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 scene of drama critic Mortimer Brewster (Cary Grant) opening up a window seat where he stumbles upon and discovers the results of his two spinster aunts' (Josephine Hull and Jean Adair) latest charity act of poisoning lonely old gentlemen - a dead body - a flabbergasted Mortimer does multiple double-takes and eyeball rolls, wrongly believing that his eccentric uncle Theodore 'Teddy' Brewster (John Alexander) was to blame; and Teddy's delivering a yell of "CHAAAARGGGE" and then proceeding up the staircase at every opportunity while blowing his bugle, believing it is San Juan Hill all over again; and the entrance of Mortimer's long-lost homicidal brother Jonathan (Raymond Massey) - a tall, insane, murderous, cold-blooded, sadistic killer, and his assistant "Doctor" Herman Einstein (Peter Lorre) - a short, demented, round-eye-balled and disreputable plastic surgeon

This was the first in a PG-rated series of James Bond spoofs - a fast-paced comedy filled with gags (both verbal and visual) featuring Mike Myers as a cryogenically-frozen 60s spy (defrosted in the 90s) who battles his villainous arch-enemy Dr. Evil (Myers also), who gives an initial inflation-challenged ransom of "One... MEEE-llion dollars!"; Evil's bizarre relationship with cloned son Scott Evil (Seth Green), including the scene in which he keeps shushing Scott: ("Let me tell you a little story about a man named Sh!") and the inappropriate Family Counseling speech by Evil to his therapist: ("The details of my life are quite inconsequential... very well, where do I begin?...At the age of fourteen a Zoroastrian named Vilma ritualistically shaved my testicles. There really is nothing like a shorn scrotum... it's breathtaking - I highly suggest you try it"); in one classic honeymoon scene, Austin Powers cavorted naked with Elizabeth Hurley as glamorous "shagadelic" Ms. Vanessa Kensington with their private parts teasingly hidden by strategically-placed objects; there were "fem-bot" go-go-girls with guns in the tops of their bikinis, catchphrases such as: "Bee-have", "Sake it to me baby!", "Yeah, baby, yeah", "Do I make you horny, baby?" and "Shall we shag now or shall we shag later?", and a Swedish-made penis enlarger

Bananas (1971)

The opening scene of the play-by-play commentary of a Latin-American president's assassination for ABC's Wide World of Sports - provided by sportscaster announcer Howard Cosell (Himself), as he asks the dying leader: "I suppose that now we will have to announce your retirement" and "Well, of course, you're upset"; the scenes of clumsy, anxiety-ridden, playboy-aspiring nerd Fielding Mellish (Woody Allen) serving as a guinea-pig for his company's strange inventions (i.e., a sedentary exercise machine); also the scene of Fielding's embarrassment when a shop dealer makes it obvious to other respectable, disapproving customers that he is purchasing a pornographic magazine hidden other more intellectual publications ("Hey Ralph! How much is a copy of Orgasm?"); and Fielding's unsuccessful attempt to protect an old woman in a subway from two toughs (one of whom is Sylvester Stallone); also after traveling to San Marcos and being captured by the guerrillas - the scene following nebbish Fielding's training in first-aid treatment for snakebite (sucking out the poison) when a topless woman (clutching her breast) screams and runs by: "I got bit on by a snake!", causing a huge grin on Fielding's face, who pursues her greedily, and is followed by the rest of the rebel camp; also, Mellish's ordering of almost one thousand grilled cheese sandwiches and seven hundred cups of coffee for his troops at a lunch counter during a South American revolution; also the torture scene when soldiers force a man to listen to the score of Naughty Marietta; and the grossly inappropriate speech to upper class dignitaries given by Fielding, now El Presidente of San Marco and wearing a ridiculous fake red beard, at a high society fundraiser: "Uh, we have more locusts than...uh, locusts of all races and creeds. These, these locusts, incidentally, are available at popular prices. And so, by the way, are most of the women of San Marcos..."; also the scene of Fielding's objections to the judge during his trial for treason in the US: ("I object your honor. This trial is a travesty. It's a travesty of a mockery of a sham of a mockery of a travesty of two mockeries of a sham. I move for a mistrial"), and his televised honeymoon night with Nancy (Louise Lasser) provided with commentary by Howard Cosell - interpreted as a boxing match

The words of advice given by Lompoc resident Egbert Souse (W.C. Fields) to his future son-in-law Og Oggilby (Grady Sutton) - "Surely, don't be a luddie-duddie, don't be a moon-calf, don't be a jabbernow, you're not those, are you?"; and the scene when he is hired as a vigilant bank security dick - he chokes a young boy in a cowboy outfit waving a toy gun - believing that he is a holdup man - as the bratty boy walks out of the bank, he ridicules the guard's shiny, bulbous red nose: "Mommy, doesn't that man have a funny nose?" His mother chides him for making fun: "You mustn't make fun of the gentleman, Clifford. You'd like to have a nose like that full of nickels, wouldn't you?"; also Egbert's Black Pussy Cat Cafe drinking routine; also Souse's use of a Mickey Finn to hold off effeminate, inquisitive and persistent bank examiner J. Pinkerton Snoopington (Franklin Pangborn); and his memorable, zany, slapstick getaway car chase scene as a "hostage" with a terrified robber - it is a superbly-timed chase - the cars (Souse's car is followed by the local police, the bank president, and a representative from the movie company) zoom and circle around, barely avoiding crashing into each other or other obstacles in the path - the getaway car careens through streets, over ditches (over the heads of ditchdiggers), around curves and up a mountainside, missing collisions at every turn with the pursuit vehicles. When asked by the thug in the back seat to give him the wheel, Egbert matter-of-factly pulls it off the steering column and gives it to him; when the robber is struck unconscious and apprehended, Sousè is an unlikely hero once again for thwarting another heist