Last Updated: October 13th
We take comedy very seriously here at Uproxx, which is why we made sure to craft a streaming recs list that has it all. From Will Ferrell-fronted action romps to stoner adventures, classic teen hijinks, and some more cerebral fare — there’s something here for everyone, as long as you’re looking to laugh.
Here are the best comedies streaming on Netflix right now.
Related: The Best Shows On Netflix Right Now
The Nice Guys (2016)
Run Time: 116 min | IMDb: 7.3/10
Both Ryan Gosling and Russel Crowe are known more for their dramatic chops than their comedy skills but this 70s-era crime caper proves they can ham it up with the best of them. Gosling plays Holland March, a single dad and sh*tty detective struggling to make ends meet and avoid the bottom of yet another bottle. Crowe plays Jackson Healy, the gruff, no-nonsense guy you call when you want a problem to disappear. Their goals align when a young girl goes missing and adult film stars start turning up dead but it’s their fairly-odd-couple dynamic that’s the most entertaining element here.
Men In Black (1997)
Run Time: 98 min | IMDb: 7.3/10
Another great buddy cop comedy film to add to your binge-watching list is this 90s sci-fi classic. Will Smith plays Jay, a police officer who joins a secret organization that deals with extra-terrestrial threats here on Earth. Tommy Lee Jones plays Kay, the old-timer in charge of showing him the ropes. Come for the suits, stay for the theme song.
Hustle (2022)
Run Time: 117 min | IMDb: 7.4/10
Adam Sandler has plenty of comedy favorites over on Netflix but we’re highlighting this one because Sandler gets to channel his everyman charm in a sports story that lets his comedic sensibilities control the game. He plays Stanley Sugerman, an aging scout for the 76ers who discovers a potential NBA star during a pick-up game in Spain. Stanley risks his career and his family’s future to back the unknown player, eventually squaring off against his old boss and confronting his own troubled past to help someone else achieve their dreams on the court.
Bad Trip (2021)
Run Time: 86 min | IMDb: 6.6/10
Eric Andre borrows Sacha Baron Cohen’s schtick — combining scripted storytelling with secretly-filmed real-world pranks — to create this hybrid comedy masterpiece about two best friends on the road trip of their lives. Andre plays Chris while the always fantastic Lil Rel Howery plays his BFF Bud. The two head from Florida to New York (chased by Bud’s mentally unsound escaped convict of a sister played by Tiffany Haddish) while taking in America’s heartland by way of rodeo nights and unfortunately gorilla encounters at local zoos.
Do Revenge (2022)
Run Time: 118 min | IMDb: 6.4/10
Maya Hawke and Camila Mendes star in this teen comedy filled with cheeky winks to the genre’s early aughts classics. Mendes plays Drea, a popular student at an elite private school whose reputation is trashed after her boyfriend (Euphoria’s Austin Abrams) leaks an intimate video of her. She seeks revenge and enlists the help of the school’s new girl Eleanor (Hawke) who undergoes a makeover to infiltrate the popular clique Drea once belonged to and destroy them from the inside. Come for the “Glenn-ergy” of it all, stay for the plot twist near the film’s end.
Thunder Force (2021)
Run Time: 106 min | IMDb: 4.4/10
Melissa McCarthy is the queen of physical comedy and she throws all of her weight into this role, playing a woman who accidentally injects herself with a serum that grants her super-strength. She partners with Octavia Spencer, who plays a scientist, and her former friend, as the two take on a new crop of super villains — hopefully without making an even bigger mess of things.
Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1975)
Run Time: 91 min | IMDb: 8.3/10
Even if you’ve never seen any of the Monty Python films, you most certainly know of Monty Python and the Holy Grail. It’s been quoted, memed, gif-ed, and idolized by comedy fans for generations. At its core, it’s a parody of the legends of King Arthur and his knights. It’s stocked with an impressive cast — John Cleese, Graham Chapman, Terry Gilliam, etc — and its full of eccentric characters, bizarre adventures, and gut-bustingly funny jokes. Think failed Trojan Rabbits, modern-day murder investigations, animated monsters, and musical numbers. Intellectual midgets everywhere will love it.
Inside (2021)
Run Time: 87 min | IMDb: 8.7/10
How did you spend a year in lockdown? Bo Burnham kept busy by writing, directing, starring in, composing, and editing this bleak-yet-hilarious bit of performance art that might be the most exciting, inventive thing we’ve seen yet. Is it a movie, a stand-up routine, a comedy special? We really don’t know, but it’s damn funny so we’re putting it on this list. The self-deprecating humor and catchy tunes are here of course, but Burnham goes darker, crafting complete bangers about everything from the white savior complex to cancel culture, toxic masculinity, depression, and global economic inequality. It’s one of the best things to come out of quarantine.
Paddington (2014)
Run Time: 95 min | IMDb: 7.2/10
This family-friendly film, based on a best-selling series of books, has no business being this damn good. With a cast that includes Hugh Bonneville, Sally Hawkins, and Julie Waters — and an adorable marmalade-loving bear voiced by Ben Winshaw — it’s the kind of feel-good story anyone will appreciate, no matter their age. The basic premise follows Paddington, a young bear who leaves his home in the jungles of Peru to find a new family in London. His adjustment period to city life is where most of the comedy comes from — well that, and Nicole Kidman’s turn as a terrifying taxidermist.
Between Two Ferns: The Movie (2019)
Run Time: 82 min | IMDb: 6.1/10
Zach Galifianakis brings back his beloved comedy talk show, this time in movie form. The viral internet series that saw the funny-man sit down for awkward interviews with celebs and presidents was picked up by Funny or Die, and it seems that Will Ferrell wants the final ten episodes he’s owed, so Zach and his crew go on the road to have some rather hostile chats with people like Bradley Cooper, Keanu Reeves, and David Letterman.
Dolemite Is My Name (2019)
Run Time: 117 min | IMDb: 7.3/10
Eddie Murphy stages a bit of a comeback in this biopic about famed comedian, actor, showman Rudy Ray Moore, better known as Dolemite to fans of his raunchy comedy albums, stand-up tours, and blaxploitation films. Murphy plays Moore at the beginning of his career when he was just a record store clerk looking to break out in the business. He’s joined by a cast that includes Keegan-Michael Key, Ron Cephas Jones, Tituss Burgess, and others, but it’s Murphy who shines here, giving possibly the best performance of his career as a man who will stop at nothing to pursue his dream.
Wedding Crashers (2005)
Run Time: 119 min | IMDb: 7/10
Vince Vaughn and Owen Wilson star in this bro-centric comedy about two bachelors whose shared hobby just so happens to be crashing strangers’ weddings and looking for women to hook up with. Vaughn plays Jeremy, the more brazen of the pair while Wilson plays John, the romantic one. When he falls for a woman he meets at said nuptials his attempts to start a real relationship with her are thwarted by her fiance, her wealthy family, and Jeremy, who views this new romance as the death knell for their scam.
Clueless (1995)
Run Time: 97 min | IMDb: 6.8/10
Few teen comedies have found a permanent place in the cultural lexicon like this 90s flick from director Amy Heckerling. Inspired by a Jane Austen plot and modernized with a Beverly Hills setting, the story follows a shallow, rich Queen-bee named Cher Horowitz (Alicia Silverstone) who begins matchmaking fellow students and teachers at her school only to be confronted with her own shortcomings in the romance department. The fashion, the catchphrases, and Silverstone’s magnetic performance — they’re all standouts here.
Mr. Right (2015)
Run Time: 95 min | IMDb: 6.3/10
You’ve probably never heard of this rom-com starring Anna Kendrick and Sam Rockwell, which is a damn shame because the two have great chemistry on screen and the plot’s just quirky enough to feel refreshingly different from anything else on this list. Kendrick plays Martha, a woman reeling from a bad break-up and searching for direction in her life who meets Rockwell’s Francis, a hitman who targets his own employers and is on the run from a nasty government agent (and excellent Tim Roth). It’s weird, but in a fun way, ya know?
Begin Again (2013)
Run Time: 104 min | IMDb: 7.4/10
Keira Knightley and Mark Ruffalo star in this feel-good comedy about a struggling music producer and the fledgling singer/songwriter, who he discovers on a drunken night out. Ruffalo plays Dan, a man estranged from his wife and recently fired from his producing gig at a major label. Knightley plays Gretta, a promising talent he hears playing at a dive bar in New York City. The two strike up an unlikely friendship as they work to make the music they want to hear, the way they want to hear it.
The Ballad Of Buster Scruggs (2019)
Run Time: 133 min | IMDb: 7.3/10
The Coen brothers are back with a slick new Western romp, one that serves as an ode to all of the tropes present in Hollywood’s best Wild West adaptations. Split into six parts, each story is loosely connected although thematically and tonally different. Tim Blake Nelson stars as the titular hero, a sharpshooting songster who takes part in the film’s opening musical portion. From there, we get stories of outlaws getting their due, prospectors mining for gold, ghostly hauntings, and wagon trails. Forget trying to follow the thread and simply enjoy the ride with this one.
Eurovision Song Contest: The Story Of Fire Saga (2020)
Run Time: 123 min | IMDb: 6.6/10
Will Ferrell and Rachel McAdams take on the planet’s most-watched singing competition with this campy comedy about an Icelandic duo named Fire Saga, who are set on achieving glory on the world’s biggest stage. Ferrell and McAdams play Lars Erickssong and Sigrit Ericksdottir, artists chosen to represent their nation in the Eurovision Song Contest, a real competition that features musicians from all over the world, who are often performing in wild get-ups. Dan Stevens almost steals the show while Pierce Brosnan and Demi Lovato make appearances. We’re calling it now: “Volcano Man” is going to be a bop for the ages.
War Dogs (2016)
Run Time: 114 min | IMDb: 7.1/10
Jonah Hill and Miles Teller feed off each other’s crazy in this action-comedy loosely based on a true story. The two play bros David (Teller) and Effraim (Hill), who hustle their way into a million-dollar contract with the Pentagon, selling ill-gotten arms to the military and paling it up with militants overseas. It’s a wild ride, one that’s heavy on violence and a bit dizzying with its fast-paced dialogue, but Hill and Teller have great comedic chemistry throughout.
Ocean’s Eleven (2001)
Run Time: 116 min | IMDb: 7.6/10
Steven Soderbergh gave us one of the slickest heist films of the decade when he delivered this caper about a group of suave criminals with plans to rob a Las Vegas casino. George Clooney plays Danny Ocean, a con man recently released from prison who gets the gang back together again — the gang is Brad Pitt, Don Cheadle, Casey Affleck, Bernie Mac, Scott Caan, and Matt Damon — to rob a casino owner who just happens to be dating his ex (played by Julia Roberts). It sounds like more of a soap opera than it is, and it works because Soderbergh mixes sharp comedy with high emotional stakes.
Yes God Yes (2019)
Run Time: 78 min | IMDb: 6.1/10
Stranger Things star Natalia Dyer stars in this hormonally-charged teenage comedy, playing a young, naive high-schooler at a co-ed Catholic institution who goes through a kind of sexual awakening on a spiritual retreat. Dyer’s Alice is curious about sex, too curious for the priests teaching her morality classes at school and her judgemental classmates. When they all go on a three day retreat, Alice fields nasty rumors about her nonexistent sexual experience while pursuing an older boy and learning the truth about everyone else’s kinks. It’s the kind of buttoned-up, raunchy hornfest that you’d expect from a movie exploring how religion represses sexuality, and Dyer is hilarious in it.
Set It Up (2018)
Run Time: 105 min | IMDb: 6.6/10
Zoey Deutch and Glen Powell star in this office rom-com with a bit of a twist. Instead of the two young co-stars falling in love, it’s Deutch and Powell who try to set up their overbearing, workaholic bosses with each other so that they can get a break from their demanding jobs. Lucy Liu and Taye Diggs play the employers from hell, and Deutch and Powell put themselves through the wringer to make the pair fall in love, and to make us laugh. It’s superficial, it’s cute, and it’s proof Glen Powell has always been charming.
The Unauthorized Bash Brothers Experience (2019)
Run Time: 30 min | IMDb: 7/10
Andy Samberg and his Lonely Island crew have given us plenty of comedy gems over the years, but this may be one of their more inventive shorts. The group spoofs notorious baseball stars Jose Canseco and Mark McGwire in this visual rap album that imagines the brothers in their heyday. Think Beyonce’s Lemonade but, you know, sports.
Hunt For The Wilderpeople (2016)
Run Time: 101 min | IMDb: 7.9/10
A charming, unconventional story about what it means to be a family, Hunt for the Wilderpeople follows a juvenile delinquent named Ricky (Julian Dennison), who is adopted by a couple living on a farm in a remote region of New Zealand. After Ricky fakes his suicide and escapes into the bush, his (reluctantly) adopted father, Hec (Sam Neill), goes looking for him, and after a series of mishaps, the two are forced to survive in the woods together for months.
Someone Great (2019)
Run Time: 92 min | IMDb: 6.2/10
Gina Rodriguez, Brittany Snow, and DeWanda Wise team up for this romantic comedy about a young woman’s final hurrah before leaving NYC. Rodriguez plays a journalist named Jenny who must pack up her life, leave her friends, and travel to the West Coast for an exciting job opportunity. Unfortunately for her, her boyfriend of nearly 10 years decides to call it quits, which leaves Jenny on the party warpath, determined to have one final night of fun before her big trip. Lakeith Stanfield also stars in this, and with Netflix’s pretty stellar rom-com track record lately, bet on this being a fun watch.
Hail, Caesar! (2016)
Run Time: 106 min | IMDb: 6.3/10
The Coen brothers give fans another ridiculous romp supported by a mind-blowing cast of A-listers — think George Clooney, Josh Brolin, Scarlett Johansson, Tilda Swinton… really, we could go on. The film follows Brolin’s Eddie Mannix, a Hollywood fixer in the 1950s trying to uncover what happened to a major star who disappeared while filming an upcoming studio blockbuster. Hijinks ensue when nosy reporters and paranoid movie execs get involved.
The Incredible Jessica James (2017)
Run Time: 83 min | IMDb: 6.5/10
Anyone who caught Jessica Williams during her tenure on The Daily Show knows that she’s destined for greatness. Despite being so young, she had a confidence, a voice, and a commanding presence that you just can’t fake. The Incredible Jessica James is her first starring vehicle since her time as a correspondent, and it is a true testament to where she’s headed. In a clever look at the life of a struggling playwright who is getting over a breakup, The Incredible Jessica James allows Williams to unleash her fire in the most charming way possible, and she and Chris O’Dowd have an easy chemistry that makes you root for them to make it despite not having a thing in common. Having just come out last year, The Incredible Jessica James is still one of the best comedy movies Netflix has delivered.
The Long Dumb Road (2018)
Run Time: 90 min | IMDb: 6.1/10
Jason Mantzoukas plays the road trip buddy from hell in this adventure comedy from Hannah Fidell. Mantzoukas is an enraged car mechanic (and probably an alcoholic) who invites himself along when college-bound teenager Nat (Tony Revolori) offers him a ride into town. That small gesture of kindness backfires in a big way when Richard (Mantzoukas) hijacks the trip, struggling to manage his past mistakes and bleak outlook while Nat pursues his dream of photographing the original Americana.
The Forty-Year-Old-Version (2020)
Run Time: 123 min | IMDb: 7.1/10
Radha Blank writes, directs, and stars in this autobiographical comedy about her unconventional career. Once a promising young playwright, Blank’s trajectory to fame has stalled and in this film, she pokes fun at her failures, reinventing herself as a rapper and using the worlds of hip-hop and theater to find her true voice. It’s darkly funny at times but incredibly relatable and inspiring all the same.
Always Be My Maybe (2019)
Run Time: 101 min | IMDb: 6.8/10
Ali Wong and Randall Park star in the latest rom-com from Netflix. This time around, the plot follows two childhood sweethearts who’ve spent the last 15 years apart and try to reconnect when one moves back home. Wong plays a successful chef opening a new restaurant in San Francisco while Park plays her former best friend still living at home and working for his dad. Both have some growing up to do, but the film eschews classic romcom tropes for bits that are funnier and more poignant than your average lighthearted fare.
Other People (2016)
Run Time: 97 min | IMDb:6.7/10
There’s a lot going on in the dramedy Other People. Most of the action centers on Jesse Plemmons’ David, a 29-year-old gay man returning home to a conservative, religious household. Then there’s the subplot, David’s coming home because his mother (a brilliant Molly Shannon) has cancer. On top of that, David is trying to reconcile with his father, a man who refuses to accept his son’s sexuality even though it’s been 10 years since he came out of the closet. Of course, Shannon can be counted on to bring the laughs, even as a woman who’s resigned herself to an early grave, and Plemmons is awkward and endearing as a young man searching for his place in the world. Most of the comedy is mined from pretty sh*tty circumstances, but there’s a lot of heart to this one.
Recent Changes Through October 2022
Removed: Anchorman, Old School, Mean Girls, Not Another Teen Movie
Added: Do Revenge, Clueless, Wedding Crashers, Ocean’s Eleven
