The Funniest American Movies of All Time

Jane Fonda plays the title character, who is bent on revenge against the man (Lee Marvin) who killed her father. Critic Matthew Lucas described the film as a “lovably scruffy Western send-up” and the spoof helped lift Lee Marvin into stardom.

Ernst Lubitsch directed, produced, and co-wrote this satire about the Nazi takeover of Poland and a theatrical troupe’s attempt to help the Polish resistance. The movie was selected for preservation in the National Film Registry by the Library of Congress in 1996. It was the last film that Carole Lombard appeared in before she died in a plane crash.

This “Pink Panther” sequel has Peter Sellers’ Jacques Clouseau in full slapstick form, much to the exasperation of his long-suffering superior, played by Herbert Lom. The cast includes Elke Sommer and cinema’s greatest rogue, George Sanders.

Warren Beatty plays a Beverly Hills celebrity hairdresser whose life becomes complicated when his womanizing ways conflict with his ambitions. A strong cast includes Julie Christie, Goldie Hawn, and Jack Warden.

“Manhattan” is another Woody Allen valentine to his favorite city, populated with people as socially dysfunctional as the characters he plays. The film has a 94% Freshness rating on Rotten Tomatoes and 92% of audiences liked the movie.

“Harold and Maude” attracted a cult following after its release. The story is about a 20-year-old man weighing suicide who develops a relationship with a zany 80-year-old woman at a funeral.

William Powell took time out from the “Thin Man” franchise to star in this 1930s screwball comedy about a down-and-out gentleman hired by a socialite to be her servant. The satire about the privileged class has a Freshness rating on Rotten Tomatoes of 97%.

A coming-of-age film set in the early 1960s that, because it cast Ron Howard, drew comparisons to the 1950s-themed situation comedy “Happy Days.” George Lucas directed the film and Francis Ford Coppola produced it.

Tom Hanks plays a boy whose wish to be a grownup comes true and he lands a job as a toy-tester at a company in New York City. Hanks’ natural boyishness infuses the movie with charm, and the film is remembered for the scene in which he and actor Robert Loggia tap dance to the songs “Heart and Soul” and “Chopsticks” on piano keys on a floor.

Cher won an Oscar for her role as an Italian-American woman who falls in love with the brother of the man she’s supposed to marry. The film won two other Academy Awards and holds a 94% Freshness rating on Rotten Tomatoes.

A driver dying from a car accident tells other motorists he’s buried a fortune, setting off the longest and wildest chase in movie history. The list of famous actors and comedians in this Stanley Kramer-directed romp might be the longest in filmdom. Peter Falk, Buster Keaton, Jack Benny, and Jerry Lewis are just a few of them.

One of Preston Sturges’s greatest cinematic triumphs tells the story of a movie director (Joel McCrea) who believes he needs to experience life at its lowest level to create a motion picture masterpiece. To do so, he dresses like a hobo, gets into trouble, and is put on a chain gang. The film holds a 100% Freshness rating on Rotten Tomatoes from 35 reviewers.

“City Lights” registered a Freshness rating of 98% on Rotten Tomatoes. It’s the story of a luckless tramp in love with a blind flower girl who is thwarted in his attempts to keep her and her family from getting evicted. But their fortunes change when a millionaire rewards them for saving his life.

In his first full talking picture, Charles Chaplin altered his trademark mustache to resemble that of Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler in this comedic rebuke of fascism. Chaplin’s dictator character is the spitting image of a Jewish barber and eventually the two become mixed up.

Though he didn’t have a huge role in “National Lampoon’s Animal House,” John Belushi stole the film, which tells the story of a fun-loving dissolute college fraternity about to be kicked off campus. Other stars include Kevin Bacon and Donald Sutherland.

James Stewart plays a wealthy man with a drinking problem who claims he sees a six-foot rabbit named Harvey. Critics were charmed by the whimsical story based on the Pulitzer Prize-winning play written by Mary Chase.

“Groundhog Day” is a rom-com about a jaded newsman (Bill Murray) caught in a time loop of reliving Groundhog Day in Punxsutawney, Pa., who falls in love. Harold Ramis directed, co-produced, and co-wrote the film.

Charlie Chaplin’s iconic tramp character returns in this film about a man struggling to find his way in the modern workplace. With a 98% Rotten Tomatoes rating, it is one of Chaplin’s highest-rated films, a vehicle for his superb timing and slapstick genius.

The first of the six “Thin Man” films pairing William Powell and Myrna Loy as the breezy, boozy sleuthing team of Nick and Nora Charles. It has a 98% Freshness rating on Rotten Tomatoes.

“Raising Arizona” was a product of the co-writing team of Ethan and Joel Coen. Nicolas Cage and Holly Hunter play a couple who are unable to have children and decide to kidnap a baby and keep the secret to themselves. New Yorker critic Pauline Kael said the film had a “rambunctious charm.”

This kooky comedy, directed by Frank Capra, is about a man (Cary Grant) who gets married on Halloween and when he delivers the news to his screwball relatives, discovers they’re serial killers. This was a different turn for two of the movie’s screenwriters, Julius J. Epstein and Philip G. Epstein, who co-wrote “Casablanca.”

Rob Reiner’s documentary-style roasting of heavy metal bands was well-received by critics and fans alike, getting a 95% Freshness rating from Rotten Tomatoes as well as a 92% audience score. New York Times critic Janet Maslin said “It stays so wickedly close to the subject that it is very nearly indistinguishable from the real thing.”

Propelled by the appeal of “Saturday Night Live” alums Bill Murray and Dan Aykroyd, and co-written by Aykroyd and Harold Ramis, “Ghostbusters” became one of the biggest hits of the 80s. The film about the spectral-battling squad enjoys a Rotten Tomatoes Freshness rating of 97%.

Robert and Peter Farrelly’s sophomoric comedy about a man trying to reconnect with his high school crush was a box-office smash, pulling in $176.5 million.

“Being There,” based on the satirical novel of the same name by Jerzy Kosinski, is about how a simple gardener becomes an advisor to the president of the United States. The film has a 95% Freshness rating from Rotten Tomatoes.

Charlie Chaplin plays a prospector who goes to the Klondike during the 1890s gold rush and falls in love with a girl he meets at a dance hall. The American Film Institute in 1998 named it one of the 100 greatest films ever made.

“Born Yesterday” marked Judy Holliday’s Oscar-winning star turn as the unrefined girlfriend of a roughhewn millionaire (Broderick Crawford). Hired to make her socially acceptable, journalist William Holden falls in love with Holliday. The George Cukor-directed screwball comedy has a 97% Freshness rating on Rotten Tomatoes.

Rob Reiner-directed and Nora Ephron wrote this rom-com starring Billy Crystal and Meg Ryan about two people trying to maintain a platonic relationship. The film is famous for Ryan’s scene in Katz’s Deli.

One of nine film pairings of Spencer Tracy and Katharine Hepburn, “Adam’s Rib” is about the comedic tension between two lawyers on the opposite sides of the same case. The film was buoyed by Garson Kanin’s witty, urbane screenplay and holds a 96% Freshness rating on Rotten Tomatoes.

This zany comedy with a 96% Freshness rating on Rotten Tomatoes is about British gangsters and American criminals trying to pull off a diamond heist. The film combined the comedic talents of Monty Python alumni John Cleese and Michael Palin with those of the versatile Kevin Kline.

Jack Lemmon stars as an ambitious office worker who allows his apartment to be used by his supervisors to carry on affairs. Complicating matters for him, one of the women he’s interested in is involved in one of the trysts. Billy Wilder’s cynical view of corporate culture has a 93% Freshness rating on Rotten Tomatoes.

Howard Hawks’ screwball film — a remake of “The Front Page” — is about an unscrupulous newspaper editor (Grant) who uses any tactic to keep his top reporter (Russell) from getting married. The film enjoys a 99% Freshness rating from Rotten Tomatoes.

Buster Keaton plays a train engineer from Georgia whose heroics helped the Confederacy during the Civil War. The movie was not a success when it opened but it has risen in stature over time, and was selected by the Library of Congress for the U.S. National Film Registry as culturally significant.

Oscar and Felix, the hopelessly mismatched, divorced, middle-aged New Yorkers, were introduced to cinema audiences in 1968. The movie led to the long-running television situation comedy.

This may be the quintessential MGM musical, featuring the dazzling dancing talent of Gene Kelly, Donald O’Connor, and Debbie Reynolds. Often overlooked is the comedic turn of Jean Hagan as a jealous silent screen queen trying to adjust to talking pictures in 1920s Hollywood.

“The Philadelphia Story” reunited Katharine Hepburn and Cary Grant, with Hepburn playing the self-absorbed society woman torn between Grant and James Stewart. The film won two Oscars, including a Best Actor statue for Stewart.

“Bringing Up Baby” is the apex of the screwball comedy, full of madcap scenes, mix-ups, and pratfalls. Directed by Howard Hawks, the film is about a paleontologist (Cary Grant) seeking money for his museum from a wealthy society matron whose flighty niece (Katharine Hepburn) — with a pet leopard in tow — falls for the scientist.

Mel Brooks took aim at horror films with this black-and-white comedic homage to the genre. Gene Hackman is memorable as the blind hermit who inadvertently burns the monster, played by Peter Boyle.

The Marx Brothers are unleashed on the high-brow world of music. The film is famous for its stateroom scene in which an ever-increasing number of waiters, manicurists, janitors, maids, and engineers enter the room where the brothers are stowing away on a luxury boat.

Mel Brooks, who had made his name in television comedy, put his comedic stamp on motion pictures with “The Producers,” a screwball flick about two shysters who try to produce a Broadway bomb to swindle investors.

This is a send-up of disaster films from David Zucker and Jim Abrahams, in which actors and athletes not known for comedy — such as Peter Graves, Robert Stack, and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar — played their absurdist roles straight.

One of the touchstone movies of the counterculture, with a soundtrack provided by Simon and Garfunkel, “The Graduate” is about a recent college graduate unsure of his future, a situation made more complicated by his affair with his neighbor’s wife.

“It Happened One Night” was one of the iconic screwball comedies of the 1930s, the story of a newspaperman who romances a socialite on the run. Directed by Frank Capra, it won Academy Awards for Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor, and Best Actress and was named the American Film Institute’s third-greatest romantic comedy of all time.

Robert Altman’s groundbreaking black comedy about the Korean War made stars of Donald Sutherland and Elliott Gould. It also helped launch one of the longest-running situation comedies in television history.

Mel Brooks’s brilliant lampoon of the American Western includes veteran Western character actor Slim Pickens and ex-football player Alex Karras (as a monosyllabic brute who decks a horse).

The Marx Brothers’ chaotic masterpiece features Groucho as the leader of a bankrupt nation about to go to war with a neighboring country. Among the memorable scenes is the “mirror moment” when Harpo, playing a spy, breaks the mirror in Groucho’s room and pretends to be Groucho’s image.

Woody Allen directed and starred in this story about the complications of relationships. The film holds a 96% Freshness rating and was named American Film Institute’s No. 2 romantic comedy. “Annie Hall” won four Academy Awards in 1978.

This Black comedy about nuclear armageddon features Peter Sellers playing multiple roles, including a German-accented adviser to the president, also played by Sellers. The film, directed by Stanley Kubrick, came out after a thriller with the same theme, “Fail Safe,” was released the same year.

Out-of-work actor Dustin Hoffman dons a dress to boost his career and becomes a soap-opera star. The Sydney Pollack-directed farce enjoys a 90% Freshness rating on Rotten Tomatoes and grossed more than $177 million worldwide. Jessica Lange took home the Best Supporting Actress Oscar in 1983.

Tony Curtis and Jack Lemmon play two jazz musicians forced to become cross-dressing members of an all-women band to avoid being killed by mobsters after witnessing the St. Valentine’s Day Massacre. Directed by Billy Wilder, “Some Like It Hot” is an homage to gangster movies, screwball comedies, and silent films. It was named BBC Culture’s funniest comedy film of all time.