15 Best Comedy Movies on Netflix
Editor’s Note: This post is updated monthly. Bookmark this page and come back every month to see what unknown classics are being added to Netflix.
Updated for September 2017
Sometimes you just gotta laugh. And your freindly neighborhood streaming services are always up to help.
Netflix in particular knows of your intense desire to laugh. Netflix knows everything about you. Netflix loves you. Do what Netflix tells you.
Whoops! Sorry about that. Blacked out for a moment. But anyway, here is our list of the best comedy movies on Netflix.
Heavyweights
“Lunch has been cancelled due to lack of hustle. Deal with it.” Newly released on Netflix, ‘90s kids-comedy Heavyweights is that rare nostalgia-bait that actually holds up. Credit that to a crack script from Steven Brill and a little-known first time writer by the name of Judd Apatow that brings the belly laughs. The film centers on a children’s fat camp that’s bought out by a fitness guru who aims to authoritatively transform the camp into an infomercial for his own personal financial gain. The villainous fitness freak, Tony Perkis, is played by another young upstart, Ben Stiller.
Stiller is a force of nature as Perkis, a role that would go on to inform his standout cameo in Happy Gilmore and his Dodgeball villain White Goodman. The film also features SNL-powerhouse Kenan Thompson in his first film role, and Bridesmaids director Paul Fieg in his old gig as an actor. Funny for the whole family, Heavyweights is ‘90s relic worth revisiting.
– Nick Harley
Heathers
This might be one of the best films of all time. Let’s also be honest, this is the original Mean Girls. Everything about this movie is terrible. The “Heathers Clique” is terrible, there’s bullies and guns. Basically, this movie amplifies everything that is wrong with high school and brings it to an absurdist level, which is exactly what you want, right?
The best thing about this movie is that at its worse, it’s a rom-com and at its best, it’s a horror flick. Heathers is incredibly dark. It gives most other dark comedies a run for their playing-it-safe money. J.D. and Veronica in the boiler room is one of those moments that will remain in the canon of unforgettable scenes in movie history.
– Daniella Bondar
Hot Fuzz
The action segment in Edgar Wright’s “Three Flavors Cornetto” Trilogy, Hot Fuzz is a genre-busting delight. Yes, Hot Fuzz is a very funny film, and yet another satisfying contribution from Edgar Wright, Simon Pegg, and Nick Frost, but it’s also one of the most intelligent action films that you’ll come across and a brilliant dissection of the genre.
It’s not surprising that Edgar Wright used over 100 action films for inspiration here. There is also plenty of buddy cop bliss to laugh at while watching Pegg’s Nicholas Angel get used to his new stomping grounds. The jokes come fast and aggressive, and it’s crazy that Wright and company have more ammunition for the action genre than they did with zombies in Shaun of the Dead.
Also, that turn towards the end when the film becomes all of the action films that it’s been making fun of the entire time is such a glorious, insane moment of cinema.
– Daniel Kurland
Barton Fink
Barton Fink is the ultimate writer’s movie, and probably one of the best Coen Brothers movies. John Turturro as Barton Fink is a master class is being a dysfunctional writer. The real star of the show, however, is John Goodman as the irreverent Charlie Meadows.
The film is kind of like the lovechild of Wes Anderson and Quentin Tarantino. It’s got the quirky, the weird, and the noir. It’s a wonderful dark comedic and highly entertaining flick.
– Daniella Bondar
Wet Hot American Summer
Wet Hot American Summer is unrestrained madness disguised as a simple camp comedy. Convention is even stuck to for a fair bit, but once some campers head “to town,” all bets are off. If you’ve ever turned on Adult Swim, you’ve surely seen the bulk of the actors that fill up Camp Firewood, but it’s kind of inspiring to just watch these guys be idiots in their first real, big project. With the success of everyone in the cast now, it’s easy to see why Netflix ponied up on doing a prequel series for the show.
Elastic reality, instantly quotable lines, and an incredible cast. And with Netflix’s release of a sequel series being right around the corner, what better time to get reacquainted with this flick?
– Daniel Kurland
Pee-Wee’s Big Holiday
It blows my mind that Netflix’s recent Pee-Wee project could not only be so successful, but that it might even be a little more fantastical than the previous films before it. John Lee and Paul Rust step up to the plate as director and writer as they perfectly tap into Pee-Wee’s warped innocence. Reuben’s iconic character is taken on a cross-country road trip, introducing him to many off kilter individuals, all of which underscore the idea that everyone has a little Pee-Wee in them. Plus, it’s got Joe Manganiello (your next Deathstroke) playing himself, acting as Pee-Wee’s best friend, and it’s sort of incredible.
– Daniel Kurland
The Big Short
Financial collapse, the implosion of the housing market, Wall Street bailouts, and the precipice of a second Great Depression? So a subject ripe for a barrel of laughs, eh? Well, that’s what Adam McKay, director of Anchorman and Step Brothers, at least thought! Jumping from SNL to the Oscar stage, McKay gave us an unrelentingly hilarious bout of dark humor and despair in this deconstruction of how Wall Street should have seen the bubble burst coming, but kept partying until it was time to leave the taxpayers with the bill.
The film’s protagonists are the wiseguys who saw it coming, including hedgefund managers, brokers, and a number of other folks who are mostly played by movie stars (including Christian Bale, Ryan Gosling, and Steve Carell), who have no qualms talking to the audience, or bringing other celebrities like Margot Robbie and Anthony Bourdain in for fourth-wall breaking non-sequiturs. This is all in the hope of making sense of how the 2008 crash happened… and hopefully to cause audiences to laugh at how easily it’ll happen again.
Given how 2016 went, laughing is all we can do at this point as the derivative casinos inevitably open for business once more in the New Year.
– David Crow
Who Framed Roger Rabbit?
When I was a kid, I routinely watched Who Framed Roger Rabbit? having no idea that it was a satire of film noir and Hollywood culture. To me, Roger Rabbit seemed no less legit a children’s cartoon character than say Bugs Bunny or Donald Duck. Therein lies the brilliance of Who Framed Roger Rabbit? It’s a hilariously dark and gritty detective noir piece in which the real world just happens to coincide with the animated world. But that animated world is so perfectly realized and realistic that after a few minutes into the movie, it barely feels strange or jarring at all to watch Bob Hoskins interact with literal cartoon characters.
– Alec Bojalad
Tropic Thunder
Tropic Thunder is the rare big budget comedy action film that works. Not only does it work, it’s one of the better satires of the previous decade. It achieves this because it’s object of satire is so easy. It essentially asks “Actors? A bit full of themselves, right?” Ben Stiller, Jack Black and Robert Downey Jr. all star as actors of various levels of success. Stiller is an action hero, Black has a comedy franchise about a farting family and Downey Jr. is the serious capital “A” actor. Together, they all descend into the Vietnam jungle to make an award-worthy Vietnam war movie. Things do not go well.
– Alec Bojalad
Don’t Think Twice
Our culture’s appetite for comedy has never been more voracious. Still we don’t get enough movies about the inner-workings of comedy as a profession and an industry as we deserve. Don’t Think Twice is one of the great exceptions. Don’t Think Twice is the second film from stand-up comedian and filmmaker Mike Birbiglia. It features an amazing cast that includes Gillian Jacobs, Keegan Michael-Key and about a half-dozen other “hey, I know that actor(s).” It’s about members of a comedy troupe who are all vying or have vyed for an appearance on an SNL-like comedy show. Don’t Think Twice is both funny and an uncomfortably realistic saga about the limitations of dreams.
– Alec Bojalad
Masterminds
Nothing says comedy moreso than Zach Galifianakis’ phsyical appearance in this movie. Galifianakis has always been good at utilizing his versatile head and facial hair to great comedic effect but they’ve never worked better than they do in Masterminds. Beyond just the hair, Masterminds is a funny comedy featuring an even funnier cast. Galifianakis, Kristen Wiig, Jason Sudeikis, Kate McKinnon, Leslie Jones and Owen Wilson all make appearances in this true story about a folksy robbery gone wrong.
– Alec Bojalad
Young Frankenstein
Let’s be clear: it’s joyous news anytime a Mel Brooks comedy comes to a streaming service. Young Frankenstein in particular though? Knock us over with a feather. Young Frankenstein is one of the funnier Brooks films ever and therefore one of the funniest films ever. Gene Wilder stars as the titular Frankenstein (pronounced Fronk-en-steen, naturally) who tries to avoid the sins of his mad scientist grandfather by doing pretty much exactly the same thing his grandfather did. Then much dancing is to be had.
– Alec Bojalad
Best in Show
There may not be a better comedic movie franchise than Christopher Guest’s loosely connected mockumentary films. Depending on whether you count This is Spinal Tap, Best in Show is undoubtedly the best or second best. It’s the fake documentary of a Westminster-style dog show and all the various strange characters that populate it. It’s hard to pick a favorite but Eugene Levy and Catherine O’Hara turn in some of the best work of their career in this film.
– Alec Bojalad
Little Evil
Little Evil is one of the original movies that Netflix seems to excel at identifying and picking up. The premise is just so killer that you can’t conceive of why it’s taken so long to get here. What if The Omen were a comedy? Adam Scott stars as a man named Gary who loves his new wife Samantha (Evangeline Lily). There just happens to be something a little weird about her son, Lucas. Namely that’s he’s clearly the son of the devil. Which would make sense as Samantha was in a cult in her wild younger years.
– Alec Bojalad
She’s Gotta Have It
Like many of Spike Lee’s films, calling She’s Gotta Have It a “comedy” seems a bit reductive. Still this comedy-drama is very much equal parts both. She’s Gotta Have It, Lee’s first film (and he actually co-stars as well) stars Tracy Camilla Johns as Nola, a young woman juggling three sutiors. She likes aspects of each of them but not any one of them entirely. The movie is about self-discover and autonomy – which may seem to be at odds with its comedy and romance movie aims but that’s the genius of Spike Lee. It all makes sense under his stewardship and Johns’ command of her character.
