Last Updated on 11 April 2024
I searched the Internet for lists of the funniest or best comedy movies of all time. Criteria included the movies being ranked, not just listed, and generally created by groups, whether teams or committees or based on general public voting (like Ranker.com). I ended up including both “funniest movies” lists and “best comedies” lists, even though there’s technically a difference. I figured the blend of the two would produce the best results.
I was able to find 27 lists. I took the 27 lists and added all their content into a spreadsheet, noting the rank of every film. I ended up averaging the rankings each movie got (there were 354 that were on at least 2 lists) and dividing that average by a factor of the number of lists that movie was on. The lowest score meant a high ranking average on many lists. The complete spreadsheet is attached at the bottom.
The movies that were on the most lists (out of 27):
- Airplane! – 26
- Anchorman – 23
- This Is Spinal Tap – 23
- Young Frankenstein – 23
- Blazing Saddles – 22
- Dr. Strangelove -22
- Monty Python and the Holy Grail – 22
- The Big Lebowski – 21
- Ghostbusters – 21
- Borat – 20
- Duck Soup – 20
- Groundhog Day – 20
Here are links to the lists I used along with dates the lists were created:
- Ranker.com – Funniest Movies (3 Sep 2020)
- Ranker.com – Best Comedies (3 Sep 2020)
- The Top Tens (2,000+votes) (31 Aug 2020)
- Boston Globe (voters) (31 Aug 2020)
- Her Moments (20 Feb 2020)
- Film School WTF (2020)
- Film Affinity (2020 – averages from people’s ranked lists)
- Bravo Television Network (1 Jul 2006, with minor update in 2020)
- IGN (28 Nov 2018)
- Paste Magazine (22 May 2018)
- Rotten Tomatoes (2018)
- BBC Culture (22 Aug 2017)
- Empire (25 Jul 2017)
- Complex (7 Jul 2017)
- The Telegraph (24 Mar 2017)
- Time Out London (10 Jan 2017)
- Box Office Scoop (2017)
- Cinelinx (23 Sep 2016)
- UnderScoopFire! (1 Jul 2016)
- Splitsider.com (31 Mar 2015) (site is gone?)
- Hollywood.com (9 Oct 2014)
- Rolling Stone (21 May 2014)
- Boston Globe (28 Apr 2014)
- Lovefilm.com (21 Sep 2012) (merged into Amazon)
- Empire Online (by voters – “tens of thousands of votes”) (Not sure if updated since 16 Jun 2012)
- CollegeHumor (15 Feb 2011) (They have a new voting page, but it’s too new to be valuable yet.)
- American Film Institute (27 Jun 2000)
Attached is the Excel spreadsheet with the raw data and the full list with scores and weighting.