The 20 funniest films of all time

This comedy is "sublime!" From the ineffable humor of Ryan Gosling to the jokes about people living in Toyland, this is the funniest movie in years. No, seriously, the story of Barbie entering Los Angeles is anything but plastic. It's a living, breathing, laughing modern classic. 

Caddyshack might be the best comedy of its era. When Saturday Night Live actors would be thrown together to do nothing but create laughs, Caddyshack found a way to be even sillier than the rest. Telling the story of a country club and all the wacky characters who exist there, the film manages to bring wit to childish material.

Taking stupidity seriously is the basis for comedy and Ben Stiller takes comedy as seriously as Blue Steele. Eyes squinted, cheekbones flexed, and lips smushed together, Stiller's Zoolander is one of the funniest creations in comedy. A satire on models, Zoolander commits to the bit like a model who has to catwalk in laughable clothes. 

So you're saying there's a chance...Dumb and Dumber is one of the funniest movies ever made. Absolutely! The peak of Jim Carey's career, this movie is simply devoted to being funny. The plot? Wait, what is the plot again? Something about two friends going on the road to find a girl who doesn't love them back? It's really just a chance to watch two morons find themselves in a litany of hilarious movie sketches.

Woody Allen might not be as revered as he once was (for obvious reasons), but you can't deny the witty asides of Annie Hall. The story of a sweaty-palmed, insecure but incredibly smart balding man and his crush Annie, the film finds humor in heartbreak. When you think about it, Annie Hall is a breakup crackup.

The immature comedy comes of age in Step Brothers. The greatest Will Ferrell and Adam McKay combo is packed with more quotables than any other movie this century. This is a house of learned doctors--or two grown men acting like children--and it remains the most beloved comedy of its generation. 

"I had buddies lie face down in the muck so I could eat at this family establishment."  There may be nothing funnier than Walter in The Big Lebowski. A lunatic veteran who doesn't bowl on Shabbas and whose best friend is Mr. Lebowski, Walter and company find themselves in a murder mystery that includes bowling, hippie philosophizing, and lots of quotable comedy.

There's just something about Mary --it's not a well-made movie, but you'd be hard pressed to find another comedy that found people literally rolling on the gum-stained, popcorn-stained theater floor like this film. It's about a nerd who still loves his high school crush, which is understandable since she's played by the brazenly charming Cameron Diaz. What he does to find her leads to comedic sketches so geniusly childish they have been ingrained in our memory of movies.

Arguably the greatest comedy on our list, City Lights manages to elicit tears and laughs in equal measure. Like a bouquet of flowers glowing luminously in a gutter, City Lights finds warmth amidst a love story between a homeless man and a blind girl. The ending is perhaps the most moving in all of cinema, but the laughs that arise in this silent comedy are undeniable as well.

"We do the concentrating and the Poles do the camping." In this World War II satire, the humor comes from the gallows, and the gallows come from the most idiotic group of Nazis imaginable. Directed with the "Lubitsch touch,"  which refers to the way Ernst Lubitsch was able to blend comedy and tragedy with almost imperceptible grace, To Be or Not to Be has got to be one of the funniest satires ever made.

You would think this type of film would be cancelled in this day and age, but this movie is so funny, inventive and creative that it's going to live on as a classic for as long as people remember the name Marilyn Monroe. It's slapstick perfection--the kind of screwball comedy that is stupid and genius in the same scene. 

Tropic Thunder is a movie, disguised as a movie, playing another movie. Like the movie star in black face who is lost between his real life and his character, Tropic Thunder is a great satire disguised as a great war movie. More than that, it's just a dang funny movie! Tom Cruise dancing in a bald cap, Robert Downey Jr. in method overload, Jack Black in heroin overload, and Ben Stiller in Simple Jack guise, this movie wears many masks, but all of them are funny.

Yes, it's not a straight-up comedy, but it's a straight-up hilarious movie. Richard Linklater's movie about the last day of high school is filled with hijinks and high school students, drunk parties, and hilarious moments. From monologues about Martha Washington to jokes about growing up and more specifically, not growing up, this is a high school comedy film that is smarter than it looks.

The Marx Brothers' wildly unhinged comedy brought forth an era of slapstick and one-liner comedy, and Duck Soup captures the best of both styles. As sight gags and one-liners are thrown on the screen, it offers a mirror into their ridiculously manic yet somehow remarkably clever minds. 

Jacques Tati is one of cinema's greatest auteurs. He created a cinema style that is uniquely his own, where a nearly silent protagonist wanders through carefully thought-out sight gags with a fedora and a mindless step. In this satire on modernism, he's the uncle that his brother's son wants to kick it with. A sort of manchild himself, Jaques Tati is a sort of bridge between Wes Anderson and Charlie Chaplin--a comedic director who melds quirky set-pieces and intricate backgrounds with slapstick and warmth that is distinctly his own.

The Naked Gun is probably the funniest movie ever made. There's never been a movie with more genius one-liners, more memorable sight gags, and more inventive stupidity than this police spoof about an assassination attempt. I'm not sure I've ever laughed more while watching a movie than while watching The Naked Gun.

While we're on the subject of silly comedies, we gotta give Hot Rod a quick shoutout. Telling the story of the worst stuntman ever, Hot Rod is an indie comedy with the laughs of a great studio slapstick. With Andy Samberg committing to the bit the way his character commits to impossible stunts, it remains a consistently hilarious spoof.

With their black shades, black suits, black fedoras, and even blacker sense of humor, The Blues Brothers are in comedic harmony. As they play off each other, taking cues from each other's beats, they create a cinematic tune that is catchy and funny--The Blues Brothers is a comedy that doesn't make much sense, but the comedic rhythm is undeniably there.

How to describe Harold and Maude? Well, it's about a young man and grandma falling in love, the power of love over darkness, the story of one man's journey from suicidal to whimsical, the hippie era and the power of comedy, laughs and honest love. It's a movie that is darkly funny and colorfully dark, but more than that, Harold and Maude is all for embracing honest, moral life.

Is there a better fantasy movie out there? Inconceivable! The Princess Bride is a wonderful mix of comedy, action and true love that is gorgeous as well.