From time to time, everyone requires a good laugh. And between streaming services like Netflix, Hulu, Amazon Prime Video, and HBO Max, there has never been a greater selection or quantity of comedies to choose from or available at the click of a button.
From romantic comedy such as Charade and Dont Go Breaking My Heart to genre-mashing comedy such as The Last Action Hero and Freaky to classics such as Tampopo and To Be or Not to Be, we have a wide range of options that will make you laugh and brighten your nights.
So, with that in mind, we sifted through the libraries of the most popular streaming services to bring you our top picks for the 23 best comedies streaming right now. My Cousin Vinny and Singin in the Rain
The Apartment
The 1960 Billy Wilders comedy is often dubbed one of the finest films ever made. The recognition for this is well-deserved.
Bud Baxter (Jack Lemmon), a solitary office worker who lets executives at his company use his apartment for extramarital affairs. He hopes this will allow him to advance in the massive insurance company he works for. As a result, his superiors take more and more advantage of his time and space, leaving Bud unable to sleep in his own bed or access his own home.
When Bud falls for an elevator operator in the building (Shirley MacLaine), his desire to establish a romantic connection gives him the confidence to return to his life. But when Bud discovers shes been having an affair with his boss (Fred MacMurray), things become more complicated.
Wilder is a funny and heartfelt romantic comedy that cleverly balances corporate fatigue and newfound love with the cast's exceptional comedic abilities. The Apartment is one of those films everyone should see at least once.
With a library card on Kanopy, the Apartment is available to stream for free.
Black Dynamite
Michael Jai White is one of the greatest underappreciated actors of our time, and his blaxploitation parody of Black Dynamite is one of the funniest movies of the century. White plays Black Dynamite, a former CIA agent who seeks vengeance for his brothers' deaths goes all the way to the Nixon White House. The film also contains funny humor and cultural commentary.
Black Dynamite is now available for HBO Max viewers.
Book Club
Diane Keaton, Candice Bergen, and Mary Steenburgen star as a group of best friends who have been a part of a long-standing book club. Each of them, although successful in their careers, is facing life or love difficulties. When one of them chooses Fifty Shades of Grey as their next book, it opens the group up in a lovely tale of personal acceptance and self-realization, no matter what stage of life you are in.
On Paramount Plus, Book Club is available for streaming.
Charade
Reggie (Audrey Hepburn) has been living off of her husband's murder, and she forgets who she was referring to, Peter Joshua (Cary Grant). To make matters worse, the remaining money is missing, and a lot of horrible people assume Reggie knows where it is.
In Charade, Hepburn and Grant, two acclaimed and likable actors, can go from romantic to threatening with believable ease. Grant's initial fears over their 25-year age gap were resolved using rewrites of the script, which later became clear that Reggie was interested in them; it remains one of the few films in which the age difference is acknowledged and addressed honestly rather than taken for granted. Its His Girl Friday by way of Hitchcock. Jenna Stoeber
Charade is available for free on Prime Video and the Criterion Channel, or for free with ads on Vudu, The Roku Channel, and Pluto TV.
Dont Go Breaking My Heart
Dont Go Breaking My Heart is one of Hong Kong's finest contemporary dramas, adroit in its hard-boiled triad crime dramas as well as light-hearted romantic comedy. On the one hand, there's Sean (Gao Yuanyuan), an investor who comes across Chi-yan in the middle of a long-term relationship; on the other, Kevin (the always-dreamy Daniel Wu), an alcoholic former architect who helps Chi-Yan move on and is inspired by her to
Dont Go Breaking My Heart is now available on Netflix.
Freaky
With his 2020 slasher comedy Freaky, featuring Vince Vaughn and Kathryn Newton, the filmmaker is committed to a cheeky upending of genre conventions, while still entertaining enough to be a satisfying take on the final-girl trope.
On HBO Max, Freaky is available to stream.
Free Guy
Is Free Guy a masterpiece of cinematic art? No. Outside of it technically being an original film, its premise basically boils down to a weird bricolage of The Truman Show by way of Fortnite, PUBG, and GTA Online. Is it a good video game comedy that remains more-or-less self-contained to its own universe before culminating in an explosion of indulgent Easter egg fan service? Absolutely.
Free Guy is now available on Disney Plus and HBO Max.
The Gold Rush
The Gold Rush is a century-old comedy that consistently stands up for the modern sense of humor. Little Tramps is blown by Canadian winds, stoops to eating a leather shoe for sustenance, and finally performs his legendary fork dance.
The Gold Rush is available to watch on HBO Max and Criterion Channel, or for free with ads on Freevee.
I Married a Witch
Rene Clair, who made his name in early French silent and sound cinema, spent a few years working on films in the United States during World War II. Among them is the admirable black-and-white romantic comedy I Married a Witch, which stars the incomparable Veronica Lake as a witch who wants to retaliate against the descendant of the man who imprisoned her by making him fall in love with her.
Puritans burn two witches, Jennifer (Lake) and Daniel (Cecil Kellaway) at the stake in colonial Salem, fearing the man who denied them. They will be doomed to be unhappy in love, always marrying the wrong woman, and Jennifer begins pursuing her target: Wallace Wooley, the latest descendant of the man who sparked her execution and a leading candidate for governor.
I Married a Witch is a 77-minute classic Hollywood delight with costume by Edith Head, charming practical effects (the two witches are represented by small smoke wanes before inhabiting bodies), and a number of funny gags (there's a popped maize vendor during the intermission of the witches' execution). PV
On HBO Max and Criterion Channel, I Married a Witch is available to watch.
Last Action Hero
The boy and the films hero (Arnold Schwarzenegger) must unite to stop him when he is magically transported into the world of a major action franchise. This hilarious adaptation of Die Hard, The Hunt for Red October, and Predator is aided by a real action hero in Schwarzenegger's lead, as well as an all-time over-the-top villain performance from Dance.
Netflix has released the Last Action Hero.
The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou
Wes Anderson's 2004 ensemble comedy is dedicated to Jacques Cousteau and is a loving (and hilarious) tribute to the legendary French oceanographer. Steve Zissou (Bill Murray) is an oceanographer/documentary who loses his best pal to a shark attack while working on his next project: to identify and kill the shark and film the whole thing.
Anjelica Huston (Zissous' estranged wife who finances his projects), Owen Wilson (a Zissou super-fan who believes he is his Zissous son) and Jeff Goldblum (playing a more successful Zissous opponent) make The Life Aquatic a cinematic delight of the senses. PV:
Steve Zissou's Life Aquatic is available to stream for free on Hoopla or for free with ads on Tubi.
Little Monsters
Abe Forsythe's 2019 horror film Little Monsters stars Alexander England (Alien: Covenant) as Dave, a foul-mouthed and down-on-his-luck rock musician who lives with his sister and nephew after a rough breakup. Unfortunately for the family, the petting zoo is located right next to a US Army base that is experiencing a zombie outbreak.
Little Monsters is now available to stream on Hulu.
Love & Friendship
Kate Beckinsale plays Lady Susan, a young widow who wants suitable matches for her daughter (Morfydd Clark) and herself. She flirts and schemes her way throughout the film to the delight of the audience and her friends.
Chloe Sevigny (as Susan's supportive best friend), Tom Bennett (as a hilariously large wealthy man), and the rest of the cast make excellent supporting roles, as well as Stillmans unique biting language and attention to detail in sets and costuming. PV is a recent example of how funny roles are ignored during awards season.
On Prime Video, Love & Friendship is available to stream.
Multiple Maniacs
Criterion has ordained the early transgressive comedies of John Waters to be art, and one can only imagine what Waters would do in 1970, constructing a flimsy scenario in which Lady Divine (Waters' go-to collaborator) spirals out of control on a murder spree, and her ex-lover (David Lochary) plots to murder her first with other members of Waters' Dreamlander acting troupe. Today, with scrutiny from every side of the ideological spectrum, it
Multiple Maniacs are available to watch on HBO Max and Criterion Channel.
My Cousin Vinny
One of the two New Yorkers, Ralph Macchio, is wrongly accused in Alabama of murder, and he calls his cousin (Joe Pesci), who has successfully passed the bar exam after many, many attempts. Vinny and his girlfriend Mona Lisa Vito (Marisa Tomei) travel to the Deep South to try to win a trial with the odds against them.
My Cousin Vinny, a culture-clash comedy juxtaposed with a legal drama, is so successful due to its central performances. Pesci is fantastic as Vinny, at times overconfident, at times without confidence at all, but at all times caring deeply for his loved ones. Tomei, though, is the real star of the show, who deserves an Oscar for his sharp and hilarious performance.
My Cousin Vinny is available for free on HBO Max or for free with a library card on Hoopla.
The Paper Tigers
Alain Uy, Ron Yuan, and Mykel Shannon Jenkins star as the eponymous Paper Tigers, three former martial arts prosedigies who have grown into beleaguered middle-aged nobodies following a lifetime of hard training and hard fighting. But when their master is murdered, the trio vows to avenge his life and bring his killer to justice.
The Paper Tigers is available for free streaming on Netflix and Hi-Yah! or for free with a library card on Hoopla and Kanopy.
Plus One
Plus One, by Pen15 writers Jeff Chan and Andrew Rhymer, premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival before slowly settling into a streaming position. They have become the go-to plus ones for endless weddings. In this day of rom-coms, Maya Erskine and Andrew Quaid have a talent that might be mistaken for product.
Plus One is available for free on Hulu or for free with a library card on Hoopla.
Singin in the Rain
What can we say about one of the most well-loved films of all time? Ill tell you this: If Singin in the Rain werent on this list, we would not be doing our jobs correctly.
Stanley Donen and Gene Kelly's timeless 1952 classic is as sociable and funny as you can get. The 13-minute dream sequence Broadway Melody will leave you in stitches, but its probably a bit different.
Singin in the Rain is now available on HBO Max.
Tampopo
Tampopo is a funny 1985 ramen western that is also one of the most stunning food depictions ever shown on screen. A story of community, passion, and human nature all filtered through the appreciation of good food, it's a cinematic feast.
Tampopo is now available for viewing on HBO Max and Criterion Channel.
To Be or Not to Be
Ernst Lubitsch's 1942 masterpiece is a heartbreaking and moving anti-war story about a group of actors who dupe Nazi soldiers in occupied Warsaw. They plan to perform Gestapo, a comedic play about Hitler. However, when Germany invades and a Nazi spy tries to reveal the Nazis' secrets, the group employs every theater skill in the book to outmaneuver the Nazis (including a visiting Hitler himself).
To Be or Not to Be is a historic American film with funny repeated gags, shocking disguises, and a rock-solid emotional foundation of a group of people striving to protect one another in the face of evil.
HBO Max and Criterion Channel have made To Be or Not to Be available for viewing.
The Unauthorized Bash Brothers Experience
This musical film, based on Beyonce's Lemonade, focused on Jose Canseco and Mark McGwires famous 1980s home run streak out of nowhere in 2019. It deserves more love.
The Unauthorized Bash Brothers Experience continues to develop Canseco and McGwire's psyche through poetry, abstract imagery, and profane lyrics. As Sia emerges, Andy Samberg and Akiva Schaffer pass over their personal histories. With lyrics like "Stab that needle in my ass until I am rich" and "Make me a god with the chemical sciences," Canseco quotes the wisdom of his father.
The Unauthorized Bash Brothers Experience is now available on Netflix.
Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story
We can all agree that musician biopics are a bit played out, right? This humorous music biopic skewers all genre conventions, including the (often) misguided attempt to capture an entire life in one film, led by a brilliant lead performance by John C. Reilly as Dewey Cox, a hilarious supporting actor Tim Meadows as Deweys drummer, and a relentless stream of funny gags as funny as they are humorous (highlighted by an extended sequence where Paul Rudd,
On Paramount Plus, you can stream Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story.
Wheels on Meals
Jackie Chan, Sammo Hung, and Yuen Biao's Hong Kong martial arts action comedy in the 1980s is one of the greatest films of an outrageously talented group of actors (and my personal favorite). The movie centers on Thomas (Chan) and David (Yuen) who operate a food truck and find themselves enamored with a local lady (Lola Forner), who escapes her when she is kidnapped.
Jackie Chan's prolific filmography is highlighted in Wheels on Meals, where he squares off against legendary kickboxer Benny Urquidez (the pair would later fight again in Dragons Forever), who at the time was among the most prominent and successful fighters in the world. There are few things that are better in this world.
If you like this, you should also check out Project A, which was released a year earlier and features one of Chans' most spectacular and breathtaking stunts.
Wheels on Meals is available for free to stream on Plex.
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