Top 20 funny films to stave off the lockdown blues

Locked down? Or just locked out? Maybe a laugh would help. Here are the 20 funniest films we could find to lift your spirits.

Leslie Nielsen and Jeannette Charles as the Queen in a scene from The Naked Gun: From the Files of Police Squad.

Duck Soup (1933)

What better way to pillory the absurdity of war and those who would foment it than by handing it over to the Marx Brothers? Groucho Marx is in sublime form as Rufus T Firefly, the leader of the bankrupt, bellicose European nation Freedonia. Defiantly nutty.

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Way Out West (1937)

Laurel and Hardy sing and dance through a western that features a comedy mule, the purloined deed to a gold mine and lots of cartoonish neck stretching. The laughter is infectious.

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Sleeper (1973)

Before he was feted for Annie Hall and making quasi-autobiographical relationship dramas, Woody Allen made the funniest, silliest film of his career, about a Greenwich Village health food shop owner who is cryogenically frozen until the year 2173. The concept gags have entered the vernacular (the “orgasmatron” machine) and the one-liners are typically polished. How could you not love a film in which Allen defends himself with an oversized fruit before turning to camera and gasping, “My God! I just beat a man insensible with a strawberry!”

On DVD and Blu-ray

Blazing Saddles (1974)

Mel Brooks takes a genre that’s sacrosanct to American culture — the western — and gloriously eviscerates it. A deliciously wild-eyed Gene Wilder is perfect as the alcoholic gunslinger, the Waco Kid, who joins forces with the black sheriff Cleavon Little to fight the expansionist plans of corrupt businessman Hedley Lamarr (Harvey Korman). Mostly, though, it’s just an excuse for anarchic gags.

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Monty Python’s Life of Brian (1979)

The Holy Grail and The Meaning of Life come close to pristine Python, but Life of Brian is their most fully realised comedy project. It’s a ruthlessly satirical takedown of the New Testament. And it’s also packed with immortal comedy routines.

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Scene from the 1979 film Monty Python's Life of Brian.

Flying High! (Airplane)! (1980)

It was only a matter of time. After the bloated 1970s Airport movie franchise pumped out four increasingly weak instalments, the comedy tyros Jim Abrahams and David and Jerry Zucker took the genre to pieces with Airplane! The sheer gag-per-minute rate is astounding. “Nervous?” “Yes, very.” “First time?” “No, I’ve been nervous lots of times.” Genius.

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A scene from Flying HIgh.

The Man with Two Brains (1983)

Steve Martin, as genius brain surgeon Dr Hfuhruhurr, dances that fine line between outright idiocy (“Somebody get that cat out of here!” he barks, mid-surgery, in the operating theatre) and sweet, bamboozled softness. The genius of the film, and Martin’s performance, is that it manages to depict a convincing romantic relationship between Hfuhruhurr and a disembodied brain (voiced by Sissy Spacek) in a jar.

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This Is Spinal Tap (1984)

This side-splitting mockumentary is 82 minutes of deadpan rock star satire, wicked sight gags (the herpes, the foil-wrapped courgette) and some of the most quotable lines in comedy movie history, none more so than when irate lead singer David St Hubbins (Michael McKean) complains about the diminutive size of their show’s stage props. “I think that the problem may have been that there was a Stonehenge monument on the stage that was in danger of being crushed by a dwarf.”

On DVD and Blu-ray

The rock group Spinal Tap.

Top Secret! (1984)

Not quite John le Carré, this deliciously unhinged Cold War spy movie features Val Kilmer as an Elvis-style pop idol who becomes involved in a mission to stop the East German regime from deploying a deadly super-magnet.

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The Naked Gun (1988)

The plot’s irrelevant. The cop movie satire is not important. The references are inconsequential. What matters are the lines. Oh, the lines. Delivered by the master of deadpan, Leslie Nielsen, as Lt Frank Drebin. “Lieutenant!” is the greeting. And the reply? “The feeling is mutual!” He’s offered a cigar, “Cuban?” “No,” comes the reply. “Dutch-Irish, my father was from Wales.” And so on.

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When Harry Met Sally . . . (1989)

Yes, the fake orgasm in Katz’s delicatessen is the standout scene, but the film endures as a comedy classic because of the whip-smart character work from the writer, Nora Ephron, the performances from Billy Crystal and Meg Ryan, and the lightly provocative premise (can a man and a woman ever truly be friends?).

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Meg Ryan and Billy Crystal in the film When Harry Met Sally.

Groundhog Day (1993)

The simplicity of the same-day-repetition idea provides the star Bill Murray, as jaded weatherman Phil Connors, with a platform to perform oversized confusion, elation, cynicism and ultimate Zen acceptance.

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Bill Murray and Andie MacDowell in this scene from Groundhog Day.

Clueless (1995)

Jane Austen’s Emma gets a sunny SoCal makeover and becomes a comedy classic in its own right. Alicia Silverstone is the perpetually perky Cher Horowitz, dispensing romantic nuggets to dowdy classmate Tai Frasier (Brittany Murphy).

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There’s Something About Mary (1998)

A seat-squirmer that creates a sweet central dynamic between the stars Ben Stiller and Cameron Diaz, then leverages the humour from inserting our sympathetic protagonists into the most unfeasibly awkward situations – see the “zip” scene and the “hair gel”. And laugh.

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Legally Blonde (2001)

This is a Trojan horse comedy that promises beaches, bikinis and Barbie-level ditz, but delivers a nifty feminist fable about an aspiring law student (Reese Witherspoon) who only reaches her full potential when she dumps her concerns about the preconceptions of the men around her. The climactic courtroom cross-examination, built around the durable power of a hair perm, is a hoot.

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Zoolander (2001)

Male self-image gets a hit right where it hurts – in the vanity mirror – in this furiously entertaining comedy about new men, the fashion industry and the preposterous reality of male models. Ben Stiller and Owen Wilson take the himbo trope to breaking point and beyond as two brainless models. Triumphantly dopey.

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The Royal Tenenbaums (2001)

The darkest of subjects, including divorce, death, plane crashes and suicide (there’s a suicide attempt on camera) are touched upon in a delightfully zany way by the director Wes Anderson in a gorgeous, star-studded homage to the work of JD Salinger.

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Anchorman (2004)

Will Ferrell’s poker face is deftly deployed throughout this crackpot comedy as he carries the central premise about a San Diego newsroom with outmoded 1970s values being dragged into modernity by ace anchorwoman Veronica Corningstone (Christina Applegate).

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Will Ferrell in Anchorman. Picture: SUPPLIED

Borat (2006)

Peak Sacha Baron Cohen. Cohen’s Kazakh creation was still anonymous at the time and was thus allowed unfettered access to American inner sanctums (including rodeos and private dining clubs) where he, often cleverly and ruthlessly, exposed the unapologetic bigotry of his unsuspecting hosts.

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Bridesmaids (2011)

The wedding-themed chick flick (see 27 Dresses, The Wedding Planner) gets a riotous makeover with this winning account of female friendships upended by impending nuptials. The tension between chief bridesmaids Kristen Wiig and Rose Byrne is exquisitely handled, while Jon Hamm provides the perfect boo-hiss bad guy. Yet it’s the communal food poisoning that almost defines the film.

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Actor Rose Byrne in 2011 film Bridesmaids.

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