Life is tough, but with Netflix, we can just laugh our stress away for a few hours. It simply has a sizable selection of comedic movie choices for when you just need to lift your spirits.
The movie selection on Netflix is starting to be impacted by its emphasis on original programming. On the list below, there are a lot of Netflix originals, but not enough to make up for all the classics that have been out of favor in recent years.
Here, we have curated a list of the best comedies to watch this December, in ascending order. During the holiday month, you will not have to get confused anymore about what to serve your movie-hungry palate. Get under your blankets and put on one of our recommendations; you’ll surely not regret it.
20. She’s Gotta Have It
With this low-budget, ‘black’-and-white debut, Spike Lee made his mark as a fully-grown talent. It ended up being one of the most significant pictures in the emergence of independent filmmaking in the 1980s.
John Canada Terrell, Tommy Redmond Hicks, Tracy Camilla Johns, and Lee himself have supporting roles in the movie. Along with Ernest Dickerson, who plays a resident of Queens, New York, S. Epatha Merkerson, who plays a doctor, also makes an appearance. The story revolves around the emotions that a young woman (Johns) has as a result of seeing three different guys.
In his brilliant, hilarious, and adventurous film, Lee gave the screen a voice and realism that had never been seen before. 30 years later, the main message—that women can engage in an activity to an equal extent as males and shouldn’t face criticism or ridicule for it—remains pertinent. In fact, Lee turned the movie into a Netflix series that debuted last year because it is so timely. Gary Martin.
19. The Other Guys
This one is a hilarious buddy cop movie that centers on the odd team of Will Ferrell and Mark Wahlberg, even if you don’t want to learn about Ponzi scams. In McKay’s comedy, Ferrell adopts a far more subdued persona than he typically does, whereas Wahlberg fully commits to one of his silliest comedic parts. However, The Other Guys is also a great example of a buddy cop movie, particularly with its amazing opening scene starring Samuel L. Jackson and Dwayne Johnson as the classic buddy cop duo.
Along with Eva Mendes, Michael Keaton, Steve Coogan, Ray Stevenson, Samuel L. Jackson, and Dwayne Johnson playing supporting roles, the film stars Will Ferrell and Mark Wahlberg.
18. The Edge of Seventeen
In this fantastic coming-of-age dramedy, the lovely Hailee Steinfeld plays a high school junior in the Portland suburbs who learns some hard lessons about relationships and the general foolishness of grownups.
Since her father’s passing, Steinfeld’s Nadine has been going through a crisis and hysterically struggles through her daily existence. Additionally, Haley Lu Richardson and Woody Harrelson both have amusing supporting roles in this.
The movie delivers a well-executed and thoroughly delightful product, and it leaves us with two standout revelations. One is Kelly Fremon Craig, a writer and director. Her writing is a dream, her music choices are perfect, and her collaboration with the actors produces some priceless hilarious moments.
17. Don’t Look Up
Ensemble satire by Adam McKay has ambition, excellent performances from everyone, and plenty of belly laughs. Given the enormous talent involved, it’s still difficult to view it as anything less than underwhelming.
It’s overly gloomy and gloomy, at times, even crudely put together. When done well, dark comedy has a lot of potential, yet this genre frequently results in an unpleasant, strident viewing experience that is difficult to explain fully. As a pariah no one believes in, Jennifer Lawrence is as clever and sympathetic as always, yet the role is weirdly underdeveloped. Many people claim that seeing the A-list actors in this movie riff off of each other is worth the ticket price.
Jennifer Lawrence, Rob Morgan, Jonah Hill, Mark Rylance, Tyler Perry, Timothée Chalamet, Ron Perlman, Ariana Grande, Kid Cudi, Cate Blanchett, and Meryl Streep are among the actors who appear in it. Two astronomers are depicted in the movie trying to warn people about an impending comet that will wipe out civilization. The movie is a satire of government, politics, celebrity, and media indifference to the climate catastrophe, and The Impact Event is an allegory for climate change.
16. Dolemite is My Name
Did you believe we’d overlook one of the greatest high school films ever? Of course not; this list is incomplete without it. The smart, charming adaptation of Emma by Amy Heckerling made Alicia Silverstone a star and began Paul Rudd’s career.
The same year, the future Ant-Man also starred in the less cherished Halloween 6. Clueless was an immediate success and is now deservedly acknowledged as one of the greatest comedies ever produced in the United States.
Eddie Murphy plays filmmaker Rudy Ray Moore in the movie. Moore is best known for playing the role of Dolemite in his stand-up routine and a string of blaxploitation movies that began with Dolemite in 1975.
The film is similar to Mario Van Peebles’ Baadasssss! (2003), his homage to his father Melvin’s early ’70s blaxploitation film Sweet Sweetback’s Badass Song, and Murphy provides such a likable, big-hearted performance.
The filthy jokes in Kentucky Fried Movie were the closest white suburban Brits like me in the 1970s came to learning about these movies. It’s a touching, amusing, and enjoyable movie.
15. Do Revenge
‘Do Revenge’ brings delivers the ‘black’ teen comedy of 90s classics like Jawbreaker and Cruel Intentions to a Gen Z audience and is one of Netflix’s more recent titles. Drea (Camila Mendes) vows to wreak havoc on her boyfriend’s life after he posts intimate photos of her around their prestigious high school.
It is largely based on Alfred Hitchcock’s Strangers on a Train and features Camila Mendes, Maya Hawke, Austin Abrams, Rish Shah, and Sarah Michelle Gellar (1951). On September 16, 2022, it was made available on Netflix to generally favorable reviews from critics.
She meets Eleanor (Maya Hawke), a new student who has struggled to overcome a terrible rumor that was created about her by one of their classmates years ago and painted her as a predator. They take a cue from Hitchcock and Highsmith and resolve to exact revenge on one another.
The film may fall short of the aforementioned 90s classics, but it performs an excellent job of fusing dark humor with insightful life lessons and stars two of Hollywood’s most brightly-talented young actors.
14. The Mitchells vs. The Machines
In The Mitchells vs. the Machines, animated generational differences resemble a sci-fi carnival more than any other animated series. The feature film debut of writer/director Mike Rianda is a mix of absurd, adorable, and horrifying.
It’s simple to feel as disoriented or overpowered by the flashing lights and electrifying visuals as the central family fighting on one side of the title’s grudge match, but it’s also simple to leave with the worn-out joy of a protracted, exhausting theme park outing. Its genre-specific family surges through each cluttered, crammed frame like they’re trying to escape (and frequently do), producing the year’s most vivacious, adorable animated comedy in the process.
Abbi Jacobson, Danny McBride, Maya Rudolph, Rianda, Eric André, Olivia Colman, Fred Armisen, Beck Bennett, John Legend, Chrissy Teigen, Blake Griffin, Conan O’Brien, and Doug the Pug all lend their voices to the animated film.
13. Miss Congeniality
We are drawn to Sandra Bullock for some reason. Even when the content is weak, which it occasionally is because she sometimes has bad luck picking projects, she has a warmth that makes you smile. She navigates Miss Congeniality’s screenplay, which in different hands would have been a dull sitcom hodgepodge; her presence changes it into a sitcom worth a watch.
There was a thought that when Sandra Bullock eventually won her Oscar, it was a way of saying “thank you” for all the popular, adored films she had produced in Hollywood for a generation. This film, which made more than $200 million worldwide and told the tale of an FBI agent who had to pose as a beauty pageant contestant, was undoubtedly a part of that run. Netflix also has a mediocre follow-up.
12. “Crazy, Stupid, Love”
A formulaic script about rekindling passion, rediscovering manhood, and other such themes is mostly overshadowed by the amusing, mature performances of Steve Carell and Julianne Moore as a married couple in trouble. The outstanding chemistry of co-stars Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone, which was harnessed to perfection in the musical drama La La Land five years later, steals the show.
The 2011 romantic comedy Crazy, Stupid, Love was written by Dan Fogelman, directed by Glenn Ficarra, and starred Steve Carell, Ryan Gosling, Julianne Moore, Emma Stone, Marisa Tomei, and Kevin Bacon. It centers on a newly divorced man who is taught how to approach women in bars in order to recover his manhood.
11. Pineapple Express
Seth Rogen and James Franco star in the 2008 American stoner action-comedy Pineapple Express, which was written by Rogen and Goldberg and directed by David Gordon Green. The plot revolves around a process server and his drug dealer who, after watching hitmen and a corrupt police officer commit murder, is forced to flee. The story’s development was aided by producer Judd Apatow, who previously collaborated with Rogen and Goldberg on Knocked Up and Superbad.
As the typical guy who just wants to get high, Dale Denton and Seth Rogen provide one of their best performances. He sees his dealer (excellently portrayed by James Franco) on the wrong night, where they run into hitmen and a corrupt police officer. It is not necessary to be high in order to enjoy this hilarious movie.
10. The Addams Family
The advertising for Tim Burton’s return to the Addams Family universe on Netflix, which dropped this November, is picking some steam.
Why not see the Sonnenfeld movie, which featured Raul Julia and Anjelica Huston as the fabled patriarch and matriarch of the strangest family in popular culture, for the best representation of this to date? Much though the sequel is debatably even better, the majority of people undoubtedly first think of this film when they hear the enduring theme song.
American cartoonist Charles Addams invented the fictitious Addams family. About half of the 150 separate single-panel cartoons that originally contained them were published in The New Yorker over the course of 50 years beginning in 1938. Later, they were transformed into other forms of media, including movies, video games, comic books, a musical, and merchandise.
9. Sorry to Bother You
Boots Riley’s “Sorry to Bother You” is an exhilarating comedy that bravely dissects identity politics, corporate evil, and the American propensity to turn a blind eye to suffering.
In this masterful parody, people assemble in front of their TVs every night to watch and adopt the WorryFree lifestyle, which is unmistakably corporate servitude that is being marketed as being beneficial to you. There is a lot to unpack in this movie, which is reminiscent of Terry Gilliam, Michel Gondry, and Jonathan Swift, but the main plot is around a man who is ultimately made to recognize the injustice in his surroundings. The same thing is what Riley’s film intends to do to you.
In addition to Lakeith Stanfield, Tessa Thompson, Jermaine Fowler, Omari Hardwick, Terry Crews, Patton Oswalt, David Cross, Danny Glover, Steven Yeun, and Armie Hammer, it also features Danny Glover and Danny Glover. In order to excel at his work, a young salesperson develops a white accent in the movie.
He is forced to decide between supporting his activist friends in organizing labor and profit after becoming entangled in a corporate scheme.
8. National Lampoon’s Vacation
Although the film is labeled R, this enjoyable classic comedy seems rather mild by today’s standards. Chevy Chase’s trademark deadpan persona will appeal to children of all ages, even those who weren’t raised with him. Adolescents will find the humor to be irresistible despite its silliness and even obscene nature. Parents and older teens will still find a lot to laugh at in this silly comedy, even though some of the gags and references are outdated.
This 1983 American road trip comedy film, also known as Vacation, was directed by Harold Ramis and stars Chevy Chase, Beverly D’Angelo, Imogene Coca, Randy Quaid, John Candy, and Christie Brinkley in her acting debut. Eddie Bracken, Brian Doyle-Murray, Miriam Flynn, James Keach, Eugene Levy, and Frank McRae also make cameo appearances.
It chronicles a family’s cross-country journey to an amusement park and the funny mischief that happens along the way. John Hughes adapted his short tale “Vacation ’58,” which debuted in National Lampoon, into a movie.
7. The Nice Guys
The Nice Guys, a 2016 action-comedy from Shane ‘Black’, is now available on Netflix thanks to a recent profile boost brought on by the pricey tentpole raucousfest The Gray Man on the streaming service.
Ryan Gosling gives funny performances in both, but that’s about where the similarities end because The Nice Guys is hilarious, while The Gray Man merely Has Its Moments. ‘Black’ and Anthony Bagarozzi’s lightning-in-a-bottle comedy, which stars Ryan Gosling and Russell Crowe, makes you ponder whether you should long for a sequel or simply cherish this hysterically entertaining excursion as a stand-alone masterpiece.
6. Holidate
A renowned reviewer claims that he’s glad that he saw Holidate even though he didn’t know he needed it. People enjoy corny romantic comedies, but very few anticipated enjoying this one as much. What makes Holidate the most ideal? that it ridicules itself. Although predictable, it is still a lot of fun. Additionally, it is somewhat filthy, which one has loved as someone with a filthy mind.
This movie makes fun of romcoms even though it is one, which is one of the many reasons it is so funny and on the money. Jackson and Sloane decide to date each other after meeting. What is a Holidate? Well, it is a holiday date with no obligations. As a result, they can make holiday plans together and avoid being alone, but they also agree not to share a bed.
Emma Roberts, Luke Bracey, Jake Manley, Jessica Capshaw, Andrew Bachelor, Manish Dayal, and Kristin Chenoweth are among its cast members. On October 28, 2020, Netflix released the movie.
5. Life of Brian
Unless one also enjoys Life of Brian, one cannot genuinely adore Monty Python. And Flying Circus, of course. Monty Python is much more than just the Holy Grail. The life of Brian is more ambitious, sardonic, and plain crazy despite the fact that Grail is the more well-known movie for a very straightforward reason: It parodies Jesus Christ rather than King Arthur.
“Life of Brian” is actually less about religion and more about movies: Its antecedents can be seen in the innumerable Biblical tales in which Roman legions marched up and down as scheming heated up in Pilate’s inner court. The film is the most grandiose endeavor yet for the Python crew, but “Monty Python and the Holy Grail,” which parodied King Arthur stories, is undoubtedly where it got its inspiration.
4. Think Like a Man
Even if the ensemble rom-com genre seems to be going out, this was perhaps the best of the late 2000s and early 2010s, when it last had a boom. Believe it or not, this comedy-drama starring Michael Ealy, Meagan Good, Regina Hall, Taraji P. Henson, Romany Malco, Gabrielle Union, and a pre-fame Kevin Hart is based on the advice book by Steve Harvey. It’s not a very noteworthy comedy, but it is a good one.
The 2012 romantic comedy Think Like a Man was produced by Will Packer, directed by Tim Story, and written by Keith Merryman and David A. Newman.
3. I Care A Lot
I Care a Lot will probably be your favorite comedy if you prefer your comedies dark, and I mean completely dark.
Rosamund Pike plays a shrewd, persistent, and unrepentant con artist in the Netflix original series who makes a fortune by gaining guardianship over elderly people and using their money as her personal piggy bank. But she discovers that she might finally be in over her head when her next victim turns out to be the mother of a merciless criminal (played by Peter Dinklage).
Although there are many ways that this movie could have gone wrong, writer/director J Blakeson pulls it off flawlessly, and the satirical comedy’s purpose becomes crystal evident in the last few minutes of the movie.
2. When Harry Met Sally
In this contemporary classic, Meg Ryan and Billy Crystal play friends who challenge their belief that people shouldn’t have an intimate relationship over the course of several years when Harry Met Sally is the most well-liked romantic film of its day.
It was written by Nora Ephron and directed by Rob Reiner, and the American Film Institute ranked it as the 23rd finest American comedy ever. Moments before the clock strikes twelve, it all comes to a conclusion with a well-referenced proclamation of love.
1. Up in the Air
One of the best movies of 2009 is ‘Up in the Air’ is directed by Jason Reitman. His films Thank You for Smoking and Juno showcased his talent for engrossing narratives and imaginative scenarios. Here, he has collaborated with Sheldon Turner to write a screenplay that is sharp, witty, and incredibly current and is based on a Walter Kirn novel.
This Oscar winner features George Clooney as a man who has spent more time on airplanes than he has with his family. It is one of the best midlife crisis comedies of the contemporary era. Ryan Bingham, played by George Clooney, is a full-time “downsizer” who essentially wrecks lives wherever he goes. Vera Farmiga, Anna Kendrick, and George Clooney all give standout performances in this film.