The best military comedies in movies and TV

After a successful career in the movies, including an Academy Award, Ernest Borgnine successfully made the transition to TV. One of his most successful small-screen adventures was in the sitcom McHale’s Navy, in which he played the title character. The series was a success for several seasons, thanks to McHale’s undeniable charisma as a comedic actor and the strength of the supporting cast. The success of the show led to two feature films and an eventual remake in the 1990s.

While most military comedies take place in the 20th or 21st centuries, a handful take place in other periods. F-Troop, for example, takes place in the Old West after the Civil War. It’s one of those sitcoms that is definitely dated, but the slapstick and the broad humor maintain their appeal. What’s more, there’s undeniable comedic chemistry between cast members Forrest Tucker, Ken Berry, and Larry Storch. The show might not have lasted more than two seasons, but it’s still a lot of fun to watch.

The 1980s were a bit of a golden age for the war comedy genre, and the decade began strongly with Stripes. The film stars Bill Murray and Harold Ramis as a pair of best friends whose decision to join the Army leads to all sorts of hijinks. It’s one of those films that showcases Murray at the height of his comedic powers, and while it definitely skews toward the low-brow, there’s something brilliant about the way that it manages to skewer both the military and any semblance of good taste.

If there’s one contemporary director who really knows how to craft a stylish black comedy, it would be Quentin Tarantino. Inglourious Basterds remains one of his best recent films, particularly because it plays with genre without losing sight of its intent to entertain . Of course, it also possesses many of the usual Tarantino trademarks, with lots of whip-smart dialogue, lots of violence, and lots of over-the-top and quite memorable performances from the likes of Brad Pitt, Eli Roth, and Christoph Waltz.

Goldie Hawn is always a pleasure to see in the movies, and she is particularly entertaining in Private Benjamin. She portrays Private Judith Benjamin, a rich girl who is tricked into enlisting in the military. What really allows this film to sing is not just Hawn’s performance–though she shows herself to be a true natural when it comes to comedy–but also the fact that her military training ends up helping her become a stronger person. She is, as a result, able to forge her own destiny by the end, and there’s something enduringly empowering about that message.

Damon Wayans is in his element in Major Payne, in which he plays the title character, a decorated soldier who, thanks to being passed over for a promotion, ends up in charge of young delinquents and tasked with whipping them into shape. The film rarely subverts expectations, and Wayans certainly commits to the bit. However, there’s a lot of fun to be had in this movie, which is in many ways a satire of the many other military movies that preceded it, and Wayans again proves why he’s one of his generation’s great comedic talents.

Down Periscope might not have been a critical or commercial hit upon its initial release in the 1990s, but it still has more than enough to recommend it to contemporary viewers. Aside from everything else, it’s always a pleasure to watch Kelsey Grammer in a comedy, particularly when he’s playing a Navy officer tasked with whipping a group of sailors into shape. It certainly helps that he’s surrounded by a cast who’s just as talented as he is, including Bruce Dern and Rip Torn.

Matthew Broderick brings his usual charm to the film Biloxi Blues, which is based on the Neil Simon play of the same name. It’s one of those films that holds the comedy and the drama in delicate balance, and it’s helped in this regard by the restrained direction of Mike Nichols. It’s one of those films that has a bittersweetness to it, too, and there’s no question that Broderick is the perfect person to play a young man finding himself while bonding with his fellow recruits.

Major Dad is one of those shows that could have only been produced in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Everything about it is straight out of that period of TV, from the cast, which included Gerald McRaney and Beverly Archer, to its story about a Marine dad who marries a liberal journalist and helps her raise her three kids. It’s an undeniably fun show, and an oddly topical one, since it also manages to incorporate stories regarding the Persian Gulf, and it’s worthy of a watch even now. 

There’s no question that The Andy Griffith Show was a true titan when it came to the ratings, so it’s not surprising that it generated a number of spinoffs. One of the more popular of these was Gomer Pyle–USMC, which featured Gomer Pyle, a major secondary character in The Andy Griffith Show. Jim Nabors reprises his role, playing the lovable but often hopelessly naive Gomer, whose inexperience of the world leads to hilarity when he joins the Marines. It might have lasted only five seasons, but it was still a major ratings success in its own right.

Given the enormous popularity of Top Gun, it was inevitable that it would yield its fair share of spoofs and satires. One of the most notable, and arguably most successful, of these was Hot Shots, which took aim at both Top Gun  and the numerous other militaristic action spectacles that were so prominent in the 1980s and early 1990s. Like any great satire, however, the film succeeds only because of the strength of its cast, which includes Charlie Sheen, Cary Elwes, and Lloyd Bridges.

The 1970s were a particularly fertile period for war films, and Kelly’s Heroes  is one of the more interesting iterations of the genre in this period of transition. Like many other movies of the time, it’s a blend of comedy and drama, focusing as it does on a group of soldiers who set out to steal Nazi gold. In addition to being a satire, it also boasts some very good performances from the likes of Clint Eastwood, Telly Savalas, Don Rickles, and Carol O’Connor (a year before he would go on to become a household name thanks to All in the Family).

Given that it takes place in a POW camp during World War II, Hogan’s Heroes makes for an unusual sitcom, but the combination of writing talent and great performances somehow makes it work. Furthermore, given how terrifying the Nazis were in real life, it’s more than a little refreshing to see them rendered into something far more comedic. There’s also something empowering and uplifting about seeing Americans use the Germans’ own arrogance against them in order to conduct espionage.

Robin Williams was undeniably a comic genius, particularly adept at roles that showcased his comic and dramatic talents. Both are evident in Good Morning, Vietnam, in which he is a DJ who is very popular with the troops but notoriously unpopular with the army brass. It’s easy to see why the film remains so beloved and why Williams’ performance was especially popular; he more than deserved the Oscar nomination he received.

Tropic Thunder is one of those films that excels at pushing buttons and boundaries, including interrogating the notion of blackface. It’s one of those satires that works precisely because it excels at both mocking its chosen genre–the war movie–and yet is also a very good example of that very genre. Every joke may not land, and it can sometimes be over-the-top, but it still manages to be a hilarious comedy, thanks to some smart writing and a bunch of very good performances.

Few films have been as bleakly funny as Dr. Strangelove,  one of Stanley Kubrick’s most incisive productions. It’s a brilliant send-up of America’s bellicosity, as well as a reflection of the many anxieties percolating in the atomic age, in which America, as well as the USSR, had the ability to literally destroy the world. Faced with this almost inevitable destruction, it’s no wonder films like this one decided the best thing to do was just to lean into the terrifying absurdity of it all.

Tom Hanks gave one of his most acclaimed performances in Forrest Gump, in which he plays the title character. Among other things, the film depicts Forrest’s time in the military, particularly his relationships with Bubba and Lieutenant Dan. Throughout, the movie strikes just the right balance between its comedic and dramatic elements, and it’s one of those movies that can make the audience laugh and cry, often within the same scene. It’s easy to see why it remains such a beloved piece of American popular culture.

Though it was tragically canceled too soon, Netflix’s Boots was still a remarkable piece of TV storytelling. Based on the memoir The Pink Marine by Greg Cope White, it follows Miles Heizer’s Cameron Cope as he joins the Marines and struggles with his secret homosexuality. It was one of those shows that managed to capture just the right balance of comedy and drama, and while some criticized it for seeming to take a dim view of the military, it was actually surprisingly sympathetic to both the Marines as an institution and those who enroll. 

It’s no exaggeration to say that the TV iteration of M*A*S*H is one of the most remarkable shows to have aired on TV. With its unique mix of comedy and drama, it managed to channel many of the anxieties and concerns of the Vietnam and post-Vietnam era into its Korean War-set story. It also managed to endure several cast changes over the course of its long run, and its finale was a phenomenon in its own right; it remains the most-watched episode of an American TV series.

Though it has been largely overshadowed by the TV series of the same name, there’s still much to recommend Robert Altman’s film adaptation of Richard Hooker’s novel. It’s definitely a much more cynical version of the story than its TV counterpart, but it has an edgy sense of humor that is very much in keeping with Altman’s general approach to filmmaking. It also boasts some very good performances from the likes of Donald Sutherland, Elliott Gould, and Robert  Duvall (as well as Gary Burghoff, who would go on to become the only member of the film cast to appear in the show).