Hey you! Yes, you! Trying to find something to watch on your friendly neighborhood international multibillion-dollar corporation’s streaming service? It’s OK to ignore the ever-growing pile of worthy but soul-crushing dramas and acclaimed documentaries on your watchlist for another hour or two, and hit play on some of the finest comedies in the Amazon Prime Video library.
Pull up a couch and prepare some munchies — whether you’re after a sensible chuckle, crumb-spraying splutters, or screeching, hysterical, hang-on-hang-on-just-pause-for-a-moment cackling, there’s something here that’ll make ’em laugh.
So here we go: the best comedy movies on Amazon Prime Video. Prepare the laughs.
1. Galaxy Quest
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This loving parody of, and tribute to, Star Trek‘s storytelling tropes and obsessive fandom has a heart of gold that would make Gene Roddenberry himself proud. Galaxy Quest sees the has-been cast of the eponymous cult sci-fi TV serial plucked off the regional fan-convention circuit by a people from a far-flung world who believe the show to be documentary footage of their heroics — making the pissy, self-absorbed, and cynical actors the very real last hope of the adoring (and adorably literal-minded) aliens.
A stacked cast — including Sigourney Weaver, Alan Rickman, Tony Shalhoub, Sam Rockwell, plus Rainn Wilson and Justin Long in their first film roles — is armed with a sweet and sly script that remains one of the best Hollywood stories ever about the power of falling in love with a fictional world. (Prime also has the documentary tracing Galaxy Quest’s journey to cult status, Never Surrender.)
How to watch: Galaxy Quest is now streaming on Amazon Prime.
2. Moonstruck
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Cher won an Oscar for her lead role in this operatically unhinged New York romantic comedy as Loretta, a young widow who’s about to settle for a nice man she doesn’t really love until she meets his brother — the furious, wildly romantic Ronny (a 24-year-old Nicolas Cage, all raw angles and hangdog looks). John Patrick Shanley’s script is dry and giddy and wise, and will make anyone with a big, loud, nosy family full of loving pessimists feel seen.
How to watch: Moonstruck is now streaming on Amazon Prime.
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Written and directed by Taika Waititi and Flights Of The Conchords‘ Jemaine Clement, this 2014 mockumentary (which was adapted into the acclaimed FX series of the same name) follows a group of vampires living together in suburban Wellington, New Zealand, as they navigate sharehouse politics, needy familiars, werewolves (“not swearwolves”), and the ever-present need for a constant supply of virgins to feed on.
You quickly adjust to the fact that this group of bickering, levitating dorks actually kill people, and the contrast between the ancient vampires’ bloodthirsty nature and their pettiness, uptightness and insecurities never stops being funny.
How to watch: What We Do In The Shadows is now streaming on Amazon Prime.
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One word: Sweater.
OK, more words: Rian Johnson’s smash hit whodunit has a deep bench of beloved actors playing the insufferable Thrombey family, whose crime-novelist patriarch is mysteriously murdered. Chris Evans’ first post-Cap role sees him back in magnificent-asshole mode as the black sheep in cream cable knit — see the instantly iconic scene where he tells everyone in his family, one by one, to eat shit — and Daniel Craig plays Detective Benoit Blanc, with a wonderfully absurd Southern accent, as he sorts through a stack of possible motives and alibis. Craig will return in the upcoming (and just as star-studded) sequel.
How to watch: Knives Out is now streaming on Amazon Prime.
5. Some Like it Hot
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If you’ve never seen this utterly perfect Billy Wilder comedy, often ranked as one of the greatest films of all time, it’s time to fix that. Jack Lemmon and Tony Curtis play two musicians on the run from the Mob, undercover as members of an all-women travelling band — and somehow, every single gag about their drag disguise still holds up in the year of our lord 2021. And you won’t be able to take your eyes off Marilyn Monroe as Sugar Kane, who “always gets the fuzzy end of the lollipop” — never more luminous yet adorably relatable.
How to watch: Some Like It Hot is now streaming on Amazon Prime.
6. Tropic Thunder
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Yes, the one where Robert Downey Jr. spends almost the entire movie in full blackface, and tells Ben Stiller’s Oscar-chasing action star to “never go full r****d”. And scored an Oscar nomination for it.
Similar to Galaxy Quest, Tropic Thunder follows a group of pampered actors who find their fictional setting — in this case, a very serious Vietnam War movie — has become horribly real. Your mileage may vary on whether director-writer-star Stiller pulls off the high-wire satire required to justify those controversial choices, but if you can make your peace with it (as well as some pretty iffy depictions of Vietnamese people as bloodthirsty heroin smugglers), you’re rewarded with a relentlessly funny, bloody, so-stupid-it’s-smart comedy. If you’re not laughing by the end of the fake trailers that open the film, it might not be for you.
How to watch: Tropic Thunder is now streaming on Amazon Prime.
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Emily Gordon and Kumail Nanjiani’s Oscar-nominated screenplay fictionalizes a rocky period from early in their real-life relationship, where Gordon was seriously ill. While it does get emotionally intense in parts, it’s also hysterically funny — from a scene where Emily (Zoe Kazan) freaks out over the prospect of pooping when Kumail (Nanjiani, playing a version of himself) is in the apartment, to what might be the single best, darkest 9/11 joke made on film to date.
How to watch: The Big Sick is now streaming on Amazon Prime.
8. Forgetting Sarah Marshall
Jason Segel wrote and stars in, arguably, the quintessential breakup romcom. Its balanced blend of raunch and heart is clear in its most infamous scene, based on something that really happened to Segel: Unambitious composer Peter’s girlfriend (here the titular Sarah, a TV star played by Kristen Bell) comes home to find him naked, and initiates a sudden but long-time-coming breakup that leaves him too shattered to even put pants on.
Even once he takes himself off to Hawaii to get over his broken heart, only to find Sarah there with her new rock star boyfriend (Russell Brand), the real pathos of Peter’s emotional breakdown and rebuilding (with the help of Mila Kunis as a charming, but never manic-pixie-ish, love interest) is kept in check by a relentless stream of cheeky sex jokes and awkward encounters. There are scene-stealers aplenty, from Brand’s louche Aldous Snow and a mournful Dracula puppet, to Paul Rudd’s highly quotable surf instructor. (“When life give you lemons, just say fuck the lemons and bail.”) If you need cheering up, this is what to hit play on.
How to watch: Forgetting Sarah Marshall is now streaming on Amazon Prime.
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The sequel to Sacha Baron Cohen’s mockumentary Borat was a bright spot last year, scoring Oscar nominations and critical acclaim, especially for Bulgarian actor Maria Bakalova as Borat’s teenage daughter Tutar.
Both films follow Baron Cohen, disguised as boorish, backward Kazakh journalist Borat Sagdiyev, as he endeavours to understand American culture through a series of set-ups at the expense of unsuspecting real people. This sequel is not only as viciously funny as the original, but also caught in its net then-President Trump’s personal attorney Rudy Giuliani, who notoriously appeared to undo his pants in front of “Tutar” in a hotel room. It’s one of the strangest and most oddly affecting products of cinema’s, and the world’s, weirdest years ever.
How to watch: Borat Subsequent Moviefilm is now streaming on Amazon Prime.
10. Burn After Reading
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The Coen brothers’ follow-up to No Country For Old Men continues their usual rhythm of alternating dark and light. There are no true villains in this spy farce without many actual spies — only ordinary folks who get themselves in way over their heads. Frances McDormand and Brad Pitt play gym employees who find what they believe to be the secret files of a disgraced CIA analyst (John Malkovich), and plot to turn their apparent good fortune into actual fortune. The cast (also including George Clooney, JK Simmons and Tilda Swinton) is as impeccable as you expect from the Coens, but it’s Pitt in full himbo mode as the protein shake-chugging Chad that’s the film’s true comic revelation. Let Brad Pitt play more himbos, cowards!
How to watch: Burn After Reading is now streaming on Amazon Prime.
11. Hot Rod
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Andy Samberg stars as wannabe stuntman Rod Kimble in the first feature-length film from the Lonely Island team. Rod dreams of living up to his stuntman dad’s legacy, winning a fight with his ruthless stepdad (Ian McShane), winning the girl next door (Isla Fisher) and jumping his motorbike over 15 buses.
Originally written for Will Ferrell, Hot Rod was then rewritten to showcase a younger generation of Saturday Night Live alumni, including Samberg and Bill Hader, and their sense of humour, as shaped by Adam Sandler vehicles like Billy Madison and more recent comedy favourites like Wet Hot American Summer. Is it deeply silly? Absolutely. But whether they’re bickering over how to pronounce “whiskey” or who gets to claim “partying” as a character trait, or just watching Rod survive a series of epic fails that should by all rights and logic kill him several times over, this is a crew you’ll find yourself wanting to hang with more than once. Cool beans.
How to watch: Hot Rod is now streaming on Amazon Prime.
12. Heathers
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What’s your damage? Over a decade before Mean Girls was hitting popular bitches with buses, this 1989 pitch-black comedy bridged the gap between the John Hughes era and the more cynical teen cinema that would emerge in the 90s. Winona Ryder and Christian Slater star as Veronica and J.D., a discontented popular girl and outcast newcomer respectively, who take revenge on Veronica’s cruel, rich clique of girls named Heather and their enablers. The film takes the viciousness of high school to a darkly hilarious extreme, with its own snarky vernacular and vision of 80s excess (croquet! in blazers!).
How to watch: Heathers is now streaming on Amazon Prime.
13. His Girl Friday
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This classic screwball romcom, adapted from the play The Front Page, sees star reporter Hildy Johnson take on one last assignment with her editor ex-husband before she gets out of the game for good to re-marry and retire to a quiet life of motherhood. If you’re a little burned out on contemporary comedy there’s nothing better for the soul than watching a dame with moxie stalk around in gorgeous skirt suits tossing out rapidfire banter in a Mid-Atlantic accent, and Rosalind Russell, as Hildy Johnson, does it better than just about anyone. Throw in Cary Grant as the former boss who’s still in love with her — and still gives as good as he gets — and this 70-year-old film still crackles with energy and wit.
How to watch: His Girl Friday is now streaming on Amazon Prime.
14. Election
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Never forget that Reese Witherspoon wasn’t always America’s beaming sweetheart. In Alexander Payne’s vicious high school political satire, she’s Tracy Flick, the terrifyingly ambitious overachiever willing to do whatever it takes to win the race for student body president. Matthew Broderick shook off the long shadow of Ferris Bueller to play the embittered teacher who just can’t stand to see her sail to the success she thinks she deserves, and slowly drives himself mad trying to get in her way. More than 20 years (and several bruising election cycles) later, its edges are as sharp as ever.
How to watch: Election is now streaming on Amazon Prime.