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.

Cosmo Brown's (Donald O'Connor) acrobatic, slapstick musical number Make 'Em Laugh; and the playfully subversive song Moses by Cosmo and Don Lockwood (Gene Kelly) in which they rebel against their diction coach (Bobby Watson) - culminating in them holding up a diction placard to sing sarcastically "Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay!"; also Lina Lamont's (Jean Hagen) grating voice and one-liners, such as: "Why, I make more money than, than Calvin Coolidge! Put together!"

Health food store operator Miles Monroe (Woody Allen) waking up 200 years in the future (in the year 2173) and his quips upon hearing he'd been frozen for 200 years: ("Like spending a weekend in Beverly Hills" and "I haven't seen my analyst in 200 years. He was a strict Freudian. If I'd been going all this time, I'd probably almost be cured by now") - also his attempts to hide from the goverment, first by impersonating a personal domestic servant-robot (with comedy slapstick reminiscent of Charlie Chaplin and Buster Keaton) working in the house of eccentric poetess Luna Schlosser (Diane Keaton) - with the scene of an instant giant pudding attack that must be beaten down with a broom; also the scene of Miles' experience in a robot factory (where he risks having his head screwed off) and in an active Orgasmatron; and the shot of a 22nd-century McDonalds sign (with 795 trillions of hamburgers sold); also, the scene that mimics A Streetcar Named Desire, and the scene of the Leader's disembodied giant nose being flattened by a steamroller; and the famous last line, responding to Luna's question about what he believes in: "Sex and death. Two things that come once in a lifetime. But at least after death you're not nauseous"

Multiple scenes in this early Woody Allen film, including the flashback of inept criminal Virgil Starkwell (Woody Allen) playing cello in a marching band and his cello flying out the second-story window of his house; also the interview with Virgil's embarrassed parents both wearing Groucho masks; the scene of a gunfight with police when Virgil discovers that the stolen pistol he's using is actually a cigarette lighter, followed by Virgil's failed escape attempt from prison, when his self-made soap gun melts in a sudden rainstorm; the narrator's description of one meal a day on a chain gang: "a bowl of steam"; and the scene of Virgil needing money to get married so he robs a bank with a misspelled bank robbery note - and the subsequent discussion with two bank tellers about his handwritten illegible stickup note for $50,000 as the note is passed along: ("Does this look like "gub" or "gun"? - Teller: "But what does "abt" mean?" - Virgil: "It's "act". A-C-T. Act natural"); and the finale in which Virgil is interviewed in his prison cell - and when asked about his future plans, he inquires (with the film's last line): "Do you know if it's raining outside?"

The flashback scene of the painful, freaky pants-zipper accident that injures geeky, accident-prone and humiliated Ted Stroehmann's (Ben Stiller) male organ and sends him to the hospital while picking up ditzy dream-girl Mary Jensen (Cameron Diaz) on the night of his high school prom - with Mary's solicitous step-father's (Keith David) incredulous query: "Is it the frank or the beans?" and the paramedic's cry: "We've got a bleeder!"; and the scene of Ted painfully getting his mouth reeled in by a fish hook, and also with a rambling hitchhiker (Harland Williams) who enthusiastically promotes his new product (7 Minute Abs exercise video); also the scenes in which sleazy and smarmy private detective Pat Healy (Matt Dillon) secretly oversedates Puffy the dog with spiked treats and miraculously revives him from death by electrocution from an AC cord - and sets him on fire; also the scene of Ted's fight with the landlady's hyperactive dog Puffy; and the iconic and improbable gross-out image of Mary with sticky 'hair-gel' borrowed from Ted's left ear lobe ("Is that hair-gel?")