Need a laugh?
Netflix, like so many streaming services these days, is full to the brim with content, but it so very often feels like there's nothing to watch.
If you're looking for a good comedy on Netflix and you can't seem to decide on what to watch, not to worry - we've pulled a selection of movies from the current library to make the decision all the more easy for you.
Take a look.
'The Naked Gun'
'The Naked Gun' can sit comfortably alongside 'Airplane!' as one of the greatest parody movies ever made, but more than that, it's Leslie Nielsen's insanely sharp comedic timing that makes 'The Naked Gun' worth watching. This scene in particular is up there with the likes of 'Who's On First' for sheer density of jokes. It's a minute and forty seconds, but just look how many are crammed in.
'Happy Gilmore'
In Adam Sandler's run of comedies throughout the '90s, 'Happy Gilmore' stands as perhaps his most complete and anarchic. It shares common DNA with everything from 'Caddyshack' to 'Rocky' to every sports movie you can think of, but infused with all of this is a real sense of anarchy. Carl Weathers playing a wooden-handed golfer, or Christopher McDonald as every asshole villain in Shooter McGavin? Just comedy perfection.
'O Brother, Where Art Thou?'
Turning Homer's 'Odyssey' into a Deep South musical comedy might seem like a tall order, but if anyone was going to do it, it was going to be the Coen Brothers. Combining a talented cast including George Clooney, John Turturro, Tim Blake Nelson, a rock-solid soundtrack with performances by Emmylou Harris, Alison Krauss, and the Coens at the top of their game, 'O Brother, Where Art Thou?' is a musical comedy caper classic.
'Superbad'
Considering how much of the cast - Jonah Hill, Emma Stone, Bill Hader, Seth Rogen - went on to have huge careers in the wake of this, that should tell you all you need to know about 'Superbad'. More specifically, 'Superbad' has that kind of raucous, off-the-cuff comedy that's incredibly hard to replicate naturally. You find so many movies nowadays trying to capture it, but it very often looks like they've been trying for days to make the spark happen naturally and resulting in very clearly edited sequences together. Here in 'Superbad', it all just rattles off so naturally.
'Monty Python and the Holy Grail'
Where do you start with this? The Black Knight sequence? The Insulting Frenchman? The fact that horses were too expensive so coconuts were cheaper and somehow funnier? Tim the Enchanter and the airspeed velocity of an unladen swallow? It's 24 miles an hour, incidentally. Although 'The Life of Brian' may feel like a more complete story, this is arguably just as funny and ridiculous. Not only that, you'll see so many references from fantasy video games in this too.
'Planes, Trains and Automobiles'
Although Thanksgiving is a purely American phenomenon and celebration, a movie like 'Planes, Trains and Automobiles' is one that helps to illustrate it for audiences everywhere else. The dynamic between John Candy and Steve Martin is the engine that drives John Hughes' screwball comedy, and like so many of the best comedies, there is a layer of sadness beneath it that makes it all the more humorous, not the least of it is that the world was deprived of John Candy far too soon. As far as his performance, it's a masterclass.
'Meet the Parents'
It's fascinating to watch 'Meet the Parents' and see where it began to where it eventually ended up. By comparison to 'Little Fockers', 'Meet the Parents' feel almost subtle and witty in comparison. Robert DeNiro was just beginning to dip his toe into comedy and still had enough screen presence and fuel in the fire to command a scene, even if he was talking about milking nipples. Ben Stiller, likewise, had enough of his goofy charm to power an entire trilogy of movies, and anyone who's had a scary in-law knows just how terrifying this whole thing can be.