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There is no objective winner for the funniest film of any year, but a strong annual watchlist can balance comic craft, critical recognition, cultural staying power and rewatchability. This guide uses those criteria and treats comedy broadly: a film can qualify even when it is also a romance, drama, satire, animation or genre story.
The available evidence supports several standout candidates, but not a fully verified winner for every year. Rather than invent a complete slate, this guide identifies the years with grounded selections and explains the limits. Years not listed below need a fuller, cross-checked comparison before a responsible pick can be made.
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How this year-by-year comedy list is selected
“Best” is an editorial judgment, not a measurable fact. A useful choice should combine memorable writing and performances with a distinctive comic approach, evidence of lasting audience or critical interest, and a reason it stands out among that year’s releases. A high review score or box-office popularity alone does not settle the question.
Genre boundaries are intentionally open. Rotten Tomatoes’ 150 Essential Comedy Movies To Watch Now, updated December 15, 2025, treats comedy as a wide field that includes slapstick, silent comedy, romantic comedy, screwball, parody and postmodern comedy. Its editors describe cultural influence and audience return as part of the rationale, rather than presenting the list as a simple ranking of review scores.
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The year convention here is the film’s release year as used by the cited lists; the evidence does not settle every territory-specific difference between original release, US theatrical release and streaming debut. The practical scope is 2000 onward. Because 2026 is still in progress, it is too early to name a stable best comedy for that year.
What is the best comedy movie from each year?
The documented candidates below are not a consensus ranking. WatchMojo supplies one annual selection list for 2000–2020, while the Associated Press retrospective offers notable recent examples without naming one film for every year. The entries here draw on those sources only where they provide a clear candidate and a meaningful reason to consider it.
Rank #2
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| Year | Standout candidate | Why it belongs on the shortlist |
|---|---|---|
| 2000 | Best in Show | WatchMojo’s annual list highlights its mockumentary observation and ensemble improvisation. The film also appears in Rotten Tomatoes’ essential-comedies guide. |
| 2001 | Zoolander | WatchMojo points to its memorable character catchphrases and growing cult audience as part of its appeal. |
| 2002 | Punch-Drunk Love | WatchMojo identifies its unusual blend of romance, surreal humor and a darker edge. |
| 2003 | School of Rock | WatchMojo singles out Jack Black’s comic and musical strengths. |
| 2016 | The Edge of Seventeen | Included among the notable comedies in Jake Coyle’s AP retrospective; its mode is teen coming-of-age comedy. |
| 2017 | Lady Bird or The Death of Stalin | Coyle’s retrospective includes both, representing sharply different comic registers: coming-of-age comedy and political satire. It does not establish a single winner for the year. |
| 2018 | Game Night | Coyle includes it as an example of ensemble mystery farce. |
| 2020 | Palm Springs | Coyle’s list offers it as a time-loop romance with a comic engine. |
| 2022 | Glass Onion | Coyle includes the mystery comedy among the decade’s notable examples. |
| 2023 | Barbie | Coyle includes it as an imaginative studio comedy. |
| 2025 | One of Them Days | Coyle includes it among notable recent comedies; the retrospective does not claim it is the year’s definitive winner. |
The 2017 entry is deliberately a two-film shortlist, not a tie disguised as a verdict. The cited retrospective establishes both as notable but does not rank them as that year’s best. For years omitted from the table, the sources available here do not establish a defensible selection; a complete annual list would require further comparison rather than filling gaps from memory.
What are the best comedies of the 2000s?
For the early 2000s, the best-supported starting points in the cited annual list are Best in Show (2000), Zoolander (2001), Punch-Drunk Love (2002) and School of Rock (2003). Their differences show why a decade list should not reduce comedy to one style: observational mockumentary, broad character satire, eccentric romantic comedy and musical performance comedy each offer a distinct kind of pleasure.
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Rank #3
These are candidates from one editorial list, not settled yearly winners. WatchMojo’s page covers 2000–2020, but a single source cannot establish broad critical consensus or represent comedy traditions worldwide.
Which comedy should I watch from 2017?
Choose Lady Bird for a coming-of-age story whose humor sits alongside family and adolescence, or The Death of Stalin for political satire. Both appear in Jake Coyle’s AP retrospective of notable comedies from the last decade, published May 6, 2026. The retrospective is a critic’s selection, not a complete annual ranking, so it supports them as strong options rather than proving one is the year’s winner.
Rank #4
How to read a “best comedy every year” list
- Check what “year” means. International release dates and streaming premieres can differ from the year a film is dated in a US or UK list.
- Notice the geography. A list drawn mostly from US and UK coverage should not be mistaken for a worldwide account of comedy.
- Separate a candidate from a consensus. Annual editorial lists and retrospective selections identify worthwhile films; they do not by themselves prove agreement across critics or audiences.
- Allow genre hybrids. A comedy may also be romance, drama, animation, crime or science fiction without becoming less eligible.
For broader discovery, They Shoot Pictures, Don’t They?’s 21st-century acclaim project aggregates ballots across films released from 2000 onward. Its 2026 introduction reports 7,329 end-of-year ballots, an average of 282 ballots per year, and 2,025 contributing critics and filmmakers. Those figures describe the breadth of its overall film-acclaim methodology, not a comedy-specific result; genre classification and comedy-focused judgment remain separate questions.
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- Movie Title: Northern Exposure: The Complete Series
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