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 Klump Family's flatulent dinner scene (five characters - including overweight Professor Sherman Klump, his father, mother, brother and grandmother - all played by Eddie Murphy); also the scenes of Sherman's two nightmares (spoofing well-known films From Here to Eternity (1953) and King Kong (1933)), and the attempts by Klump to work out, including a failed acupuncture session with thousands of needles; also the character of the obnoxious, testosterone-driven alter-ego Buddy Love (Murphy again)

This film highlighted the continuing contrast between two divorced/separated male roommates trapped with each other: unkempt ultra-slob sports writer Oscar Madison (Walter Matthau) and compulsive, hypochondriacal, prissy, neat and tidy photographer Felix Ungar (Jack Lemmon) - with Oscar's famous response to know-it-all Felix's insistence that "it's not spaghetti, it's linguini" - Oscar throws the linguini at the kitchen wall and pronounces: "Now it's garbage!"

The wacky character of crackpot billionaire J.D. Hackensacker III (Rudy Vallee), with pithy, funny one liners like: "Chivalry is not only dead, it's decomposed!" and "That's one of the tragedies of this life - that the men who are most in need of a beating up are always enormous!"; and the character of Hackensacker's oversexed, oddball heiress sister Princess Centimillia (known as "Maude") (Mary Astor); also the sequence on the train to Florida when scatter-brained, fortune-hunting wife Gerry Jeffers (Claudette Colbert) experiences the Ale & Quail Club - an unruly group of aging sportsmen and millionaires

The character of young and precocious, orphaned 9 year-old Addie (Oscar-winning Tatum O'Neal in her film debut) who convinces her 'father' Moses Pray (Ryan O'Neal) in a diner (while eating a Coney dog and drinking a Nehi) to let her accompany him ("We got the SAME jaw!" and "I want my $200") on the road; and all of the scenes of their conversations on the road and her manipulative swindling with fly-by-night con man Moses as they sell Bibles to recent widows; also the character of gold-digging carnival dancer Miss Trixie Delight (Madeline Kahn)

The cartoon-like toy/contraption-filled environment of child-like man-boy Pee Wee Herman's (Paul Reubens) playhouse home and the Rube-Goldberg method in which he wakes up and has breakfast made for him; the scene of Pee Wee's argument with his neighbor ("I know you are but what am I?"); Pee-Wee's normal outfit (a small gray suit, a large bowtie, and heavy makeup); Pee-Wee's worship of his ridiculously over-gadgeted bicycle (complete with plastic lion's head on the handle-bar); and his famous remark after tumbling when he attempts to perform tricks with it: "I meant to do that!"; his delighted perusal of Mario's Magic Shop (at one point putting on an oversized ear and yelling, "WHAT? WHAT?"); and Pee-Wee's startling, shocking and hysterical hitchhiking encounter with the ghost of trucker Large Marge (Alice Nunn)