10 Best Comedies on Netflix
It’s something everyone who has Netflix does: You have a whole list of great acclaimed dramas and enlightening documentaries in your queue, perhaps hundreds, but all you want to do right now is kick back, relax and laugh along to a great comedy. Well you know what? It’s your $8 bucks a month, you do with it what you please!
If you’re hankering for a comedy right now, the streaming service has some terrific titles on tap that will get you giggling uncontrollably in no time. Big stars like Eddie Murphy, Bill Murray, Simon Pegg, Will Ferrell, Paul Rudd and more are just waiting for you to click on their movies and give them a watch.
Whether you’ve never seen some of these movies or you’re due for a repeat viewing, here’s a list of the 10 Best Comedies on Netflix in the gallery below! Are there titles we missed? Let us know if you have suggestions for others as well in the comments.
10 Best Comedies on Netflix
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The Princess Bride (1987)
William Goldman adapted his own novel into screenplay form as a fable framed by a man (Peter Falk) telling his grandson (Fred Savage) the story of Westley (Cary Elwes) rescuing his true love Princess Buttercup (Robin Wright) from an evil prince. The fantasy trappings are imbued with a sense of gentle comedy by director Rob Reiner in a practically perfect movie.
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Coming to America (1988)
One of Eddie Murphy's most famous roles (and we mean "roles" literally, he plays four of them in various make-ups) came in John Landis's old-fashioned tale of an African prince who visits Queens, NY in search of true love before he is to be married off by his father, the king (James Earl Jones).
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Heathers (1988)
Daniel Waters wrote and Michael Lehmann directed what has become the quintessential pitch black comedy. Winona Ryder plays Veronica, a brainy student who reluctantly teams up with an archetypal bad boy (Christian Slater) to make it look like the popular kids in her High School are committing suicide... only for the plan to backfire when teen suicide suddenly becomes the popular thing to do.
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Groundhog Day (1993)
This modern comedy classic stars Bill Murray as a misanthropic weather man who inexplicably begins reliving the same day of his life over and over again. His love for a woman (Andie MacDowell) inspires him to change his ways in the hopes of somehow getting out of this time loop. The late, great Harold Ramis directs.
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Wet Hot American Summer (2001)
This meta-parody of Meatballs-style '80s summer camp movies is already amazingly funny before you take into consideration how many future legends it has in it: Paul Rudd, Amy Poehler, Bradley Cooper, Elizabeth Banks, Ken Marino, Michael Ian Black, H. Jon Benjamin and so many more.
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The Weather Man (2005)
This is a sorely overlooked gem directed by Gore Verbinski in a rare break from blockbuster tentpole filmmaking (Pirates of the Caribbean, Rango, The Lone Ranger). Nicolas Cage is understated and brilliant as a shallow, emotionally tone-deaf TV weather guy who is trying to figure out why everyone hates him in this biting indictment of our constant pursuit of mediocrity.
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Talladega Nights (2006)
Will Ferrell teams up with frequent director Adam McKay (Anchorman, Step Brothers) for this rip-roaring movie about a none-too-bright NASCAR driver who learns the meaning of integrity. What's brilliant about Ferrell and McKay's script is its constant stream of broad, lowbrow gags that always carry an undercurrent satire of middle American values (consumerism, winning, 'Merica, etc). In other words, it's the perfect Bush-era comedy.
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Hot Fuzz (2007)
The middle part of director Edgar Wright and star Simon Pegg's Cornetto Trilogy (Shaun of the Dead and The World's End being the bookends) may be their best. This take on the action genre is not a spoof so much as a loving homage to WHY we love those movies so much, with Pegg playing the far-too-cerebral supercop who is shown how to turn off his brain by an overweight manchild of a police officer (Nick Frost). Together, they solve a series of murders and poke further fun at the homoerotic subtext of all buddy cop films.
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Frances Ha (2013)
Star Greta Gerwig co-wrote this indie gem with director Noah Baumbach about the trials and tribulations of a 20-something aspiring dancer in New York as she grapples with life after essentially breaking up with her best friend. Gerwig shines in the title role, while the typically solipsistic Baumbach injects this episodic story with a fun energy and comic timing.
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A Pigeon Sat on a Branch Reflecting on Existence (2015)
For the more adventurous among you looking for something different, this Swedish-language arthouse comedy is just the ticket. It is the third in acclaimed filmmaker Roy Andersson's stylistic trilogy that also includes Songs From the Second Floor and You, the Living, in which a series of interconnected, darkly comic vignettes play out against intricately designed sets all shot within a studio, even the scenes that take place outdoors. It is a visual marvel that slowly sucks you in until its hard to know whether to laugh or cry.
