The 21 best comedies of the 21st century (so far)

What's the greatest comedy of the 21st century? Borat? Too crude. Bridesmaids? Too long. Zoolander? Too much. It might have had a chance if Derick had smoked pot with Johnny Hopkins. Surely, the finest example is the story of two brothers who haven't grown up and are forced to live together when their parents remarry. Played by Will Ferrell and John C. Reilly, they spend most of the film throwing tantrums, playing drums, watching Shark Week, and cracking jokes. There are more quotable lines here than we can count, and the man-child routine that made Ferrell a star has never worked better.  

The latest Barbie movie is made of anything but plastic. The jokes are hilarious, the sets are incredible and the dolls have real human emotions. Ryan Gosling delivers one of the great comedic performances as Ken, the professional beach lounger who has a crush on Barbie. His performance is simply SUBLIME.

Eager to parody the superhero flick but keenly aware that superhero flicks can be awesome, the Phil Lord and Chris Miller team found a way to roast the genre while offering a great example. It's a movie in which Batman wants to showboat, Superman wants to get away from Batman, and our hero (Chris Pratt) wants to escape the heroes who saved his life. The jokes are nonstop, the action is dense, and the animation is gorgeous. Everything is...well, you know the song. 

The plot of Martin McDonagh's second film sounds like a Guy Ritchie movie: two hitmen are stuck in Bruges. This is a Martin McDonagh film, so there are several jokes you won't forget amidst the shootouts, mob bosses, and Irish pubs.

Trying to get lucky for the first time is super stressful. Andy has felt this stress for decades. It's about time he found that special someone (or anyone, really), which is the premise of Judd Apatow's first feature, The 40-Year-Old Virgin. The movie would inspire dozens of movies about guys not getting lucky, but none of them can compete with this one. 

Best spoof of the century? Director Edgar Wright's first feature makes fun of zombie flicks, horror movies, and post-apocalyptic dramas. And then, because he's such a student of cinema, it finds a way to scare you when you least expect it. Shaun of the Dead is one of those rare genre mashups that work. The story of a schlub (Simon Pegg) sleep-walking through the apocalypse is filled with gags and scares.  

Never mind. This is actually the best spoof of the 21st century. No comedy on our list packs more laughs, one-liners, and memorable moments into its runtime than this one. The tale of a Kazakh journalist on a journey through America takes our darkest secrets and rips them open like a scab. Sacha Baron Cohen's reporter character exposes big-city feminists, racist rodeo clowns, psycho gun merchants, news anchors, and even politicians. He doesn't pick sides; instead, he picks scabs. 

What did Paul Thomas Anderson see in Adam Sandler that others didn't? Was it the rage? The sweetness? The versatility? The answer is all the above. The filmmaker brings out the best in Sandler via a love story about a guy named Barry and a gal named Lena (Emily Watson), who couldn't be more different from each other.  

Pitched somewhere between Platoon and Adaptation  (only with a lot more laughs), this Hollywood satire sees a bunch of actors entering the jungle for a movie only to realize that the villains aren't extras but soldiers who have real guns. The cast is loaded with ammo, with Robert Downey Jr. as a crazed method actor and Tom Cruise as a nearly unrecognizable studio exec. Plus, Ben Stiller is a wannabe star. 

A mountain resort becomes the playground for director Wes Anderson to unleash his childlike fantasies. There's the usual stable of actors (Bill Murray, Tilda Swinton, Ralph Fiennes), a mentor/student relationship involving a bellboy and a doorman, and one of the more colorful animated sequences we've seen this decade. Still, it's the resort that steals the show. 

Ron Burgundy is a man of many tastes — cologne, women, leather-bound books — and he's the anchor at the biggest news station in San Diego. That is until a "broad" comes along to steal his thunder. What follows might be the funniest, most obnoxious, and obnoxiously entertaining comedy of all time. It's written by Adam McKay at the peak of his powers when he could turn an impromptu sing-along of "Afternoon Delight" into a quotable masterpiece. And the supporting cast is batting a thousand. It may not be classy, but it sure is hilarious. 

Who likes black and white movies where nothing happens? No hands raised? Well, check out this comedy from Noah Baumbach and get back to me. If the sight of Greta Gerwig dancing down the street to "Modern Love" doesn't do it for you, the story of a 20-something who doesn't know what they want in life will. 

This movie is like a time capsule of 2000s comedy. Teenagers! Puberty! Cursing! Coming of age! It's all here. The cast of characters gives Superbad plenty of laugh-out-loud moments — in particular, every time McLovin is on screen — but the dialogue is what stands out. Somehow, writers Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg were able to capture an entire demographic's way of speaking.

There's a lot you can say about O Brother, Where Art Thou? that would take it off our list. It's not a comedy, and some serious subject matter is on display. Then again, it's just as funny as anything on here. The gags go a long way in this Coen Brothers adventure, carrying us through the darker sections with blasts of sunny optimism. 

There's a reason high school movies are always comedies. When you think about it, high school is so packed with cringe situations that the jokes nearly write themselves. Greta Gerwig's directorial debut captures that mix of awkward and hilarious, with several characters, archetypes, and situations we can relate to and laugh at. 

Of all the films Agnes Varda made in the 2000s, this documentary about two artists traveling around France is by far her most humorous. There's a lightness to her banter with JR that makes it a buddy comedy. 

Adam McKay's follow-up to Step Brothers is nowhere near as funny, but it's also a more accessible film. The cast is loaded with talent. Will Ferrell and Mark Wahlberg play the titular cops, and Dwayne Johnson and Samuel L. Jackson steal the show in a matter of minutes.

"Girls only want boyfriends who have great skills...like bow hunting and computer hacking." It's safe to say that Napoleon doesn't understand girls, conversation, or anything resembling real life. He's a great character for a comedy, though, since his naivety leads to all sorts of funny moments at school.

Even funnier than the other Wes Anderson movie on our list, this is the director at his most humorous, lyrical, and fantastical. The story, in which a boy scout leaves his troop for a girl on the other side of town, is one of the more enjoyable Bonnie & Clyde riffs we've seen yet. 

So much more than just an action savant, Quentin Tarantino is one of those directors who seems to have comedy in his bones. When he adds a pinch of humor, the results can be electric. By far, the funniest of his movies is Once Upon a Time...In Hollywood, which made me laugh more than any comedy this decade.