Comedy is supposed to be hilarious. However, it has become deadly at times and led to the loss of lives. People have perished while watching comedic acts, or the entertainers themselves have died during their performances. Sometimes, the comedians have been murdered for wisecracking in ways that were offensive to certain individuals or groups.

Comedians have been killed by criminal gangs and terrorist organizations over their quips. At other times, the humorists were interrogated or threatened with jail time over jokes that the government considered a threat.

10 The Great Yarmouth Suspension Bridge Disaster

On May 2, 1845, hundreds of people gathered along the banks of River Bure in Great Yarmouth, Norfolk, England, to watch a clown sitting in a barrel as it was drawn by four geese across the river. Nelson the Clown worked for William Cooke’s Circus.

Around 300–400 people had climbed onto the Great Yarmouth suspension bridge to get a better view of the clown as he sailed past. This quickly proved disastrous as the structure could not support the massive weight. Its cables snapped, throwing everybody on the bridge into the water.

A massive rescue operation began, and survivors were taken to Vauxhall Gardens. Every medical person in town was summoned to the garden to treat the survivors.

Rescuers soon started to retrieve the bodies of the dead from the river. Some had simply drowned. The rest had become stuck underwater after being smashed by the bodies of other victims or the parts of the bridge that had fallen on them.

In all, 79 people died. The youngest were two years old, and the oldest was 64. Fifty-eight of the dead were 16 years old or younger.^[1]

9 An Audience Laughed As A Comedian Died Mid-Performance

In April 2019, comedian Paul Barbieri (stage name Ian Cognito) died during a live performance at The Atic bar, Bicester, UK. At first, the audience did not realize what was happening and continued laughing, thinking that Ian was only pretending to be dead.

Curiously, Ian had joked about dying in front of the audience that night. He said, “Imagine if I died in front of you lot here.” He also wisecracked about recovering from a stroke and discovering that he only spoke Welsh. Ten minutes later, he sat on a stool on the stage and appeared to faint. The audience laughed, thinking it was part of the performance.

Ian’s body remained on the stool until compere Andrew Bird approached. Bird expected Ian to awake from his pretentious coma with a joke but was surprised to find the comedian unresponsive. First aid was administered, and an ambulance was called. However, the medics declared Ian dead at the scene.^[2]

8 Mexican Comedian Murdered After Insulting Crime Boss

Seventeen-year-old Juan Luis Lagunas Rosales, who was also known as El Pirata de Culiacan (“The Pirate of Culiacan”), was a popular comedian in Mexico until he was murdered by a Mexican cartel boss whom Rosales had insulted.

The cartel boss was 51-year-old Ruben Oseguera Cervantes (aka El Mencho), the leader of the local but dangerous Jalisco Nueva Generacion (“Jalisco New Generation”) crime cartel. El Mencho is a feared and ruthless crime boss famous for murdering people over unconfirmed rumors.

Rosales had posted a comedy video in which he said, “El Mencho, peel my c—ck.” The joke didn’t go over well with El Mencho, and he ordered Rosales’s death. Rosales was drinking at a bar in Jalisco (El Mencho’s turf) when he was murdered.^[3]

Before his death, Rosales had posted on his Facebook and Instagram pages and asked his fans to come over for a drink. Some heavily armed non-fans soon arrived and shot at Rosales 15 times. The bar manager was also hit by a stray bullet.

7 The Nazis Forced A Jewish Comedian To Tell Jokes At Gunpoint

Max Ehrlich was a Jewish actor, author, director, screenwriter, composer, and comedian who lived in Germany before World War II. Unfortunately, his fame could not save him when the Nazis clamped down on Jews during World War II. In fact, it almost got him killed.

Ehrlich was captured and transported to Auschwitz concentration camp in 1944. A Nazi officer recognized him and ordered him to tell funny jokes or he would be shot to death by an SS firing squad.

Ehrlich probably made the Nazis laugh and was spared the bullet. However, his jokes could not save him from the gas chamber. He was gassed to death on October 1, 1944.^[4]

6 Iraqi Comedian Murdered Over His TV Show

Iraq turned into a chaotic wasteland after Saddam Hussein was ousted in 2003. Murders, bombings, assassinations, and similar terrorist acts quickly became the norm. Journalists were a major target of these attacks.

In November 2006, actor, producer, and comedian Walid Hassan became a victim of these murders. Before his death, he hosted a comedy show called Caricatures on Iraq’s Al Sharkiya television. On his show, Hassan often mocked the US military, Iraqi politicians, and the Sunni and Shia insurgents.^[5]

One of the groups became angry enough to order his kidnapping. On November 21, 2006 (some sources say November 20), some men cornered and attempted to kidnap Hassan on the streets of Baghdad. Hassan was shot and killed as he tried to escape.

5 Al-Shabab Murders Somali Comedian For Mocking Their Activities

In 2012, Somali comedian Abdi Jeylani Marshale was murdered by Al-Shabab terrorists in Mogadishu, Somalia. Before his death, Marshale often mocked Al-Shabab on radio and television for using child soldiers and suicide bombers and killing defenseless civilians.

Eventually, Al-Shabab issued a death threat to Marshale. He fled to neighboring Somaliland but returned when he thought the dust had settled. He was leaving the radio station where he worked when he was cornered by two Al-Shabab henchmen armed with pistols. They shot Marshale in the head and chest several times.^[6]

4 Comedian Murdered For Mocking Mexican Drug Lord And Not Repaying A Debt

Francisco “Paco” Stanley was a popular Mexican comedy show host until he was murdered in June 1999. He was waiting for a friend outside a restaurant when two men sprayed him with heavy gunfire. Stanley received four shots to the head. A colleague and bystander were also killed while two more bystanders were injured.

Police later discovered cocaine in Stanley’s pocket and in his blood. Eventually, his death revealed a large conspiracy and the involvement of drug cartels in entertainment. Apparently, Stanley’s murder was ordered by crime boss Luis Ignacio Amezcua Contreras over some debts owed by Stanley.

In 1996, Amezcua Contreras had loaned $65,000 to Stanley to launch a television and music production studio. The drug kingpin also frequently sold cocaine to Stanley, who used part of it and sold the rest to other top show hosts. However, Stanley often made jokes on his comedy show that the drug lord considered to be insulting.

The displeased Amezcua Contreras later recruited Mario Rodriguez Bezares (aka Mayito), Stanley’s cohost, to help with the murder. Bezares was mad at Stanley because he often directed insulting jokes at Bezares during the show. Besides, Amezcua Contreras had promised Bezares the production company and was willing to forgo the debts.^[7]

Bezares was the reason that Stanley was waiting outside the restaurant where he was murdered. They had gone for a meal and were about to leave when Bezares delayed them. Bezares engaged in a series of ridiculous schemes, including pretending to have a limp, just to keep Stanley waiting. Bezares was in the lavatory at the time that the killers arrived.

3 Writer Interrogated By The Secret Service Over Joke About Kidnapping The US President’s Daughter

in 2009, Daniel O’Brien, the head writer at a humor website, wrote a piece about kidnapping the daughter of a US president. It was titled “6 Helpful Tips for Kidnapping the President’s Daughters.”

O’Brien soon received a phone call from Special Agent Mike Powell of the Secret Service. The agent had a friendly chat and directed O’Brien to speak with some other agents. O’Brien met with the other agents and was interrogated about his satirical article for two hours. At that time, he was asked if he was involved with terrorist groups.^[8]

O’Brien later had the article deleted from the website. However, it appeared to be too late as he was secretly put under surveillance. As of 2014, he was often asked to step aside for a search at US airports.

2 Johnny Depp In Soup Over Joke About Assassinating President Trump

In 2017, Johnny Depp came under heavy public backlash after he jokingly asked, “When was the last time an actor assassinated a president?” (The last time was in 1865 when John Wilkes Booth assassinated President Abraham Lincoln.)

Public outrage soon followed the inappropriate joke. Later, the Trump White House also issued a statement condemning Depp’s remarks and requesting that other Hollywood stars denounce it, too.

However, Johnny Depp is not the only actor that has come under fire for making jokes suggesting the assassination of a US president. A month earlier, Kathy Griffin had to apologize after posing for a photograph with a bloodied prop head of President Trump.^[9]

1 Venezuelan Comedian Flees Country After Receiving Death Threats

Nacho Redondo is a radical Venezuelan comedian. He is famous for making highly controversial political jokes that are often considered insulting. His offensive jokes have caused public backlash, online outrage, boycotts, and extensive criticism.

The Venezuelan government had enough of Nacho after he made a political joke about a race between a man with one leg, a man with no legs, and a communist. The government sued him over the joke. He also received lots of death threats. Nacho escaped to Mexico right before his trial started.

Nacho is just one of the many comedians from Venezuela who have found themselves under attack from the government of President Nicolas Maduro. Venezuelan comedians generally avoided making political jokes before 2014. However, they changed their minds as the country went into a decline.

The government clamped down on these comedians, forcing other humorists to make political jokes as a form of protest. These days, comedians consider their quips as part of a rebellion against the government. The authorities have also stepped up their campaign against humorists making political jokes, forcing several comedians to flee the country.^[10]

In 2014, a comedy show hosted by Luis Chataing was suspended from television because it mocked the government. Luis accused the government of threatening and blackmailing the television station to suspend his show. However, the government denied issuing any threats.

Comedies are often seen as simply light entertainment, and awards are rarely given to comedy programmes. Which is a shame, because, when you get a good one, they have the power to change the world, one giggle at a time.

While it might be a stretch to say that watching comedy shows is educational, sometimes we can learn some really important life lessons while having a laugh.

Here are 10 things you might have learned from watching comedy shows on TV.

10 Comedy Acts That Went Horribly Wrong

10 It’s OK to Be a Woman

I Love Lucy was a ground-breaking show in more ways than one. For starters, it was her show, and her real-life husband, Desi Arnaz, who played her on screen husband, was always only a supporting act. Which, in the 1950s, was unusual. Arnaz did manage to get second billing by the time the late 1950s, when the show was reinvented as The Lucille Ball-Desi Arnaz Show. Which isn’t quite as catchy.

When their marriage ended in 1962, Lucille Ball bought out her ex-husband to own the production company outright, one of the few women to do so at the time. She was also one of the first women to appear on TV while pregnant, although she was not allowed to use that term. She was only allowed to be ‘expecting’, which was considered a much more seemly description.

The show featured a kooky Lucy doing silly things, while her straight-laced husband tries, and fails, to make her act like a married woman should. While those around her were sipping wine, she was having fun stomping the grapes the made it.^[1]

Sounds like much more fun.

9 It’s OK to Be Gay

Before Ellen Degeneres was a talk show host, she had her own sitcom, Ellen, which was incredibly popular. And then, in 1997, she told the world that she was gay. Almost at the same time, her TV character also announced that she was gay.

It’s probably fair to say that the announcement received a mixed reaction. The now famous ‘Puppy Episode’ where the announcement was made, led to her receiving death threats. It also won her awards. The show was picked up for a 5th season, but each episode now began with a warning that the comedy featured ‘Adult Content’.

Despite eventually being scrapped, the show has been widely applauded, and credited with paving the way for shows such as Will and Grace, which increased the representation of gay people on screen. Her contribution was rewarded by a Medal of Freedom, presented to her by President Obama in 2016.^[2]

Her show may have been cancelled, but Ellen Degeneres went on to become one of the most successful talk show hosts in the world.

8 It’s OK Not to Have a Life Plan

Friends changed a lot of things. The show made drinking coffee, in boutique coffee shops kind of cool. It made the term ‘on a break’, the subject of a million arguments between couples around the world. It gave a whole new meaning to the term ‘pivot’. But most of all, it said, it’s OK to be 30 and not have your life all mapped out.

With the exception of boring old Ross, all the friends had a go at a number of different careers before finding something that they loved. It was OK if they were broke, or out of work, or doing menial jobs to get by.

None of them (except Ross) knew what they were going to be doing in 5 years’ time, and they were OK with that. Sometimes its just nice to hang out with friends.^[3]

In a coffee shop.

7 It’s OK to be Bored at Work

Sometimes work is boring. And sometimes it’s REALLY boring. The Office did more than any other programme set in a workplace to show just how dull work can be.

So dull, in fact, that you might be compelled to hold your own Office Olympics.

With 8 hours to fill, and an endless supply of paper balls and coffee cups, what else are you going to do?

Not work, that’s for sure.

The Office showed that it is OK not to be enthusiastic about your job. You are there for the money. You are not really a team player. Don’t worry. No one else likes doing Team Building Exercises either.

Except, of course, Michael Scott.^[4]

And that’s OK too.

6 It’s OK to Be Neurotic

Seinfeld has regularly been voted the best sitcom ever. A fantastic achievement for a ‘show about nothing’. Despite the fact that almost every character on the show is neurotic in one way or another, the characters appear to be universally loved.

A group of psychiatry students ‘studied’ the programme, and concluded that Seinfeld himself suffers from OCD, with his obsessive compulsion for neatness, and Kramer probably has a schizoid personality disorder, while George is ego-centric to a fault. And then there is the original single-white-female “social justice warrior”, Elaine. She certainly has anger issues, but then she is the child of an alcoholic, which is a common trigger.

Apparently.

Despite the fact that the characters display some alarming mental health issues from time to time, they all seem to manage just fine.

Which is reassuring to the rest of us.^[5]

And it’s funny, too.

10 Hilarious Attempts To Rephrase Controversial Things

5 It’s OK to Be Pretentious

A programme about a couple of pretentious psychiatrists whose hobbies include wine-tasting, opera and not getting girls, doesn’t sound like the perfect recipe for a hit show. And yet Frasier, the most successful spin-off show ever, made it through 11 seasons of fierce sibling rivalry, classism, and constant references to Frasier’s Alma Mater (Harvard, just in case you didn’t know) in order to win an impressive 37 Primetime Emmys.

Despite living with his working-class ex-cop father and even more working-class British housekeeper, Frasier never quite manages to enjoy the less fine things in life. At the end of the 11th season, Frasier and Niles were just as pretentious and just as competitive as they had been at the beginning of season one.

There was that time they decided to write a book together. Or run their own restaurant. Or join the wine club. Every social occasion became an opportunity to get one over on each other or, even better, on someone else.^[6]

Despite that, the Crane boys were extremely likable, and painfully honest.

If only Frasier could manage to hang on to a relationship.

Happily, we can look forward to more from the hilarious brothers, as Frasier is set to return to our TV sets in a new series, date TBD.

4 It’s OK to Be a Nerd

The Big Bang Theory is said to have done more than any other TV programme to make scientists cool. Which is strange, considering that the cast consists of one genius with anti-social tendencies, one genius with anxiety issues, a genius who would like to be cool but knows he’s not, and an engineer.

Although they do share an unhealthy interest in dressing up like superheroes, watching science fiction and playing improbable games of chess, The Big Bang Theory really celebrates being smart.

And not only is it OK to be smart. You can also be a nerd. It’s OK to have your own spot on the sofa, or knock 3 times on a door. The characters bring academic rigor to the most banal situations, testing out theories that, really, just don’t need to be tested.

But it’s not just the characters who like to get the science right. The show employs scientific consults to ensure that the science is accurate. Because of this the show has regularly featured guest appearances by real-life scientists, including Stephen Hawking, who appeared on the show in Season 5 and had an entire episode named after him.

The show was so successful in making science look, if not cool, at least interesting, that interest in Physics received a huge boost in classrooms around the world.^[7]

3 It’s OK to Be a Dysfunctional Family

Although animated, The Simpsons is a classic sitcom based on the lives of a working-class American family. Having completed 32 seasons, and almost 700 episodes, the family have suffered almost every disaster it is possible to imagine. The father is lazy, a poor father and a worse husband. His wife doesn’t seem to notice. Possibly because she is so busy keeping the home and the children together, which, considering the children she was blessed with, is no mean feat.

Not only was The Simpsons the story of a family, however, it was also the story of an ever-expanding community of neighbors, work-colleagues, churchgoers, politicians and the media. Luckily for production costs most of the actors plays several characters, and celebrities compete for the honor of guesting on the show and being turned into a yellow caricature.

While The Simpsons are not the sort of neighbors you would want to live next to in real life, (what with the dog barking, saxophone playing and constant yelling), they have come to be one of the most loved families in America.

The show spawned a million memes, most of them beginning with Homer’s favorite word ‘D’Oh!’, but the phrase that made it to the Oxford Dictionary of Quotations was one of Groundskeeper Willie’s. He described the entire French nation as ‘cheese-eating surrender monkeys’.^[8]

Le ouch!

2 It’s OK for Old Women to Like Sex

In 1985 any sitcom that starred 4 women, was unusual, but a main cast of 4 old women was unheard of. The Golden Girls was a ground- breaking show. The 4 friends were all, one way or another, single, and, shock horror, they all quite liked sex.

They talked about having sex, about not having sex, good sex, bad sex and boring sex. Sex in all its forms, in fact.

The show was just as novel discussing gay issues, same-sex marriage, porn, and sexually transmitted diseases. Though the subjects were often thought to be controversial at the time, The Golden Girls managed to explore them with a mixture of innocence, interest and irony that made the show less threatening to many viewers.

Some audiences found the idea of people watching porn uncomfortable. But group of elderly ladies sitting in their living room watching a porn movie seemed somehow disarming.

Until, that is, one of them suddenly stood up, pointed at the TV and said, ‘I did that once’.^[9]

1 It’s OK to be silly

In 1969, Monty Python’s Flying Circus was like nothing ever seen before. In fact, the show is still considered to be the wildest, funniest, strangest sketch show ever made. Only 45 episodes were ever made, but they spawned a new brand of surreal comedy that inspired a generation.

The show has been a particular inspiration to astronomers, who named 7 asteroids in honor of the Pythons, and to paleontologists, who discovered a dinosaur-python fossil, and named it “Montypythonoides Riversleighensis”. John Cleese even had a woolly lemur named after him.

The term ‘Pythonesque’ was defined in the Oxford English Dictionary as “resembling the absurdist or surrealist humor of Monty Python’.
Their lasting legacy, however, is the popularization of a word that does not describe an asteroid, a dinosaur, or a lemur. The word, certainly, is a Pythonesque one, that is used daily by millions of internet users to describe something that is unwanted and unappealing.

Thank you, Monty Python, for giving us Spam.^[10]

Top 10 Mandela Effects (Movie And TV Edition!)

I happen to be fanatical about comedy; until I stopped watching TV and movies entirely, it was my genre of choice. I could binge-watch for days on end. So this list is tainted by my personal tastes but also by bingeability. It also keeps very current with all shows running (even if just for a short time) this century. I have made a few choices that may be controversial but I think, in general, having shaken up the pot, the greatest greats have floated to the top.

Top 20 Greatest Movies Of All Time

Before beginning I would like to mention that I have made a couple of references to politics in the list. But . . . and it’s a big “but” (that’s what she said!) . . . the mentions are not at all inflammatory or controversial. Under normal circumstances it wouldn’t be necessary, but comedy, more so than any genre, has, in the last ten years, become tainted with political opinions, and outside of Washington pundits, who needs that?! A few shows on the list are vaguely political, but when they are it is done for the sake of comedy. In all cases, the laughs are the number one priority.

10 30 Rock, 2006–2013

This underrated comedy held some incredibly funny moments, one of which is apparent in the clip above. One of the main stars Jenna Maroney has starred in a film with such a bad title no one else is able to work out what it is called and they can’t say anything in case they offend her. It’s hilarious. She sings about the film in a later episode too: the opening line: “The Erma Mermin-Lermin murder, turned the Bird’s world lurid,” and it gets worse from there. Great stuff from the very talented actress Jane Krakowski who was Emmy nominated for the role.

The show is named for 30 Rockefeller Plaza, where the NBC studios are found, and is about an NBC comedy show and the goings on of the cast and crew. It stars the brilliant Tina Fey of SNL fame (who also wrote the show) and Alec Baldwin as the witty and quirky manager of the team who comes up with many hilarious conservative quips that cause much double-taking from the rest of the cast. He is, truth be told, the best part of the show. He sums himself up in one quote: “business doesn’t get me down . . . business gets me off.”

9 How I Met Your Mother, 2005–2014

Neil Patrick Harris. That’s reason enough to watch How I Met Your Mother. In this incredibly popular comedy, the characters who aren’t Neil Patrick Harris spend the show hanging out and doing the things that friends do: getting drunk, getting laid (true for Neil Patrick Harris, less so for the others), and generally being awesome. Neil Patrick Harris plays a suave smooth talking womanizer who usually gets the girl and tries to help his best-friend, Ted, do the same—mainly by recommending he wear a suit and mimic . . . none other than Neil Patrick Harris.

The show was nominated for an amazing 30 Emmys and won ten. Neil Patrick Harris won the award for Favorite TV Comedy Actor. Really . . . they should have just called it the Neil Patrick Harris show. Was anyone else even in it?! Funniest line: “What do you expect? To meet some cute travel agent while you’re reading a newspaper at a bookstore? None of those things exist anymore!” Truer words were never spoke! If the clip above isn’t enough, here are some of Neil Patrick Harris’s best bits. And here are some more best bits from Neil Patrick Harris. And here are a few other best bits from Neil Patrick Harris.

8 Portlandia, 2011–2018

This is a comedy skit type show created by and starring Fred Armisen (from Saturday Night Live fame) and Carrie Brownstein (mainly a musician before the show aired). The show is one long relentless deadpan mockery of the alternative lifestyles which have made the city of Portland, Oregon, famous. The skits cut right to the bone when it comes to social issues, courageously making fun of many current social mores and sacred cows. The last season aired in 2018 and demonstrates how great talent can make political and social comedy work these days.

The show is so on point it may one day be shown in universities to illustrate the curious progression of political discourse in the US over the years it was running. Case in point: the most popular skit involves the owners of a feminist book store (the owners are both women but one is played, unconvincingly—on purpose—but hilariously, by Armisen). The show used a real feminist bookstore in Portland with the blessing of the feminist owners . . . until a couple of years ago when, after six years of being okay with it, the owners of the store “realized” that it was “transphobic” and mocking feminism (how it took them six years to realize that is anyone’s guess!) Best line: “Every time you point I see a penis!”

Whether you are left or right, you will love this show. It teases both sides in ways that offend none (except feminist book store owners!) It is brilliant and different. If the clip above isn’t enough, here’s a hilarious one showing what happens in Portland if you don’t bring a reusable bag to the grocery store, and here’s an Allergy Pride Parade.

7 Schitt’s Creek, 2015–2020

The sun dimmed the day that the last episode of Schitt’s Creek aired. It was a light, fluffy, fun, and additive comedy and I dare you to find a single thing wrong with it. Created entirely during the years in which binge-watching was the norm, this show ticks every box; and it knew when it was time to turn out the lights (a principle lacking in most TV programs these days). It stars the very recognizable Eugene Levy (the dad from American pie) as Johnny, and his real life son Daniel (who plays his show-son, David) and daughter Sarah (who plays local waitress, Twylar).

The show starts with the family losing all of their vast wealth due to tax non-payment. The judge who bankrupts them leaves them one asset: Schitt’s Creek, a decrepit town which Johnny bought as a joke for David’s birthday years earlier. It is a story of riches to rags (in the monetary sense), then rags to riches (in the moral sense). Please find time to watch this series: it really is such a wonderful breath of fresh air in today’s world. Best line: “Oh my God! Eww David!”

6 Will and Grace, 1998–2020

The original series of Will and Grace was delightful though its appeal is not as broad as most on this list. And sadly they damaged the brand by bringing it back from the dead after 15 years to make a long political rant of the show. That said, I am including it mostly for the first run as it really does need to be mentioned. The real highlight of the show was the interaction between Will’s gay friend Jack and Grace’s “receptionist” Karen (who was filthy rich and did the job for fun not money). Forget Will and Grace, it should have been the Jack and Karen show. In fact, while I think that Julia Louis-Dreyfus is the best comedy actress of our time, in my view, Karen from Will and Grace (Megan Mullally) is a very close second. Here is a reel of her funniest moments.

The show, for those who live under a rock and don’t know it, is about Will (a gay lawyer) and Grace (a straight interior designer) who live together in Will’s apartment as friends but with a bond closer to that of a married couple (giving rise to many amusing situations). The show was a hit though less-so the political revamp from a couple of years ago. It is still a great “slice of life” type comedy worth watching.

5 Arrested Development, 2003–Present

This show is just lovely. It is full of insane and colorful characters, from the crazy Gob (pronounced “Job”) who wants to be a magician, to Tobias (the mismatched husband of Portia de Rossi’s character, Lindsay, who is a “never nude” and is clearly as gay in the show as his wife is in real life). The quirkiness of the family is amplified through the eyes of the rational “straight man” character (the awesome actor Jason Bateman, as Michael) who is father to George Michael, the horny teen who falls in love with his cousin Maeby. The family is led by the narcissistic mother Lucille and the businessman father George who is on the run due to selling model homes to Saddam Hussein when trade with Iraq was illegal.

The basic premise is that the family members screw up and Michael runs around trying to fix things. Many episodes revolve around the family’s second business, a banana stand, and their awkward association with their Mexican servants. The cast is really quite brilliant together and the show is a total hit you’ll want to go back to again and again. It was so popular in fact, that it has been revived not once, but twice: in 2013 for one season and again from 2018 to the present. Even The Fonz turns up as the family’s bumbling questionably sex-criminal lawyer! Ayyy!

10 Historical Events With Hilarious Forgotten Details

4 Veep, 2012–2019

A comedy show about Selina Meyer the Vice President of the United States of America . . . that no one really likes. Republican? Democrat? who cares?! In Veep, they’re all a disaster and the show intentionally does not brand the Vice President with a party affiliation. With Seinfeld over, Julia Louis-Dreyfus needed a new vehicle for her amazing talent . . . she found it in Veep. She is bumbling, rude, politically incorrect. In one episode, her staff list all of her nicknames from the internet: “Grizzly Madam, She-Ra, Meyer the Liar, The Batcave, Pissface… The Wicked Witch of the West Wing, Veep Throat, Voldemeyer, Dickless Van Dyke, Tawdry Hepburn, Blunder Woman, Vaselina, Betty Poop…”

The awkwardness of Selina really shows most clearly in the hilarious interactions between her and the Prime Minister of Finland, Minna Häkkinen who, in all honesty, should have won am Emmy for her recurring role on the show. On the other hand, Louis-Dreyfus’ performance won her six consecutive Primetime Emmy Awards, three Screen Actors Guild Awards, two Critics’ Choice Television Awards, a Television Critics Association Award, and five consecutive Golden Globe nominations. If you’ve watched the show, you’ll know why. Julia Louis-Dreyfus is perhaps the most talented female comedy actress of our time.

3 Friends, 1994–2004

I had to include it didn’t I? It’s not my favorite but Friends stole the heart of millions (and maybe even billions) of people around the world. The “Ross and Rachel” saga kept people talking at the water cooler, and time after time the silly comments or mannerisms of the characters entered real life and influenced how we all spoke and behaved with each other. It is true to say that Friends, more than any other entry here, defined a generation.

The inclusion was, surprisingly, not that easy as I was very close to including Frasier instead, another favorite that at least gets a bonus spot below. But there is no denying it: a list like this without Friends on it is not a list worth reading.

2 The Office (US version), 2005–2013

Ricky Gervais? Meh. He’s okay . . . I mean, when he’s going off, half drunk, at the rapey Hollywood celebrities at the Golden Globes he’s great, but otherwise: so-so; And I know I am going to upset a lot of people here—but the US version of the Office is simply better than the British one. It follows the exploits of the staff of Dunder Mifflin, a fictional paper company led by the indomitable Steve Carrell in his best role ever.

There is little more to be said of this show: it is the one series that most of you will have expected to see on this list because most of you will agree that The Office (in one of its national forms at least) deserves to be on a list of the best comedy TV series. Oh, and if you want to experience a moment in which two worlds collide, here’s a clip from The Office in which Ricky Gervais (David Brent) bumps into Steve Carrell (Michael Scott) outside the elevator.

1 Curb Your Enthusiasm, 2000–Present

Take a neurotic Jew who can’t get anything right (despite every attempt to do so), a happy-go-lucky best-friend with a foul-mouthed ranting wife, and a group of great (but faded) comedy actors from the ’80s and ’90s (I’m looking at you Ted Danson, Jason Alexander, and Paul Reiser) and you have Curb Your Enthusiasm. Created by Larry David (he’s the neurotic Jew and he plays a fictionalized version of himself) who created Seinfeld (and clearly based much of the character of George on his own real life exploits and foibles), Curb Your Enthusiasm is largely ad-libbed with the storyline being put together in advance. The acting ability of the amazing cast makes this work so well that you simply can’t tell it isn’t all brilliantly scripted. The show is witty, cringey, dense, and thick will cultural humor.

Similar to Portlandia, this show has a fairly politically outspoken creator but, also like Portlandia, it just doesn’t spoil the comedy; Larry David is that good. This is how you make comedy that doesn’t need preach. The show is certainly no friend to every political position, but it is also not vituperative. It is getting harder to find good comedies that don’t take cheap shots; Curb Your Enthusiasm is the best—it will go down in history (in my opinion) as being better than Seinfeld and the best comedy TV series ever contrived.

Best moments: when Larry hires an orchestra to play Wagner hits outside an Orthodox Jew’s house because the man had argued with Larry earlier in the episode and his daughter toilet-papered Larry’s house on Halloween after he refused to give her candy because she wasn’t in a costume.

+ Frasier, 1993–2004

This one is a little old for the main list but it’s worth mentioning. It did, however, run for four years into the new century and is being picked up for a new series (yay!). This is a spin-off from the hit show Cheers and follows the exploits of Frasier Crane, a radio psychologist, and his family: an ex-cop dad who is a man’s man, and a brother Niles who steals the show . . . constantly. Niles is married to a very wealthy woman who we never see (but know to be thinner than a pin from the constant jokes about her weight) but falls in love with Frasier’s father’s live-in physiotherapist, Daphe.

The Niles and Daphne storyline is a bit of a cerebral “Ross and Rachel”. In fact, the show, on the whole, is quite cerebral and high brow. The humor was never dumbed down for the audience and the result is one of the classiest and funniest comedies peeking into the new millennium. If you want more than just a general “best of”, here’s a compilation of Niles Crane’s best bits.

++ Seinfeld, 1989–1998

Leaving this off the list is almost a mortal sin as it is considered by many to be the very best comedy show in television history (across all nations and periods). It happens to be one of my favorites. However, it didn’t even make it to the 21st century so it misses out by not being recent enough. But the show is so huge it can’t go without a mention. I still recommend it for when you get through the others here. But whatever you do, don’t watch the real life racist rant on YouTube that basically ended the career of one of the stars of the show (and I don’t throw around the word “racist” casually).

10 Comedy Acts That Went Horribly Wrong

No joke – the comedians on this list seriously shine in dramatic roles.

The ground rules: to qualify for this collection, actors needed to start their mainstream careers in comedy. That dismisses, for example, Whoopi Goldberg, who regularly appeared in dramas like The Color Purple early in her career. Also, only movies where the actor played the lead or a strong secondary role made the cut. No bit roles or cameos allowed.

Without further ado, the nominees for Best Dramatic Film Featuring a Comedy Actor, presented in chronological order:

Top 10 Best Recent TV Comedy Series

10 The Hustler (1961)

Jackie Gleason may be the first Hollywood star to fall victim to typecasting. Even today, it’s nearly impossible to separate him from iconic bus driver Ralph Kramden from the groundbreaking 1950s sitcom, The Honeymooners. So ingrained in our cultural association is Gleason as Kramden that the character has a statue at New York City’s Port Authority Bus Terminal.^[1]

For the husky Gleason, it took another larger-than-life role to effectively emerge from Kramden’s sizable shadow. That opportunity came in the 1961 drama The Hustler, in which he portrays legendary pool player Minnesota Fats.

Opposite Paul Newman as small-time pool hustler “Fast Eddie” Felson, Gleason’s Minnesota Fats sets a blueprint for every cocky antagonist in sports films since. A heavyset Apollo Creed to Newman’s Rocky, Gleason falls behind then quickly rebounds to erase an $18,000 debt to the upstart Felson, who then embarks on a hero’s journey punctuated by romance and physical setbacks in the form of two broken thumbs, even as he sharpens his game for a rematch with the champion. It’s a story of winning, losing and character-building against the seedy backdrop of 1960s pool halls.

The Hustler received an amazing eight Academy Award nominations, including Newman for Best Actor, Gleason for Best Supporting Actor, and Best Picture. It won the black-and-white categories for Art Direction and Cinematography. Its impact on culture was just as profound, sparking a resurgence in the popularity of pool.^[2]

9 Blue Collar (1978)

Richard Pryor is on everyone’s short list of best stand-up comedians of all time, including the top spot on Rolling Stone’s rankings.^[3] With a slew of crucially-acclaimed comedy albums, acting appearances and writing credits under his belt, he’s one of the few comedians who needn’t do anything serious to be taken seriously.

Considering this, the 1978 crime drama Blue Collar, which pits Pryor opposite Harvey Keitel, shows the comedian taking a different tack despite being at the pinnacle of his profession. The film explores the erosion of workers unions in late-1970s America, prompting two financially-strapped auto workers to rob the union’s safe. Though they don’t come away with much cash, they discover a ledger documenting evidence of the union’s illegal loan operation and ties to organized crime.

An unsuccessful attempt to blackmail the union ends in one of their murders, and leads to Pryor’s character, Zeke Brown, being consigned to work for the corrupt union bosses with promises of financial and professional gains.

Both Pryor and the film received rave reviews, especially from famous movie-review team Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert. It also holds a perfect 100% score on Rotten Tomatoes^[4] – a rarity.

8 One Hour Photo (2002)

While Good Will Hunting is the most critically acclaimed film with Robin Williams in a serious role (he also saved Insomnia, starring an overrated Al Pacino, from being unwatchable), One Hour Photo is his best as lead actor.

Released in 2002, the film provides a chilling precursor to our social media-saturated, privacy-deprived existence. The creepy trailer intersperses clips with escalating warnings: “He knows your name… He knows your life… He knows where you live.”

Then Williams’ voice: “The word ‘snapshot’ was originally a hunting term.”

Williams plays Seymour “Sy” Parrish, a film developer at a big box store. Single, friendless and socially awkward, Sy becomes obsessed with a family he idolizes as picture-perfect – a theme which, viewed through today’s social media-filtered lens, bears an eerie resemblance to the alienation people can feel when scrolling through Facebook and seeing beaming, laughing and largely cherry-picked personal highlight reels.

Sy’s idyllic vision of the family is shattered when he learns that the husband is having an affair. He snaps, literally exposing the mistress to the wife by mixing photos of the tryst in with family photos. Later, he tracks the husband and mistress to a hotel room, where he forces them at knifepoint to pose in lewd positions for his camera.

Considering it was made four years before the advent of Facebook, One Hour Photo’s “dangers of social media” motifs – smile-for-the-camera phoniness, FOMO-ism, life envy – make it decidedly ahead of its time.

7 Lost in Translation (2003)

A dramatization of a casting meeting for the lowest-budget film on this list, by far.

“We have four million dollars^[5] to shoot on location in Tokyo. Who should we get to basically flop around a hotel for 90 minutes of sexual tension with a young, relatively unknown actress?”

“How about Peter Venkman^[6] from Ghostbusters?”

“Perfect. Make the call.”

Lost in Translation is arguably the best film on this list, and is certainly its most exponentially lucrative. Shot in just 27 days, the movie grossed nearly 30 times its miniscule budget^[7] and launched Scarlett Johansson to stardom.

Lost in Translation is a dramatic, cinematic Seinfeld, a movie about nothing driven solely by characters. Bill Murray plays an American actor shooting a commercial in Japan, Johansson a newlywed accompanying her celebrity photographer husband on a business trip. Holed up in the same luxury hotel, the two play off each other’s loneliness, insomnia, boredom and culture shock in a stubbornly insular country void of fellow English speakers.

The intergenerational sexual tension is the movie’s most captivating quality. Murray is unhappily married, Johansson questioning her recent vows. The former seems regretful, the latter fearful of ending up that way.

The audience is left to wonder whether their attraction is rooted in their precarious choice in life partners, their current disoriented circumstances, or both. The film was nominated for four Academy Awards, including Murray for Best Actor.

6 Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004)

Jim Carrey has always been a risk taker. In 1994, he left the wildly successful TV show In Living Color for an initially mocked project; Ace Ventura: Pet Detective^[8] went on to gross over $100 million. Most recently, he’s starred in the experimental Showtime series Kidding, pitting him as a severely repressed children’s programming icon.

In between, he’s made the fish-out-of-water jump from comedy to drama, cementing a reputation for versatility. 1998’s Truman Show sees Carrey escaping the confines of an unbeknownst-to-him 24/7 reality program. Next came 1999’s Man on the Moon, in which Carrey portrayed controversial comedian Andy Kaufmann. Both films had comedic elements that allowed Carrey to wade into dramatic waters rather than dive in headfirst.

That changed with 2004’s Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, a star-studded science fiction drama in which Carrey plays a depressed introvert named Joel Barish – who, along with eccentric ex-girlfriend Clementine (Kate Winslet), undergoes a novel procedure that erases each other from their memories.

Visually dazzling, the film’s best sequences feature a comatose Carrey, mid-procedure, attempting to salvage memories of Winslet while a machine gradually wipes them away. The overarching question – “how many scars is love really worth?” – is left nebulously unanswered in a film that brilliantly sticks the landing on a cinematic balancing act: providing no neat conclusions in a fashion that still satisfies moviegoers.

The film deservedly has a 93% critics rating^[9] on Rotten Tomatoes.

Top 10 Things We’ve Learned From Watching Comedy Shows

5 Everything Must Go (2010)

Based on the short story “Why Don’t You Dance?”, the 2010 film starring Will Ferrell as a down-on-his-luck alcoholic might be this list’s starkest entry considering its lead actor’s near-exclusive commitment to comedy. In fact, the movie became a blip in Ferrell’s career, less a transition to dramatic roles than an exception.

For an exception, it is exceptional. As an extreme outlier in Ferrell’s filmography, Everything Must Go was a risky undertaking, particularly because of its “Cast Away”-esque quality of leaving Ferrell alone on screen for broad stretches of time. For someone used to slapstick humor – drunken streaking^[10], crashing racecars, newscaster royal rumbles^[11] – the prospect of watching Ferrell swig beers on a trash-strewn lawn for 90 minutes, after being fired and kicked out by his wife on the same day, seems like a recipe for failure.

But it worked. Depressed, drunk and middle-aged, Ferrell strikes a chord singular in his career to date: sad, sullen and dumbstruck in a scenario where the audience knows a punchline isn’t coming. The 20% gap between critical praise (73%) and audience enthusiasm (53%)^[12] reflects a well-made film that the average moviegoer had difficulty processing due to Ferrell’s conventionally comedic reputation.

4 Moneyball (2011)

“What the hell is WARP?” said Keith Olbermann with mock incredulity in The 10th Inning, Ken Burns’ 2010 follow up to his legendary nine-part baseball history documentary.

It stands for Wins Against Replacement Players, a metrics-era baseball statistic. Big data, which monitors and analyzes previously unavailable player performance indicators, now permeates all team sports (including soccer).^[13] And in 2011, one of the numbers nerds that changed sports forever is ably portrayed by…

… Jonah Hill?

Jonah Hill’s body type and wry delivery were made for comedy, including supporting roles in Knocked Up, The 40-year-old Virgin and his masterpiece, Superbad. But opposite Brad Pitt, who portrays innovative Oakland Athletics general manager Billy Beane, Hill’s deadpan arrogance helps make metrics mesmerizing.

Moneyball is, at its heart, an underdog drama – the true story of how a small-market ballclub put together consistently winning teams on a shoestring budget. The film depicts the 2002 season, when the A’s won 20 straight games and made the playoffs despite having a lower payroll than all but two teams.^[14]

While Pitt is arguably miscast in this movie – he’s too clean, youthful and handsome to play an underdog – Hill excels. Looking like the kind of guy who eats microwaved burritos at his desk while staring at spreadsheets 14 hours a day, Hill helps Pitt swindle teams with deft trades based on info he alone has discovered.^[15]

Today, the data that Hill’s character, Peter Brand, emphasized in player analysis and acquisition is the rule rather than the exception. Moneyball showcases the genesis of modern-day professional sports decision-making.

3 Django Unchained (2012)

Jamie Foxx is another In Living Color alum who could easily have multiple movies on this list. In this case, the close runner-up is Ray, the 2004 film chronicling the life of Ray Charles. A terrific biopic before a slew of terrible ones started giving the genre a bad rep, Ray was nominated for Best Picture, and Foxx himself took Best Actor honors.

But even though Foxx’s performance in Ray may have been better (and a starker departure from such memorable roles as a ne’er do well named Bunz in the 1997 epic Booty Call),^[16] Django Unchained, for which writer/director Quentin Tarantino received a Best Screenplay nomination, gets my vote as a better overall film.

For a director sometimes accused of portraying gory violence simply for violence’s sake, Django Unchained places brutal death matches^[17] and shoot ’em up bloodbaths in an altogether fitting setting: a mid-19th Century American slave plantation. Paired with a German bounty hunter – a well-devised foreign-born character who sees slavery for the debasing sin that it is – Django eventually goes plantation-hopping to free his wife, a house slave familiar with being raped by owners and overseers.

Django’s answer: Kill them. Kill them all.^[18] A revenge fantasy with a purpose, Django Unchained dispenses Tarantino’s trademark violence more fittingly and suitably than his other efforts; as a result, the inevitable pile of dead and gushing-blood bodies is more victorious than superfluous.

2 The Big Short (2015)

A drastic departure from his typical “affable idiot” roles (Anchorman, The 40-year-old Virgin, The Office), Steve Carell portrays brash yet brilliant hedge fund manager Steve Baum in a film showcasing the financial cowboyism that led directly to the 2008 financial crisis and subsequent Great Recession.

The Big Short is a complicated film about a complicated topic – the complex, muddled world of a largely unregulated Wall Street that packages and repackages money-making products until they are intentionally unrecognizable to laymen and oversight officers alike. To simplify matters, the film features explanatory cutaways featuring such non-nerdy celebrities as Anthony Bourdain and Selena Gomez.

One of the film’s best scenes comes when Carell and a colleague embark on a fact-finding mission to determine the genesis and breadth of an issue at the root of the looming financial crisis: subprime mortgages, which lure unqualified aspiring homeowners into loans with low (or even no) initial interest before skyrocketing and overwhelming them.

When Carell realizes that local banks across the country are ridding their balance sheets of high-risk loans by packaging and selling them to global investment firms like the now-extinct Bear Stearns and Lehman Brothers, his staggered, deer-in-the-headlights look exhibits an acting versatility not previously seen from him. “Do people have any idea what they’re buying?” he asks with exasperation, as two local mortgage brokers cockily explain how clueless (and often jobless) their approved homebuyers are.

The movie, which won an Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay, gets its name from Carell and his cohorts “shorting” the toxic financial products, profiting handsomely by seeing the meltdown coming a mile away.

1 Uncut Gems (2019)

Adam Sandler is another actor who could have two movies on this list, the 2002 romance Punch-Drunk Love^[19] – for which Sandler received a Golden Globe nomination for Best Actor – being the other.

The 2019 thriller Uncut Gems is a more deserving entry for two reasons. The first is that many critics officially deem Punk-Drunk Love a romantic comedy, so its category is debatable. The second is that Sandler made so many God-awful comedies between 2002 and 2019 that his reemergence in a serious role is particularly striking. It’s one thing to transition into drama from the success of Happy Gilmore and The Wedding Singer; it’s quite another to do so after 50 First Dates and Paul Blart: Mall Cop 2.

In Uncut Gems, Sandler plays Howard Ratner, a jeweler and gambling addict in New York City’s Diamond District tasked with retrieving an expensive gem he initially purchased to pay off his debts. The movie stands out for its twisting plot, which unravels as Ratner tries to repair a failed marriage and avoid bookies intent on recouping their money, harming him, or both.

The movie includes an amusing story line featuring former basketball superstar Kevin Garnett^[20], as himself. Viewing as good luck the rare black opal diamond that gives the film its name, he insists on holding onto it during a playoff run, giving Ratner his NBA championship ring as collateral. Ratner quickly pawns the ring and gambles with the money, setting off a descent into deceit and foul play.

Top 10 Funniest Movies Of All Time

About The Author: Christopher Dale (@ChrisDaleWriter) writes on politics, society and sobriety issues. His work has appeared in Daily Beast, NY Daily News, NY Post and Parents.com, among other outlets.

One of the hardest things to do well in comedy is pairing one comic with another. History is filled with people who tried, but getting the right chemistry isn’t as easy as slapping a couple of names together. For a true comedy duo to work, both members have to bring their A-game, so the team can’t be one-sided.

Movies have offered an excellent medium for comedy duos to stretch their comedic talents, and some of the greatest stuck around for decades. Because they have been around for over a century now, it’s possible to look at each decade to find the best movie comedy duo going back 100 years.

This list features the best comedy duos from each decade, beginning in the 1920s and ending in 2020. Take a look below, and if you think there’s a funnier comedy duo from your favorite decade, share their hilarious exploits in the comments!

10 1920s—Laurel & Hardy

Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy are probably the best-known comedy duo of all time, and they haven’t performed together in decades. The team came together out of vaudeville and the silent film industry, and they complemented one another perfectly.

Comedy duos at the time typically relied on a comedian playing off a straight man, but both Laurel and Hardy were comics to their core. Despite the change-up, they managed to always get laughs, and when one needed to play it straight, they managed to do so with perfection.

The pair came together in the early 1920s, though they weren’t officially considered a team. That didn’t happen until they did a short together in 1926, and from there, the comedy act of Laurel and Hardy was born.

The duo became iconic throughout the 1920s. They continued their success well into the ’40s with their final film collaboration, Atoll K, coming out in 1950. Throughout their partnership, Laurel and Hardy acted opposite one another in 107 films, 32 short silent movies, 40 short “talkies,” and numerous guest appearances on television.

Laurel and Hardy helped shape the direction of comedic cinema for decades, and their influence can be seen to this day. Mark Hamill once said, “If you don’t like Laurel and Hardy, you are no friend of mine,” and he’s hardly in the minority when it comes to the classic comics.

9 1930s—Pitts & Todd

Laurel & Hardy dominated in the 1920s and ’30s, but they weren’t the only team making waves throughout the Depression years. Men like Wheeler & Woolsey produced some great comedy, but there was another team that deserves some attention.

Hal Roach, the creator of Laurel & Hardy, envisioned a team of comedic women. In 1931, he created the first major female comedy team. Thelma Todd and Zasu Pitts’ place in history is important for both comedy and advancements made by women in the craft.

Roach put together a blonde bombshell beauty queen who specialized in playing comic relief with one of the most prolific character actresses in the business, and the pairing worked! They didn’t stick together for long, but what they created stands the test of time.

Pitts & Todd managed to work together for 17 short films. They even managed to snag an appearance of Laurel and Hardy in one of their movies. Their partnership came to an end after only two years when Pitts left the group.

Roach kept it going by replacing women several times. Each attempt at recreating the chemistry between Pitts and Todd resulted in some funny films, but the magic was lost when the original group ended.

8 1940s—Abbott & Costello

Bud Abbott and Lou Costello are probably one of the best-known comedy duos from their era. Both men began working in vaudeville before making the jump to radio, and finally, film. You probably know them for their “Who’s on First” routine, but they did so much more than that.

Throughout the 1940s and ’50s, Abbot & Costello dominated the industry. They toured throughout the ’40s and entertained the troops during World War II, becoming the highest-paid entertainers in the world at the time.

These guys were all over the map in terms of entertainment. They showed up for live shows, popped up on television, dominated the radio waves, and had a massively successful film career.

They started working in films together in 1940 with One Night in the Tropics, though they showed up in supporting roles. Despite this, they stole the show and continued to make hit after hit together throughout the decade.

They made 25 films in the 1940s and continued working together in the ’50s. Ultimately, they disbanded their partnership in ’57 due to career fatigue and the fact that they didn’t really like one another very much. Despite everything they did, they’re probably best known for “Who’s on First,” which they performed an estimated 15,000 times.

7 1950s—Martin & Lewis

Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis are another comedy duo that’s stood the test of time. The pair began working together in 1946 doing live performances in clubs, and by ’49, they were killing it on the radio.

They developed their act through a great deal of improvisation and slapstick. The pair managed to play the straight man/funny man act to perfection. They transitioned their show from the stage to radio to television and film.

Their first film was released in 1949, and the remainder of their movie collaborations came the following decade, which they dominated. Martin & Lewis starred in 16 feature-length films throughout the 1950s. Many were exceptionally hilarious, including Sailor Beware, Living It Up, and You’re Never Too Young.

Throughout the ’50s, the team changed its name to Dean Martin & Jerry Lewis. This was done to help them further their solo careers once their partnership came to an end. That came in 1956, and they didn’t speak to one another privately for 20 years. They finally reconciled in 1976, thanks to some help from Frank Sinatra.

6 1960s—Lemmon & Matthau

The 1960s is a decade that would go to the Smothers Brothers had they specialized in film instead of television variety shows. Since this list is all about film comedy duos, the honor of best team-up from the 1960s goes to Jack Lemmon and Walter Matthau.

Unlike the other teams on this list, this pairing wasn’t your typical comedy duo. When they got together on-screen, they were often at odds with one another. While their on-screen characters were often contentious, their chemistry could not be denied.

The two men, who were the best of friends in real life, hated one another whenever they came together on-screen. While that may sound like an excellent recipe for a drama, it was played to the best of laughs in films like The Fortune cookie and The Odd Couple.

That last pairing is probably the duo’s most famous, and it only furthered their opportunity to work together. Decades later, they appeared opposite one another in a similar fashion via the two Grumpy Old Men movies, and their chemistry hadn’t waned at all. Overall, they made eight films together, and their work in the ’60s is some of the best comedy to come out of the decade.

5 1970s—Cheech & Chong

The 1970s was a great decade for comedy, thanks to folks like Mel Brooks, Carl Reiner, and Monty Python. When it comes to comedy duos, the decade begins and ends with none other than Cheech Marin and Tommy Chong.

The two began working together in 1971. Cheech & Chong’s popular stand-up routine led to their success in studio recordings and numerous feature films. Pretty much everything they did together revolved around counterculture, free love, and drugs… a lot of drugs (especially marijuana).

These guys loved pot so much, they did a movie about them searching the country for pot while driving a van made of “Fiberweed;” you can guess what the exhaust fumes did. Cheech & Chong were incredibly popular throughout the ’70s and into the 1980s, which is actually the decade featuring most of their movies.

Despite this, they are probably best known for their first movie, Up in Smoke, which was released in 1978. The pairing ended in 1987 when Cheech opted to focus on his solo career by distancing himself from the drug-fueled acts of their work together. They ultimately reunited and began working together in the early 2000s.

4 1980s—Wilder & Pryor

For the most part, successful comedy duos were always the same race, and that race was typically Caucasian in prior decades. Before Richard Pryor and Gene Wilder came together, there were numerous attempts and making a mixed-race duo work. There have been plenty since, but none did nearly as well as these guys.

Their comedy pairing began the previous decade with 1976’s Silver Streak, which did well but wasn’t their greatest hit. That came in 1980 with Stir Crazy, arguably the pair’s best collaboration. They continued to work together in the 1980s with See No Evil, Hear No Evil, and their last pairing came in 1991’s Another You.

Of course, they worked together in other ways, as Wilder appeared in 1974’s Blazing Saddles, which Pryor co-wrote. He was supposed to be in the film, but the studios wanted Cleavon Little instead, so it was a few years before they managed to share the screen.

Gene Wilder and Richard Pryor’s on-screen chemistry is the stuff of legend. They always managed to play off one another perfectly. While they worked together well on-screen, Pryor’s substance abuse problems made their friendship difficult. Despite this, they had a great deal of respect and admiration for one another.

3 1990s—Farley & Spade

The 1990s were filled with all manner of comedy duos, many of them coming straight out of Saturday Night Live. Mike Myers and Dana Carvey’s Wayne’s World led to two films, and while they were great together on-screen, you can’t talk about 90’s comedy duos and not look to Chris Farley and David Spade.

These two guys had some of the best on-screen chemistry in the history of the medium, and they couldn’t have been more different. Spade is all about deadpan snarkiness, while Farley was the kind of comic who would do anything for his laugh, even if it meant crashing through a coffee table or making fun of his weight.

Both comics appeared in Coneheads together, though they played minor characters. Their first true collaboration was Tommy Boy, which pitted the two off-screen best friends against one another in comedic gold. They followed this with Black Sheep the following year, and they managed to recapture their on-screen chemistry.

Sadly, their collaborations ended with Farley’s untimely passing in 1997, only one year after Black Sheep’s release. Spade was noticeably absent at the funeral, fueling speculation of a falling out. Years later, Spade explained that the funeral was too difficult for him, as the two were the greatest of friends.

2 2000s—Pegg & Frost

Picking the best comedy duo of the 2000s is no easy task. It’s the decade that saw exceptional pairings, including Ben Stiller & Owen Wilson, Will Ferrel & John C. Reilly, John Cho & Kal Penn, and many more. Despite all the offerings, the decade goes to Simon Pegg and Nick Frost.

The pair began working together in 1999 on Spaced, and they kept their incredible on-screen chemistry going for years — and they’re still at it. During the first decade of the 21st century, Pegg and Frost appeared in the Three Flavours Cornetto trilogy.

Those films include Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz, and The World’s End, which came out in 2013, so it’s a bit outside the scope. The first two films are arguably the best they’ve done together, and they continue to work together in both film and television to this day.

Their most recent collaboration is the Amazon Prime series Truth Seekers, which was released in October 2020. Both comics remain close friends and collaborators on numerous projects, which is something that is likely to continue well into the next decade.

1 2010s—Fey & Poehler

Tina Fey and Amy Poehler have known one another since 1993, and it wasn’t long before the two became close friends. They began working with one another soon after, and by the turn of the century, both were working on Saturday Night Live.

They spent the first decade of their career working alongside one another, with most of their efforts being in the world of television. They made their first jump into working together on the silver screen in 2002’s Martin and Orloff, though it’s unlikely many people saw it.

Two years later, they dropped Mean Girls upon the world, and their careers skyrocketed from that point forward. They co-starred in Baby Mama in 2007, and by 2015, they shared the top billing in 2015’s Sisters.

2019 saw them working together once more in Poehler’s directorial debut, Wine Country. The movie dropped on Netflix and scored a Fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes. They also killed it hosting the Golden Globes in 2021, which isn’t a movie, but it’s another excellent example of this pairing’s chemistry and comedic expertise, which was tested through a few thousand miles of lockdown separation.