Box office gross: The 20 funniest raunchy comedies

When one has a cast like Zac Efron, Adam DeVine, Aubrey Plaza, and Anna Kendrick, the results are sure to be wild. This is true in Mike and Dave Need Wedding Dates,  which is yet another comedy in which the plot is revealed right there in the title. There’s undeniable chemistry between the various members of the cast, but Aubrey Plaza is the real standout. The ease with which she plays a bad girl (albeit one who makes at least a pretense of being good) is a joy to watch, and it shows why she deserves to be regarded as one of the finest comedic actresses working today.

If there’s one film that can be said to be a raunchy comedy classic, it would have to be Animal House. Everything from its setting (a frat house) to the antics of its characters (filled with plenty of gross moments) helps to explain why it became one of the most popular comedies of its time. In many ways, it is the perfect distillation of the raunchy comedy ethos, and it even features one of the most notable movie villains, Dean Wormer, who makes it his life's mission to destroy the Delta House. Even from today’s viewpoint, there is an undeniable appeal to the film’s unrestrained approach to its subject.

Greg Focker of Meet the Parents  is arguably one of Ben Stiller’s best and most beloved roles, and it’s easy to see why. He has amazing chemistry with Robert De Niro, who plays the father of his girlfriend. The two constantly go around and around, and whether it’s De Niro’s Jack asking Greg whether he could milk him or Greg appearing in a speedo, the film careens from laugh to laugh without a break. There is an effortless nature to the comedy that helps to set Meet the Parents apart from similar comedies, and it’s the ideal example of how chaos and mishap make for great laughter. 

It’s rare that a Hollywood sequel manages to outshine its predecessor, but this is what happens in Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me. This sequel takes quite a few twists and turns, and, like so many other spy films, it totally dispenses with the events of the previous film when it’s revealed Vanessa has been a fembot all along. However, the film more than succeeds, thanks to its raunchy writing and various villains, including Dr. Evil and his new Scottish henchman, Fat Bastārd. As he did in the first film, Mike Myers demonstrates why he is one of the most adept comedians of his generation. 

Leveraging his success as a star of Saturday Night Live, Mike Myers became even more famous as a result of Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery, in which he plays the title character. The film is very much a satire of the spy films of the 1960s, but it ups the ante by bringing Austin into the present. Myers is in top form, making Austin into a parody of oversexed spy figures like James Bond. There are sex jokes galore, and Myers manages to not only portray Powers himself but also his nemesis, the inept but eternally plotting Dr. Evil.

The Hangover and its sequels are some of the most successful raunch comedies of the 2010s. There’s a sharpness to the writing in this film that helps to elevate it above other entries in the genre, and it’s helped that it features a tremendously talented cast, including Bradley Cooper, Ed Helms, and  Zach Galifianakis. It’s a fascinating look at the state of masculinity at the end of the first decade of the 21st century, and while it does have moments of trading in stereotyping, it just as often manages to lift itself above its own limitations, proving the enduring power of adult comedy.

It’s the rare film that can take a rather threadbare premise — of two guys looking to go to White Castle after smoking weed — and leverage it into a wildly successful comedy, but that’s precisely what happens with Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle.  In large part, this is because of the tremendous comedic talent of John Cho and Kal Penn, who are simply brilliant as the main characters. Throw in a remarkable and memorable appearance from Neil Patrick Harris, and one has all of the ingredients of a stoner comedy far better than the genre usually offers.

Super Troopers is one of the silliest comedies from the early 2000s, but this is precisely what makes it such a gem. Its story about a group of state troopers who engage in numerous practical jokes and compete with a nearby police department is a bit thin, but there are enough laughs to more than make up for it. It delights in pushing the envelope of good taste, and it makes no pretensions to be anything other than what it is. To top it all off, it even includes Brian Cox in its cast, long before he would become a household name thanks to his appearance in Succession. 

National Lampoon’s Vacation is an embarrassment of riches when it comes to its cast, which includes such greats as Chevy Chase, Beverly D’Angelo, John Candy, and Anthony Michael Hall. In the tradition of the best raunchy comedies, it delights in flaunting the rules of good taste, focusing on the Griswold family and their various misadventures on a family vacation. There’s more than a little cringe in  National Lampoon — particularly from the viewpoint of 2023 — but this is precisely what makes it so much fun to watch. It’s easy to see why it gave birth to an entire franchise based around the Griswolds’ various misadventures. 

The early 2000s was a period very much invested in exploring adolescent masculinity and male desires, and one of the better examples of this trend is the film Road Trip. As its title suggests, it follows a group of college students who go on a road trip to try to procure a sex tape that was sent by mistake. It’s unabashedly silly, but this ends up being the film’s superpower. It doesn’t shy away from the adolescent sex humor that was so much a part of the film landscape of the early 2000s, but there are enough laughs and great performances to make it worth a watch.

Mel Brooks is a director who has always had an eye for how to make a biting satire, and Blazing Saddles remains one of his masterpieces. It pulls no punches when it comes to its comedy, and its focus on a Black sheriff of a frontier town is one that opens the door to a lot of envelope-pushing comedy. Among other things, the film exposes the thinly-veiled racism that has so often been a part of American culture, and, in the tradition of great satire, it often cuts deep and to the bone. There’s an irreverence to Brooks’ comedic style that is as bracing today as it was when it was released in 1974.

If there’s one director working today whose name is synonymous with the raunchy comedy, it would be Judd Apatow. As both a director and a producer, he has been responsible for some of the genre's most remarkable and successful entries, including The 40-Year-Old Virgin.  The film more than lives up to its title, as a group of friends try to help their co-worker lose his long-intact virginity. It’s filled with several truly iconic scenes, including the classic moment when Steve Carell’s Andy is subjected to a brutal hair-waxing. There’s a lot of profanity and raunch here, but the innate sweetness of Carell’s performance keeps the film from going overboard.

Palm Springs is, on the surface, just another film about a time loop, focusing in this case on Andy Samberg’s Nyles and Cristin Milioti’s Sarah as they find themselves repeatedly living the same day. There are more than a few R-rated comedy moments in the film. Still, there’s also some surprisingly adept philosophy as, like  Groundhog Day before it, Palm Springs asks the audience to consider weighty questions of morality and the nature of time. At the film’s heart, however, is the growing bond between Nyles and Sarah, and the unmistakable chemistry between Samberg and Milioti makes the film an undeniable pleasure. 

Few films have leaned into the juvenile element of the raunch comedy as much as There’s Something About Mary.  At the center of the film is Cameron Diaz’s character, Mary Jensen, who seems to inspire in the men around her a truly unhealthy (and disturbing) level of obsession. Indeed, there is something almost primal about how the film indulges in its laughs, and this refreshing honesty enables this film to become something more than just a self-indulgent mess. It certainly helps that it is blessed with such great talents as Diaz, Matt Dillon, and Ben Stiller.

Though the raunchy comedy had been around for a long time before the release of American Pie in 1999, there’s no question the film revitalized the genre for the new millennium. Though derided as embarrassing and tasteless by many critics, it has since become one of the canonical entries in the genre. Its story about a group of teens who try to lose their virginity before they graduate is of perpetual interest to the movies, and there’s an undeniable chemistry among the various members of the cast. And, of course, there is also the presence of Jennifer Coolidge in her influential role as Stifler’s mom. 

The 2010s was a decade that saw the release of many comedies centered on women and their experiences. In the case of Booksmart, the directorial skill of Olivia Wilde is perfectly matched with the performance talents of leads Beanie Feldstein and Kaitlyn Dever, who play two high school students who prepare for a weekend of partying before college. A powerful sense of joy underlies all of the raunchy elements of this comedy, and the undeniable chemistry between its two leads helps to set it apart from the many other coming-of-age comedies that have emerged over the years. Booksmart shows that there is still a lot of energy in the raunchy comedy genre. 

Popular culture tends to have a very conflicted relationship with mother and motherhood, and it is far too often the case that mothers are either a saint or a sinner when they’re not shunted out of the frame altogether. True to its title, it focuses on a group of moms who lean into debauchery and raunchy shenanigans. Rather than seeing this as a reason to punish them, however, the film demonstrates how liberating it can be for moms to let go and have some fun of their own. It also boasts a phenomenally talented cast, including Mila Kunis, Kristen Bell, and Kathryn Hahn. 

Whenever a movie stars Tina Fey and Amy Poehler, the results are sure to be dynamic, and this is certainly true of the film Sisters. As the title suggests, the two play a pair of siblings who decide to throw a party at their parents’ house before it is sold. Of course, the party gets out of hand, and the film leans into the perverse and crude. What saves it from being nothing more than a juvenile comedy is the extent to which it demonstrates the importance of the sisters’ bond with one another. The obvious chemistry between Fey and Poehler seals the deal. 

Joy Ride is an extraordinary raunch comedy for many reasons, not the least of which is that it is directed by and stars Asian women. What starts as a business trip for the main character, Audrey soon starts to spiral into something far more hilarious and profound as she sets out on a journey of self-discovery in an attempt to reconnect with her birth mother. Plenty of over-the-top scenes are uproariously funny, including a moment in which all four of the main characters have to find drugs in whatever body part they can. Still, there is also a lot of heartfelt storytelling here. It’s sure to resonate with anyone who has sought to understand their complicated relationship with family.

With a cast that includes comedy greats Melissa McCarthy, Kristen Wiig, Maya Rudolph, and Rose Byrne, Bridesmaids hits it out of the park when it comes to hitting raunch comedy greatness. It focuses particularly on Wiig’s Annie Walker and her attempts to be a good bridesmaid, even as she has to contend with her life, which is always on the verge of falling apart. There’s plenty of gross-out and raunch to go around, but, like all of the great comedies, there’s also a lot of heart to this movie, which is, above all, about the enduring power of female friendship.