Join The Community
Ranked lists are subjective, as is comedy, so the act of trying to identify the most underrated comedy movies might be laughable—and not in the fun "ha ha" way. Nevertheless, there are giggles that have been overlooked by audiences, and these films deserve to be seen so viewers can chuckle and chortle.
What makes a comedy underrated? There are lots of ways to qualify. Perhaps a movie is better than its reputation would have you believe. Maybe the movie just wasn't a huge hit at the box office, nor has it fully earned cult classic status. It could be underrated simply because most people haven't heard of it. One movie on this list has gotten plenty of acclaim, but critics and audiences aren't giving it enough credit for how side-splittingly funny it is, in addition to all the other things the picture has going for it.
Here, then, are 32 of the most underrated comedy movies ever made. You might disagree, arguing that some of these movies are indeed properly rated, but as long as folks are laughing, ain't that enough?
32. Bee Movie
Year: 2007
Directors: Simon J. Smith and Steve Hickner
"Do ya like jazz?" One of DreamWorks Animation's most-memed and most-infamous movies, Bee Movie is actually funnier than its irony-poisoned detractors give it credit for being. Of course, it is deranged that Jerry Seinfeld's first big project after his hit sitcom ended was an animated movie where a bee basically falls in love with a human woman (Renée Zellweger), but it's just clever enough to be a nice time. (The best joke probably comes when Seinfeld's Barry B. Benson points out that there's a human Larry King in addition to a bee Larry King.)
31. The Instigators
Year: 2024
Director: Doug Liman
Ocean's Eleven stars Matt Damon and Casey Affleck lead this Apple TV Plus original movie that can be somewhat dismissively yet accurately described as "knucklehead Oceans Two," featuring two much dumber, much less suave crooks than Danny Ocean's crackerjack heist team. It's still pretty dang enjoyable to watch the pair bicker and squabble as they try to get out of jams, having found themselves on the run after a robbery job on behalf of a corrupt Boston mayor goes south.
30. Heavyweights
Year: 1995
Director: Steven Brill
This kid-friendly '90s comedy follows campers at a fat camp who, unbeknownst to the parents who send them there to shed pounds every summer, are actually having a great time under the lenient supervision of the camp's owners. That all changes when a fitness guru, played by Ben Stiller, buys the camp and makes it his mission to whip everybody into shape (literally) so he can market the camp as an infomercial. The campers, including one played by a young Kenan Thompson, make it their mission to rebel. Hijinks ensue.
29. Evolution
Year: 2001
Director: Ivan Reitman
With Evolution, director Ivan Reitman wanted to do for aliens what his Ghostbusters had done for ghosts nearly two decades earlier. He failed, but while Evolution might not be a beloved, iconic film, it's an entertaining sci-fi comedy romp. David Duchovny and Orlando Jones star as college professors who discover a crashed meteor in the Arizona desert. The space rock has life on it, and that life is evolving—extremely quickly and dangerously. Seann William Scott, and Julianne Moore co-star.
28. Werewolves Within
Year: 2021
Director: Josh Ruben
Possibly the best video game movie adaptation ever made (even if it only borrows from its source material, a 2016 VR game, in the broadest strokes), Werewolves Within is a comedy-horror whodunnit. Sam Richardson stars as a forest ranger assigned to a small Vermont town, and when several of the town's residents get trapped in a snowstorm, things go from bad to worse when they begin to suspect one of them is a werewolf. The characters—or rather, the suspects—are all fun archetypes, and you'll find yourself getting earnestly invested in the mystery while you laugh and jolt at the little scares.
27. 200 Cigarettes
Year: 1999
Director: Risa Bramon Garcia
This late-'90s comedy is underrated because it's been very, very difficult to watch, as it wasn't available to stream or rent for years. A shame, because it's a star-studded good time and one of the best New Year's Eve movies. Christina Ricci, Paul Rudd, Kate Hudson, Courtney Love, Janeane Garofalo, Dave Chappelle, and both Affleck brothers all play various people who are out and about in lower Manhattan on the last day of 1981, and the film follows as their nights intersect in unexpected, hilarious ways.
26. Anna and the Apocalypse
Year: 2017
Director: John McPhail
Anna and the Apocalypse is a Christmas comedy horror coming-of-age musical. That, admittedly, is a lot of genres mashed up into one 98-minute movie, but Anna and the Apocalypse pulls it off, following the titular Anna (Ella Hunt) as she gets ready to finish high school and leave her small Scotland hometown behind. As she sings her "I want" song about her hopes and dreams, zombies start attacking. As is the case in a lot of horror comedies, Anna and the Apocalypse gets a bit intense and less funny towards the end, but even then, it's effective drama, and the bulk of the movie, which follows Anna and her friends merrily singing and dancing as they slay flesh-eating zombies, is a pretty delightful and unique experience.
25. Bedazzled
Year: 2000
Director: Harold Ramis
Brendan Fraser stars in this remake of a 1967 film of the same name, playing an average guy with a dead-end job. When the Devil, played by Elizabeth Hurley (looking smokin' hot, literally), offers him a deal, he takes it, getting seven wishes. Though, since the Devil is, you know, the Devil, there's an ironic twist to all of them, like granting his wish to be the president of the United States but making it so he's Abraham Lincoln on the night he was assassinated by John Wilkes Booth.
24. They Cloned Tyrone
Year: 2023
Director: Juel Taylor
Overlooked perhaps in part because it premiered on Netflix in 2023 on the very weekend that everybody was at the movies to see the blockbuster duo of Barbie and Oppenheimer ("Barbenheimer"), They Cloned Tyrone is a really clever and funny sci-fi comedy from first-time director Juel Tayloy. John Boyega and Jamie Foxx play low-level crooks in a run-down neighborhood who discover that they are actually both clones, the product of a shadowy government conspiracy. It's a heady thriller and a hoot and a holler, especially when Foxx and Teyonah Parris start cookin'.
23. Mystery Men
Year: 1999
Director: Kinka Usher
A refreshing antidote to the glut of superhero movies that would follow it, 1999's Mystery Men is a quirky movie about quirky Z-list superheroes with eyebrow-raising powers like "hits people with a shovel" (William H. Macy), "throws forks at people" (Hank Azaria), and "stinky farts" (Paul Reubens). However, when the most diabolical supervillain (Geoffrey Rush) returns and threatens Champion City, it's up to this unlikely group of heroes to take him down. Ben Stiller, Janeane Garafalo, Greg Kinnear, and Tom Waits also star
22. Stick It
Year: 2006
Director: Jessica Bendinger
Stick It, which should also be on everyone's list of underrated sports movies, stars Melissa Peregrym as Haley Graham, a rebellious teenager who used to be a talented gymnast before she left the sport behind her. When she gets in trouble with the law, she's offered a choice between going to juvie or doing gymnastics once more, under the training of a no-nonsense coach played by Jeff Bridges. Fun dynamics between Haley and her fellow gymnasts who resent her ("It's not called gymnicetics"), comical trampoline mishaps, and some earnestly good sports drama follow.
21. After Hours
Year: 1985
Director: Martin Scorsese
Something of an oddball in the great Martin Scorsese's filmography, After Hours stars Griffin Dunne as Paul Hackett, an average guy whose average evening in Manhattan's SoHo neighborhood quickly becomes an all-nighter that's anything but average. One of the great New York City movies and one of the best movies that takes place just in one day, After Hours follows Paul from misadventure to misadventure as he gets swept up in the madness of the city after dark.
20. Weird: The Al Yankovic Story
Year: 2022
Director: Eric Appel
This extremely loose biopic of "Weird Al" Yankovic has a brilliant premise. In this movie, Yankovic (played surprisingly convincingly by Harry Potter himself, Daniel Radcliffe), doesn't sing parodies. Instead, he writes great original songs like "Eat It," only for Michael Jackson to rip him off and record "Beat It." It's ingenious and stupid, which is exactly what you want from a "Weird Al" biopic that premiered, of all places, on The Roku Channel.
19. They Came Together
Year: 2014
Director: David Wain
Wet Hot American Summer is at this point a canonized comedy cult classic, so it feels silly to say it's underrated. Luckily, David Wain and Michael Showalter have another movie that doesn't get as much love as it deserves, 2014's They Came Together. A very silly, often comically on-the-nose parody of rom-coms and all the tropes we associate with the genre, They Came Together stars Paul Rudd and Amy Poehler as a would-be couple who meet and eventually fall in love in New York City. (It's kind of like New York City is a character, if you think about it.) Cobie Smulders, Christopher Meloni, Bill Hader, Ellie Kemper, Melanie Lynskey, and Ed Helms co-star.
18. Tucker and Dale vs Evil
Year: 2010
Director: Eli Craig
Definitely one of the best comedy horror movies of all time, Tucker and Dale vs Evil stars Alan Tudyk and Tyler Labine as the titular Tucker and Dale, two affable hillbillies who are excited about fixing up an old cabin in the West Virginia woods. However, a group of college kids is in the woods, too, and they assume Tucker and Dale have ill intentions, like they're characters in The Texas Chain Saw Massacre. A series of comical—and bloody—mishaps only further this misunderstanding, like when one of the college kids accidentally leaps head-first into a woodchipper. A panicked and confused Tucker tries to pull him out, but the other kids think he just killed their friend. A must-see for horror fans who like to laugh.
17. Hamlet 2
Year: 2008
Director: Andrew Fleming
Anybody with even a passing knowledge of William Shakespeare's works probably knows why Hamlet doesn't exactly set itself up for a sequel, since just about everybody dies at the end. That doesn't deter Dana Marschz (Steve Coogan), a washed-up actor and high school drama teacher who, facing budget cuts, decides to stage a production of a Hamlet sequel—only unlike the original, this one has song and dance, time travel, and Jesus Christ is a character.
16. Theater Camp
Year: 2023
Directors: Molly Gordon and Nick Lieberman
You can only really, truly parody something if you love whatever it is you're making fun of, and that's certainly the case with this 2023 mockumentary, which is a hysterical love letter to theater kids and all of their, ah, enthusiasm. Ben Platt and Molly Gordon play longtime counselors at a theater camp in upstate New York. When the beloved owner (Amy Sedaris) falls into a coma and her decidedly not-theatrical, wannabe business influencer son (Jimmy Tatro) steps in to run things, AdirondACTS is in jeopardy. It's up to the staff to stage the one big production that'll save the camp.
15. Drinking Buddies
Year: 2013
Director: Joe Swanberg
Full disclosure, the comedy drama Drinking Buddies is probably more of a drama than a comedy, though it's certainly very funny at times. The film follows Olivia Wilde and Jake Johnson, two employees and good friends at a Chicago brewery who seem to have more chemistry with each other than either does with their partner (Ron Livingston and Anna Kendrick, respectively). It's the type of relationship drama that'll have you wanting to scream "kiss already!" at the screen, though, of course, it's never that simple.
14. Vampire's Kiss
Year: 1989
Director: Robert Bierman
This comedy horror is underseen, but one clip of it has gone viral: a scene where Nicholas Cage is freaking out and running around New York screaming "I'm a vampire! I'm a vampire!" The whole movie is basically like that scene, though it's a much more intelligent and ambitious film than you might expect. Cage plays a yuppie who is bitten by a vampire—or at least he believes he has, as there is no evidence that she existed or that he's actually turning into a vampire himself rather than having some sort of psychotic break. Darkly funny (perhaps a hair unintentionally at times), Vampire's Kiss is a wryly unsettling look at the masculine Id.
13. What We Do in the Shadows
Year: 2014
Directors: Jemaine Clement and Taika Waititi
Though it's been eclipsed by the TV series of the same name, which greatly expands on the the original mockumentary movie's premise of following vampires as they go about their lives in the modern era, 2014's What We Do in the Shadows is a fantastic comedy, giving you all of the supernatural silliness you'd want in under 90 minutes. Jemaine Clement, Taika Waititi, and Jonathan Brugh play centuries-old vampires who share a flat in Wellington, New Zealand. Cool or dangerous bloodsuckers, these guys ain't.
12. Hit Man
Year: 2023
Director: Richard Linklater
Hit Man feels like the type of movie that should've been a huge summer hit at the box office, but instead it debuted on Netflix, where its easy availability on streaming made it less talked-about but arguably more-watched than it would've been in theaters. So is Hit Man, an extremely loose adaptation of a true story about a guy (Glen Powell) who worked with police pretending to be a hired killer to entrap would-be murderers, underrated? It's hard to say, but what is undeniable is how much chemistry Powell and Adria Arjona have in this charming movie as it builds to a surprisingly dark (if perhaps inevitable and still quite funny) conclusion.
11. Bowfinger
Year: 1999
Director: Frank Oz
Steve Martin stars as Bobby Bowfinger, a struggling, cheap film producer who wants to make a big sci-fi epic starring Hollywood's biggest A-lister, Kit Ramsey (Eddie Murphy). The only catch is that Ramsey didn't agree to be in any movie, so Bowfinger is making it around him, using candid filming and an uncanny lookalike with none of Ramsey's swagger (also Murphy). One of the best and scrappiest movies about movie making, Bowfinger is a slept-on showcase for two great comedy stars.
10. Anora
Year: 2024
Director: Sean Baker
Anora, which won Best Picture and four other major awards at the 97th Academy Awards, is clearly not "underrated." However, it doesn't get enough praise for being one of the downright funniest movies of the year, in addition to being a nuanced subversion of the Cinderella story and a sad look at the American dream. It is those latter things, but it's also so, so funny—especially in the middle third, when Mikey Madison's Ani sets out to find her runaway husband with the "help" of two of his oligarch father's hired goons. (There is a scene where somebody unexpectedly vomits that had me laughing so hard I couldn't breathe. What a picture!)
9. Mars Attacks!
Year: 1996
Director: Tim Burton
Mars Attacks! came out the same year as Independence Day, and while the Will Smith-led vehicle obviously has laughs ("Welcome to Earf"), it takes its alien invasion pretty seriously. By contrast, Tim Burton's movie is gleefully, almost sadistically silly with its invaders, boasting cartoonish violence, outlandish aliens who wear little Speedos inside their flying saucers, and an ensemble cast of human characters who are all eccentric in their own strange right. The straightforward success of Independence Day probably didn't help Mars Attacks! in comparison, which flopped at the box office. What was '90s moviegoers' loss can be your gain!
8. Together Together
Year: 2021
Director: Nikole Beckwith
This indie comedy drama came out in April 2021, just over a year after the COVID-19 pandemic shut down movie theaters for several months. Even though things were starting to safely reopen, crowds weren't flooding into movie theaters, and so as a result, Together Together, a truly lovely little movie, is underseen. Ed Helms stars as a single man who wants to have a baby, and Patti Harrison plays a young woman who agrees to be the surrogate for his child. It's a unique relationship—one that's inherently intimate yet explicitly a platonic business arrangement—and yet the two can't help but form a (non-romantic) bond despite not being together together. It's all very funny—and if you happen to be an expecting parent, tear jerking in the best way.
7. Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves
Year: 2023
Directors: Jonathan Goldstein and John Francis Daley
This box office disappointment is something of a miracle in how it manages to capture the lively, joyful spirit of playing Dungeons & Dragons around a table with your friends while also being a completely earnest (if funny) fantasy adventure. Chris Pine is incredible as a bard who finds himself leading a ragtag party of heroes to battle against an evil red wizard, as is Hugh Grant as a smarmy con artist and Regé-Jean Page as a noble paladin with a sword up his butt (figuratively speaking). The whole cast is on a roll, to make a D&D pun.
6. The Hudsucker Proxy
Year: 1994
Director: Joel Coen
Perhaps the Coen Brothers' most overlooked film is also one of their funniest. Tim Robbins stars as a rube who just graduated from business school yet somehow finds himself at the head of a massive company following the CEO's death. Featuring a wonderful turn from Paul Newman as the company director who put Robbins' unprepared Norville Barnes in the boss's chair as part of an attempted stock scam, The Hudsucker Proxy is a stylish, silly, movie about finding genius (or at least a couple of good ideas) in unexpected places.
5. Snack Shack
Year: 2024
Director: Adam Carter Rehmeier
A coming-of-age comedy of the sort it feels like they just don't make like they used to, Snack Shack is a delightful, uproariously funny tale of teen friendship and summer shenanigans. When best friends A.J. and Moose (Conor Sherry and The Fabelmans' Gabriel LaBelle) are told they need to get jobs for the summer, they make a bid to run the snack shack at their town's public pool. They're running scams, making memories, meeting girls, and learning a little something about each other—and themselves.
4. Josie and the Pussycats
Year: 2001
Directors: Harry Elfont and Deborah Kaplan
A borderline deranged movie, 2001's Josie and the Pussycats takes the Archie Comics spin-off characters and reimagines them as an extremely clever, cutting vehicle for parody, taking shots at consumerism and the music industry. Rachael Leigh Cook, Tara Reid, and Rosario Dawson star as members of the titular band, a local rock group that a nefarious record label (run by Parker Posey and Alan Cumming, both doing a lot with their performances) has decided will become the next big thing. As smart as it is funny, Josie and the Pussycats sounds great, too.
3. The Other Guys
Year: 2010
Director: Adam McKay
Will Ferrell and Mark Wahlberg star as NYPD cops who don't appear to be New York's finest at first blush. A nebbish forensic accountant and a hot-tempered detective who the rest of the force hates because he accidentally shot Derek Jeter ("You should've shot A-Rod!"), the duo suddenly find themselves investigating a major crime. A witty spoof of action movie tropes (including an incredible scene where tough guy cops played by Samuel L. Jackson and Dwayne Johnson jump to their deaths from a roof because they're "aiming for the buses"), The Other Guys is one of the funniest comedies of the decade.
2. Game Night
Year: 2018
Directors: John Francis Daley
An absolutely winning cast helps elevate Game Night—which is a pretty admired comedy but frankly still not admired enough—to deserved classic status. Jason Bateman and Rachel McAdams star as Max and Annie Davis, a couple whose regular board game night goes off the rails when Max's brother (Kyle Chandler) gets kidnapped over some debt he owes. At first, Max, Annie, and their friends think the whole thing is an elaborate LARP, leading to them getting comically in over their heads before realizing that it's not a game and they're in over their heads. Jesse Plemons co-stars—and steals every scene.
1. Confess, Fletch
Year: 2022
Director: Greg Mottola
Did there need to be a new Fletch movie, more than three years after the last Chevy Chase-led comedy mystery? No, probably not. And yet, how lucky comedy fans are that Jon Hamm stepped into the lead role for this very witty, engaging yet laid-back whodunnit. When Irwin Maurice "Fletch" Fletcher finds a dead body in his rented Boston townhouse, he becomes the prime suspect in a case involving a massive art theft. It is a delight to watch Fletch unflappably go from person to person, suspect to suspect, as he works to clear his name. Five stars!
