He wrings a ton of comedy out of responding to everything with wide-eyed, childlike wonder. Nothing represents Christmas cheer better than Will Ferrell in yellow tights, a green parka and cone-shaped cap. Is there any comedic Christmas character that embodies a genuine love of Christmas? Thankfully, we have Will Ferrell’s fearlessly committed performance as the titular elf to answer this question with a resounding yes. In a sense, making Christmas “funny” can be as easy as responding to something meant to be sincere and joyful with cynicism and darkness. Though plenty of the film’s scenes possess an honed improv feel much like the extemporaneous riffing of Anchorman, they are also usually more focused-in terms of plotting, there’s so little time to waste when the end is nigh. As over the top as many of its scenes are, it’s hard not to credit the apocalypse itself for This Is the End’s sustained hilarity. (In fact, Michael Cera seems intent on presenting the worst-though still hilarious-version of himself possible.) If anything, this willingness to mock themselves makes the characters all the more endearing, especially as the initial bro-mance between principles Jay Baruchel and Seth Rogen reasserts itself amid flames, desperation and demon cocks. The stars and bit players of This Is the End show no such inhibitions. In comedies especially, the “actors starring as themselves” approach is so often more painful than funny, especially when a brand-conscious star betrays an ego-tinged reluctance to make fun of oneself. (Oh, eyes may still roll, but they do so while laughing.) Fueled by a mercilessly self-skewering ensemble effort from its principles (Craig Robinson, Danny McBride and Jonah Hill round out the core cast), the humor of This Is the End goes turbo as soon as the End is near, providing scene after scene that is dependably funny and frequently riotous. But the latter, done right, is an equal opportunity amuser. The former-all fart, poop and pratfall-is the stuff that the eye rolls of girlfriends and wives is made of (not to mention a good portion of Adam Sandler and Kevin James’ careers). Yet there’s a pretty potent distinction between puerile and “late-juvenile” humor. Too often, Hollywood comedies aimed at a male audience skew more towards the single-digit side of the age scale. We appreciate those pioneers, but there are plenty of lists out there giving them their due. This should not be seen as a slight (intended or unintended) against any director or movie. Finally, and related to the previous point, since this list does not weigh factors such as “cultural impact” or “pioneering importance” as heavily as it could, it inevitably skews more modern. Or perhaps, as with Laurel and Hardy and the Three Stooges, the type of humor they pioneered has been adopted and developed in iterations that have the end result of bumping them down or off the list. Second, there are some films-and some comedic actors-whose importance to the development of the genre is unquestioned even as their appeal to modern audiences has waned due to changing times and tastes. More often, it’ll mean a more precipitous drop.
In some cases, that may mean just a spot or two lower on the list. So, what’s the criteria for our list of best comedy movies of all time? First, it means some great films that are also comedies may appear lower on the list than they would if we were weighing technical execution of those non-comic elements equally with humor present.
That, in turn, means a couple of things for what might otherwise be the usual suspects on a Best Comedies list.
These films have been chosen (and ranked) based on how many laughs we think they are likely to generate for the modern audience. Faced with this challenge, we’ve decided to approach this particular list in a manner that seeks to guarantee laughter and amusement for the people most likely to look to it when seeking something that will bring some joy to the daily grind. In considering the top comedies ever made, there are as many flavors of culturally specific comedy as there are cultural sensibilities (and, of course, there are plenty of folks capable of enjoying more than one type). For others, deft character studies that find the humor in our all-too-human foibles are the only comedies worth watching. For some, slapstick and farce hit the spot while more cerebral fare falls flat. But while all lists, no matter how objective a scale one tries to apply, have some degree of subjectivity to them, few things are as subjective as humor. It’s not because there’s any shortage of great comedies out there-as a category, the film comedy has existed from pretty much the beginning. Of all Paste’s curated Best 100 lists, the top comedies of all time has probably been the toughest to put together.