It’s no industry secret that theatrical comedies are dying at the box office. To get genuine laughs on the big screen, you’ll mostly have to settle for quippy dialogue in Marvel movies or a theatrical re-release of classics like “This is Spinal Tap.” Oftentimes, comedies are dumped onto streaming services like they’re disposable, and it’s harder than ever to find comedy movies that are genuinely and constantly funny. But we’ve assembled a list of some of the best comedies of the 2020s so far.

Some of these movies got their time to shine in theaters, while others missed having a widespread release due to a variety of factors (lack of marketability, COVID-19, exclusive deals with streaming services). Some will be the weirdest movies you’ve ever seen in your life, while others are so funny you’ve honestly been missing out if you haven’t yet seen them. If you want to watch 15 of the funniest movies from the 2020s in a row, you’re out of you’re gourd, but this list is exactly what you’re looking for! 

“Palm Springs” felt like it came out at the perfect time in 2020, even if that meant having to eschew a theatrical release due to the COVID-19 pandemic. It’s a fresh take on the premise of “Groundhog Day,” set at a wedding in the titular California destination, where a hot mess of a maid of honor, Sarah (Cristin Milioti), hooks up with wedding guest Niles (Andy Samberg), only to discover that he’s been caught in a time loop for who-knows-how-long and ends up stuck repeating the same day over and over with him.

Produced by Samberg’s The Lonely Island, this hilarious time loop rom-com has a lot of the absurd elements fans have come to love from the sketch troupe’s body of work. However, the real star of the show here is Milioti, whose initial embrace of the time loop evolves into a desperate need to break free of it. Not only is this film funny in ways that are genuinely unexpected (J.K. Simmons’ entire character is hysterical), but it also has a lot of heart and might genuinely touch even the most cynical of romantics. 

You don’t need us to tell you that “Borat” is one of the most iconic comedies of the 2000s, establishing Sacha Baron Cohen as one of the most unique comedic voices of the 21st century. He made sure to carry that reputation into the 2020s, with the timely release of “Borat Subsequent Moviefilm,” which chronicles the titular Kazakh’s attempts to sell his daughter Tutar (Maria Bakalova, in a career-making performance as Cohen’s scene partner) to U.S. vice president Mike Pence, eventually resulting in Borat quarantining with two real-life conspiracy theorists. 

Knowing Cohen’s previous work, it’s no surprise that “Borat Subsequent Moviefilm” is an audaciously and raucously hilarious film, but it might surprise fans to know how much of a heart it has, too, all thanks to the relationship between Borat and Tutar. It’s also simply incredible how much noise this film made in the political world, indicting former NYC mayor Rudy Giuliani for his inappropriate interactions with Bakalova’s character. It may feel like a time capsule, given how much has changed in the world since the peak of the pandemic in 2020, but its humor remains timeless. 

“Barb and Star Go to Vista Del Mar” went straight to video-on-demand when it released in 2021, but it deserved to become a massive blockbuster just like “Bridesmaids,” the previous collaboration between writers and stars Kristen Wiig and Annie Mumolo. The duo play the titular best friends whose vacation to Vista Del Mar, Florida not only tests their own friendship but their comforts as middle-aged women. Seems simple, right? Well, that’s not accounting for the overarching plot involving a vengeful supervillain, Sharon Fisherman (also played by Wiig), who seeks to destroy Vista Del Mar as revenge for the bullying she experienced there as a child.

It’s an absurdly goofy laugh riot that hinges on the eccentric but lovable stars, with a stellar supporting performance from Jamie Dornan as Edgar, Sharon’s henchman and the eventual love interest of both Barb and Star (yes, there’s a threesome involved). Overall, what “Barb and Star Go to Vista Del Mar” boasts above most other comedies from the 2020s is the simple fact that it feels like a 107-minute dream sequence. If you’re at all a fan of Wiig’s work on “Saturday Night Live,” this is a film that feels like a studio just threw a budget at her and let her do whatever she wanted. 

Phil Lord & Christopher Miller proved themselves to be the kings of animation with “Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse,” but who knows what could’ve panned out if their follow-up film, “The Mitchells vs. the Machines,” was released in theaters and not straight to Netflix in 2021? The film follows an ill-advised family road trip for father Rick (Danny McBride), mother Linda (Maya Rudolph), youngest son Aaron (Mike Rianda), and family dog Monchi to take eldest daughter Katie (Abbi Jacobson) across the country to film school. However, the road trip is thrown off course by a robot uprising led by PAL (Olivia Colman), an A.I. assistant rebelling against humankind. 

Humor and heart are what drive this terrified animated film on Netflix, which only makes its anticlimactic release on a streaming service all the more frustrating. Like Lord and Miller’s animated projects before this, it’s one of the rare family-friendly animated films that is rewatchable for the whole family, whether you’re a crotchety dad who doesn’t understand technology or a young kid adjusting to big life changes. 

There’s a world in which a lot of people might write off a film like “Hundreds of Beavers” as kitschy or a novelty that isn’t quite as good as it is conceptually. Fortunately, this low-budget indie darling is considered by many to be one of the best films of the 2020s (so far), utilizing old-school filmmaking techniques to make a Chaplin-esque, Looney Tunes-style black-and-white slapstick comedy about an apple farmer who becomes targeted by an unstoppable army of beavers (all represented by humans wearing costumes). 

“Hundreds of Beavers” initially premiered on the film festival circuit in 2022 before seeing a full digital release worldwide in 2024. Though it might be a little too vintage for some, the way that it’s able to masterfully take each gag to its fullest potential is worthy of acclaim. Simply put, we don’t see many comedies these days that are equivalent in quality to great works like “Modern Times” or “Some Like It Hot,” but “Hundreds of Beavers” proves that it doesn’t take an extraordinary budget to make movie magic. 

Jennifer Lawrence spent most of the 2010s becoming a household name in drama, between leading the “Hunger Games” franchise as Katniss Everdeen, winning an Oscar for “Silver Linings Playbook,” and stunning audiences with biopics like “Joy.” The only downside to Lawrence’s career, thus far, is that she has done an abysmally small amount of comedies, which is a real shame considering how effortlessly funny and charismatic she is in interviews. Thankfully, Lawrence shines in the shaggy rom-com “No Hard Feelings,” which released in theaters in 2023. 

In “No Hard Feelings,” Lawrence plays Maddie, a down-on-her-luck bartender who answers a Craigslist ad from the wealthy parents of Percy (Andrew Barth Feldman), who hire Maddie to help get him out of his shell before he leaves home for college. The film has enough outrageous sex comedy antics to make you laugh, but what will really keep this a memorable comedy of this decade is how sweet and endearing the friendship between Maddie and Percy becomes. Hopefully, “No Hard Feelings” is only the start of a future in studio comedies for Lawrence, because she’s just a natural. 

Each decade has its own signature parody of the music world. The ’80s have “This is Spinal Tap,” the 2000s have “Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story,” and the 2010s have The Lonely Island’s “Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping.” However, it only took two years for the 2020s to get theirs with “Weird: The Al Yankovic Story,” which eschews telling the actual story of how the iconic musical comedian became a sensation in favor of completely fabricating his rise to fame, with Daniel Radcliffe in the titular role. 

This polka party of absurdity feels more like a love letter to “Weird” Al’s career than it is a takedown of musician biopics, and is chock-full of incredible talent in supporting roles. Evan Rachel Wood plays Yankovic’s fictional love interest, Madonna, while Rainn Wilson plays Yankovic’s real-life mentor, Dr. Demento. “Weird” might not always be outright in why it’s funny, but if you tend to find treating a guy who sings accordion parodies of popular songs with the utmost sincerity and dramatic flair funny, then this will probably be a better watch than “A Complete Unknown” or “Bohemian Rhapsody.” 

There are few actors with careers as prolific as Nicolas Cage, but the thespian truly outdid himself with his meta comedy “The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent,” which released in theaters in 2022. Cage plays a fictionalized version of himself, struggling to make ends meet with his career and reluctantly taking a gig to be the guest of honor at a Spanish billionaire’s birthday party. There, Cage forms an unlikely friendship with the billionaire, Javi (Pedro Pascal), before that friendship is put to the test when the CIA recruits Cage to investigate Javi’s potential involvement in a political kidnapping.

Part of what sells this movie as one of the decade’s funniest so far is the dynamic between Cage and Pascal, who bond over their shared love of cinema. Not since “Being John Malkovich” has there been a comedy that’s so dedicated to its absurdity in portraying a fictionalized version of a celebrity, and there’s simply no better actor than Cage to play this role. 

Rian Johnson’s follow-up to “Star Wars: The Last Jedi” was a surprising move into the genre of the murder mystery, but nobody could’ve expected the Daniel Craig-led “Knives Out” to become one of the biggest hits of 2019. Craig made an instantly iconic character out of Benoit Blanc, the brilliant but bumbling detective who is tasked with investigating the mysterious death of a wealthy mystery novelist, but the stakes feel so much higher in Johnson’s 2022 sequel, “Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery,” which features a whole new ensemble cast to surround Blanc. 

In “Glass Onion,” Blanc is invited to the private island of billionaire Miles Bron (Edward Norton) for a mid-pandemic murder mystery party that goes awry due to Bron’s tense friendships with politicians (Kathryn Hahn), fashion icons (Kate Hudson), tech geniuses (Leslie Odom Jr.), manosphere podcasters (Dave Bautista), and ex-business associates (Janelle Monáe). It’s a fun spin on the murder mystery in a different way than “Knives Out” was, and Johnson outdoes himself with the hilarious whodunit. 

Prior to “Joy Ride,” Adele Lim was best known for being a co-writer on the 2018 box office hit “Crazy Rich Asians,” but her 2023 comedy eschews the rom-com tropes for a raucous, exhilarating girl’s trip movie with a killer cast. That cast includes Ashley Park, Sherry Cola, Stephanie Hsu, and Sabrina Wu, who go on a business trip to Asia to help the adopted Audrey (Park) close out a business deal by reuniting with her birth mother. Like the previous year’s “Everything Everywhere All at Once” (which also stars Hsu, who steals the show here, too), it’s really a love letter to the Asian community disguised as a genuinely hysterical, raunchy comedy movie. 

It sadly didn’t get as much love at the box office as “EEAAO” or “Crazy Rich Asians,” which is a shame considering how it feels like the type of comedy that would’ve crushed the box office in decades past. If there’s any film on this list that deserves a long overdue watch, it’s this one. 

If you’re one of the five people who didn’t go see “Barbie” in theaters in 2023, then respectfully, do you even like movies? One of the best films of that year is the uproarious, existential adventure following Barbie (Margot Robbie) discovering her womanhood through an adventure to the real world whilst Ken (Ryan Gosling) discovers his unrealized power as a member of the patriarchy. Directed by Greta Gerwig, it’s the rare type of film based on an IP that feels incredibly bold and risky, from its oftentimes blue sense of humor to its unapologetically girly aesthetics. 

There’s plenty in the film that will make you laugh out loud, from Will Ferrell’s overly passionate Mattel executive, to Kate McKinnon’s delightfully goofy “Weird Barbie,” and even a full song-and-dance routine celebrating what it means to be “just Ken.” There are also plenty of moments in “Barbie” that make you cry your eyes out, but nothing brings more tears than the sad fact of the film winning far less Oscars than it deserved at the 2024 Oscars. Mattel should green-light a sequel if only as justice for Greta Gerwig and Margot Robbie getting snubbed by the Academy!

Nowadays, for a comedy to become a big hit amongst audiences, it likely has to feature some up-and-coming talent and have a very clear, specifically unique voice. That certainly describes “Bottoms,” the 2023 high school comedy directed by Emma Seligman and co-written by Rachel Sennott, who had previously collaborated on the 2020 dramedy “Shiva Baby.” “Bottoms” stars Sennott and Ayo Edebiri as PJ and Josie, two lesbian best friends who, in an effort to hook up with cheerleaders, start a school-sanctioned fight club teaching women how to defend themselves against violence. 

Its premiere at SXSW in 2023 saw it hailed as a chaotic sapphic fever dream, combining the angsty wit of films like “Superbad” and “Booksmart” with Tarantino-esque hyper-violence that really stands out amongst a sea of monotonous comedy movies with similar tones. Its cast also feels like a who’s who of Hollywood’s next generation, with Sennott and Edebiri joined by Nicholas Galitzine, Kaia Gerber, Ruby Cruz, and Havana Rose Liu. It will definitely be the type of high school comedy that a whole new generation of teens grows up with as their new Bible for what high school is really like, though hopefully their school is less bloodthirsty than the one in “Bottoms.” 

There are only two valid ways to react to watching “Poor Things”: hysterical laughter or bewildered confusion. Directed by Yorgos Lanthimos, “Poor Things” is a bold and hilarious riff on “Frankenstein,” blending genres like science-fiction, fantasy, erotica, and period drama into a comedic smoothie that’s as funny as it is profound. Emma Stone stars as Bella Baxter, the childlike experiment of a mad scientist (Willem Dafoe) whose innocence and wonder is exploited during her travels across the world, thanks to Mark Ruffalo as her obsessive paramour Duncan Wedderburn and Kathryn Hunter as a cynical brothel owner that recruits Bella into her “musty-smelling establishment of good-time fornication.”

At the center of it all is Stone’s magnificent and transfixing Oscar-winning performance, a fascinatingly nuanced and steady evolution from infantile naïveté to sophisticated adult. Watching it once may just leave you completely staggered at the film’s surreal visuals and eclectic cinematography, but future rewatches may find you appreciating just how goofy and fun it all is. You may even find yourself adding phrases like “furious jumping” and “hairy business” to your lexicon, or quoting, “I must go punch that baby,” whenever you’re disturbed by an infant crying nearby. 

If you’re a fan of comedy, odds are you’ve probably watched and rewatched countless hours of Netflix’s “I Think You Should Leave with Tim Robinson.” The former “Saturday Night Live” cast member and writer is the funniest man on streaming, but he made his transition to theatrical comedies earlier in 2025 with “Friendship,” an A24 film that’s an absolute must-see for fans of “I Think You Should Leave,” as it essentially plays out as a series of incredibly awkward and cringy sketches from the show featuring social faux pas, stubborn protagonists, and surreal dream sequences. 

In “Friendship,” Robinson plays Craig, a socially inept man who strikes up a friendship with Austin (Paul Rudd), a local weatherman who’s moved into his neighborhood. However, Craig’s inability to connect with Austin’s other friends forces Austin to put some distance between him and his neighbor, causing a domino effect as Craig’s life unravels and he tries desperately to keep it all together. It’s the type of film that some audiences will just straight-up not understand, but that’s okay, but like the best A24 films it feels like a well-kept secret for fans of alternative comedy. 

It was one of the biggest comedy franchises of the ’80s and ’90s, and now it’s back. “The Naked Gun” is essentially a reboot of the film series, replacing the late Leslie Nielsen with the great Liam Neeson as Frank Drebin Jr., following in his father’s footsteps of investigating an intricate web of connected crimes with the kind of deadpan obliviousness that results in endless comedic potential. There’s a reason why, as of this film’s opening weekend, critics are convinced that comedy is back, with the biggest, hardest, and stupidest laughs in years coming from this desperately-needed blockbuster. 

Of course, many comedy fans had no doubts that this film would be great given that it’s directed by Akiva Schaffer of The Lonely Island, but truly nothing can prepare you for how silly Neeson and co-star Pamela Anderson get in this movie. Whether you’re a diehard fan of the original “Naked Gun” films or are brand-new to the rules of spoofs, this reboot’s funniest moments will have you crying and falling out of your seat. Go catch this while it’s still in theaters, and maybe someday in the near future we’ll have a lot of amazing studio comedies heading our way!