😂 Guaranteed Laughs
Comedy Films to Brighten Your Day — 30+ Essential Films Across Every Mood
😎 Classic Comedies
🇬🇧 British Comedy
🎦 Cult Favourites
❤ Romantic Comedy
😂 Slapstick & Farce
🎬 Coming-of-Age
Comedy is the hardest genre in cinema to do well and the easiest to do badly. The distance between a film that makes you laugh until you can't breathe and one that sits in oppressive silence while people try their best is often a single decision in casting, writing or editing. The films on this list made that decision correctly — every one of them. Whether you need a film that will make you cry with laughter, one that will sneak up on you with unexpected warmth, or one that will give you a new line to quote at the world for the next thirty years, you'll find it here.
At 98types Studio, Market Hall, Camden Lock Place, Chalk Farm Road, London NW1 8AL — in Camden Market, London, for 14 years — comedy film prints are available from £3 on 260gsm museum-grade satin paper. Buy 3 get 1 free. Same-day first class dispatch. The films below represent the best of every era and every comedy style — scroll past the ones you know and discover the ones you don't.
🎪 Find Your Comedy by Mood
😆
Crying With Laughter
Airplane! · Dumb & Dumber · Ghostbusters · Home Alone · The Mask
💖
Falling in Love With Life
Notting Hill · When Harry Met Sally · About a Boy · Four Weddings
🇬🇧
Proud to Be British
Monty Python · Shaun of the Dead · Hot Fuzz · The Full Monty · Four Weddings
🧠
Unexpectedly Thoughtful
Groundhog Day · The Big Lebowski · Superbad · The Grand Budapest Hotel
🔥
Sharp & Satirical
Dr. Strangelove · Life of Brian · The King of Comedy · Mean Girls
🎉
Pure Feel-Good
Home Alone · Beetlejuice · Elf · Mrs. Doubtfire · About a Boy
🎪 Staff Favourites — At 98types This Week
These are the comedy films currently on our walls at the studio in Camden. All available as museum-grade art prints from £3.
1984
Ghostbusters
Directed by Ivan Reitman
Three parapsychology professors lose their university jobs and start a ghost-catching business just as a supernatural catastrophe threatens New York City. The perfect blend of supernatural horror, slapstick and one of cinema's greatest ensemble casts.
“We came, we saw, we kicked its ass!” — Peter Venkman
👻 Supernatural Comedy👑 1984★ Bill Murray · Dan Aykroyd
Why we love it: Because whenever life gets too serious, you need a proton pack and a theme song. This is cinema at peak fun: quotable, warm, brilliantly paced, and Bill Murray at the height of his powers.
🏫 Film Art Print
Ghostbusters Poster
260gsm · A6–A3 · Buy 3 get 1 free
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1990
Home Alone
Directed by Chris Columbus
Eight-year-old Kevin McCallister is accidentally left home alone when his family flies to Paris for Christmas. When two bumbling burglars target the house, Kevin turns it into a booby-trap gauntlet of escalating chaos. The most satisfying comedy of the 1990s.
“This is my house, I have to defend it!” — Kevin McCallister
🎁 Christmas Classic🐒 Macaulay Culkin★ 1990
Why we love it: No comedy delivers more pure satisfaction than watching Kevin outsmart two adults. The traps are ingenious, the performances are perfect, and it made Christmas feel like it belonged to the children. Timeless.
🏫 Film Art Print
Home Alone Poster
260gsm · A6–A3 · Buy 3 get 1 free
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1998
The Big Lebowski
Directed by Joel & Ethan Coen
The Dude, a Los Angeles slacker and bowling enthusiast, gets drawn into a case of mistaken identity when his rug is urinated on — a rug that really tied the room together. The Coen Brothers' most surreal, quotable and defiantly funny film.
“That rug really tied the room together.” — The Dude
⚽ Cult Classic🚫 Jeff Bridges · John Goodman★ 1998
Why we love it: The Big Lebowski is the comedy that keeps giving the more times you watch it. The Dude is one of cinema's great characters: entirely passive, completely philosophical, wearing a bathrobe through crises that would destroy ordinary people. Nihilists, obviously.
🏫 Film Art Print
Big Lebowski Poster
260gsm · A6–A3 · Buy 3 get 1 free
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1988
Beetlejuice
Directed by Tim Burton
A recently deceased couple haunt their home, trying to scare away the new owners — but when their efforts fail, they summon the dangerously unpredictable bio-exorcist Beetlejuice. Tim Burton's most anarchically funny film, starring Michael Keaton at his manic best.
“It’s showtime!” — Beetlejuice
👻 Dark Comedy🔗 Michael Keaton★ 1988 · Tim Burton
Why we love it: Beetlejuice is one of those films where every single performance is perfectly calibrated chaos. Michael Keaton in the title role is the funniest performance of the decade — committed, anarchic, and entirely self-contained. Say his name three times.
🏫 Film Art Print
Beetlejuice Poster
260gsm · A6–A3 · Buy 3 get 1 free
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▷
The Golden Age — 1970s & 80s
Classics that defined what a comedy could be
1959
Some Like It Hot
Directed by Billy Wilder
Jack Lemmon & Tony Curtis go undercover as women to escape the mob — Marilyn Monroe at her most irresistibly funny. The greatest comedy ever made by critical consensus, and it still earns every word of that verdict.
🏀 Cross-Dressing
🎩 Marilyn Monroe
1964
Dr. Strangelove
Directed by Stanley Kubrick
Kubrick's satirical masterpiece on nuclear annihilation — Peter Sellers playing three roles, all hilarious. The most subversive comedy ever made by a serious director.
🔥 Cold War Satire
★ BAFTA · 4 Oscar Noms
1975
Monty Python & the Holy Grail
Directed by Terry Gilliam & Terry Jones
King Arthur and his knights quest for the Grail through anarchically absurd medieval England. The funniest film the UK has ever produced.
🏙 British Comedy
☗ Cult Classic
1980
Airplane!
Directed by Zucker · Abrahams · Zucker
The greatest parody film ever made. A joke every ten seconds, the "Don't call me Shirley" scene, and a film speed-running through every disaster movie cliché with ruthless precision.
✈ Parody
😂 Non-stop Laughs
1986
Ferris Bueller's Day Off
Directed by John Hughes
The ultimate wish-fulfilment comedy: one perfect day off school in Chicago, a Ferrari, a parade, and Matthew Broderick at his most effortlessly charming.
🏛 Chicago · 1986
🌟 John Hughes
1987
Good Morning, Vietnam
Directed by Barry Levinson
Robin Williams as Armed Forces DJ Adrian Cronauer in 1965 Saigon: improvised monologues that make you laugh, and a film that earns its emotional ending completely.
🎶 Robin Williams
🌎 Vietnam War Setting
🇬🇧
British Comedy Gold
The funniest nation on earth — confirmed by statistics, disputed by France
1979
Monty Python's Life of Brian
Directed by Terry Jones
The most controversial comedy ever made is also the most intelligent: a satire on organised religion, mob mentality and the nature of belief that remains sharper than most academic philosophy.
🍅 Religious Satire
🇬🇧 Most Banned British Film
1988
A Fish Called Wanda
Directed by Charles Crichton
John Cleese, Michael Palin, Jamie Lee Curtis and Kevin Kline in a heist comedy that won Kline the Oscar and still contains the funniest running joke (Otto's IQ) in British cinema.
🍶 Oscar: Best Supp. Actor
🌌 British · American Fusion
1994
Four Weddings and a Funeral
Directed by Mike Newell
Hugh Grant at peak Hugh Grant across five social occasions in England. The funeral speech alone makes this the most emotionally intelligent British comedy ever made.
❤ Romantic Comedy
🍼 British Social Comedy
2004
Shaun of the Dead
Directed by Edgar Wright
The greatest zombie comedy ever made is also a film about male friendship and the difficulty of growing up. Simon Pegg and Nick Frost. The Winchester. What's not to love?
👻 Zom-Rom-Com
🇬🇧 Cornetto Trilogy
2007
Hot Fuzz
Directed by Edgar Wright
Nicholas Angel, supercop, is sent to the sleepiest village in England — which turns out to have the highest crime rate in the country. Edgar Wright's funniest and most technically accomplished film.
🎨 Action Comedy
🇬🇧 Edgar Wright
1997
The Full Monty
Directed by Peter Cattaneo
Six unemployed Sheffield steel workers become male strippers. A film that is simultaneously very funny and genuinely moving about masculinity, dignity and community.
🇬🇧 Sheffield Pride
♡ Feel-Good Classic
😆
Cult & Character Comedies
Films that reward you more with every rewatch
1982
The King of Comedy
Directed by Martin Scorsese
Robert De Niro as delusional aspiring stand-up Rupert Pupkin who kidnaps a chat show host. Scorsese's darkest and funniest film — a prescient comedy about fame obsession that feels more relevant now than in 1982.
🎤 Dark Comedy
★ De Niro · Jerry Lewis
1984
This Is Spinal Tap
Directed by Rob Reiner
The mockumentary that invented the mockumentary genre. The amplifier dial that goes to 11. Stonehenge. The tiny bread. Thirty minutes of the funniest film ever made crammed into a feature.
🎸 Rock Mockumentary
💲 Goes Up to 11
1993
Groundhog Day
Directed by Harold Ramis
Bill Murray relives the same day in Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania indefinitely. A comedy that turns into a philosophical meditation on self-improvement and what it means to be human.
📅 Time Loop
★ Bill Murray at His Best
1999
Office Space
Directed by Mike Judge
Three Initech software engineers decide to stop caring about their pointless jobs. The most accurate workplace comedy ever made — every Monday morning reminds you why.
🏢 Workplace Comedy
🔊 TPS Reports
2007
Superbad
Directed by Greg Mottola
Two best friends on one last night before university, desperately trying to get alcohol. The funniest, truest and most unexpectedly tender coming-of-age comedy of the 2000s.
🍕 Coming of Age
★ Jonah Hill · Michael Cera
2014
The Grand Budapest Hotel
Directed by Wes Anderson
Ralph Fiennes as Monsieur Gustave H., legendary concierge, on an absurdist caper through a fictional alpine republic. Wes Anderson's most purely enjoyable film.
🏘 Wes Anderson
🍫 4 Academy Awards
💖
Romantic Comedies Worth Your Time
Because love is, when properly examined, ridiculous
1989
When Harry Met Sally
Directed by Rob Reiner
Can men and women be just friends? Nora Ephron's script is the most perfectly structured romantic comedy ever written. Billy Crystal and Meg Ryan. "I'll have what she's having."
❤ Perfect Screenplay
★ Nora Ephron
1999
Notting Hill
Directed by Roger Michell
Hugh Grant's bookshop owner bumps into the world's most famous film star. Julia Roberts at full wattage. Richard Curtis at his best. A love letter to Portobello Road.
🏠 London Setting
❤ Richard Curtis
1995
Clueless
Directed by Amy Heckerling
Jane Austen's Emma set in Beverly Hills, told through the lens of a fashion-obsessed teenager. One of the sharpest American satires of the 1990s dressed as a teen comedy.
🎓 High School
📑 Based on Jane Austen's Emma
2004
Mean Girls
Directed by Mark Waters
Tina Fey's dissection of American high school social hierarchies through a newcomer who infiltrates the school's ruling clique. The most quoted high school comedy of the 2000s.
🎖 High School Drama
★ Lindsay Lohan · Tina Fey
2011
Bridesmaids
Directed by Paul Feig
Kristen Wiig as the maid of honour struggling with every aspect of her best friend's wedding. The film that proved women could carry the same kind of broad, raucous comedy as any Judd Apatow production.
💍 Ensemble Comedy
★ Kristin Wiig
2002
About a Boy
Directed by Chris Weitz & Paul Weitz
Hugh Grant as a permanently uncommitted bachelor whose life is changed by a socially awkward 12-year-old. The warmest, funniest and most surprisingly moving British comedy of the 2000s.
🎆 Feel-Good
🇬🇧 Nick Hornby Adaptation
😂
Pure Slapstick & Anarchic Laughs
Films that prioritise your laughter above all other considerations
1993
Mrs. Doubtfire
Directed by Chris Columbus
Robin Williams as a divorced father who disguises himself as a Scottish nanny to spend time with his children. Williams at his most committed — the transformation scenes are a masterclass in physical comedy.
🌀 Family Comedy
★ Robin Williams
1994
The Mask
Directed by Chuck Russell
Jim Carrey's breakthrough role: a timid bank clerk who becomes a cartoon character when he puts on an ancient Viking mask. CGI that still looks extraordinary — and Carrey's face is funnier than the special effects.
🨀 Jim Carrey
🎬 1994 Hit
1994
Dumb and Dumber
Directed by Peter & Bobby Farrelly
Two of the most genuinely stupid characters in cinema history drive cross-country to return a briefcase. Jim Carrey and Jeff Daniels operating at peak comic silliness. The most effective straight-faced idiotic comedy ever made.
😂 Slapstick Classic
★ Jim Carrey · Jeff Daniels
1988
The Naked Gun
Directed by David Zucker
Leslie Nielsen as Lt. Frank Drebin in the greatest physical comedy sequel ever made. A joke every 15 seconds, a masterful performance by Nielsen in the deadpan idiom, and a stadium finale that has never been equalled.
✈ Police Spoof
😆 Leslie Nielsen
1992
Wayne's World
Directed by Penelope Spheeris
Two metal-loving teenagers run a public access cable show from their garage in Aurora, Illinois. Mike Myers and Dana Carvey. "Party on, Garth." "Party on, Wayne."
🎸 Rock Parody
★ SNL · 1992
2004
Anchorman
Directed by Adam McKay
Ron Burgundy and his news team at a San Diego TV station in the 1970s. Will Ferrell's finest hour — a film of absolute absurdist commitment that created a new vocabulary of quotable lines.
🎬 70s Parody
★ Will Ferrell
“The trick is to tell them what they want to hear, and then give it to them.”
— Rupert Pupkin, The King of Comedy (Martin Scorsese, 1982)
🎥 Also Featuring: The King of Comedy (1982)
Martin Scorsese’s most unsettling and funniest film: Robert De Niro as Rupert Pupkin, an aspiring comedian of catastrophic delusion who kidnaps his idol (Jerry Lewis) to force his way onto a TV show. A film so ahead of its time that it invented the entire cultural landscape of social media celebrity and parasocial obsession thirty years before those things existed. Shop The King of Comedy poster from £3 →
🏫 Film Art Print
The King of Comedy (1982)
Martin Scorsese · Robert De Niro · Jerry Lewis · 260gsm · A6–A3
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👻 Also In: Beetlejuice Beetlejuice (2024)
Tim Burton returned to his most anarchic creation 36 years later — and somehow got away with it. Michael Keaton back in the black-and-white suit, a new generation of Deetz descendants and enough genuine invention to justify the sequel’s existence. Shop Beetlejuice Beetlejuice 2024 poster from £3 →
🏫 Film Art Print
Beetlejuice Beetlejuice (2024)
Tim Burton · Michael Keaton · 260gsm · A6–A3
Shop £3 →
🎥 Shop All Comedy Film Prints at 98types
Ghostbusters · Home Alone · The Big Lebowski · Beetlejuice · The King of Comedy & hundreds more. From £3 · Buy 3 get 1 free · 260gsm museum-grade satin paper · Archive pigment inks · Same-day first class dispatch from Market Hall, Camden Lock Place, Chalk Farm Road, London NW1 8AL. Can’t find a title? Use the custom print option.
Shop Comedy Films →
FAQ — Comedy Films & Film Prints
What comedy film prints are available at 98types?
The 98types comedy film collection includes Ghostbusters, Home Alone, The Big Lebowski, Beetlejuice, The King of Comedy, Beetlejuice Beetlejuice (2024), and hundreds of other titles across the full movie collection. All from £3, printed on 260gsm museum-grade satin paper with archive pigment inks. Buy 3 get 1 free. Same-day first class dispatch from Market Hall, Camden Lock Place, Chalk Farm Road, London NW1 8AL. For films not currently listed, use the custom print option.
What is the best comedy film of all time?
Critics' consensus for decades has placed Billy Wilder’s Some Like It Hot (1959) at the top — it won the AFI’s 100 Laughs list and appears at number one in most academic rankings. British polls tend to favour Monty Python’s Life of Brian (1979) and Mrs. Doubtfire (1993). For pure laughter-per-minute, Airplane! (1980) has never been beaten — a joke every 10 seconds for 88 minutes, and most of them land. In terms of cultural impact, Ghostbusters (1984) and Home Alone (1990) have the deepest reach into popular culture globally. The honest answer is that your best comedy is the first one that made you laugh so hard you stopped being able to breathe.
What comedy films should I watch when I need cheering up?
For immediate, reliable laughter: Home Alone (1990) — the booby trap sequence is the most satisfying 20 minutes in comedy cinema; Ghostbusters (1984) — Bill Murray at perfect pitch; Airplane! (1980) — relentless joke density. For warmth combined with laughs: Groundhog Day (1993), About a Boy (2002), The Full Monty (1997). For quotable absurdism: The Big Lebowski (1998), Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1975), Anchorman (2004). If nothing else works, watch Beetlejuice (1988) — Michael Keaton in the title role is the funniest performance in cinema history.
What are the best British comedies to watch?
The British comedy canon is the richest national comedy tradition in the world: Monty Python’s Life of Brian (the greatest British film ever made by many accounts); Monty Python and the Holy Grail; A Fish Called Wanda (1988, John Cleese and Kevin Kline, one Oscar); Four Weddings and a Funeral (1994, the funeral speech); The Full Monty (1997, Sheffield, dignity, nakedness); Notting Hill (1999); Shaun of the Dead (2004); Hot Fuzz (2007); In Bruges (2008). The 98types British Movies & TV collection covers many of these with film prints from £3.
Browse: Comedy Films · British Movies · Christmas Films · All Movies. All from £3.
