As a genre, “comedy” is normally too broad to be useful, but a collection this large can afford to explore a wide, international range of humor and begin to answer if “funny” is truly determined by time and place; this list attempts to include (one of) the best film(s) from most of the legends, such as Harold Lloyd, W.C. Fields, Jerry Lewis, Jacques Tati, Mel Brooks, Adam Sandler, and many others; after the canon (lists A-G), these are the 100 films whose humor-driven insights have best stood the test of time, offering this museum’s lightest balm.
J1. Seven Years Bad Luck (Linder, 1921)
J2. Safety Last! (Lloyd, 1923)
J3. The Navigator (Keaton, 1924)
J4. The Freshman (Lloyd, 1925)
J5. Horse Feathers (MacLeod, 1932)
J6. Boudu Saved from Drowning (Renoir, 1932)
J7. Dinner at Eight (Cukor, 1933)
J8. Sons of the Desert (Seiter, 1933)
J9. The Thin Man (Van Dyke, 1934)
J10. My Man Godfrey (La Cava, 1936)
J11. A Day at the Races (Wood, 1937)
J12. The Awful Truth (McCarey, 1937)
J13. Ninotchka (Lubitsch, 1939)
J14. The Bank Dick (Cline, 1940)
J15. To Be or Not to Be (Lubitsch, 1942)
J16. The Palm Beach Story (Sturges, 1942)
J17. Road to Morocco (Butler, 1942)
J18. Arsenic and Old Lace (Capra, 1944)
J19. Harvey (Koster, 1950)
J20. The Lavender Hill Mob (Crichton, 1951)
J21. Les Vacances de Monsieur Hulot (Mr. Hulot’s Holiday) (Tati, 1953)
J22. The Ladykillers (Mackendrick, 1955)
J23. Mon Oncle (Tati, 1958)
J24. The Nutty Professor (Lewis, 1963)
J25. Tom Jones (Richardson, 1963)
J26. The Pink Panther (Edwards, 1963)
J27. A Shot in the Dark (Edwards, 1964)
J28. Alfie (Gilbert, 1966)
J29. The Producers (Brooks, 1967)
J30. The Odd Couple (Saks, 1968)
J31. Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory (Stuart, 1971)
J32. What’s Up, Doc? (Bogdanovich, 1972)
J33. The Heartbreak Kid (May, 1972)
J34. Sleeper (Allen, 1973)
J35. The Sting (Hill, 1973)
J36. Young Frankenstein (Brooks, 1974)
J37. Shampoo (Ashby, 1975)
J38. Love and Death (Allen, 1975)
J39. Car Wash (Schultz, 1976)
J40. Silver Streak (Hiller, 1976)
J41. Monty Python’s Life of Brian (Jones, 1979)
J42. The Jerk (Reiner, 1979)
J43. Being There (Ashby, 1979)
J44. Airplane! (Abrahams, Zucker, Zucker, 1980)
J45. Caddyshack (Ramis, 1980)
J46. Private Benjamin (Zieff, 1980)
J47. Stir Crazy (Poitier, 1980)
J48. Stripes (Reitman, 1981)
J49. Fast Times at Ridgemont High (Heckerling, 1982)
J50. Monty Python’s Meaning of Life (Jones, Gilliam, 1983)
J51. Trading Places (Landis, 1983)
J52. A Christmas Story (Clark, 1983)
J53. Beverly Hills Cop (Brest, 1984)
J54. This is Spinal Tap (Reiner, 1984)
J55. Ghostbusters (Reitman, 1984)
J56. Lost in America (Brooks, 1985)
J57. Tampopo (Itami, 1985)
J58. Ferris Bueller’s Day Off (Hughes, 1986)
J59. Raising Arizona (Coens, 1987)
J60. Hollywood Shuffle (Townsend, 1987)
J61. Withnail and I (Robinson, 1987)
J62. Planes, Trains, and Automobiles (Hughes, 1987)
J63. Good Morning, Vietnam (Levinson, 1987)
J64. Beetlejuice (Burton, 1988)
J65. Big (Marshall, 1988)
J66. A Fish Called Wanda (Crichton, 1988)
J67. I’m Gonna Git You Sucka (Wayans, 1988)
J68. The Naked Gun: From the Files of Police Squad (Zucker, 1988)
J69. Dirty Rotten Scoundrels (Oz, 1988)
J70. Home Alone (Columbus, 1990)
J71. Wayne’s World (Spheeris, 1992)
J72. Sister Act (Ardolino, 1992)
J73. Groundhog Day (Ramis, 1993)
J74. Mrs. Doubtfire (Columbus, 1993)
J75. Billy Madison (Davis, 1995)
J76. Friday (Gray, 1995)
J77. Waiting for Guffman (Guest, 1996)
J78. Liar Liar (Shadyac, 1997)
J79. Austin Powers International Man of Mystery (Roach, 1997)
J80. The Full Monty (Cattaneo, 1997)
J81. Le Diner de Cons (The Dinner Game) (Veber, 1998)
J82. There’s Something About Mary (Farrellys, 1998)
J83. Election (Payne, 1999)
J84. Bowfinger (Oz, 1999)
J85. Hera Pheri (Priyadarshan, 2000)
J86. Meet the Parents (Roach, 2000)
J87. Kung Fu Hustle (Chow, 2004)
J88. Shaun of the Dead (Wright, 2004)
J89. Mean Girls (Waters, 2004)
J90. Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy (McKay, 2004)
J91. Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan (Charles, 2006)
J92. Hot Fuzz (Wright, 2007)
J93. Knocked Up (Apatow, 2007)
J94. Superbad (Mottola, 2007)
J95. Tropic Thunder (Stiller, 2008)
J96. The Hangover (Phillips, 2009)
J97. 3 Idiots (Hirani, 2009)
J98. Bridesmaids (Feig, 2011)
J99. Intouchables (Nakache, Toledano, 2011)
J100. What We Do in the Shadows (Waititi, Clement, 2015)
BEST LOVED FILMS 