Top 10 Best Comedy Films of All Time

Stanley Kubrick's 1964 political satire — in which accidental nuclear war is played entirely for laughs — holds a 98% Rotten Tomatoes score and was named to TIME magazine's 100 Best Films of All Time. Peter Sellers plays three distinct roles, the screenplay is co-written with Terry Southern, and Kubrick reportedly modeled the War Room set on a poker table at his request.

Woody Allen's 1977 romantic comedy broke every convention of the genre — characters address the camera directly, scenes unfold out of chronological order, and the couple explicitly does not end up together — and won four Academy Awards including Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Original Screenplay. Diane Keaton's fashion in the film launched the Annie Hall look as a global style trend.

Buster Keaton's 1926 masterwork cost $400,000 to make — the most expensive silent film ever produced — and was a commercial failure on release, nearly ending his career. Re-evaluated over decades, it was added to the Library of Congress National Film Registry and ranked by Sight and Sound magazine among the ten greatest films ever made in a 1972 poll, the most authoritative critical ranking in cinema.

The Zucker-Abrahams-Zucker team s 1980 parody of the Airport disaster films cost 3.5 million to produce and grossed 83 million domestically, making it one of the most profitable comedies ever made. Film scholars have counted an average of 14 jokes per minute — the highest gag density of any mainstream film — and many scenes have been individually named the funniest moments in cinema history.

Harold Ramis and Bill Murray's 1993 comedy about a weatherman stuck reliving the same day has entered the cultural lexicon so thoroughly that 'Groundhog Day' now appears in the Oxford English Dictionary as a metaphor for repetitive situations. Added to the National Film Registry in 2006, it grossed 105 million and is considered by philosophers a genuine exploration of Buddhist ideas about rebirth and self-improvement.

Made in 1975 for just 229,000 pounds — the cast used coconut shells instead of horses because they could not afford horses — Monty Python and the Holy Grail has earned over 229 million dollars in lifetime revenues and spawned the Tony Award-winning Broadway musical Spamalot in 2005. The British Film Institute named it the 5th greatest British film ever made.

Sydney Pollack's 1982 comedy stars Dustin Hoffman as an unemployable actor who disguises himself as a woman to win a soap opera role — and is ranked number 2 greatest comedy of all time by the AFI. It was nominated for 10 Academy Awards, with Jessica Lange winning Best Supporting Actress, and grossed 177 million dollars, making it the second highest-grossing film of 1982 behind E.T.

Mike Nichols' 1967 black comedy — in which a directionless college graduate has an affair with his girlfriend's mother — launched Dustin Hoffman to stardom, introduced Simon and Garfunkel to cinema, and earned 104 million on a 3 million dollar budget. Its final scene, in which the couple escapes a wedding only to sit in silence on a bus realizing their mistake, was voted by Empire magazine the greatest ending in cinema history.

Wes Anderson's 2014 caper — following a legendary hotel concierge framed for murder in a fictional Central European country — won 4 Academy Awards including Best Original Screenplay and grossed 175 million on a 25 million dollar budget. With 9 total Oscar nominations and 91% on Rotten Tomatoes, it is Anderson's most commercially successful and critically acclaimed film.

Stanley Kubrick's 1964 political satire — in which accidental nuclear war is played entirely for laughs — holds a 98% Rotten Tomatoes score and was named to TIME magazine's 100 Best Films of All Time. Peter Sellers plays three distinct roles, the screenplay is co-written with Terry Southern, and Kubrick reportedly modeled the War Room set on a poker table at his request.

Woody Allen's 1977 romantic comedy broke every convention of the genre — characters address the camera directly, scenes unfold out of chronological order, and the couple explicitly does not end up together — and won four Academy Awards including Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Original Screenplay. Diane Keaton's fashion in the film launched the Annie Hall look as a global style trend.

Buster Keaton's 1926 masterwork cost $400,000 to make — the most expensive silent film ever produced — and was a commercial failure on release, nearly ending his career. Re-evaluated over decades, it was added to the Library of Congress National Film Registry and ranked by Sight and Sound magazine among the ten greatest films ever made in a 1972 poll, the most authoritative critical ranking in cinema.

The Zucker-Abrahams-Zucker team s 1980 parody of the Airport disaster films cost 3.5 million to produce and grossed 83 million domestically, making it one of the most profitable comedies ever made. Film scholars have counted an average of 14 jokes per minute — the highest gag density of any mainstream film — and many scenes have been individually named the funniest moments in cinema history.

Harold Ramis and Bill Murray's 1993 comedy about a weatherman stuck reliving the same day has entered the cultural lexicon so thoroughly that 'Groundhog Day' now appears in the Oxford English Dictionary as a metaphor for repetitive situations. Added to the National Film Registry in 2006, it grossed 105 million and is considered by philosophers a genuine exploration of Buddhist ideas about rebirth and self-improvement.

Made in 1975 for just 229,000 pounds — the cast used coconut shells instead of horses because they could not afford horses — Monty Python and the Holy Grail has earned over 229 million dollars in lifetime revenues and spawned the Tony Award-winning Broadway musical Spamalot in 2005. The British Film Institute named it the 5th greatest British film ever made.

Sydney Pollack's 1982 comedy stars Dustin Hoffman as an unemployable actor who disguises himself as a woman to win a soap opera role — and is ranked number 2 greatest comedy of all time by the AFI. It was nominated for 10 Academy Awards, with Jessica Lange winning Best Supporting Actress, and grossed 177 million dollars, making it the second highest-grossing film of 1982 behind E.T.

Mike Nichols' 1967 black comedy — in which a directionless college graduate has an affair with his girlfriend's mother — launched Dustin Hoffman to stardom, introduced Simon and Garfunkel to cinema, and earned 104 million on a 3 million dollar budget. Its final scene, in which the couple escapes a wedding only to sit in silence on a bus realizing their mistake, was voted by Empire magazine the greatest ending in cinema history.

Wes Anderson's 2014 caper — following a legendary hotel concierge framed for murder in a fictional Central European country — won 4 Academy Awards including Best Original Screenplay and grossed 175 million on a 25 million dollar budget. With 9 total Oscar nominations and 91% on Rotten Tomatoes, it is Anderson's most commercially successful and critically acclaimed film.