob? (dir. Frank Oz, 1991)

91. The Heartbreak Kid (dir. Elaine May, 1972) 

92. Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby (dir. Adam McKay, 2006)

93. A Night at the Opera (dir. Sam Wood, 1935)

94. Roxanne (dir. Fred Schepisi, 1987)

95. Shaun of the Dead (dir. Edgar Wright, 2004)

96. Manhattan (dir. Woody Allen, 1979)

97. Everyone Says I Love You (dir. Woody Allen, 1996)

98. Wild at Heart (dir. David Lynch, 1990)

99. Mean Girls (dir. Mark Waters, 2004)

100. Caddyshack (dir. Harold Ramis, 1980)

 

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