The 20 best comedy movies on Netflix

21 Jump Street (2012)

Revived from the hit ‘80s TV show starring Johnny Depp, the film version of 21 Jump Street has been reconfigured for the new millennium. Jonah Hill and Channing Tatum star as Schmidt and Jenko, police partners with opposite personalities and a common goal: to infiltrate a local high school and stop the spread of HFS — a synthetic drug better known on the streets as "Holy F---ing S---.”

Featuring Dave Franco as a student drug dealer and Brie Larson as the girl Schmidt can’t stop thinking about, 21 Jump Street is particularly notable for giving Tatum the opportunity to put his impressive comedic abilities on display, instead of just his abs. —Ilana Gordon    

Where to watch 21 Jump Street: Netflix

EW grade: A (read the review)

Directors: Phil Lord, Christopher Miller

Cast: Jonah Hill, Channing Tatum, Brie Larson, Dave Franco, Rob Riggle, Ice Cube

Anchorman (2004)

One of the most quotable films made in the early aughts, Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy is an unserious film about an unserious man, but it can evoke a serious amount of joy. Set in the 1970s, Will Ferrell stars as Ron Burgundy, San Diego’s beloved news anchor, who feels threatened when Veronica Corningstone (Christina Applegate) is invited to co-anchor the news alongside him. 

A satirical look at the boys’ club mentality prevalent in the workforce as women began to compete more assertively, Anchorman possesses an absurdist energy that’s hard to find outside an Adam McKay/Will Ferrell collaboration. Featuring an ensemble cast of comedy elites, Anchorman is not even close to McKay’s hardest-hitting satirical contribution, but it’s definitely one his silliest. —I.G.

Where to watch Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy: Netflix

Director: Adam McKay

Cast: Will Ferrell, Christina Applegate, Paul Rudd, Steve Carell

A Simple Favor (2018)

Stephanie (Anna Kendrick) is a single-mom blogger, the queen of domesticity, and the perfect PTA mom. When she meets Emily (Blake Lively), a fellow mother who’s a PR exec, the two become fast friends. But when Emily subsequently goes missing, Stephanie decides to take it upon herself to solve the disappearance. 

To say this is not an ordinary “missing person” case is an understatement. Beneath the bright, candy-colored, fashion-forward surfaces of A Simple Favor is a deceptively tangled tale of competing identities — mistaken, invented, hidden — that makes great, twisty use of its two stars’ very specific personas. —Will Harris

Where to watch A Simple Favor: Netflix

EW grade: B+ (read the review)

Director: Paul Feig

Cast: Blake Lively, Anna Kendrick, Henry Golding, Andrew Rannells, Linda Cardellini, Jean Smart

Bad Words (2013)

When 40-year-old Guy Trilby (Jason Bateman) discovers a loophole in the rules of the Golden Quill Spelling Bee — an event not usually intended for adults — he enters the competition, much to the dismay of the other contestants’ parents. 

This is a comedy you watch to see what imaginatively offensive thing Guy will say next — think Veep vibes, but with the barbs aimed at 12-year-olds and their folks. It also doubles as a breezy buddy movie, with young competitor Chaitanya (Rohan Chand) breaking down Guy’s bitter exterior to find the soft, nougaty center underneath. —W.H.

Where to watch Bad Words: Netflix

EW grade: A– (read the review)

Director: Jason Bateman

Cast: Jason Bateman, Kathryn Hahn, Rohan Chand, Ben Falcone, Philip Baker Hall, Allison Janney

The Ballad of Buster Scruggs (2018)

The Coen brothers got tired of limiting themselves to one narrative in their projects, so for their Netflix film, The Ballad of Buster Scruggs, they decided to mix it up and tell multiple stories. Set up as a six-part Western anthology, the film focuses thematically on the American frontier, and tells the stories of a cheerful cowboy, an unlucky would-be bank robber, a traveling promoter whose business is going downhill, a grizzled prospector, a woman headed West in search of a husband, and a group of passengers in a stagecoach.

While the Coens mess around with genre in each chapter and the cast differs from story to story, the six narratives are given a sense of consistency courtesy of the unique Coen voice, which the pair previously deployed on projects like True Grit and No Country for Old Men. And while there are certainly frontrunner stories in terms of quality and effectiveness, the entire film is worth a watch. —I.G.

Where to watch The Ballad of Buster Scruggs: Netflix

EW grade: B (read the review)

Directors: Joel Coen, Ethan Coen

Cast: Tyne Daly, James Franco, Brendan Gleeson, Bill Heck, Grainger Hines, Zoe Kazan, Harry Melling, Liam Neeson, Tim Blake Nelson, Jonjo O'Neill, Chelcie Ross, Saul Rubinek, Tom Waits

Big Daddy (1999)

In the ‘90s, Adam Sandler’s brand mostly consisted of singing silly songs on Saturday Night Live and making movies about characters stuck somewhere along the spectrum of arrested development. Big Daddy begins in a similar fashion: Sonny Koufax (Sandler) is a 32-year-old law school graduate and toll booth worker primarily living off a lawsuit settlement. That all changes when a strange child (played by Dylan and Cole Sprouse) arrives on his doorstep and, through a series of events, becomes Sonny’s problem. 

A charming film about growing up, stepping up, and finding family in all places, Big Daddy isn’t the usual Sandler laugh-fest, but as EW’s review at the time notes, the film is “a slapstick testament to fatherhood as second childhood.” —I.G.   

Where to watch Big Daddy: Netflix

EW grade: B– (read the review)

Director: Dennis Dugan

Cast: Adam Sandler, Joey Lauren Adams, Jon Stewart, Rob Schneider, Cole Sprouse, Dylan Sprouse, Leslie Mann

Bridesmaids (2011)

Among its many credentials, Bridesmaids boasts the impressive distinction of being the only Oscar-nominated movie that also features a woman experiencing extreme diarrhea in the middle of a crowded street. Co-written by Kristen Wiig and Annie Mumolo (earning a Best Original Screenplay nod) and starring an impressive ensemble cast led by Wiig, Maya Rudolph, Rose Byrne, and Melissa McCarthy (who received an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actress), Bridesmaids was the breakout comedy of 2011.

Whip-smart, heartfelt, and deliciously raunchy, the film follows Annie (Wiig) as she helps plan her best friend Lillian’s (Rudolph) bridal activities. From dress shopping to bachelorette parties to bridal showers gone terribly wrong, Annie struggles to deal with her bestie’s new life changes while also competing for attention against Lillian’s new friend Helen (Byrne). Relatable to anyone who has ever attended a wedding or experienced hellacious food poisoning, consider committing to watching Bridesmaids. —I.G.      

Where to watch Bridesmaids: Netflix

EW grade: A (read the review)

Director: Paul Feig

Cast: Kristen Wiig, Maya Rudolph, Rose Byrne, Wendi McLendon-Covey, Ellie Kemper, Melissa McCarthy, Chris O'Dowd

Dolemite Is My Name (2019)

In this biopic written by Scott Alexander and Larry Karaszewski (Ed Wood, Man on the Moon), Eddie Murphy plays Rudy Ray Moore, who works at a record store but knows he has something more to offer. Through sheer force of will — and a sharp ear for the raunchy, rough-edged poetry found on the streets and fringes — he transforms himself into a cult sensation, from his so-called “party records,” to live performances, to some of the most ridiculous and memorable Blaxploitation films of the ’70s. 

Murphy’s sheer charisma and star power make this movie land, but Wesley Snipes’ surprising comic chops are the secret sauce. —W.H.

Where to watch Dolemite Is My Name: Netflix

EW grade: B+ (read the review)

Director: Craig Brewer

Cast: Eddie Murphy, Da’Vine Joy Randolph, Wesley Snipes, Keegan-Michael Key, Mike Epps, Craig Robinson, Tituss Burgess

Don't Look Up (2021)

For all the disaster movies Hollywood has brought us over the years, it took Adam McKay to posit an all-too-realistic scenario in which a pair of scientists (Leonardo DiCaprio and Jennifer Lawrence) become aware of impending doom, bring their intel to the government, and see their warning spun for political gain. 

It’s a dark comedy, to be sure, but one that takes full advantage of its star power: as EW’s critic writes, “[McKay’s] casting cup overruns almost casually with A-list guests, from a distinctly silly Ariana Grande cameo to a charming and markedly more substantial turn by Timothée Chalamet as a delinquent skateboarder with a thing for Kate's choppy bangs.” —W.H.

Where to watch Don’t Look Up: Netflix

EW grade: B (read the review)

Director: Adam McKay

Cast: Leonardo DiCaprio, Jennifer Lawrence, Meryl Streep, Cate Blanchett, Rob Morgan, Jonah Hill, Timothée Chalamet

Eurovision: The Story of Fire Saga (2020)

The Eurovision Song Contest has been beloved globally for decades…except in the U.S., where it’s virtually unknown. As such, many Americans missed the boat on this absurd yet sincere comedy. Lars (Will Ferrell) and Sigrit (Rachel McAdams) are longtime not-quite-sweethearts from Iceland who, as Fire Saga, are on a quest to win the competition. 

In addition to being funny, Eurovision is also filled with quippy and catchy performances and songs, so expect some of the tunes to get stuck in your head. —W.H.

Where to watch Eurovision: The Story of Fire Saga: Netflix

Director: David Dobkin

Cast: Will Ferrell, Rachel McAdams, Dan Stevens, Melissanthi Nahut, Mikael Persbrandt, Olafur Darri Olafsson

Fast Times at Ridgemont High (1982)

From the woman who bought us Clueless comes a romantic comedy about the perils and pleasures of attending high school in the Valley during the 1980s. Amy Heckerling’s directorial debut, Fast Times at Ridgemont High is based on journalist Cameron Crowe’s (Almost Famous) year of undercover reporting, which he conducted from inside a public high school.  

The film follows four students — two sophomores and two seniors — as they spend their school year learning about sex, drugs, and, occasionally, life. Starring an ensemble cast of up-and-comers, and full of Heckerling’s singular ability to create full characters and capture generational quirks and slang, the film was received as a raunchy, teen comedy in the style of Animal House. But with time has come recognition, and the film is now considered a classic, appreciated for its progressive portrayals of abortion and female sexuality. —I.G.

Where to watch Fast Times at Ridgemont High: Netflix

Director: Amy Heckerling

Cast: Sean Penn, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Judge Reinhold, Phoebe Cates, Brian Backer, Robert Romanus, Ray Walston

Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery (2022)

Rian Johnson is a man who laughs in the face of genre: from fantasy blockbusters like Star Wars to whodunnit comedies, this writer-director gets around. And after a three-year hiatus, he and everyone’s favorite pastel-clad detective, Benoit Blanc (Daniel Craig), are back with a second addition to their Knives Out franchise. Released both in theaters and on Netflix, Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery tells the story of a friend group caught up in the allures of money, fame, power, and murder — but in all truthfulness, the film is just as effective as travel propaganda for the Greek island on which the story is set.

Glass Onion pales slightly when directly compared to the first film in the franchise, but as our critic writes, the sequel is not here for that. “It’s here strictly to dazzle you with money and murder and famous-people pandemonium, then sharpen its knives for the next installment.” —I.G.

Where to watch Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery: Netflix

EW grade: B+ (read the review)

Director: Rian Johnson

Cast: Daniel Craig, Edward Norton, Janelle Monáe, Dave Bautista, Kate Hudson, Kathryn Hahn, Leslie Odom Jr.

The Lovebirds (2020)

After four years of dating, Jibran (Kumail Nanjiani) and Leilani (Issa Rae) are prepared to call it quits — until the couple finds themselves involved in a murder that requires them to put their break up aside and go on the run. Too concerned about racial profiling to involve the police, Jibran and Leilani must hunt down the identity of the man who was murdered so they can find out who killed him and clear their own names.

Directed by Michael Showalter (Wet Hot American Summer), The Lovebirds is a romantic evening gone wrong in the style of films like 2010's Date Night and 2018's Game Night. Boasting a high ratio of jokes per minute and a pair of lead actors who know how to wield their witticisms like machetes, Nanjiani and Rae's on screen bickering and loving needling will have you rooting for their relationship, even as it's falling apart. —I.G.

Where to watch The Lovebirds: Netflix

EW grade: B (read the review)

Director: Michael Showalter

Cast: Kumail Nanjiani, Issa Rae, Anna Camp, Paul Sparks

Mr. & Mrs. Smith (2005)

Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie weren’t a couple yet when they played assassins tasked with killing each other in Mr. and Mrs. Smith, but after seeing these two on screen together, it’s not surprising they became one. The movie is awash with anxiety and anticipation, suspicion and curiosity, while the actors’ chemistry — both sexual and comic, romantic and adversarial — is reminiscent of Hollywood’s classic star system (but with more machine guns). 

The movie is not just an explosively entertaining, twisty action flick, but a satirical examination of marriage, relationships, and compromise. Its premise proved successful enough to result in a recent TV incarnation, with Donald Glover and Maya Erskine finding a palpable chemistry of their own. —W.H.

Where to watch Mr. and Mrs. Smith: Netflix

Director: Doug Liman

Cast: Brad Pitt, Angelina Jolie, Vince Vaughn, Kerry Washington, Adam Brody, Keith David

The Munsters (2022)

There was a time in the 1960s when the so-called “monster kids,” i.e. fans of the Universal stable of horror icons, would regularly bicker back and forth about which was better: The Addams Family or The Munsters. For Rob Zombie, it was The Munsters, and he took his love of that sitcom, combined it with his cinematic sensibilities, and rebooted the franchise. 

Zombie’s film offers the origin of the Transylvanian love story between Frankenstein’s monster Herman (Jeff Daniel Phillips) and vampire Lily (Sheri Moon Zombie). It’s a weird piece of work, but you can feel the love. —W.H.

Where to watch The Munsters: Netflix

Director: Rob Zombie

Cast: Jeff Daniel Phillips, Sheri Moon Zombie, Daniel Roebuck, Richard Brake, Jorge Garcia, Sylvester McCoy

No Hard Feelings (2023)

Jennifer Lawrence is such an accomplished dramatic actress, it’s easy to forget her first big career break came on the TBS sitcom The Bill Engvall Show. But her comedic chops are rock solid, and she gets to show them off in the 2023 raunch-com No Hard Feelings. Lawrence plays Maddie, a struggling thirtysomething who agrees to seduce a wealthy couple’s introverted 19-year-old in exchange for a car.

The premise is simple but the execution is designed to let Lawrence play in ways we haven’t seen since Silver Linings Playbook. From taking throat punches to brawling naked, the Oscar winner manages to balance the physical comedy of the film while still centering the story’s emotional heart. As EW’s critic writes, No Hard Feelings is “a reminder that Lawrence is one Hollywood's best (and funniest) leads.” —I.G.

Where to watch No Hard Feelings: Netflix

EW grade: B (read the review)

Director: Gene Stupnitsky

Cast: Jennifer Lawrence, Andrew Barth Feldman, Laura Benanti, Natalie Morales, Matthew Broderick

The Peanut Butter Falcon (2019)

Zak (Zack Gottsagen), a young boy with Down syndrome, manages to elude the nurses at his facility and embark on a quest to live his dream and become a professional wrestler under the tutelage of the Salt Water Redneck (Thomas Haden Church). He’s joined by a new friend (Shia LaBeouf) and, eventually, his former caretaker (Dakota Johnson).

Ostensibly a sort of modern-day take on Huckleberry Finn, it’s a heartwarming road trip movie, as you’d guess, but it’s also a quirky comedy that takes some turns you might not expect. —W.H. 

Where to watch The Peanut Butter Falcon: Netflix

Directors: Tyler Nilson, Michael Schwartz

Cast: Shia LaBeouf, Dakota Johnson, John Hawkes, Bruce Dern, Zack Gottsagen, Jon Bernthal

Tangerine (2015)

The 2015 film Tangerine was shot using 3 iPhones, but you’d never know it. Set on Christmas Eve, the film follows two transgender sex workers as they take care of business in Los Angeles during an action-packed holiday evening. Written and directed by Sean Baker (The Florida Project), the film’s nontraditional cinematic style captures the city — and the story’s subjects — in ways that are both unique and comfortingly familiar.

The comedy is not intended to be fun for the whole family (unless the whole family is into viewing some intimate moments together) but it is also not intended as a morality play or cautionary tale. What distinguishes Tangerine from other films that take on the world’s oldest profession is, as EW’s review notes, “its non-condescending stance toward working girls and the spirit of the sidewalk.” —I.G.

Where to watch Tangerine: Netflix

EW grade: A– (read the review)

Director: Sean Baker

Cast: Kitana Kiki Rodriguez, Mya Taylor, Karren Karagulian, Mickey O'Hagan, Alla Tumanian, James Ransone

They Cloned Tyrone (2022)

A single genre isn't enough to contain They Cloned Tyrone. A sci-fi comedy that combines '70s Blaxploitation with mystery and social satire, the film has similar vibes to movies like Get Out (2017) or Sorry to Bother You (2018) while employing a far more absurd premise. Fontaine (John Boyega) is a drug dealer living in an impoverished area called the Glen. While trying to collect funds owed to him by a local pimp named Slick Charles (Jamie Foxx), Fontaine is shot and killed — but that doesn't stop him from showing up on Slick's doorstep the next day to collect his money.

Joined by sex worker YoYo (Teyonah Parris), the trio attempts to get to the bottom of what appears to be a massive government conspiracy aimed at exploiting their disenfranchised community as medical subjects. A satirical romp that has as much to say about class and racial injustices as it does about mystery movie tropes, They Cloned Tyrone is smart, silly, and uniformly well-acted. —I.G.

Where to watch They Cloned Tyrone: Netflix

Director: Juel Taylor

Cast: John Boyega, Teyonah Parris, Jamie Foxx

Zombieland (2009)

A fusion of zombie rom-com and roadtrip movie, Zombieland offered a little something for everyone when it came out in 2009. The film stars Woody Harrelson, Jesse Eisenberg, Emma Stone, and Abigail Breslin as survivors of a national epidemic who meet up on the road and agree to head west together.

Known only to each other by their cities of origin, Columbus (Eisenberg), a former college student; Tallahassee (Harrelson), a zombie-killing aficionado; and sisters Wichita (Stone) and Little Rock (Breslin) find themselves breaking all of their apocalypse rules and trusting each other as they head to California in search of a zombie-free space. As EW’s critic at the time writes, “Zombieland is a polished, very funny road picture shaped by wisenheimer cable-TV sensibilities.” —I.G.

Where to watch Zombieland: Netflix

EW grade: B+ (read the review)

Director: Ruben Fleischer

Cast: Woody Harrelson, Jesse Eisenberg, Emma Stone, Abigail Breslin