70 of the Best Comedies of the 21st Century........

[Blansky]

Well if you didn't like the 100 best TV shows you definitely ain't gonna like these...

Remember these are only since the year 2000.

Obviously not enough Coen Brothers here, get to work you guys....

And OBVIOUSLY there are not enough Minions here?????...............Stuart, Bob and Kevin....what the hell?????


https://www.rollingstone.com/tv-movi...0-8d3da26b7cdf

[HHIslander]

American Psycho is a comedy?

I do approve of Best in Show at #1, they could have done much worse.

Pineapple Express is missing. That's a glaring error on someone's part.

[AzPaul]

As a long time, devoted movie lover, I'd say over the last 20-25 years, good, non-satiric comedies have become awfully hard to find. There's still the occasional gem to be found, but the quality of the stones become less brilliant and less frequent with each passing year.

[m j b]

Originally Posted by Blansky

And OBVIOUSLY there are not enough Minions here?????...............Stuart, Bob and Kevin....what the hell?????

Banana!

[brandrea]

Who’s in charge at Rollingstone

[TNT009]

Thats the biggest waste of time.... BS list!

[~JJ]

Will not give rolling stone a click.

[2bigalow]

Has the definition of 'Comedy' changed?

[THC]

No Caddyshack, Hangover, Money Pit, etc etc etc….???

Fools

[Blansky]

Originally Posted by THC

No Caddyshack, Hangover, Money Pit, etc etc etc….???

Fools

The criteria was since 2000. I agree there seems to a lot more comedy to choose from previously.

[THC]

Originally Posted by Blansky

The criteria was since 2000. I agree there seems to a lot more comedy to choose from previously.

Ah. Noted… missed that

[JasoninDenver]

I thought half of those movies did not belong on any best movies list.

[Blansky]

One has to wonder about how much the "zeitgeist of the times" plays into the kind and quality of movies and the kind of movies being made.

And if great comedies come at a time of societal stress to relieve the "pressure" or if they come at a time of giddiness and overall societal feelings of well being.

It was said that during the great depressions in the 1930s that people went to movies to feel good, and forget their problems and pure escapism was the order of the day.

Then there is also the kind of comedies that are prevalent for an era, does social upheaval create dark satire instead of silly slapstick??? And some people don't really find satire to be funny.

The early 2000s was 9/11, then the War on Terror, etc, 2008 was economic disaster, etc etc so one wonders if the 2000s until now was not a very comedy inducing time, or not?

[Speedbird-1]

Originally Posted by brandrea

Who’s in charge at Rollingstone

Anybody!....Nobody!!

[OverGeared]

Originally Posted by Blansky

One has to wonder about how much the "zeitgeist of the times" plays into the kind and quality of movies and the kind of movies being made.

There's definitely a cultural element at play, and there's also an economic aspect tied into that. Comedy is tied closely to cultural/societal norms and often doesn't translate well outside those boundaries. Even within just the English language, comedy tends to have niches along class, race, or subculture. So while something may be funny and relatable to one group, it can come off as unsympathetic or annoying to others (I could go on and on about "Wedding Crashers," which is a fascinating look a the 00s, but I'll hold my tongue for now.)

Then when you open up to the rest of the world, the language barrier is like a comedic Iron Curtain. I would imagine even the best multi-lingual writer would have a tough time translating the wordplay of Groucho Marx or Mel Brooks into Mandarin, German, or Portuguese. Odds are a lot of that magic is just not going to translate (literally and figuratively.)

So the result is that movie studios know that comedies are a limited market. They can only rely on English language box office, and even that's a risk. What does work well across cultural and language barriers? Action. Romance. Horror. And those genres have built-in fans in all countries. We all know those people who will go see every Jennifer Aniston rom-com, or every Marvel movie, or anything that promises to be scary, regardless of the reviews or even word-of-mouth. The result is that more of those movies get made at the expense of fewer comedies.

Well, fewer comedic films, at least. One of the silver linings of so few comedy movies is that we have a ton of great comedy TV in the 21st century. Because television is generally cheaper to produce than film, comedy has been given more chances to try new things; from broadly appealing shows like "The Office" (one of the few comedies that really does translate well into other countries) or "Bob's Burgers", to niche projects that explore a specific subculture but also use their humor to appeal to outsiders (like "Atlanta" or "Broad City".)

Anyway, sorry about the long-winded response. Clearly this is a subject that's near and dear to me. I agree with you guys that the lack of great comedies over the last two decades is a real shame. I take some comfort in the aforementioned quality of great contemporary TV, but there's something magical about seeing a really really funny movie in a theater with 300 other people all laughing together. I miss it.

[Boopie]

Two words: “Tropic Thunder”!

[ltmgeller]

Who picks these? There was some good ones here but definitely a lot missing. How did old school not make the list.

[sickened1]

Originally Posted by Boopie

Two words: “Tropic Thunder”!

Tom Cruise was hilarious in that one.