Comedy films can be so important to our own lives and moods, they can lift your spirits and raise your mood, you could be upset and this could turn your day around, and with comedy films, in particular, they have changed over many years. Many other genres changed because of the technology advances, however, comedy films have changed based on peoples taste and cultural changes.
There are so many comedy films out there, so I broke it down into two years brackets, before the 2000s and 2000s after, and with my age ill be honest 80’s and ’90s are more where I would focus on, and actually, while I did this list I think I prefer more from the post-2000’s not that these films aren’t good, they are. With the comedies, there are several mini genres and can also touch in so many other genres like action, so I’ve tried to stay more true to the comedy film as this list could be huge.
Table of Contents
Ace Venturer
I’m a huge Jim Carrey fan and have liked many of his films, in the ’90s though he hit his wacky comedy grove, and it was a shame in the 2000’s he stepped away from that, even nowadays he’s still choosey with his roles, Sonic is about as close to this era he has gotten since, but Ace Ventura back in the day was huge, and helped made him a star, in 1994 there were about 18 months of solid Carrey gold, and this arguably started the films off, staring a young Courtney Cox ( just a few months before friends began)this silly but highly funny film saw a pet detective wrapped up in a bigger case as the dolphin was stolen from the Miami Dolphins NFL team (a much bigger thing. in America). In 1995 a sequel came out When Nature calls are set in Africa and follows ace trying to find missing Bat. Both films are great and I’ve bundled them in together, the first one is simpler and more of a story, whereas the second one is far more over the top, probably too far for today’s audience but this was Carrey at his finest.
Liar Liar
You may see a trend here, another Jim carrey film bt as i mentioned earlier he was in his grove in the 90’s, and unlike some of the other more wild films he did this 1997 was more of a story role, but the added funnyness of the film came from Carreys actions and ability to not be able to lie, which as a lawyer was tricky, especially apparently the his client was guilty lol, but all that aside it was about him and his son with the desire to get get the boys parents back together, i often think its underated and not always on top of peoples jim carrys listbut its still a fine film
Mask
I know i know, another Jim Carrey film but like i said the 90s he was on fire and at the time these films were huge in the comedy world,i didnt even include Dumb and Dumber in the list tht was equally as big and would probably be on most peoples if they like these type films, but mask also from 1994, was a little different, Super hero films were not the same in that era, Batman etc had gone a bit cheesey and comic booky again, along with other more B movie Super hero films around this time, not the same standard as now, but The Mask was a super hero film, a down and out guy finds mask (loki) and exhumes powers and unleashes there inner-selves but turned up to 11, a very different and young Cameron Diaz as a love interest sees this film be really good, id argue i prefered it over Ace but im torn, for me as a youngster it was fantastic, it bordered on that aslight adultness to it, which i didnt understand at the time but after recently watching it with the kids i saw alot of older jokes that completely goes over a kids head, would this film be as a good without Carrey? like Ace im not sure but he does give it all and along with Ace made him a huge star.
American Pie
I’m a teenager and graduate of 1999, so with this film coming out, it really was mine and my friend’s era, this arguably started off a run of Adult/Teenager comedies that ran for a few years that you might see in the next 2000’s list, but this was a cultural change in these style comedies at this point, If you were a teenager or between 16-21 you really got it and loved it, and I still enjoy watching them even now, any of the main 4 films (don’t count the others), it summed up my era, its a silly story but who cares.
Monty Python Life of Bryan
I could have Holy Grail in this as well, so its partly both when I was younger I enjoyed Monty Python, there were sketches that were a bit meh, but in reality, there were far more that were fantastic and still recognisable now, the Film obviously got a lot of flak when it came out, as you would expect based on the story, but as a youngster, I thought the film was funny, and even now I can appreciate it on a different level, I did enjoy Holy Grail but this one had more funny parts for me, I didn’t perhaps think that Meaning of life was very good but for me, as British classic comedy goes? it doesn’t get much better than this.
Overall
I am a big fan of comedies so would find this very difficult, as I did on the 2000’s list, narrowing down these films often depends on the mood I’m in and the lift I need, but in my research with a big group of friends on Whatsapp, it was very interesting to see the varied answers, and arguably the biggest variety of any list questions I’ve done, which shows peoples taste are so different on comedy films.
Naked Gun | Like Airplane, police Acadamy etc these crazy ’80s type comedies were so funny, Leslie Nielson was a legend and as a youngster, I loved this.
South Park | As a fan of Southpark this film was great, I just think the series outshone it as it went on.
Spinal Tap | It’s still highly regarded as a quality film, I don’t think the younger generation gets it but anyone older really rates this.
Waterboy | In reality, there should be more Adam Sandler films on this list, that’s a story for another day.
There’s something about Mary |Like American Pie began a faze of quality outrageous American comedies that I enjoyed.
