19 best comedy movies to watch on Netflix, Amazon, HBO, and Hulu right now

Everyone needs to have a good time from time-to-time. More people are having fun these days than ever before. And between streaming services like Netflix, Hulu, Amazon Prime Video, and HBO Max, there’s never been a greater wealth or assortment of comedies to choose from or available at the click of a button.

You can find romantic comedy like Charade And Don’t Go Breaking My HeartTo action comedy like Last Action Hero AndPaper TigersTo horror comedy like Army of Darkness AndFreakyTo classics like Tampopo And To Be or Not BeWe offer many options that will bring laughter to your day and make you smile.

So, with that in mind, we’ve sifted through the libraries of the most popular streaming services to bring you our top picks for the 19 best comedies streaming right now.

Army of Darkness

Universal Pictures

The third movie in Sam Raimi’s delirious Evil Dead trilogy is by far the most ridiculous of the group, veering much further into the “comedy” part of “horror comedy.” After series protagonist Ash (Bruce Campbell) is accidentally sent back in time to the Middle Ages, he is imprisoned by King Arthur’s men, who think he is a spy. With a saw in one arm and a shotgun at his side, a spy.

This film features extended scenes of slapstick, funny time travel gags and extensive effects (including an army skeletons). Army of Darkness This 90 minute horror comedy is deranged. —Pete Volk

Army of DarknessYou can stream it on HBO Max.

Black Dynamite

Photo: Sony Pictures Home Entertainment

Michael Jai White is a great actor, but he is often overlooked. His blaxploitation parody Black Dynamite has been called one of most funny movies of all time. White stars in the movie as Black Dynamite, a former CIA agent whose quest for vengeance for his brother’s death leads him all the way to the Nixon White House. White wrote the screenplay with hilarious gags, cultural commentary, and co-authored it. —PV

Black DynamiteOn stream HBO Max.

Burn After Reading

Photo by Focus Features

A paranoid Washington, DC thriller filtered through the Coen brothers’ comedic sensibilities, Burn After ReadingThree distinct groups of characters are involved in an unresolved conflict. John Malkovich (ex-CIA analyst) writes a memoir. However, the memoir ends up with Brad Pitt (Frances McDormand, Brad Pitt), who mistakenly finds it in their hands. Thinking they’ve found something much more important and secretive than they actually have, the two scheme to blackmail anybody they can find to try and turn a profit on this discovery.

Add in a terrific ensemble cast and one of the best performances of Pitt’s career, and you’ve a great time, even by the Coen brothers’ high standards. —PV

Burn After Readingcan be streamed on Peacock.

Charade

Universal Pictures Home Entertainment

Heist at the heart of Charade was successful years prior to the movie, and without realizing it, Reggie (Audrey Hepburn) has been living off the profits from her husband’s crime. When he is suddenly murdered, she realizes she didn’t really know anything about him — or, for that matter, the new man in her life, Peter Joshua (Cary Grant). Reggie believes he knows the location of the rest of his money, which makes matters even worse. Reggie’s ability to trust anyone becomes more difficult as more people get pulled into Reggie’s orbit.

Grant and Hepburn, both charming, talented stars who are well-known for their talent, are charming and gifted at their best. Charade. Hepburn can move seamlessly from pragmatic to seductive and fearful in a single scene. Grant’s initial discomfort with their age gap — 25 years, a still not uncommon chasm in Hollywood — resulted in rewrites to the script to make clear that Reggie was pursuing him; it remains one of the few movies in which the gap is acknowledged and dealt with believably, rather than taken for granted. Their chemistry is immediate and undeniable; it’s key in carrying off the film’s snappy dialogue and mixture of flirtatious comedy, captivating mystery, and genuine thriller. It’s His Girl FridayHitchcock. —Jenna Stoeber

CharadeYou can stream the video on Amazon Prime Video.

Don’t Go Breaking My Heart

Image by Netflix

Johnnie To has been a great director in modern times. He is equally proficient in romantic comedy and hard-boiled crime dramas of the triad. 2011’s Don’t Go Breaking My Heart falls in the latter category, and is one of the many high marks of the Hong Kong director’s legendary career. After a breakup, Chi-yan is now an analyst at an investment bank. She finds herself caught in a triangle. On one side, there’s Sean (Louis Koo), a CEO who works across the street from Chi-yan and yearns for her through the tall corporate glass windows that separate them. On the other, there’s Kevin (the always-dreamy Daniel Wu), an alcoholic former architect who helps Chi-Yan move on and is inspired by her to start creating again. It’s a charming, romantic, heartfelt, and funny time. —PV

Don’t Go Breaking My HeartNetflix has it available for streaming.

Freaky

Universal Pictures

Happy Death DayDirector Christopher Landon attempts to master the subgenre of body swaps with his 2020 slasher comedy FreakyStarring Kathryn Newton & Vince Vaughn. The premise is reinterpreted in a twist. Freaky FridayFilm’s central character is a teenage girl named Newton who accidentally changes bodies with Vaughn (a serial killer). She has to find a way back and avoid being murdered. As Roxana Hadidi wrote in her review for Polygon, “FreakyIt is committed to an upending cheeky of the genre conventions and a final act that delivers one more bloody thrill […] amusing and gory enough to still be an entertaining slasher movie with its own satisfying spin on the final-girl trope.” —Toussaint Elgan

FreakyYou can stream it on HBO Max.

The Gold Rush

Image: The Criterion Collection

Charlie Chaplin’s adventurous comedy is nearly 100 years old, and it absolutely still holds up for the modern sense of humor. You can find it here. The Gold Rush, Chaplin’s “Little Tramp” is a prospector living on a shack in the middle of the Klondike. Extreme slapstick and farce ensue, as Little Tramp’s blown by Canadian winds, stoops to eating a leather shoe for sustenance, and eventually performs his legendary fork dance. Chaplin — even more than the muscle icons of the 1980s — is the key DNA to modern action entertainment, and if you’ve never seen one of his classics, The Gold RushIt’s a great entry point. —MP

The Gold RushYou can stream it on HBO Max.

Last Action Hero

Image: Sony Pictures Home Entertainment

When a movie-obsessed boy (Austin O’Brien) is magically transported into the universe of a major action franchise, and the movie’s villain (Charles Dance) is in turn sent to the real world, the boy and the movie’s hero (Arnold Schwarzenegger) must team up to stop him. It’s a hilarious look at the action films of that era. Last Action Hero John McTiernan, a real-life director with action skills (which is greatly appreciated)Die Hard, Hunt for Red October, And PredatorSchwarzenegger as the leading man is an action-star, with Dance giving a slick villain performance. —PV

Last Action HeroNetflix has it available for streaming.

Steve Zissou, The Life Aquatic

Image by Buena Vista Pictures

Wes Anderson’s eccentric 2004 ensemble comedy is dedicated to Jacques Cousteau, and is a loving (and hilarious) homage to the legendary French oceanographer. Steve Zissou (Bill Murray) is an oceanographer/documentarian who loses his best friend to a shark attack while working on his project. Zissou embarks on his next project to kill and capture the entire thing.

The hilarious ensemble cast includes Anjelica Houston (Zissou’s estranged wife who finances his projects), Willem Dafoe (an emotionally insecure German first mate), Owen Wilson (a Zissou super-fan who believes he is Zissou’s son), and Jeff Goldblum (playing Zissou’s rival, a more successful oceanographer). With an excellent soundtrack of Portuguese David Bowie covers by Brazilian singer/songwriter Seu Jorge and Anderson’s typical attention to detail in composition, Zissou It is an enthralling cinematic experience for all the senses. —PV

Steve Zissou, The Life AquaticYou can stream the movie for free by using your library card Hoopla.

Little Monsters

Photo by NEON

Director Abe Forsythe’s 2019 horror comedy Little MonstersAlexander England stars (Covenant Alien() Dave, an alcoholic and depressed rock musician that lives with his brother and nephew following a breakup. Attempting to get on the good side of Miss Caroline (Lupita Nyong’o), his nephew’s kindergarten teacher, Dave agrees to come along and chaperone the class’ field trip to a petting zoo. The petting zoo is located right beside a US Army base, which happens to be suffering from a zombie epidemic. Dave will need to assist Caroline in rescuing them from the undead. Will he be able to win her affections, or even grow in his character? We won’t spoil it, but we will tell you Josh Gad gets attacked by zombies in the process. —TE

Little MonstersYou can stream the video on Hulu.

Multiple Maniacs

Image: The Criterion Collection

Criterion has proclaimed John Waters’ early transgressive comedy as art. One can only imagine how Waters would have interpreted that in 1970. Multiple Maniacs, the provocateur’s second film, is just batshit nutso, constructing a flimsy scenario in which Lady Divine (Waters’ go-to collaborator) spirals out of control on a murder spree and her ex-lover (David Lochary) plots to kill her first with other members of Waters’ Dreamlander acting troupe. Waters style, this plot allows bodily fluids to be expelled, as well as flamboyant performances and the possibility of backdoor access through a sacred religious object. Today, with scrutiny from every side of the ideological spectrum, it would be almost impossible to do what Waters pulled off back in the ’70s. Criterion was able to preserve these amazing memories because it knew exactly what it was doing. —MP

Multiple ManiacsAvailable to stream online HBO Max.

Paper Tigers

Photo by Well Go USA Entertainment

Quoc Bao Tran’s Kung-fu action comedy stars Alain Uy, Ron Yuan (Mulan), and Mykel Shannon Jenkins as the eponymous Paper Tigers: three former martial arts prodigies who, after a lifetime of strenuous training and hard fighting, have grown into beleaguered middle-aged nobodies. When their master is killed, they swear to pay retribution and bring the killer to justice. This is Dumb Man comedy, so if you find this serious, it falls in the Apatowian group. —TE

Paper TigersYou can stream the video on Netflix.

Plus One

Image by RLJE Films

Netflix is producing romance movies, but some of the most memorable come from filmmakers who are more personally involved. Plus OneThe following is a list of upcoming events. Pen15Andrew Rhymer (writer) and Jeff Chan (director), premiered the film at Tribeca Film Festival. The movie then settled in a spot on streaming, which has been mostly overlooked. Don’t miss it: Maya Erskine (Pen15Jack Quaid (The Boys) star as best buds who’ve seen all of their friends get hitched, and have become go-to plus ones for the endless marathon of nuptials. Formula works to the movie’s advantage, finding sweet humor in modern situations and wringing Erskine and Quaid for every drip of charisma they have to offer. In today’s era of romance-coms, this gem could be mistaken for a product. —MP

Plus OneYou can stream it on Hulu.

Tampopo

Janus Films

This 1985 “ramen western” is a hilarious romp that also happens to be one of the most gorgeous depictions of food ever put on-screen. A pair of truck drivers stops at a rundown restaurant serving ramen and make friends with the widowed proprietor to help them turn around the business. This is a beautiful depiction about community, passion and humanity, all through the appreciation for good food. Tampopo This is cinematic entertainment. —PV

TampopoYou can stream it on HBO MaxCriterion Channel.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

Image by New Line Cinema

Cab Passenger: [after Raphael jumps over the cab hood]Is that what you were talking about?

Cab DriverIt looked like a turtle wearing a trench.

[pause]

Cab Driver: You’re going to LaGuardia, right?

Delightfully silly and overwhelmingly ’90s (for better and worse), the original TMNT It’s a great time for everyone. The movie follows intrepid TV reporter April O’Neill (Judith Hoag) as she works with the turtles to stop a crime ring taking over New York City. The suits — designed by Jim Henson’s Creature Shop, one of the Muppet master’s last projects — look incredible, and bring a real tangibility to this appropriately comic book-like adaptation. Real suits allowed talent to be specialized (different actors were used in puppetry, voice acting and for skateboarding stunts), which made it possible for the production not only to change people but also allow for audience immersion. The film was produced by the legendary Hong Kong studio Golden Harvest, and distributed by New Line Cinema. TMNT It was an unexpected box office hit and held the record for highest grossing independent movie until that point. Blair With Project. It’s also got a very young Sam Rockwell in a minor role! —PV

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles streaming on Netflix HBO Max.

To Be or Not to Be

Image by United Artists

Ernst Lubitsch’s 1942 masterpiece is an uproarious and touching anti-war story about a group of actors who use their theatrical skills to dupe a group of Nazi soldiers in occupied Warsaw. Super star acting couple Joseph (Jack Benny) and Maria Tura (Carole Lombard) run a theatre planning to put on a performance of “Gestapo,” a comedic play satirizing Hitler. The troupe employs every theatrical trick to defeat the Nazis.

There are many hilarious gags and disguises. Also, there is a solid emotional foundation that enables people to support each other when faced with evil. To be or not to be It is one of the most important films in American cinema’s history, and also my favourite movie. —PV

To be or to not to becomeYou can stream it on HBO MaxCriterion Channel.

The Bash Brothers’ Unauthorized Experiment

Photo: Eddy Chen/Netflix

The Lonely Island dropped this musical movie — a spoof of Beyoncé’s Lemonade, focused on Jose Canseco and Mark McGwire’s notorious 1980s home run streak — out of nowhere in 2019. You should give it more.

They continue to follow their past efforts as Tour de Pharmacy And 7 days in HellKit Harington stars in the film!), Unauthorized Bash Brothers ExperienceThrough poetry, abstraction imagery and profane lyrics, this book explores Canseco’s shared psyche with McGwire. Haim, Maya Rudolph, Hannah Simone, Jenny Slate, Jim O’Heir and Sterling K Brown — Sia — all appear. Surprisingly, Samberg and Schaffer don’t skimp on the darkness of the Bash Brothers. With lyrics like “Stab that needle in my ass until I am rich / Make me a god with the chemical sciences,” the Bash Brothers Unauthorized ExperienceMcGwire is eventually found asking for help from his father, and Canseco sings about therapy being good for weak people. —MP

The Bash Brothers Unauthorized ExperienceAvailable to stream online Netflix.

Take it easy

Columbia Pictures

It’s easy to agree that musician biopics can be a bit overdone, right? Take it easy Certainly. This satirical biopic of a musician is one of the most funny movies of 2000s. It shatters all narrative conventions and tries to portray an entire person in one film. This movie was an instant hit at the box office. Take it easy has grown into a cult hit over time, led by a stellar lead performance by John C. Reilly as rock star Dewey Cox, a hilarious supporting turn by Tim Meadows as Dewey’s drummer, and a non-stop avalanche of gags as silly as they are astute (highlighted by an extended sequence where Paul Rudd, Jack Black, Justin Long, and Jason Schwartzman goof off as The Beatles). —PV

Walk hard: The Dewey Cox StoryYou can stream it on Amazon Prime Video.

The Wheels of Meals

Miramax

The Wheels of Meals features some of the very best fight scenes of Chan’s prolific filmography, as he squares off against legendary kickboxer Benny Urquidez (the two would later fight again in Dragons ForeverHe was at that time one of the most well-known and respected fighters around the globe. While the entire movie is well worth watching, you can also find their 6-minute-long marathon fight on YouTube.

This is a great site to check out if you enjoy this. Projekt A, which came out a year before and features one of the most daring and jaw-dropping stunts of Chan’s prolific career. —PV

The Wheels of Meals It is free to stream with advertisements Plex.