Many sites and comedy film books have attempted to compile listings of the funniest scenes or funniest comedy films in film history. In June, 2000, the American Film Institute named the Top 100 Funniest Films of the Century in their multi-part series of tributes -- 100 Years...100 Laughs. Although it would be impossible to compile a list of every single funny scene ever screened, this collection moves toward that goal. It should be obvious that a selection of funny movie moments and scenes is entirely subjective and can only scratch the surface.

See also this site's general introduction to the genre of Comedy Films. Premiere Magazine's selections of the 50 Greatest Comedies of All Time (in their July/August 2006 issue) are indicated by this symbol:

The following illustrated list in the next few web pages, in unranked alphabetical order, presents a solid collection of the most classic, 'funniest' scenes in movie history, including film scenes from the silent era, the classic comedies of the 30s (the Marx Brothers, Laurel and Hardy, etc.), through to some of the best comedies of today. Some are scenes from other genres (drama, horror, science-fiction, etc.) that provide comic relief. They include slapstick, parody, screwball comedies, romantic comedies, black comedies, satire, farce, and films with witty dialogue. Most of these suggested scenes are quotable, 'laugh-out-loud' funny, universally hilarious, and hold up for repeated viewings.

The many hilarious gags, including the hospital scene with badly-injured partner Detective Nordberg (O. J. Simpson) being folded up in his bed; the famous double-entendre one-liner of LA detective Lt. Frank Drebin's (Leslie Nielsen): "Nice beaver" as he looks up Jane Spencer's (Priscilla Presley) dress as she climbs a ladder - to which a stuffed beaver is produced and she responds: "Thank you...I just had it stuffed"; also the slapstick scene in which Drebin slides across the table upon the visiting Queen of England; and the scene of Drebin -- wearing a live police wire while going to the bathroom -- who is overheard over the loudspeakers at a speech given by flustered Mayor Barkley (Nancy Marchand); and the visual joke at the stadium in which wheel-chaired partner Nordberg is slapped on the back by Frank and is sent helplessly down the aisle of the stadium steps and flipped 360 degrees to the ballfield below as Jane gushes to Frank, "Everyone should have a friend like you!"

The famous "Who's On First" routine by Dexter Broadhurst (Bud Abbott) and Sebastian Dinwiddle (Lou Costello)

The threat of male-dominated, married secretary Doralee Rhodes (Dolly Parton), after being ogled and harassed one too many times, to get her gun and change her lecherous, chauvinistic corporate boss Franklin M. Hart (Dabney Coleman) "from a rooster to a hen with one shot!"; also the three "old fashioned ladies' pot party" fantasies about killing Hart in various ways - each one labeling him as "a lying, sexist, egotistical, hypocritical bigot", including new secretary Judy Bernly's (Jan Fonda) plan to hunt him down with a rifle, Violet Newstead's (Lily Tomlin) Snow White fantasy to kill Hart with poisoned coffee, and Doralee's plan to hog-tie him and put him on a spit - and the film's final caption: "Franklin Hart was abducted by a tribe of Amazons in the Brazilian jungle and was never heard from again"