...and 50 more worth mentioning
https://digitaldreamdoor.com/mobile/z-movies/movies-comedy.html
https://editorial.rottentomatoes.com/guide/essential-comedy-movies/
UPDATED: 1/29/24
What makes a comedy a classic? Something that floats on the changing tides of time and taste, remaining relevant – and hilarious? It probably takes more than a football to the groin or a juiced-up fart on the audio track. (Though we’re not not saying those can sometimes be the pinnacle of professional-grade jokes.) We don’t have the answer, but with our Essential list assembling 140 of the best comedies ever made, we’re getting closer to laugh-out-loud enlightenment than humanly thought possible. We’re melting minds, splitting sides, and slapping knees here.
To that end, we’ve included all forms of the comedy movie. From slapstick (Dumb & Dumber, It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World) to silent (The General, Modern Times). Rom-coms (Moonstruck, Annie Hall) to screwball (It Happened One Night, Bringing Up Baby). Parody (Airplane!, Scary Movie) to postmodern (Monty Python and the Holy Grail, Galaxy Quest). These 140 movies will take you to college (Old School, Animal House), past some fan favorites (Step Brothers, Super Troopers), and all around the globe (Kung Fu Hustle, Amelie).
There’s no minimum review count for this list. We opened it up to movies of yesteryear, which typically don’t get as many reviews as their modern comedy rivals. Many of these inducted films have high Tomatometer scores and are Certified Fresh, but the Tomatometer was not our only guide. Some comedies that stand the test of time did not necessarily pass the critical test on release, and we’re honoring those here. These are not the best-reviewed comedy films ever released, but they are the essential comedies, movies that broke the Laugh-O-Meter – we’ll totally trademark that soon, so dibs – shaped the genre, molded generations, and which audiences return to time and again, to lift the spirits.
Ready to whip out your funny bone and bash it violently on the nearest flat surface? Then you’re ready for our list of the best comedy movies ever: Rotten Tomatoes’ 140 Essential Comedies!
Link: https://editorial.rottentomatoes.com/guide/100-essential-comedy-movies/
Mix of AFI top 100 and BFI top 50. I took the Top 100 from the American Film Institute and the Top 50 from the British Film Institute and mixed the list.
www.afi.com/100years/movies10.aspx
http://www.bfi.org.uk/news/50-greatest-films-all-time
Source: IMDB
Filter: Votes >= 10000
Order: Votes Descending
Date: 2014-08-23
Last Updated: 2012-11-28
These Greatest Movies of the 1930s chosen for their quality direction, script, cinematography, acting, storyline, originality, and success.
https://www.filmsite.org/momentsindx.html
So this year BBC Culture decided to get serious about comedy. We asked 253 film critics – 118 women and 135 men – from 52 countries and six continents a simple: “What do you think are the 10 best comedies of all time?” Films from any country made since cinema was invented were eligible, and BBC Culture did nothing to define in advance what a comedy is; we left that to each of the critics to decide. As always, we urged the experts to go with their heart and pick personal favorites, films that are part of their lives, not just the ones that meet some ideal of greatness.
Created August 2017
I well remember being taken to Blazing Saddles at the age of 10, when I was far too young to understand most of the jokes. At the same time, I could see how important Blazing Saddles was to my parents and their friends. They quoted from it for months—years—afterward.
As much as savoring a particular joke, I realize now, they were trying to reclaim that initial, joyful shock to the system. There’s not a film on the WGA’s 101 Funniest Screenplays that doesn’t produce such an unexpected jolt, if not a sustained quake, and for the same reasons Blazing Saddles did—by transgressing accepted norms.
One question that this list asks, however: Should a great comedy simply be gauged by the laughter it elicits? “Satire is what closes on Saturday night,” George S. Kaufman famously quipped. A number of the comedies on this list went under-appreciated at the box office and by critics; years, if not decades, had to pass before the work began to receive its due. This was as true for Buster Keaton’s The General as it was nearly half a century later for Harold and Maude, and 30 years after that for Office Space.
The oldest movie on the list is Charlie Chaplin’s The Gold Rush (1925), while the most recent is Bridesmaids, released in 2011. The latter also has the distinction of being written by two women—Kristen Wiig and Annie Mumolo, working in slapstick, a genre historically dominated by men. Bridesmaids comes in at no. 16, immediately after When Harry Met Sally, written by the legendary Nora Ephron. Comedy screenwriting has long been a playground that women and writers of color have not had enough time in. The work of Richard Pryor on Blazing Saddles, Tina Fey on Mean Girls, Amy Heckerling on Clueless, and Hagar Wilde, co-writer of Bringing Up Baby, makes you wonder what a list would be if the playground had been more inclusive all along.
In the end, the variety of films on the list—as different as Being There is to Airplane! or Duck Soup is to Fargo—indicates how difficult it is to gauge a great comedy by any set of particular criteria. Better to say the best comedy writers and comedians are like astronauts, launching themselves beyond the ozone layer of the tasteful and the expected in order to find the forbidden or the outrageous or the merely uncomfortable. Whether that produces an outrageous comedy like Mrs. Doubtfire or a satire like Dr. Strangelove, the goal is still provocation. And truth.
Written by Paul Brownfield
2015-11-15
AFI's 100 Years...100 Movies
We asked 253 film critics – 118 women and 135 men – from 52 countries and six continents a simple: “What do you think are the 10 best comedies of all time?” Films from any country made since cinema was invented were eligible, and BBC Culture did nothing to define in advance what a comedy is; we left that to each of the critics to decide. As always, we urged the experts to go with their heart and pick personal favourites, films that are part of their lives, not just the ones that meet some ideal of greatness.
2017-08-22
https://www.bbc.com/culture/article/20170821-the-100-greatest-comedies-of-all-time
https://www.rottentomatoes.com/top/bestofrt/?cmp=FBRT_Top100Films
UPDATED: 3/28/22
NOTE: It appears Rotten Tomatoes has removed this list. There will not be any future updates to this list.
AFI's 100 Years…100 Movies – 10th Anniversary Edition was the 2007 updated version of 100 Years… 100 Movies. The original list was first unveiled in 1998.
Announced on January 18, 2007, this 10th installment of the American Film Institute's (AFI) Emmy Award-winning AFI 100 Years... series counted down the 100 greatest American movies of all time in a three-hour television event. Aired June 20, 2007 on CBS, it was hosted by Academy Award-winning actor Morgan Freeman. The program considered classic favorites and newly eligible films released from 1996 to 2006.
Source: http://www.afi.com/100years/movies10.aspx
Part of the AFI 100 Years… series, AFI's 100 Years…100 Laughs is a list of the top 100 funniest movies in American cinema. A wide variety of comedies were nominated for the distinction that included slapstick comedy, action comedy, screwball comedy, romantic comedy, satire, black comedy, musical comedy, comedy of manners and comedy of errors. The list was unveiled by the American Film Institute on June 13, 2000.
Source: http://www.afi.com/Docs/100Years/laughs100.pdf
AFI - Top 100 - Best American Movies of All Time - 2019
Part of the AFI 100 Years… series, AFI's 100 Years…100 Laughs is a list of the top 100 funniest movies in American cinema. A wide variety of comedies were nominated for the distinction that included slapstick comedy, action comedy, screwball comedy, romantic comedy, satire, black comedy, musical comedy, comedy of manners and comedy of errors. The list was unveiled by the American Film Institute on June 13, 2000.
Time Out 100 best comedy movies
AFI's 100 Funniest American Movies Of All Time
Regardless of genre, the films on this list possess a total comedic impact that creates an experience greater than the sum of the smiles. These movies provide laughs that echo across time, enriching America's film heritage and inspiring artists and audiences today.
A wide array of funny films — from slapstick comedy to romantic comedy; from satire and black comedy to musical comedy; from comedy of manners to comedy of errors — were nominated for this distinction.
AFI distributed a ballot with 500 nominated films to a jury of 1800 leaders from the film community, including film artists (directors, screenwriters, actors, editors, cinematographers, etc.), critics, historians and film executives. The jurors were asked to consider the following criteria while making their selections:
Source: http://www.afi.com/100Years/laughs.aspx
AFI's 100 Years…100 Movies – 10th Anniversary Edition was the 2007 updated version of 100 Years… 100 Movies. The original list was first unveiled in 1998.
Announced on January 18, 2007, this 10th installment of the American Film Institute's (AFI) Emmy Award-winning AFI 100 Years... series counted down the 100 greatest American movies of all time in a three-hour television event. Aired June 20, 2007 on CBS, it was hosted by Academy Award-winning actor Morgan Freeman. The program considered classic favorites and newly eligible films released from 1996 to 2006.
Halliwell's Four Stars
by Pradeep Maheepala