The funniest movies tend to burrow into our brains like no other form of popular entertainment. Through repeated viewings and earworm quotes, they create unconscious templates for life’s milestones and stopovers — dating, road trips, the college experience, marriage, the working world — and remind us of moments in time as well as entire eras. They’re comfort food and therapy, high art and cultural critique, nestled lovingly amid fart jokes and crotch punches.
The best comedy movies also enjoy a freedom that seems out of place in most other media, with run-times that allow them to develop complicated but self-contained worlds, the full buffet of acting, editing, and musical options, and the (frequent) R ratings that give them the appropriate range of artistic motion. “Comedy is subjective,” we’re constantly told. Maybe, but if something stays funny for decades it’s clearly reaching across cultures and contexts to tweak our collective nipples for a reason.
Here are our picks for the best of the best. for this top 10 list!
KEITH
THERE’S SOMETHING ABOUT MARY (1998)
A man gets a chance to meet up with his dream girl from highschool, even though his date with her back then was a complete disaster.
DAVID
WAYNES WORLD (1992)
Two slacker friends try to promote their public-access cable show.
KEITH
SHAUN OF THE DEAD (2004)
A man decides to turn his moribund life around by winning back his ex-girlfriend, reconciling his relationship with his mother, and dealing with an entire community that has returned from the dead to eat the living.
DAVID
FAST TIMES AT RIDGEMONT HIGH (1982)
A group of Southern California high school students are enjoying their most important subjects: sex, drugs and rock n’ roll.
KEITH
GHOSTBUSTERS (1984)
Three unemployed parapsychology professors set up shop as a unique ghost removal service.
DAVID
AIRPLANE (1980)
An airplane crew takes ill. Surely the only person capable of landing the plane is an ex-pilot afraid to fly. But don’t call him Shirley.
KEITH
SUPER TROOPERS (2001)
Five Vermont state troopers, avid pranksters with a knack for screwing up, try to save their jobs and out-do the local police department by solving a crime.
DAVID
ONE NIGHT AT THE OPERA (1935)
A sly business manager and two wacky friends of two opera singers help them achieve success while humiliating their stuffy and snobbish enemies.
KEITH
GROUNDHOG DAY (1993)
A weatherman finds himself living the same day over and over again.
DAVID
MAJOR LEAGUE (1989)
The new owner of the Cleveland Indians puts together a purposely horrible team so they’ll lose and she can move the team. But when the plot is uncovered, they start winning just to spite her.
KEITH
NATIONAL LAMPOONS CHRISTMAS VACATION (1989)
The Griswold family’s plans for a big family Christmas predictably turn into a big disaster.
DAVID
GHOSTBUSTERS (1984)
Three unemployed parapsychology professors set up shop as a unique ghost removal service.
KEITH
THE HANGOVER (2009)
Three buddies wake up from a bachelor party in Las Vegas, with no memory of the previous night and the bachelor missing. They make their way around the city in order to find their friend before his wedding.
DAVID
CADDYSHACK (1980)
An exclusive golf course has to deal with a brash new member and a destructive dancing gopher.
KEITH
GALAXY QUEST (1999)
The alumni cast of a space opera television series have to play their roles as the real thing when an alien race needs their help.
DAVID
THE PRODUCERS (1967)
Producers Max Bialystock and Leo Bloom make money by producing a sure-fire flop.
KEITH
40 YEAR OLD VIRGIN (2005)
Goaded by his buddies, a nerdy guy who’s never “done the deed” only finds the pressure mounting when he meets a single mother.
DAVID
THE PRINCESS BRIDE (1987)
While home sick in bed, a young boy’s grandfather reads him a story called The Princess Bride.
KEITH
THE CHANGE UP (2011)
Dave is a married man with two kids and a loving wife, and Mitch is a single man who is at the prime of his sexual life. One fateful night while Mitch and Dave are peeing in a fountain, lightning strikes and they switch bodies.
DAVID
MONTY PYTHON & THE HOLY GRAIL (1975)
King Arthur and his knights embark on a low-budget search for the Grail, encountering many very silly obstacles.
And there you have it! Our top 10 comedies list! What are your thoughts? What is your list? We want to know your opinion on this! It counts!